A End and a Beginning

I recently quit World of Warcraft, and started a new career in Age of Conan. Why?

I started playing in the open beta back in '04. I rolled a paladin and managed to level him to 41 or something before beta closed and we were pushed into retail. That means my first and last characters were paladins, which I find fitting. I have always been drawn to the holy warriors in games. Not that "holy warrior" is no way near a proper description for WoW's paladin.

Over the years since the game launched I have been playing almost non-stop. No farewell posts and staying away from the game until the addiction fever kicked in. I have levelled five characters to 60 (priest, hunter, druid, rogue, warrior) and two characters to 70 (paladin and hunter). That's quite many characters, considering some can play for years with the same. I enjoy the feeling of starting from scratch too much, I have the same problem in most games that include character progression. I don't even want to start talking about my time with Baldur's Gate.

I'm in the perfect guild, which I have been in for soon three years. I also did the website for the guild, design and coding, take a look. Everyone is friendly and mature (in a sense). The average age is quite high, probably somewhere around 25-30 if we ever bothered to check. I started in it with my warrior, then switched to paladin when Burning Crusade was released. And a level 70 hunter alt also in the same guild.
I was class leader for the paladins and officer, so quitting was not something to be done lightly. But raiding has become so mind-numbingly boring, healing on trash in Mount Hyjal and Black Temple is not as exciting as I was thinking before I entered those places.

Then Age of Conan was released, and as I had played the closed beta and experienced the game for a while, I did the easiest thing a gamer addict can do: switch game! My plate and shield wearing paladin in World of Warcraft is now a plate and shield wearing guardian in Age of Conan.
Wrath of the Lich King seems promising, but I will remain cool until I see what they plan to do with the game and paladins if I will ever officially return to WoW. I have play time for another month, so I might pop in and see how it feels.
And then there is Warhammer. The more I read and see about it, the more I want to play it. The guys and girls that is making it really have a Vision (unlike, for example, Age of Conan - they just did a MMO), and I can't wait to experience it.

My guardian is named Leto and is currently playing on EU Soulstorm (PvP). Wave if you see him, or you might find yourself face down in the mud with a red mark the size of my shield in your face.