Quitting WoW

I've decided to quit playing World of Warcraft. This blog has been pretty short on druid posts for awhile because of my lack of enthusiasm. The druid stuff will stop entirely now, but I do intend to keep hacking on my achievement mining project and may start using this blog for reporting on what I learn. Feel free to unsubscribe if I end up boring you, I won't be offended!

Why quit? The main reason is the same disenchantment with the game my buddy Karthis offered as his reason for quitting. The key thing is "I haven't logged on except to raid". I have no interest in playing alts, there's no solo or small group content in 3.1 that appeals to me, I don't even need to make gold anymore. Raiding is still fun for me; last night's raid was awesome. (Our first Freya kill with me cat DPS and a bit of offtanking, our first attempts on Thorim with me full on tanking, and then me on the top 3 of the DPS charts in Archavon). But without any other gameplay to balance raiding out it begins to feel a bit weird. Also while Ulduar is better than Naxxramas, it still feels a bit too much of the same old thing. And I share Karthis' feeling that hard modes won't be much more fun.

Also, part of my disenchantment is that WoW became too much like responsibility. I reluctantly became an officer in my guild a couple of months ago. Then our amazing guild founders and raid leader quit, our second raid leader got busy with life, and suddenly I was the raid lead. I think I did pretty well at it, but I'm not one of those people who really enjoys leading a guild. And even without the leadership the regular raid calendar means too many evenings were committed to playing Warcraft instead of seeing friends, reading a book, or simply hanging out. Combined with not enjoying the gameplay and it was time to quit.

Looking back on WoW, there's a few things that I really enjoyed. I'm glad that our guild finished off Illidan the week before the 3.0 patch nerfed all of the BC endgame content into irrelevance. And I'm proud that we got Sartharion down with all three drakes up. But what I enjoyed the most was the six or eight weeks of helping lead a group to figure out how to finish Zul'aman under the 45 minute timer. I think ZA is the best designed instance I've played: the creative and precise gameplay required from an intimate 10 man group was really fun. 

Blizzard has designed a uniquely good game; I've never played any other game for three years. There's a lot of depth, a lot of polish, and a lot of different kinds of gameplay. Warcraft will last a good time yet; it may lose a few players to Diablo 3 and probably a lot whenever Blizzard launches their new MMO that all the leading WoW designers have switched to. But it's hard to imagine any other company displacing Blizzard's games.

I'm looking forward to having more time to play other games. One of the pernicious things about Warcraft is how it leaves no time to play any other games. So now I'm seeking out other games that become less of a long term commitment. Team Fortress 2 was super fun this weekend. I'm going to revisit Alpha Centauri to discuss it with a smart critical group. And I may pick up an MMO to just casually play through the levelling content: Warhammer or Lord of the Rings, maybe.

PS: Total /played on my druid and my hunter alt is 158 days, which works out to 3.5 hours a day or about 60% of a full time job. 19 days at level 80 on Flyv in six months, or 2.5 hours a day. It's not all playing, of course, a lot of chat and afk. Still that's an awful lot of time.

Comments

[Karthis]

You were an excellent raid lead, my friend - I really enjoyed all of the nights you were in charge.

I think it really says something when you can leave such an immersion game without begrudging the experience you had while there... so many people get so bitter with their old game, and seem to forget all the good times.

Game on! And keep in touch.

[felkan]

I have to wonder if there would be as much QQ about hard modes if they were the "normal mode" and you had the option to engage "easy mode" for reduced loot, etc.?

[Darkbane]

My Druid Kitty is QQ.

Good luck mate!

[Misamane]

Noes! I don't even have a druid and I read your blog!!!

With everyone leaving, I'll actually have to post things on MY blog!

On the other hand, I totally understand :)

Have fun out there in the real world, and if you come back, I won't mind.

_Misa

[Emtu]

I am on my third "break" from WoW, and possibly because this one was unplanned (freakin real life), it has much more of a "why do I want to go back" feeling to it. Really, the only thing I miss is the social aspect, but oddly, sitting down with friends talking for hours on end is somehow filling that void :-) Still, I look forward to playing with you again in the next big thing that suckers us all out of our lives for an inappropriate amount of time!

[Arnen]

aw flyv, you just made me sad again. And you'll miss the new druid forms!!! :P

Anyway, good luck man, it was a pleasure to have raided with you.

[Pathis]

Take care man. Hopefully you keep blogging about something because the site makes for a solid read. Best of luck :)

[wow gold spammer]

Oh man! You can lie low for a while but don't quit. You'll miss the new druid forms that will be released this coming patch XD. Seriously, I understand you. I also came to a point that I want to leave the game since I felt I'm living in a virtual world literally and everything that existed doesn't seem real anymore which should be the other way around right? But then, I realized that it's up to me how to balance stuff and it's heart breaking for me to leave the friends that I made in the game. I haven't seen them but still I know that the friendship is real. So, I came back but this time I play moderately. Anyway, goodluck and we hope this is not the last time we hear from you.

[Vakfaroosh]

Flyv,

You and Karthis redefined so many things for me over the last year plus. I learned a lot from both of you, but I understand you leaving. I left for real life, but the game bored me and nothing even ulduar attempts to bring me back.

Good luck in love and life, if you desire you know how to reach me.

[Kal]

Sorry to hear that, man. Leading a raid in any capacity can really wear on you. Hopefully you'll keep posting and I'll keep reading. :)

[another wow gold spammer]

This is sad. You can still play for sometimes. You might want to visit and raid again. Keep posting!

[Matt]

I too have enjoyed your blog, and I feel many of the same things you do. Summer is here, I need to train HARD for my 300 mile Make-a-Wish foundation bike ride in 2 months, new job, etc.

I log on because I enjoy Emory and the raid he's put together, but really that's about it. I think Bliz may have dropped the ball a bit with how they designed this expansion. On the one hand, a social guild putting in 5 hours a week can do fairly well fairly fast, but really, what's after that?

Enjoy your time away. Teach Karthis Eve.

Matt

[Geoffrey Chisnall]

good luck with what you are going to do, it was great reading your blogs!