Over two years ago, after some intensive therapy (read: I got up and went outside), I managed to kick my Warcrack addiction. I had a minor relapse today…

Blizzard sent out an email offering up 7 free days to returning players as part of a 5-year anniversary promotion…and a free in game pet (which seems to come with everything nowadays). I was curious to see how the game had evolved in the last two years and some change, so I re-activated my account. Everything in game seems a bit easier to manage. Pets and mounts have a quick select screen. More bags are available to specific trade skills, etc. I was also pleasantly surprised to see more 10-man raid content and a new achievement system. Though, to be fair, the latter seems a little late and already feels like old hat on arrival.

To prepare for the launch of Diablo III and Starcraft II, Battle.net also got a serious makeover and all WoW accounts have to be merged with Battle.net accounts. This brings all the online account management under one umbrella. In addition, Blizz included the ability to add serial keys for older games to Battle.net accounts. This lets users download full versions of games they’ve previously bought in-store (very much like Steam). In short…many good things are happening around Blizz these days.

As a funny side note, I took a quick screenshot while I was downloading/updating WoW. I’m not sure who approved the font and background colors for the status bar…but they have much better eyes than I.