I don’t actually know any mother-daughter pairs who play WoW together, but I do know a few father-daughter and father-son pairs who do, and they’re awesome.  Computer games have such a reputation for getting in the way of family relationships, it’s really nice to see them actually pulling people together.  Of course, we all know some families who should definitely not be pulled together under any circumstances.

And my mother?  My mother is wonderful and I love her, but she has much better things to do with her time than play computer games.

He’s got a bad feeling about this.

There were so many potential titles for this one.  AFR #165 – I sense a great disturbance in the subscriptions.  AFR #165 – Play or play not, there is no trial account.  AFR #165 – Whose character model is scruffy-looking?

I haven’t played The Old Republic and I probably won’t.  Pretty much everything I’ve heard about the game has been good and I expect I would probably enjoy it if I tried it, but I only have time in my life for one MMO and I have too many friends in WoW to walk away from them.

All right, listen up, you tiny but vocal minority who have been whining about how Raid Finder sucks because it lets people who aren’t as hardcore as you experience raid content and that’s not fair because it takes away from your special snowflakeness and they don’t deserve it and they’re not playing the real game and blah blah blah-de-frikin’-blah.

Get over yourselves.  Raiding is not a reward you get for being extra super-duper leet with a cherry on top.  Raiding is part of the game and if people who never had the opportunity to raid before are now getting the chance to raid, that’s a good thing.  Fun is not some limited commodity.  If more people are having fun, that doesn’t make the fun you have in your regular/heroic/achievement/world-first runs any less real.

And don’t try to play the more-hardcore-than-thou card.  You will lose.  I don’t care about your world-first heroic run with achievements.  Somewhere out there someone is leveling from 1 to 85 without training any spells after level 5, without picking a spec or assigning any talent points, leaving exactly one area undiscovered in every zone, only doing quests that have a palindrome in the title and only killing mobs whose names can be typed using the top row of a Dvorak keyboard.  Why?  Because she can.  And you will never be that hardcore, never.

Sometimes, the worst thing about WoW is the other people who play it. From the pug who rolls need on gear he’s already wearing to the guy in trade chat who just didn’t get the memo that the proper time for “anal” jokes is never, our fellow players can sometimes really wear on the nerves. At those times, it’s important to remember that sometimes the best thing about WoW is the other people who play it. As the old year comes to an end and the new year begins, join me in raising your glass in a toast to all the people who make our WoW lives better. Here’s a glass of the best holiday spirits:

To the guy in general chat who makes you laugh,

To the guildie who is always on time for raids,

To the friend who’s always up to go on a random with you,

To the pug tank who doesn’t let an add run free,

To the pug healer who keeps you alive, even when you step in the fire by accident,

To the pug dps who knows how to cc, switch to adds, and stay out of the fire,

To the guy who takes the time to explain the fights ahead of time,

To the person who won the roll for the gear you wanted, then traded it to you and said: “here, you need it more than I do,”

To everyone else in all of Azeroth who makes our time there better, awesomer, and more fun.

And from me, here’s a special toast to all of you who have read Away From Reality, to those of you who have added your comments to the discussion, to all of you who have linked to AFR on your own comics, blogs, and sites.

Happy new year!