Leaving in style

Cancelling my World of Warcraft account encouraged me to log on again and make some order before leaving the account unplayed for several months. You wouldn't want to still have mail in your mailbox when you leave, or items in your inventory for some half-finished project you won't remember. Although I didn't really play much WoW any more in the last two months, I still logged on often, for example for alchemy transmutations, or for trying to buy cheap adamantite ore and prospecting it into more expensive gems. And all that still earned me gold, but how much?

So I emptied my virtual piggy bank and logged on all of my characters and banking and auction mules, sending most of their gold to just one character. The result was a surprising 5,800 gold. So I decided to leave in style, and bought an epic flying mount for 5,200 gold for my warrior. Another checkmark against a goal achieved that I hadn't originally thought I would reach. The reason why I thought I wouldn't reach the epic flying mount was that given the money experience from WoW 1.x, 5,200 gold sounded like a lot of money. But I hadn't thought of inflation: In WoW 2.x it is a lot easier to make money, thus 5,200 gold is equivalent to less effort than it was before. A single transmutation makes me over 20 gold now, and with jewelcrafting I could transform 300 gold worth of adamantite ore into 600 gold worth of gems. And that was just what I earned without even leaving the city!

Of course buying an epic flying mount I don't plan to use much, if at all, this year is kind of silly. But keeping the cash wouldn't have been any better. It just would have made me nervous that somebody hacked into my account and stole it. Now that it is spent on riding skill, it can't be stolen any more. And maybe in the three weeks until the account finally runs out, I can still find the time to make a final tour around Outland before I leave. I can just hope that whatever new lands Blizzard adds in the next expansion can be flown over.