Traversing The Barrens with fellow staffer and Orc, Nicholas 'Shebubu' Stewart, was an exhilarating experience - at first. To feel as though I was now a part of the Wacraft universe in a genuine way - in that my talents and time could advance the ambitions of the side I was playing on - and I could be as integral in the famous struggle of the Alliance against the Horde was nothing short of magical. During our travels together, I had noted to Nicholas that during the Christmas of 1995 I spent all my free time playing Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and now, here it is, Christmas 2004, and I was spending the holidays playing Warcraft again, only now I was experiencing first-hand what I had sent so many of my little sprite troops to do before. Circle of life, indeed.