What are you plans for Midnight’s release?

Here we are again, on the doorstep of another World of Warcraft expansion — what do you have planned for the first time you log in to Midnight to answer Lady Liadrin’s call and defend the Sunwell from swirling purple monsters from beyond?

While Early Access begins Thursday at 3pm Pacific Time, the full expansion launch is Monday March 2 at 3pm Pacific. This two-tiered capitalism-flavored model has brought its share of criticism, and will certainly be one of the biggest factors in your prep. Have you splurged for a four-day head start on leveling and experiencing the story of Midnight, or are you content to tune out for the weekend and zip to Silvermoon City next week?

Perhaps the most important aspect of prepping for release day of a new game is carving out time to actually play it. You might be planning to use some precious personal time from work, finish a huge school project uncharacteristically early, or ship the kids to Grampa’s for a sleepover. My own dedicated Midnight launch time has been supplanted by prepping for my eldest’s Galentine’s get-together that was postponed due to illness, snowballed into a full-blown party, snowed out, and eventually rescheduled for the middle of the Early Access window. Once those kids are settled in, Daddy’s gotta get gaming.

Do you have any snacks or drinks that you typically save for special gaming occasions? I sometimes like to hearken back to the days of yore when two twelve-packs of citrus-flavored caffeine syrup and a blue bag of flavor-blasted triangle-shaped tortilla chips would provide enough energy to power me and my fellow nerds through an all-night Goldeneye session. As a middle-aged nerd, my doctor has advised me to cut down on things like caffeine syrup and snacks with the word “blasted” in their name, but milestones such as “another World of Warcraft chapter” are unique enough for me to prepare at least a small throwback snack.

One habit I have is to scour my gaming space from any distractions or reminders of the things that I should be doing instead of playing video games. The first part of this ritual involves actually trying to accomplish much of those pesky real-world responsibilities before release day. I am now in the second stage: stashing all of the remaining paperwork, sticky notes, and unorganized clutter out of sight so that Next Week Eric can deal with them (the poor guy).

So what have you been up to in preparation for Midnight hitting the servers, and what expansion day traditions will you be partaking in once you accept the summons to Silvermoon?