Welcome to a new Azeroth! But just what drew you back to WoW?

Here we are, two weeks into Battle for Azeroth. The immersive nature of this expansion has me riveted. I’m guessing you’re finding it exciting, too. As we reported, Blizzard announced 3.4 million games were sold in the fastest launch of an expansion ever. I have experienced this influx of people, personally, because I’m suddenly receiving whispers from or running into people who are back after an extended absence. By “extended,” I mean my response is, “It’s you! How long has it been!?” and they say, “I left, probably, six years ago.” In WoW years, that’s an eon. Think about it. They left when Garrosh was named Warchief.

This got me thinking. I know these players. I remember when some of them left. “I can’t play this game anymore. It’s been ‘real,’ but I won’t be back,” they said. And yet here they are. What is it about Battle for Azeroth that is bringing people back to WoW? What is so attractive they decided to see what’s happening for themselves? You can’t say it’s the world and all there is to offer, because they don’t know about the quests or the vistas or the dungeons or whatever you find to occupy your time. They find out about this as they journey.

I’m genuinely curious. If you’ve come back from an extended break — and I mean you skipped at least all of Legion, or more — why did you come back? How long had it been since you played? What is it about Battle for Azeroth that interested you enough to run it? I know Blizzard offered some people two months free, but take advantage of this offer with this expansion and not previous ones?

I also want to know, since there have been name purges, was your character’s name still there? Are you playing an old familiar toon or did you decide to level some other class? And, the big question: what do you think now that you’ve had a chance to poke around a bit?