What's the time limit on a blog?

I'm asking because, in the past year, we've lost several prominent WoW blogs and WoW.com has seen major changes as well with writers leaving and many columns receiving facelifts.  It makes me wonder if this isn't the beginning of some sort of sea change with WoW - that maybe folks are starting to ...
tire? (no)
burn out? (no)
get bored with? (no)
have real life intrude? (no)
change and have different interests/priorities after playing for years? (close but not quite)

none of the above exclusively but all of the above combined?  (YES!  Not very eloquent, but effective nonetheless).

The World of Warcraft attracts an incredibly diverse player base.  It's worldwide, financially accessible, has something to attract a 5 year old up through retirees.  But while that base will stay the same - there will always be some mom helping her 5-year old with the character creation screen or clicking on the fishing bobber and grandparents will keep creating toons to play with their grandkids - individual players are constantly changing.  In fact, they're often going through major life changes that drastically change how (or even if) they play WoW.  And if they blog about their playing?  The impact is much more visible. 

Let's look at a few hypothetical examples:

First, take the stereotypical teenager who is playing the game.  Let's say he was 17 when Vanilla WoW released.  He had plenty of time to devote to playing his last year in high school and then goes off to college where he still maintains a heavy play schedule, but takes a course or two that encourages him to create and maintain a blog.  The blog gains a readership and he continues writing throughout his undergrad years. 

But now he's graduating and either pondering the heavier workload of grad-school, or starting a career and family or what-have-you.  Now he wants to write about his newer interests - music or the city he lives in, etc.  He realizes his WoW writing has stopped being a passion and turned into more of a ... habit.  And he moves on. 


Next, let's take the example of someone who starts playing in their 20s.  She has a good job, but isn't married yet.  She uses WoW for fun, but also figure it's cheaper to spend a couple nights a week playing than going out to the bars/movies/etc.  After all, money is tight!  She starts a blog because her guildies always come to her for advice and tips and she feels she has a unique voice. 


But as Vanilla turned into BC and into Wrath, she has fiancee whom she wants to spend more time with.  Her career has progressed and she wants to spend more time with her friends.  Her playing time dwindles and she realizes she's not as current with the latest theorycrafting.  And she's ok with that.  She still plays, but not as much. 


One more example (I promise) - a young married couple play WoW together and create a funny, hip blog they both write.  It's very popular and even some mainstream media take notice and feature the 'gaming couple.'  When the wife discovers she's pregnant, they both vow to keep playing and writing, but of course, kids change everything.  They quickly realize that they can't keep up their previous commitments and leave WoW to raise their family. 


Five years is very easy to say and when we do, it seems like a short period of time.  But when speaking about real life?  It's not.  It can go by in a flash, but it's hard to avoid major events.  Teenagers leave high school and go to college (and turn 21).  People fall in love and get married and have kids and get divorced (sometimes within the same 5 years). 


And that's not even taking into account the changes WoW has undergone since launch.  While they have definitely provided fodder for blogging, they may also have gradually and ultimately turned some writers off. 

With all that, it's easy to see why/how so many prominent blogs have folded up tent or gone on hiatus this year.

And with all that, let's not forget that there are still some great blogs out there and tremendous writing at wow.com as well.  But I get the feeling we need to enjoy them while we can before they move on to bigger and better things.  Plus we have new blogs popping up all the time :) 

I dunno, though.  I get the feeling that the past two years were the Golden Age of WoW writing and as those responsible for that greatness move on...I don't know what will happen.  I don't know if WoW will lose players because there they read less about the game and don't get motivated to try the latest build/add-on/strategy.  WoW would be less accessible outside the actual game which would give players more opportunities to find other ways to occupy their time. 

Which is all great more diversity in our lives and hobbies and occupations make us better, more rounded people.  But it'll be interesting to see it happen nonetheless. 

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into things.