Have I beaten WoW?

So with Rubix leaving and Murien not playing nearly as much, and Bootz dropping off of the face of the earth, it leaves me little left to enjoy on WoW. To be quite honest, for a while now, anything other than raiding and PVP has been old. I hate to be a poor guildie, but I'd rather be playing Starcraft (old school FTW) or Zelda: Twilight Princess or Evil Genius (my current flavor of the month) than running Arcatraz for key fragments. It just isn't fun for me anymore.

Playing other games for the first time since I don't know when since I started playing WoW got me thinking. Why has WoW been an endless source of entertainment for me? Why has it taken this long for the game to catch up to me? For a solid 2 years I have played this game, and now it has finally ceased to entertain. I know a lot of it is the people who I encountered. Also a lot of it is the enjoyment I get from learning how to play better and better.

In the end, I think if I were to quit WoW, right now, I would feel like I've beaten the game. No I haven't seen Magtheridon go down. No I haven't seen SSC or The Eye. No I haven't become a Justicar or a Gladiator. I haven't beaten any decent 2v2 teams by myself. So why do I feel this way?

I guess in the end for someone to have felt that they have truly beaten WoW, they would have to level 9 characters, one of each class, to level 70, complete Karazhan, defeat SSC and The Eye, kill Illidan and Mannaroth, and get Gladiator on each one in PVP. But what's the use?

I'm a priest. I will be until the day I quit WoW. Sure it'd be fun to be a paladin or a shaman or whatever else. But the grind involved is not worth the reward that I would reap. I'd rather spend time outside of the gaming world for enjoyment.


But in the end I've come to realize that I've become just about the best priest that I can be. No I'm not the very best PVP priest. Even when specced properly, I'm not the best. But I'm pretty good, and I've had some good fun. No I'm not the best PVE priest. But I've done some crazy things in my time and had a lot of fun doing it.

I guess beating a game may not truly come down to actually doing it. Watching the cut scene in the end of the game isn't truly the point of winning a game. If you've beaten the game without cheat codes, the knowledge that you've truly beaten it is enough. I could join a heavy raiding guild for a month and tell them that I don't want loot....just to experience the fights. I know that I could belong there, because of the things that I've done. But I wouldn't enjoy it. That's like beating a game with God-mode on. If I'm going to see those fights, I'm going to see them with TN.

Back in March of last year, I joined Silver Hammer. I was hesitant to join a raiding guild. I didn't want to have to commit large blocks of time to raiding. I didn't want to have to say "sorry I can't do that, I'm busy on Monday nights." But I joined, and I loved it. Same with TN. But for example, today I got asked by my church choir "Why don't you sing with us? Rehearsals are on Wednesday nights." But Wednesday nights are Gruul's nights.

So now you see my dilemma.

I don't think I'm going to quit WoW altogether. I was addicted for a long time, and it wasn't a big deal. I'm sure I'll post something about how WoW has helped me as a person at some point here. But I will likely not be online guaranteed for raiding nights, or for arena. It will be more of a "I feel like playing WoW tonight." And if someone's online and wants to run Arcatraz, that will be fine. If we are going to kill Void Reaver, assuming I'd still be wanted, then I'd come as long as I felt my skills weren't rusty. But I think that it's about the time in my life that I need to stop structuring it around WoW, and start structuring it around...well, my life.