Full boat, bad birthday

So yesterday was the release of the latest expansion for World of Warcraft, the MMORPG that I have been playing since 2005, yes 2005.  I played a little bit in the morning before work to check out the new content and had a good time.  When I got settled in last night after work I tried to log in again to play some more.

I was greeted by a server full message, something I have not seen in WoW since the height of it’s popularity 6 or 7 years ago.  I was placed in the back of a 400 person line which took nearly 20 minutes to get to the front of, which was annoying enough.  However when my reward for that wait turned out to be a game loading screen that went nowhere my mild frustration got bumped up several notches.  I wound up closing the load screen and didn’t bother trying again as it would have meant being put back at the end of the line.

I read online that the problems were supposedly related to a DDOS attack on Blizzard’s servers however who knows if that’s true. DDOS is a great catch all excuse for server problems that could be actually tied into poor planning for the expansion launch.  I have no doubt Blizzard will fix the issue, they always do and in a perverse way I was happy to see that there was enough interest in the decade old game to cause such problems.

My mom used to always tell me she could care less when I wrote in my blog about WoW and gaming in general.  She said she would always skip past those parts as she had no interest in them.  I never quite understood her aversion to talking about the game and how it’s virtual reality tied into very real feelings, emotions and human nature.  I view gaming as my version of mom’s romance novels that she would read endlessly.  That was her escape, her way to release her mind from everyday stress and problems.  WoW and gaming in general has always been my way to accomplish the same thing.

Speaking of mom, this Sunday marks another of what will be many sad and awkward moments that will be forthcoming.  It would have been mom’s 67th birthday.  Yesterday marked 3 months since she passed away.  It’s been a very weird thing trying to figure out how I feel.  In some ways it feels like more time has passed but at the same time her last few days are imprinted in my mind like it just happened yesterday.  The bitterness, remorse, irony, sorrow, and reality of my mom’s passing has left a permanent cloud in my field of vision, even on the brightest and bluest Florida days.

Having her birthday come and go without seeing her face or hearing her voice will be another cup of cold water thrown in my direction.