Since my comment for Dragon was getting incredibly long, I've brought it back here for some shameless cross-linking and so on. There follows a lengthy post on the new World of Warcraft expansion, for those who want to turn off now.

First of all, if you haven't read Dragon's post linked above, you must do so. Not only does this one make less sense without it, but it's written in his normal dour wit and makes some excellent comparisons and references that you may even appreciate if you're not a WoW fan.

I started a Blood Elf, and found that the starting area on my server wasn't too bad: higher than normal proportion of paladins but only a slight imbalance toward females, and only one of them wandering around in underwear. I almost regret rolling a male one, because their dance is absolute rubbish (and the female dance isn't too bad), but the male looks convincing enough as a Paladin, now I've got him shoulder armour and a tabard. [I now have two characters in our long defunct guild just for the name and the tabard...]

The Lords and Ladies reference is perfect: you really get the feel that they're used to incredible wealth and power and that it's gone to their heads. However, in typical World of Warcraft style you can still be sympathetic to them, not only when you're fighting the out-and-out evil Scourge, but also on missions against Darnassian spies.
In fact, for those who haven't noticed, one of the things that impresses me about World of Warcraft is the way all the races are 'good'. Although warlike and bloodthirsty, the assumption that orcs are inherently evil doesn't last long when you play one and notice tiny orc children running around collecting pebbles, and find that rogue humans had been attacking them mercilessly despite treaties to the contrary.
If anything, although not really evil, the Blood Elves are the most twisted of the Horde races. When the pre-expansion hype was rubbishing the idea of giving both sides access to all classes, one of the complaints was that the 'evil' elves should not have access to the power of Light that fuels paladins. I love the justification: the Blood Knights have a huge magical creature - some kind of angel, in effect - chained up in their basement and are tapping it for the power their paladins need.

I agree with Dragon's Outland observations. So far I've seen one zone and done one instance and they've been excellent; well themed and well designed. From what I've heard from friends who went further it only gets better once you're into the factional squabbles of the Outland natives.

The only thing I'm really not keen on is the item inflation: I had pretty good blues after a few months at the top with Penumbra (no purples: I didn't really do much during those few months) and in three or four hours of play I replaced almost a third of my kit. I shouldn't moan - a new world of easily-accessible kit benefits me far more than those who were already in excellent equipment - but it just seems somehow wrong. I know they had to start the arms race again for all those people who equate content with loot, but they could have been a bit more subtle.

Next project is to go and look at the top heavy blue men, maybe start one of those.