Amen to all of this, including the escape to Dragon Age 2--which, even as maddeningly awful as it was for the first half, still managed to suck me in and felt like a much-needed vacation. I mean, everyone suffers from burn out, lord knows I have in the past and came back invigorated and wanting to play again. But when you start thinking of a game as a job to that degree, it's time to step back and assess.

I'm also kind of feeling if Bioware suddenly came out with Dragon Age Online, I'm not sure I'd come back to WoW. That's kind of depressing to think about after 4 years of playing this game. But between the apathy of current endgame, the lazy, terrible writing (too much overreliance on pop culture memes past their expiration date, too much misogyny and thinly veiled homophobia, not to mention continuous character derailment), the perpetual railroading of the player experience to kill any sort of unapproved fun or creativity (see: Faded Wizard Hat nerf among other thing), my honeymoon period with Cataclysm was over before it really started. Even the sort-of return of Zul'Aman, my favorite raid of all time next to Kara? The excitement for that wore off pretty quick. I don't know what it'll take for WoW to get the magic back for me.