Families that Slay Together...

Well, I finally succumbed again to Azeroth's siren call and logged back onto World of Warcraft to explore the Wrath of the Lich King expansion's new continent of Northrend.

I must say that WotLK offers the most engrossing and innovative WoW quest content to date. Blizzard has also managed to reduce the drudgery a bit as well, and I'm finding that professions and faction reputation are leveling up much more organically. Less grinding and farming, more questing and story FTW.

My renewed relationship with WoW has borne some even more important, albeit less expected fruit. About a week ago, I decided to open a separate account for my 12-year-old son. He's played WoW on my account for years, but we were never able to play together. My wife had always been very (understandably) resistant to paying for a second account, but given Zack's sudden (but highly welcome) decision to actually put forth some significant academic effort this year, I felt that a reward was due. I also made it quite clear that the arrangement works both ways - he only gets to play if his grades warrant it.

With his own account, he's now able to play with school friends (after finishing his homework), but more importantly, to stomp around Azeroth with his dear old Dad. It's been a great bonding experience to actually play with him, and not just discuss our separate adventures. We're currently questing our way across Loch Modan, he as a Dwarven hunter and I as a Night Elf druid (Feral-spec, naturally, given my love of shapeshifter folklore). Hopefully, given the triple-experience buff we're enjoying due to Blizzard's Recruit-a-Friend program, we'll both be sporting new level 60's in a few months.

The real Achievement, of course, is finding one more way to spend time with my son. Now that's an Epic quest worth pursuing.