WoW Insider

So yesterday after a fun night of raiding and not really paying any attention to the internet all day I logged onto one of my favorite places, WoW Insider. The Queue had way more comments than usual so I peeked in to see who had been super controversial. Sadly, it wasn’t anything remotely fun like that. Instead it was the news that Joystiq was being closed by AOL and that very likely WoW Insider would be closing too.

(Edit: Now that closure is a certainty. Their last day will be Tuesday. AOL can go die in a fire as far as I’m concerned. )

This upsets me greatly. I was too sad to be remotely coherent last night so this post is going up today.

I first found WoW Insider in 2009 right about when I first started playing WoW. The leveling guides there really helped me learn what to do as a very newbie player. I remember looking at the talent guides in Lichborne and slowly learning to play my Death Knight.

I always liked the class columns. I even read the columns for Warlocks and Shadow Priests because I enjoyed the writers so much. I loved the interplay between Archmage Pants and Dominic Hobbs. I’ve always loved Matthew Rossi’s tales about warriors even though I don’t play one.

The Queue has been a favorite place to hang out for years. (I’m pretty sure the Queue and WoW Insider kept me sane when my job reached ultimate suckitude.)

There is a genuine wonderful community at WoW Insider that I haven’t found any place else. The people there come from every background and every walk of life and we can all get along (for the most part) because of our love for WoW. But more than that, people care about each other and it shows. There has been a lot of positivity and support over the years.

I just want to say thank you.

Thank you to all the writers and editors of WoW Insider past and present. I enjoyed getting to share your thoughts. Thank you fellow commenters. I have very much enjoyed interacting with you as well. I’m already following a lot of you on twitter. I’ll try and pick up some more of you too.

I’m going to end this with happy thoughts.

The WoW Insider Show is my favorite podcast. Y’all are funny. I hope you somehow keep it going even if the name has to change.

I loved the hell out of the live streamed parties from Blizzcon. I never got to go, but I felt like I was still involved in the fun. I also enjoyed the live tweets and updates from news events. I had to keep refreshing the page, but it was fun!

Every time one of my screenshots made it to Around Azeroth, it made my day. Silly as it was, that was one of my favorite columns.

I have a twitter account because of WoW Insider. I had to get one when the comment system shifted to it’s current hungry form. I don’t usually do social media, but I enjoy twitter a lot, so yay!

This blog also exists because of WoW Insider. I applied for a job with them back before the the dark days of layoffs. I obviously didn’t get the job, but it did inspire me to work harder at writing so I had some proof for the next time. This blog is where that writing sporadically goes. Who knows…maybe I will even get better one day.

I hope that somehow WoW Insider will live on. Pull a phoenix and rise out of those ashes into something new and better. No place on the internets deserves it more.