Afraid I don't have any gifts to give to the folks here, but I just took another big step, though I suppose in a way I'd already done it unofficially anyways by simply not logging on...

Many of you may recall that I've mentioned I used to be a massively addicted MMORPG player. I had what even other players called an "army" of alts.

I haven't played these since June.

I just gave them all away.

The majority of my army was given to the last guild I'd been active in, and the lone remaining bard went to the guild before it.

With this move, one more piece of my old life is removed. Officially.

To each guild I wrote a fairly drawn out farewell, in which I alluded to the reason I was quitting quite pointedly, but did not quite come out and say it. I said some wouldn't get what I was talking about, and God bless them for their innocence, some would be "Ah, that explains some things," and God bless them for their compassion, and finally, that I hoped God might someday be able to soften the hearts of the last group.

OK, yeah, so I know many people don't believe in God. Oh well. It's the farewell I wanted to write, so it's the farewell I wrote.

I then indicated I might return someday as a complete casual player and newbie, with new toons, and a new identity, and that hopefully no one would recognize me, but if they did, hopefully they wouldn't be of a nasty sort. I wished them well in their endeavors, mentioned their current raiding tier, wished them short term success in improving it, and then spoke of what it might be like when I returned, with my "fellow" newbies revering them and me silently smiling to myself that I was part of that once, I knew those people.

Ah well, another chapter closed, I'm moving on.

That I decided to make this particular move on Christmas was largely so I was giving at least something of myself, even if it's the old me, to people I cared about.

Abigail Drew.