Today is my last day as editor-in-chief at WoW Insider, and I can honestly say it's been a hell of a ride. After four-and-a-half year run with the site, it's time for me to move on, but I leave the site in the very capable hands of Alex Ziebart, who will be taking over starting tomorrow.

When I began writing for the site in 2007 after answering an open call for writers, I couldn't have been happier. I was being paid to play WoW! I launched the druid class column (with David Bowers), wrote for just about every daily post we had on the site (including Breakfast Topics, Around Azeroth, Moviewatch), and tackled anything else I could get my hands on.

Later in the year, WoW Insider producer Barb Dybwad and then Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Harper launched our sister site Massively and tapped me to help run WoW Insider. After that, it was a roller coaster ride for the next three years of expansion launches, patch coverage, BlizzCon insanity, reader meetups, beta leaks, domain name changes and April Fools pranks (Hello Kitty Insider!). There was also running contests, hiring new writers and finding a new warlock columnist every two months.

Eventually, Barb moved on to launch a new site, and last September Elizabeth Harper left to join her, passing to me the EiC mantle. Tomorrow I join them at that site, Tecca, as its new editor-in-chief.

I titled this post "Hello and goodbye" because I'm guessing many of you readers won't recognize my name. I stopped writing actively for the site a few years ago and focused on running things behind the scenes. But the biggest reason I stopped was because I couldn''t compete with the level of writing our current staff produces day in and day out.

It took us years to build this team, and they are the best in the business. I couldn't be prouder of them and this site. In my 42 years on this planet, I've come to learn that it's not so much what you do with your time, but who you do it with. It's been an honor to spend the last four and a half years of my time with this group of passionate, talented and dedicated writers.

Alex, the helm is yours. Guide her through the trolls and the haters and patch craziness and beta changes and Fox Van Allen's unstoppable ego. When Mists of Pandaria launches, I know where I'll be looking for the latest news and best analysis of the World of Warcraft on the internet.

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Filed under: WoW Insider Business