Breakfast Topic: As Orgrimmar burns

Back in May, I wrote a Breakfast Topic about how my favorite texture in the game, the gates of Orgrimmar, was also my favorite sight in World of Warcraft. The sense of scale and wonderment the gates of Orgrimmar conveyed to me was something very real and very powerful -- I felt that this place existed.

Now, as we approach the eve of destruction, as the elements tear apart the world we know and love, the gates of Orgrimmar are relevant to me once again. The wonderment is still there. The awe and the sense of scale still remains. I'm sad. I am watching my favorite place in all of Azeroth burn to the ground before my very eyes. It is heartbreaking, and I am heartbroken.

I know the city will be rebuilt. I know Orgrimmar is coming back better than ever, its gates fortified and its structures secure. But I cannot get over what I am witnessing -- a living, breathing world that, six years down the road, still conveys a sense of excitement and change and wonder. My world is burning. My gates are burning. Cataclysm is weeks away. It never hit me until right now, as I stand before my favorite landmark in all of Azeroth and watch its destruction.

At what moment did you realize that Cataclysm was not just some expansion to a game you love, but an event that is truly changing the world you have grown to cherish?