Success

Short post today, with good news.
Gnomcot finally made it past the usual age of death for my alts. He hit 25 last night while grinding dark wolves in Duskwood for leather.
There's lots to like with this character. I dropped blacksmithing, as I quickly found that I can make more money with two gathering professions. I can use my profits from Auctions to buy better armor than I could have crafted myself with precious time wasted trying to find minerals for mats.
So the combination of mining and skinning has me living quite comfortably in reasonable greens for my level. I found Killmaim for what I thought to be a bargain at 10g around level 19 or so. It's been my DPS two-hand ever since. :)
I also managed to get into a very small casual RP guild. Haven't done too much with them as of yet, but I have been thinking about developing Gnomcot's RP backstory. Have to work out a few details, including where the fall of Gnomeregan falls on the Warcraft timeline, but I'll post that when I polish it up.

/Disappointed

It's hard to say where I'm at with WoW. I was having a hard time on my main, Mercot, because my current guild is - go figure - cliquish as hell. I have no ties to these people. I've grouped with them on occasion, and they seem OK.
But what do I look for in WoW? I look for friends. I look for welcome and conversation. I look for groups.
Yet there are none to be found. I used to LFG in guild chat. I'd get maybe one person and we'd spend the next hour or so spamming Trade or sitting in the LFG queue. Eventually, one of us would get tired of it and leave. Now I suppose I wait for groups to happen. Someone will announce in guild chat say they're looking for DPS or an extra hand in X dungeon. I say I'll go, but often I get no response or am told that my class isn't necessary.
I'm one of maybe 8-10 level 70 Warlocks in the guild. Most are demonology or destruction. So I respecced to Affliction. Hey, why not? I levelled on that tree until the Pre-BC patch, when the Felguard was released. I still love affliction. It’s a great tree. But it does not change my appeal to the guild when there are still other Warlocks to be used. Somehow, the Warlock has become an overplayed class. I don't know when it happened.
I don't see myself as necessary to the guild. I don't feel needed. Should I? Probably not. It's a game. It's a game that people will continue to play as long as there are others to play with. As of now, no one will play with me, as least while I'm a level 70 Undead Warlock in a guild full of Warlocks.
Why should I stay? Karazhan? Whatever. I finally got into a guild raid last weekend. I was pumped. You know how far we got? Um…we wiped on respawns three times before hitting Attumen. Then we wiped a few more times on the stupid Warhorse. Then we died several more times clearing out partygoers. We couldn't even take down two of Moroes' lackeys. Then one of the priests starts in on the MT for not waiting for mana before pulls and the tank up and DCs, saying that he's not focused enough to continue. Bah.
Sorry, I'm just really disappointed.
I was so bored on Sunday that I levelled my first aid from 125-335, cooking from 1-177, and fishing from 190-244. The only thing that keeps me returning to Mercot, I realized, is the cooldown on Shadowcloth.
I need a WoW reset. I need to find my love for the game again. I need a hero. I need…a Gnomcot.
Who? Ah, yes, that little Gnome Warrior I created for Metatalk. The one still collecting dust at level 17.
I had to force myself to play him at first. Get back into the Warrior mindset. So I went to Redridge and just started grinding on spiders. After a while I started to enjoy myself again. I think that I'll try something new with Gnomcot. Whenever possible, I'm going to interact through RP. To enhance this mindset, I turned off player and guild names. It's quite bizarre to see blank space over people's heads. You don't notice players at first, and the only way you'd know it was a player is the way they move, or if you were to mouse over them and get the tooltip info.
I pushed Gnomcot to 18 last night. He's now officially my highest Alliance character ever. Now I need to break through the next wall: level 23, or the highest level alt I've ever had. It was a while ago; a Tauren Druid. I ended up deleting him after not playing him for 6 months. Now I've just got to make Gnomcot my game from now on. Screw level 70, or at least the level 70 experience that I was having.