Playing WoW at 40

I first logged onto wow when I was twenty-eight years old, back during vanilla. I played off and on through Wrath of the Lich King with a group of five real life friends.Most of us were the obsessive 35 hours a week kind of player. We ran a raiding guild, did tons of pvp, and the endless farming required to support those. We loved the game, but as we grew older it became harder to justify the hours were putting in.I quit toward the end of WotLC, and never looked back. While I did sometimes play other MMOs (Wildstar, SWTOR, GW2, to name a few) I'd often go years without playing. MMOs have become a much less important part of my life.I never expected I'd play WoW again, but that same group of five people were all excited about Legion. We decided to play the game again as a group, and the nostalgia was real. I love how similar Legion feels to BC. I love seeing Arathi Basin again.I'm a full time author, so I had more time to play than most of my friends. I cracked out on WoW for three full months, and ended up with six 110s. My main reached iLvl 873, and I hit prestige four.I had so much fun, as did my friends. Most of us have started playing less, partly because its the holidays and we have families. Partly because we've chewed through all the content we can easily reach.We managed to clear normal EN. We 3 chested a +7 mythic. We all found legendaries, and I played hundreds of BGs, and a few arenas. The game was a blast. I liked the story. I didn't mind most of the grinds.I understand the complaints that the game isn't alt friendly, because I think those people are right. I get that Blizzard has made some questionable decisions around legendaries, and I can see how that impacts raiders.Fortunately for me, those flaws didn't really impact my enjoyment of the game. My friends and I are filthy casuals, and I think Blizzard succeeded spectacularly in reigniting our passion for a game we first played over a decade ago.I'll drift away from the game, without a doubt. But I'm going away with a lot of fond memories. I met some great people, and reconnected with old friends. That's more than I ever expected when I logged back in to Azeroth.Thank you Blizzard.