@fettpett: The Blood Elf and Draenei newbie zones really are limited. Even with BC you can’t take a level 1 Undead into Eversong Woods and pick up quests there. They are race-limited. Razorbax was right about at least those two zones. You’ll want to get to level 5 in your own starting zone before heading to the Blood Elf or Draenei areas and then pick up from the second newbie quest hub and not the very first one. However, you’ll still miss a few other quests along the way that are also race-limited. For example, the epic zone-ending quest for Bloodmyst Isle area is available to Draenei only.

I’ve done RaF twice and not had any issues with it. get yourself a game card put it in and give your wife her zhevra mount, have fun. the SoR is a pain but it’s for people that haven’t played in a long time. Restarting your old Wrath or BC one would have cost you a lot less ($30 game card or 15 on the spot with credit card, plus Wrath if you wanted in on the BC account.

and oh, there is a 10 day trail for BC that you could have used and upgraded right from your account page, and saved you the trip to the store

PS. Starting Quests from level 1 to 5 are only available in your own starting area. If you grind to level 5, you can do quests in any area.

You didn’t lose those 10 free days.

I recently (at Christmas) “recruited” my 2 brothers.
We had the same problem of limited play through the trial account and so we upgraded rapidly. (But we didn’t go buy the game at the store, we upgraded it by internet and installed it with my cds)
And when we went and checked the account management page, the day it finaly really upgraded, we saw that my brothers had about 7 days left of the free 10 days, and after that they had the free 1st month all new accounts get.

So the 10 free days doesn’t get lost when you upgrade.

But still, playing video games with my wife is powerful motivation.

The further reality here is that WoW’s ability to attract new players is limited. People have already pointed out that the press releases are starting to brag about fewer numbers. So, I suspect that most of the people using these systems are like you: they want to play with a friend or loved one. Or, they want to work up a second account for whatever reason.

Look, I agree with you. I think that’s not the ideal way to treat customers, new or returning. But, my point here is that you’ve just demonstrated to Blizzard that in your case, there is no need to change their system. You have shown you will put up with a lot of abuse and still pay them for the privilege. Even a casual reader will see that you still chose to play the game. The only real way your story would have had the necessary punch is if you had said at the end, “and so I decided not to play.”

Keep this in mind when you’re tempted to buy the expansions when you hit level 60.

I can honestly say, if I had read something like this before I went through it, I just might not have bothered. They got me, because I was not expecting it and they had me jumping through small hoops the whole time. If someone had shown me the course of hoops ahead of time, I’m not sure I would have bothered.