The Highs and Lows of Expansion Expectation

As the new expansion comes closer I am torn on how I feel about things.  I am exciting to get something new to do but at the same time I dread having to do all this stuff I feel I have to do.  That is a personal fault really.  I always feel as if I need to get everything done and I like to get it done as soon as possible, so that is my own problem.  That doesn't change the fact that I am torn about it however.

High: Quests to do and dailies to grind

For someone like myself who has basically done every quest in the game that I can find I love the idea of a whole slew of new quests to do.  It is something I look forward to.  It is something to do and being I like to quest it is something quality to do, for me at least.  I like content I can do at my own pace, fast or slow and quests are just that.  I always like checking out the new daily hubs too and even more so if they have something worth working my way toward. 

The new fishing pole and fishing raft along with other things make me look forward to it.  Every faction or hub that has quests I look at it as a task for me to complete.  Do this until I get the mount, or until I get the rare drop, or until I get the pet from doing this quest 10 times.  I love all that stuff because it feels like I am working toward something and I dig that.

Low: The feeling I need to do them

I'll do the quests because I want to but if a quest is not fun and ends up something I need to do to get an achievement, reputation, etc I dread having to do it.  It is like the molten front stuff.  The first few times it was fine, but once I was done with everything and even had the pet and was just waiting for that one last mob to spawn for the last achievement I needed, it got to the point I dreaded doing it.  I only did it because I felt I had to.  For me the feeling I have to do something takes away the fun of it.

With so many more dailies and an unlimited daily cap I feel I am setting myself up for a massive collection of annoyances like that all at once because I'll have the feeling I need to do them.  Quests are fun when you want to do them, the moment you feel like you need to do them they start to lose their fun.  I dread that I might end up feeling that way about a lot of the quest hubs and more so the unlimited dailies.

High: New Dungeons and Raids

I love that stuff, I really do.  It gives the true rpg experience to go out and kill the big baddie in some epic battle that takes all your wits and ability.  The concept alone is exciting, it is what rpgs are built on in my opinion.  I like having some new challenges once in a while and every game ever always has a last boss or a last level and for this game the raids and dungeons are where those battles are fought.

Low: Doing them with other people

If anything cataclysm has taught me that either I am getting less tolerant as I am getting older or people are getting worse at the game.  As much as I love the experience of new content I dread the experience of any content that I do with random people.  I know people will say wait for my guild to do them but as I already mentioned, I want to do things as soon as I can.  I am not going to wait for a group of the ideal four others so I can do the new dungeons, I am going to do them the second I hit 90 and that is usually the first one in my guild.  I don't think I would want to wait another 3 or 4 days for everyone else.  That is what the random system was created for, so people can play on their own schedule but I swear I can't deal with most of these people any more.  I am dreading it.

High: Lots of new achievements to get

Like any achievement whore I love this stuff.  There is just something about the ding and pop up of an achievement that I love to hear and see.  I've done all the achievements I can do solo, except fish up crafty.  Damn random number generator hates me.  The thing is, going for achievements gives me something to do.  In a strange sort of why they are like quests in their own sense.  Like the quest to fish up crafty.  I will keep doing that just like I would a quest until I finish the quest.  The achievement popping up in a version of quest completed.  I am looking forward to a whole slew of new achievements to go after.

Low: Some of them do not look fun

For the most part I find achievement hunting fun but there are some that are just not fun in any way.  One I am not looking forward to is the one to kill all the world bosses.  Do you know how hard it is to get a group on my server for anything?  My server can still not pug BWD normal.  I am not kidding.  You can't even get groups to kill the whale shark on my server so killing world bosses is out of the question.  Add to that the removal of have group and people will be less likely to join in on one of those just for fun. 

There are a lot of achievements it seems are going to be annoying but this one might be the worst of the worst for some servers, like mine.  I am not looking forward to it.  I like to do achievements because they are fun but having to get other people to do them is sometimes stressful. Hence the reason I have everything I can do solo and need a ton of PvP and a fair deal of raid achievements.  Because those require other people to do something as well.  I hate anything that requires other people to get me an achievement.

High: Pet Battles

Something new to do when there is down time could be nice.  Waiting in queue for a random, pet battle time, just like when I do archaeology.  That is if we can do pet battle while in queue otherwise that sucks.  Before raid time.  While waiting for someone that I am doing something with being I can no longer have group them too me, F you blizzard, I mean seriously, there is no need to remove that but back to the topic.  All those times when you have a little time to waste and do not feel like getting involved in doing anything else, its pet battle time.  While I am not really interested in it I do like the idea that there is something else for me to waste a little time with, and get achievements from doing it at the same time.

Low: Got to catch them all

There is a reason I do not have the time lost proto drake or any spirit beasts on any of my six 85 hunters.  I like to actually play the game and not spend my life standing in one spot waiting for something to spawn.  I play a lot but I do not have unlimited time like some people do that would allow me to just stand in one place for hours on end, or days on end in some cases.  To me, that is not playing, that is wasting time.  But then again, I guess being I can do pet battles while waiting it might not be too bad, depending on how it works of course. 

The thing is, I like to keep moving, to keep doing things, to actively play the game.  I am not looking forward to catching all these damn wild pets at all.  Now to get the achievements, because I roll that way, and get the pets, which I collect and have for a long time, I am basically forced into being one of those people.  The type that just stand around waiting forever.  Sorry, I don't get what they find fun about that but I guess if I want the things I am stuck being one of them.  I am not looking forward to this.  Not even in the slightest.

Give me a way to earn the pets like say kill 12 million mobs and it might take me forever to do it but I will do it and not gripe about it but tell me to stand in one spot waiting for something to spawn for 6 hours and then have to fight dozens of others for the chance to get it first and I only have one thing to say, screw that.  I can't see how anyone in their right mind, heck anyone in their wrong mind either, could find that fun.  It isn't, never has been, never will be.

Admittedly all my highs and lows are based on my own personality, game play traits and opinions based on past events.  I am the one that wants the achievements.  I am the one that wants to finish all the quests.  I am the one that wants to get all the pets.  I am the one that wants to raid and do dungeons whenever I feel like it and am not willing to wait for guild groups all the time.  It is all me, it is all my own personal feelings but that is what this is all about, my personal high and low expansion expectations.  It is also why those lows are lows to me, because it is about how I play the game.  They might not be your lows, your lows might be different based on how you play the game.  For all I know, you could be one of those people that likes to wait camping one spot for 100s of hours.  You scare me.

We all have things we feel we will need to do. 

What do you feel you will need to do based on your personalty and playing traits? 
Do you have mixed feelings about them as well like I do? 
Are you looking forward to and dreading it at the same time?