Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win.

The problem with writing these year end posts for WoW is the tendency for Blizzard to make huge changes at the end of the year, altering everything. Whether it's a new expansion like Wrath of the Lich King or Patch 3.3, it's hard to remember what the game was like the previous 3/4 of the year. It's not that we didn't have a good time before the big year end events, but the game becomes so different, what we did before is irrelevant.

This year, hopefully by or during the summer, we'll be getting another expansion -- only this will literally change everything. It's like we'll be getting WoW II, only without having to give up our stuff/contacts/accounts and start fresh in a new game. So let's take a look backward and forward at some of the main aspects of the game as it affects those of us with limited playtime, like we were the two-faced god this month is named after.

Instances

2009: Before Wrath of the Lich King, the time it took to find a group and then complete an instance was too much for people with busy schedules. But the expansion brought shorter instances that could be completed so quickly that finding a group was the real time consuming part. Sure, Wrath came in 2008, but it was late enough in the year that many of us weren't able to fully take advantage of many of its goodies until 2009. And then, at the end of 2009 came the Dungeon Finder Tool and cross-server PUGging. Wow. Groups are now instantaneous if you're a healer or tank and a reasonable wait otherwise. Also, you can be questing or doing dailies while you are in queue without having to worry about getting to the instance. Just a click of your mouse and you are transported, hopefully with enough food, drink and reagents to get you through. Hint hint.

2010: The Dungeon Finder Tool will continue to be awesome, particularly as we all iron out some of the more drama-laden issues. In Cataclysm, we'll get revamped and heroic old school instances along with some new ones. I love that we low-playtime-players will be able to experience the new dungeons along with everyone else because of the random cross-realm grouping.

Wishful Thinking: I'd like to see Blizzard harness the new features of Battle.net in a way so that it allows for cross realm grouping beyond battlegroups. This way, we could do instances/battlegrounds with friends on servers all over a region, as long as they are the same faction.

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