Im writing this "blog" as a review for the recent expansion of the"World of Warcraft" online game. First off I'd like to say thanks to Gamespot for allowing me this space to express my view. But lastly I'd like to say that I couldnt disagree more with thier review of "Wrath of the Lich King". This site is a business just like the people that own them. So I have no doubt that the editor that wrote the review was already given his opinion of the game by his boss. I'm sure Blizz made sure they got all great reviews from the major sites. Blizz is a business as is GS. I'm not going to criticize anyone for keeping their jobs by toting the company line. But if the poor editor was free to actually express his own opinion Im guessing the review would have been short 1.5points and a editor's choice award.

The bottom line is this....World of Warcraft (WoW) is the best online game out there and it's not close. 11million subscribers pay in each month to fuel this beast. And Im one of them. But to put it as simply as possible greed and complaceny has dulled creativity and innovation.

The Good: 10 more levels. More of the same stuff we all know and love.

The bad: It's more of the SAME stuff we know and love. Only worse.

Aside from the new Death Knight content (which is amazing) there isnt much to celebrate in this new expansion. Fresh off the boat from stormwind Im fighting murlocs, killing wolves, and fetching items for countless NPCs. Nothing new.

The art: They reused all their old weapon and armor sets... Even the new stuff repeats itself in looks over several levels. There is no smooth integration of the environment from one region to the next that you would see in azeroth or the burning crusade. The characters still look cartoony...and frankly the look of most of the new items is a big step back from the awesome gear out of TBC.

The difficutly: In an effort to appeal even more to the casual gamer NONE of the quests are difficult. In fact with reasonable gear you could solo creatures 5 levels higher than you. They added a lot of instances that are extremely short for players on the go. In one instance you can kill 3 bosses and finish in less than 15 minutes. My friends could clear most instances being at least 3 levels below most of the monsters in the instance. The drops from the bosses is even worse. Each boss only drops 3 items. When you break it all down its impossible for any class or any spec of a class to completely upgrade his gear. My level 78 shaman has yet to see it anyway.

No story development really in any of the stuff below level 76. In fact the beginning regions feel more like disney land than a icey forgotton land. The quests feel more like amusement rides that offer a cheap thrill at best. The entire content feels like that. The new BG is a perfect example. You began aboard alliance ships about to storm a beach head that is guarded by a horde fortress....5 minutes in and we're crashing down the final gate to the heart of the enemy fort....only to have the entire level reset and allow the horde to attack the beach and the alliance defend it. No story line...no background....we just take turns storming a beach. Done is 10min. That will be 5 tickets please if you care to ride again.

In a nutshell wow mailed it in. And why not? Theyre the best the undisputed leader. But consider this a warning Blizzard....sony got lazy with Ever Quest 2 and you see what happened to them.

Thier desire to appeal to ever more casual gamers they have decided to throw away the needs of the hardcore gamer. So if you got 15min to kill then go ahead and try it out. But if your serious about online gaming it might be time to move on.