Do you play WOW because you like it or you have no other viable options?

[Issalice]

Still subbed but I only log in to raid with my guild if I have to (IE they don't want to pug) and to do Ordos, Celestials and TK on my main if I feel like it....which lately I haven't. I was pvping pretty heavily for a bit but got bored, I just can't bring myself to log in. Now that the weather is getting warmer I won't be inside nearly as much so I will most likely unsub til the xpac drops.

[Constraint]

No other options.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy a little about it. I love competing in raids, being the most effective I can be in whatever role I'm playing. I love the rush at the start of an expansion from all the new content, and the competition to hit the new level cap in my guild/server. I love spamming interesting Heroics until the cows come home (hasn't really been enjoyable since the end of WotLK, sadly).

And there are a few things that I think WoW does FAR, FAR better than any other MMO. Graphics just.. fit. They're perfect - I know they're "dated" by some people's standards, but they work. And they work WELL, on every computer under the sun.

Movement - in my opinion, WoWs greatest asset. The fluidity of movement in WoW is fucking phenomenal, and I've never played another game like it. The jumps are smooth, the turns are smooth, the running animations are flawless - there's no other game like it, and I find it hard to get into any other MMO as a result.

Content/time invested - it's just so hard for another MMO to come along and, on RELEASE, offer as much or more content as WoW has, with as few bugs. It's just not going to happen, really. Not to mention the thousands upon thousands upon tens of thousands of hours I've spent on WoW over the years - severing that attachment in exchance for some random level 1 character with imperfect movement is a tough ask, at times.

On the other side of the coin, it's not so pretty. There are things about WoW that absolutely SICKEN me, and for those reasons, I'm eagerly awaiting a game that can grip me as much as WoW did. Here we go:

Homogenization/obsession with fucking "balance". WHY THE FUCK does every SINGLE class have to be balanced around bringing the EXACT SAME level of buffs/dps/heals/cooldowns to raid as every other class? What's wrong with a class bringing completely inferior DPS with the advantage of bringing exciting gameplay/dps/buff elements to the rest of the raid? What's wrong with a class doing half the healing of another healer, yet making life much more interesting/exciting for the rest of the raid? Why is it the end of the world if one of your 3 dps specs is underperforming?

STOP TRYING TO PLEASE EVERYONE - it's impossible, and look what we've ended up with - a bland, dreary experience where every dps class plays similarly, every healer has the same toolkit, and tanking is about as varied and interesting as a goddamned lump of clay. Same toolkits, effortless AoE threat, the same level of cooldowns, etc, etc. All in the name of "balance". If a certain class isn't being brought to raids, fix something about them to make them compelling for OTHER reasons, don't just fucking slap on the same abilities from other classes with a different name, and call that "balance".

PvP - this is a carry-on from the aforementioned "balance" problem - snooze. Why does every class have to have a huge, blossoming CC kit, with the sole reason for such being "balance" and "enjoy not controlling your character"? Luckily this is being fixed. Oh, and why was the most popular Arena bracket BY FAR, 2v2, completely neutered into non-existence? EVERYONE used to do 2v2 - partly because the weapons were amazing for PvE early in the tiers, but also because they're so much easier to organize, and so much fun to participate in. It's not as if it's any easier to "balance" 3v3, or, hilariously, 5v5. The new BGs have been a mixed bag - just get those fucking vehicle fights OUT of my bg list. I'm looking at you, Isle of Conquest and Strand of the Ancients.

Dungeons - my greatest love in WoW, besides raids. Or shall I say, they used to be. Blizzard, Blizzard, Blizzard, what have you done, and who is responsible for this atrocity? What happened to numerous dungeons, with interesting layouts, in interesting locations? Who the fuck knows? How have we gone from Vanilla's innumerable dungeons to TBCs numerous, challenging dungeons, to WotLKs numerous, easy dungeons, to Cata's few but moderately interesting dungeons to MoPs few and fucking uselessly, awfully, boring, tedious and full-of-shitty-RP dungeons?

HOW?

Seriously. What GENIUS designer made that call? "Hey guys. We can see people like doing dungeons throughout an expansion cycle - so we're going to cut the number of dungeons by half, some of which will be rehashes, insert lengthy, unskippable immersion-breaking RP pieces into half of them, and tune them so that on HEROIC, yes, HEROIC, they can be one-shot by RANDOMS IN QUESTING GREENS. Caps for emphasis. Don't worry guys, we'll make Challenge Modes of those same few dungeons take a little more skill/effort, but there won't really be any point in doing so, other than colorful RP gear".

Professions, used to take a bit of time to accomplish, a bit of searching for rare mats. What rare mats, you say? Oh, that's right - that's all been removed. It's much, MUCH more engaging to just farm a few hundred Exotic Leather from 2 spots in the entire map and use them to get from Leatherworking 500/525-600. I feel like I've really accomplished something, don't you? No. I don't. Thanks for asking.

LFR, neutering the excitement of discovering new bosses since Dragon Soul. This is a mixed bag. Sure, it's great for those who love raiding but don't have the time, but it kinda takes away from encouraging people to want to better themselves at raiding. There used to be so much more reason to do so! You'd actually WANT to improve, so you could.. see the content! To get unique gear! Now, there's just no drive, or very little. You've already seen all the bosses. You've already got all the tier bonuses, and the gear, just with a couple fewer points of stam/mainstat/secondary stat. What's the drive?

Until they can come up with some system that actively encourages people to want to get into actual raiding instead of AFKing through LFR, LFR is, in my opinion, a fucking terrible thing to happen to the raiding scene.

Questing. Another mixed bag. While it's obviously easier for Blizzard to tell a coherent story (lol, jokes) when quests are in their current state (by "current state", I mean "quests on rails", where you're sent directly to a quest hub, you do 2 quests, hand in, 2 quests, hand in, 2 quests, hand in, until you've finished the hub, then you're sent directly to the next quest hub, you do 2 quests, hand in, 2 quests, hand in, 2 quests, hand in, etc etc until you're at level cap), I couldn't possibly enjoy it less.

What's wrong with exploring on ahead or to the sides of the beaten path? That's utterly pointless these days - because the "on-rails" system doesn't let you. Feel like adventuring forth, discovering some new hub/quests, like we used to? Lol, no - it'll either be completely phased out of existence, or the NPCs will refuse point-blank to talk to you, UNTIL you've killed a few fucking boars from someone at the quest hub that you're SUPPOSED to be at. Riddle me that. It's awful, and I hate it. There's just no freedom. Can't you just let people discover the story their own way? Too much to ask?

TL;DR - I play WoW because I slightly enjoy it, but mostly because there's no adequate alternative. I am eagerly awaiting a game to come along to replace it, but I haven't seen one yet. Sadly. Very sadly.

[Deleted]

A few days ago I wanted to quit till WOD came out, however my sub doesn't run out till in 4 months, also my bf just added game time so he wants to play together. So right now I am just messing around, raiding at some nights, doing dailies to get moneys and during the day I play something else.

[Araxie]

I currently don't play WoW because I got burnt out on it. Not saying it's a bad game. I just played through all the content and needed more, which it currently doesn't offer. I'm going to be picking up WoD for sure and give it a good play. Other than that though, Wildstar will be my main MMO of choice.