Burning Crusade kills World of Warcraft. Loots [Your Life] x1

First off, go read this article over on CNet. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Okay, now that you've read it, let me point out exactly how stupid this 'news' article is, and how obviously slanted it is.

First off, the author wonders why Blizzard would tinker with the success of World of Warcraft, given that it's got over 8 million subscribers world wide. The reason? Well, the scads of players sitting at level 60, who have been doing nothing but running the same instances over and over for the past year or so while grinding the various Tier equipment. Actually, this is the same reason that any MMO developer has created an expansion for their game: give the players something more to do, that the catasses will plow through within a month of it coming out, no matter what the developers might think about how long it should take.

So what happens? The level 60s complain that it's "not the same thing" and it "ruined the original game". Maybe it has something to do with the green items dropping off level 62-65 mobs that are better than purple level 60 gear? Of course, this shouldn't be a surprise. As you level in WoW, you commonly replace more rare gear with higher level gear that has better stats, whether it's as rare or not. And it's only a vocal minority, although the news article buries that in one half-sentence, admitting that most are satisfied with the game.

One veteran player even claimed that Blizzard deliberately killed WoW, that the original game is dead. Um. Excuse me? Then why was I (a level 26 warrior) not out in Outland killing? Oh. Wait. Because the ORIGINAL GAME is where I'm SUPPOSED to be. What, did these people think that BC would be exactly the same as the last 12 months of their lives where they could go and do the same stuff over and over, and their level 60 gear would last them forever, and they would always be King Catass of Catass Mountain? Guess they never played any expansions before...like maybe Ruins of Kunark (which sucked the high levels out of Vox and Nagafen in EQ, letting the lower levels and non-catassing population get a crack at them eventually).

The main gripe is that the raiding guilds are having to put their raiding lives on hold while they level from 60 to 70. The horror! Isn't that, y'know, what the expansion was there for? Weren't these the same people who were complaining rather vocally about having nothing to do once they hit 60?

Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan basically just said the same thing I did above, but probably a lot nicer, in that BC was meant to ... oh.... expand World of Warcraft. After all, that's what expansions do. And Blizzard wouldn't try to kill off their game, since it's making them metric asstons of money by the month.

Another player complains that BC doesn't have 40-man raids, limiting things instead to 25. Um. Okay, so if you miss the 40-man raids so much...just stay level 60, don't buy Burning Crusade...and raid your little heart out. What? Your guild went without you? Oh well.

Here's a couple quotes from a catasser which really shows the mentality of the people involved here: "There is absolutely zero reason for players to ever go back to (the original game) because the rewards available in (BC) are better and, for the most part, easier to obtain."

"These days, Ironforge is a ghost town. Just about everyone is in Outland (a main region in the expansion), and I can't imagine that any of the old capitals will ever experience the bustle that they had pre-BC."

Riiiiiiiiight.

Absolutely zero reason for people to go back from BC to the original game? Wrong. What about the rather large amount of people that created Blood Elves and Draenai when BC came out? The original game is all about them. The newbie areas for them in BC are basically for levels 1-20. Not 1-60. Not 1-70. 1-20. From 20 on? They're right in the original game with the rest of us.

Ironforge is a ghost town? Maybe of the level 60s. The levels 1-57? No, they're right there, spamming the chat windows, auctioning everything they can, and tradeskilling their little hearts out.

See, here's the thing. It's been said before that WoW is essentially two games: Levels 1-59 or so, and Level 60. Now, it's Levels 1-57 and 58-70. If you're 58 and up? That's Burning Crusade. If you're.... the rest of the game's population, you've still got reason to play.

For the record, though, I don't even own Burning Crusade, because I simply refuse to pay $40 for an expansion that, beyond the new races, I have no use for for quite a while.

C'mon, CNet. Try talking to everyone instead of going, "OMG, WoW ARE DOOMED AND BLIZZARD TOO!!!!!111!!!!!1!"

And to the catassers, I say this: quit yer bitchin'. You got exactly what you wanted in the first place, and within six months to a year, you'll all be level 70 and doing exactly what you did before BC came out: raiding your little catasses off, PVPing other level 70s, and twinking your alts.

Until then, suck it up and play like everyone else.