The lifecycle of an avid WoW player.

[Sierra85]

i started in 06. june.

My birthday money had come in and me and a friend went down to spend my cash at a large shopping complex. being the nerds we were we were in the computer area and saw this box. My friend said what is this picking up the vanilla wow box and reading it. i grabbed a box and started reading it too. "whats an mmo?" "sweet!"

Little did i know that this action of picking up the box, and saying "hey this looks cool maybe we could game together in this game would lead to a 9 year addiction that would consume me.

[mvaliz]

I started in Vanilla, but I find myself morphing into a new type of WoW-Player; One who takes LONG breaks to play other games and returns at the end of an expansion when all the patches and bug fixes have been implemented.

I kinda discovered the joy of this accidentally at the end of Cataclysm when I came back after being gone for a year. I find there's no need to rush into an expansion and fight/compete with everybody over every little thing. So, I break before expansion and play other games... eventually down the road I will come back again.

The beautiful trick to this is knowing that the longer you stay away, the MORE content there is for you to enjoy when you return! I had to admit I was overwhelmed by what was lying in wait for me when I came back to the new expansion of Pandaria...

[BenBos]

I think the average loyal WOW player plays around 3-5 years and then he finds other things to do.

The GOOD thing about it though is that he will never forget his adventuring in Azeroth. But as soon as he gets burned by it, he thinks everyone else should quit too.


It is because he had such a good time with it, but now he wants to kick his old love in the butt just to feel good about it.

He absolutely hates the loyal fans of the game after he quit, because it is a frustrating feeling that the game is not dead yet.

He searches desperately for his lost love but all he seems to find is hollow games which can't hold a candle against his old Azeroth adventures, so after defending his new found (short) love on every WOW forum, he gets lost even more and hates anything about Irvine and those pesky developpers at Blizzard.


That's about it I guess...

How will it end? Who knows perhaps he will come back, but mostly he gets frustrated for Life.

By the above alone, WOW shows it is a Legendary game with a legendary run for every person who set foot in it for a few years, whatever the date they started playing the thing.

[lMishka]

I played since basically the release. Though at the time I played on my brother's account then a month later I had my own.
Put it into perspective. I was 11 years old, 12 the next month (January). I played where my brother played, he was more of an avid PvE player than I was. I just liked to do the quests. Finally hit 60 and began to raid, from 7 pm to 12 am I would raid. Did that for several months until BC came out. Rerolled on another server and gave it a go again during the BC, I enjoyed Kara so much that I actually did not want to progress to the next raid.
Mid way in BC I started to raid less and just did dungeons and some raids here and there. Same with WoTLK and Cata.
Now MoP, only raid I do is LFR. I do dungeons and level up alts (which I dislike. But leveling up with someone).
I'm extremely happy now that I don't even have to touch an actual raid. No need for vent. No need for angry folks. I'm actually wanting to try out PvP, once I get my hunter to 90 and in decent gear :P

Yeah I've been lazy in my history of WoW playing compared to others. Classic just burnt me out in raiding

[Queen of Hamsters]

The only time my RL has had an impact on my gaming was over a year ago when my dog which I had for half my life (from age 13) passed away for a VERY stupid reason. Sure, he was 13+ years old but he was a mixed breed dog and COULD have lived even longer if not for a bad hip.

I spent 3 months crying, being angry, unable to have fun and feeling void of emotion and motivation in a vicious cycle. Then one day as I logged in to do my usual 5 minutes of trying to have fun and forget my dog, I actually DID have fun and managed to get my mind off my lost friend. WoW and the people I've met through it helped me come back.

In a near future I will both, if all goes well (been on evaluation for Aspergers for 3 years) start working AND let another dog into my home and heart. My favourite time spent in WoW won't suffer though, I'll make sure to be able to raid the same hours I do now and with the same guild.

[Kathranis]

Started playing in April 2005, first character was an undead rogue which I played really briefly, but I played a night elf rogue up to about level 30 until my friends all decided to switch to Horde, so I started over as an undead rogue.

It took me a long time to get my first character to level 60. At the time, my PC and connection couldn't really handle the 40-man raids so I only did PVP off and on, and most of my friends were either in hardcore raiding guilds or on another server so I didn't do a whole lot of group content, or any real non-PVP progression because finding groups got to be such a hassle.

Just before BC I did a paid server transfer to play with my friends on the other server and we had a small friends and family guild for a while. I stayed focused on PvP and daily quests for the most part, except for a couple Karazhan runs with another friend's guild. Then, during Wrath of the Lich King I didn't really enjoy rogue, so I switched to the blood elf warlock I'd leveled during BC, and that became my new main.

With the introduction of LFD I got more interested in running heroics and gearing up through valor, but still mainly focused on daily quests and reputation stuff. I didn't really enjoy the PVP at that time, so I didn't do much of it. More of the same during Cataclysm, for the most part.

It wasn't until Mists of Pandaria that I really started fully taking advantage of all the PvE content, thanks to Raid Finder. So during Mists, I did the dailies and reputations, world bosses, raid finder, the legendary quest, etc.

So, I suppose I'm technically a bit more hardcore than I used to be (in terms of PvE, at least), but it's just because raid finder opened up raiding to me, since I didn't have the time or interest to deal with all the rigamarole before it came around.

[yetgdhfgh]

You get older, You become more mature

Wasting hours of your life for a pointless title or mount becomes meaningless when it comes to more pressing matters like paying bills on time or relationships and kids etc

You no longer care about the whole keeping up with the joneses or showing how big your epeen is to some scrub kid who fawns over your pointless gear.

You start to see the game not as some silly measure of manhood but just a relaxing timesink that is to be enjoyed while you discuss pointless shit to guildfriends you have no wish to meet irl.

[Antherios]

Basically

2011: Started, in awe with the game: total noob

2012: Got the hang of it, achievement hoarder, got a good guild, raided 4 times a week, started college, fun stuff

2013: At the beginning had to quit because of a late night shift job, that lasted like 9 months, came back on September. Raided again,then realized that the break i took was maybe actually a good thing, but i kept playing because of the online friends.

2014: Older brother (played together since the start), quit because he turned 31 and wanted to move on to more important stuff in his life (girlfriend, his job and finally moving to a new apartment by himself), well that, and his computer got fried because of an electric issue and he didnt want to buy a new one.
I then realized that i played mostly to play with him and that i didnt want to sit for 18 hours a week raiding anymore, when i could be doing other stuff. So i quit and probably wont come back.

WoW gave me some really good memories, made me improve my english a lot and gave me the opportunity to meet some of the funniest and kindest people i've ever met online (even RL in some cases). It was a fun ride, but i rather do something more "productive" with my spare time. Between college, my new job, RL friends and trying to improve new skills like playing guitar, i just dont have the time to commit to a raiding schedule anymore.

My gaming will be now limited to short sessions every now and then, and when i feel like it.

[numnumm]

Diggin the thread; love reading everyone's story on what happened during their WoW days.
As for me, currently I'm not subbed. I haven't been for a good 5-6 months, all because the game just got really boring. My friends quit, LFR didn't cut it for me, & just wasn't a pvp player.

2006: I didn't have an account at the time, but I saw my family play the game and thought the game looked amazing. I was 11 at the time, so I pretty much had to beg to get myself an account. Took a while so in the mean time I played my dad's character and just messed around. But I enjoyed it. A few months later, I got my troll priest to 60 and my cousin got me into a raiding guild. Mind you, I was 11 at the time so I didn't know what addons were or even how to downloaded them. Long story short, the guild master kicked me for not having CTRaid (throwback, right?) But I still continued to play.

2007: I got addicted to the game, played 30-40 hours a week maybe? Something along that. I was in middle school, so I didn't care about my grades back then. And honestly, my social life was pretty good. I still had some time to hang out with friends IRL

2008: This is the best year of my WoW life. My dad had gotten invited to join this guild after blasting through heroic ramparts on his prot paladin like it was easy peezy. They were progressing through Kara and my dad found out he couldn't make raid times, so he had me playing his toon for him. Long story short, his paladin got transferred onto my account, & has been my main ever since. Anyways, I was OT for the guild, we were 2nd or 3rd best on the server, I don't remember. It was a period where I saw tons of end game. Fun fact, I was the first paladin on the horde side to get the bulwark of azzinoth Sadly, the guild disbanded shortly after cata, but we have a facebook group that we all still stay in touch.

2009-2010: Wrath came out, and I had took a hiatus. Sadly, took longer then expected and just ended up unsubbing. Reason being is because of high school.

2011: Cata wasn't my cup of tea. Didn't play this expansion.

2012-present: Not subbed, don't think I will be in a while. Warlords sounds great, but WoW, just like any other game, soon dies down. The game isn't bad, but I'm just moving on.

[Vaelorian]

2005: I was already working fulltime. Had a girlfriend (which was going badly) and ended breaking up on may. Meanwhile I delved into WoW like insane. Joined a raidingguild which raided 5 days a week.
2006: Got a new house and still raided 5 days a week.
2007: Made my own guild and set our raidtimes to 4 days a week.
2008: Cleared everything in TBC and moved server. Still raiding 4 days a week.
2009/2010: Cleared everything in WOTLK and took a break until Cata came.
2011: Dropped down to 3 nights a week of raids, still cleared everything until Firelands Ragnaros 25 heroic. Because I quit. Got myself a girlfriend (serious) and just lost all lust for WoW. The thought of LFR just left a bad taste in my mouth aswell (not main reason for me to quit).
2012: did not come back
2013: came back and did not raid, then quit again, then came back
2014: game has sucked almost all joy away for me due to changes that I do not like. I used to not care much about leveling. That was also basically because I was never in that process. I was raiding. Now that I am a casual, I suddenly realise how pathetic leveling has become. And that also leaves me without joy for WoW.

[Asics]

2008: Played on a friends account, had fun. Quit when athletics took up my spare time.
2009: Started my account about two months before Ulduar. Elemental shaman in high demand on my server so I raced to 80.
Had a ton of fun experiencing first raids with both guilds and pugs. Gear was cool but the idea of a "raid" blew my mind. Joined medium-intensity 4 day a night raid group from the end of Ulduar through ICC. Ton of friends, fun, etc. Established myself as a good raider.
Clan went to 10 mans. Joined other, arguably better guild. Two weeks into starting T11 computer's mobo fried. No money to get a new computer right away so guild replaced me permanently.
Built new computer, server transferred to even better guild. Crowning achievement was US 78th Heroic 25 man Ascendant Council kill. Guild got Sinestra when relevant. New job and new girlfriend took over free time. No more time for WoW. Played less, became a "casual." Only draw was progression raiding, can't do that so I quit.
Job is turning into career and then girlfriend is now wife, WoW account cancelled. Good memories. I miss the game but not enough to come back.

[TJ]

I've played with mostly school and unemployement, so it's been pretty easy to manage for me. 3 years with school where I'd take breaks for exams and 1 year with unemployment. When I actually used the free periods in school to do work (like you're supposed to) instead of messing around doing nothing, I had a lot of free time at home which made it easy to raid. My friends normally did stuff on raiding off days as well, s'all good.

Started employment about a year and a half ago, though, which really messed me up, not because I couldn't balance my time (didn't and still don't work full time) but because I worked late nights so couldn't make the raid times. Without raiding I had next to no interest in WoW so quit for 6-7 months, came back to try PvP and quit for another 3-4 months. Now, I've moved to a different department and work early mornings mostly, so I started WoW with the intent to raid again and enjoyed being back, searching for a guild whilst having no experience of the current expansion despite being a previous rank 1 Hunter in Cata was very frustrating (guild disbanded whilst I wasn't playing). When I'd finally had enough and thought "well, that's it, I've had enough" I find out my old guild is reforming and people have logged on to discuss the reform. Reformed and here we are, raiding 3 days a week and making decent progress which will make it easy for the future. I'm having awesome fun being back and can't wait for WoD!

[gry]

I started WoW by the end of Vanilla - even before I reached 60 TBC was released and then I started to put time into it. I was a student back then and World of Warcraft was the main part of the day - which then changed in mid WotLK when I graduated and had to work - I skipped the whole Ulduar/TotC raids. I live in Austria and here you have to make a "social service" or join the military for 9 months - that is basically doing nothing but you do it for the record. During this time period I've progressed into ICC and then Cataclysm was released - where I did level but then had to quit WoW as my first real job was too time consuming.

Now, with a more advanced job in a good company, living on my own with my girlfriend, I started playing WoW again about 1 month ago. I always enjoyed the lore and to see what happened in the WC universe and that's why I like LFR alot. I don't care about gearlevel or achievements - I loved that I killed Garrosh without putting much time into it.

Now leveling my Paladin alt I started to enjoy the storyline from Pandaria even more as I didn't wanna force myself to 90 ASAP.

I still have some real life friends who started playing again also - this makes it much fun to enter a 5 man - but raiding is too time consuming to be a real interest. The good thing about LFR is that its over in 30-40 minutes - you're not bound for hours.

That means for me the progression of WoW was kinda good - it made life in Azeroth easier, equally to how life in the real world got "harder" or "more time consuming".

[Granyala]

To me, it was more like being forced on a raiding schedule, often forcing down my dinner at my desk while making sure my character was ready to raid. It was mostly realizing that I spent 3-4 of my evenings, entire evenings, on the game. Somehow, working made me realize more how precious my spare time has become.

I'm in that position right now, because I took up a new job.
I'ts a weird feeling, but so far I'd like to continue raiding, even if I'm completely burned out of SoO at this point.

[jayjaytee]

I started back in 07... and i wasn't sure what this whole dragons and dungeons thing was like. My first character was a Warlock and i fondly remember the feeling of being in a world that was vast. It drew me in so quickly. The lock levelling experience was great, getting new pets, going for my mount and the long chain leading up to it. It really made me feel like i had achieved something. My very first raid was Onyxia and i got the lock helm. I felt awesome. 12 90s later, the shine that was my intro to MMOs has gone. But it wasn't a complete loss, i've managed to get to 3rd DAN in Taekwondo, and now going for 4th, run a half marathon etc. I just feel that my time (the limited amount we have on this earth) could be better spent , rather than levelling someone else up in a game. WoW has been a great source of fun, excitement, rage (damn you PVP!!) but everything comes to and end.. When my subscription ends in April, it will not be renewed. Time to level myself up!

[Otaka]

Almost similar story for me... except i still dont have job, but i have cut down wow gaming to be able to play other games more.

I do still play wow and plan to play it in the next expansion but once you quit raiding its hard to get back into it. Not due to gear restriction but because it can be compared to a job, you have schedule for each week albeit only on 3 days depending on guild.

Since i stopped raiding ive had alot more freetime to play other games. Might start raiding again, i restarted in mop but quit after first tier due to bad guild/horrible atmosphere so it turned into a lack of motivation.

[Deleted]

2011: Cataclysm was recently released and my best friends at the time where playing. It looked fun, so I joined them. I was a complete noob, and didn't play much due to having lots of schoolwork. But I eventually got to level 85 and played arenas/battlegrounds with my friends.

2012: Quit for a short while in january/february, because PvP got stale for me, and yet again, lots and lots of schoolwork. I just didn't have any time to play. Sometime in early march I decided to come back, and decided to level up my warlock to 85 and try PvE content instead. I joined the most casual of casual guilds, we raided on fridays only but we eventually killed deathwing. They (my guild) were a lovely bunch and I had lots fun. Around June I was about to move to back to Sweden (I lived in Cali at the time). When I found out I couldn't transfer characters across regions I got slightly angry decided that the game was shit and I wouldnt play it. Well, later that year, about a month before MoP I saw the cinematic. AAAaaand nostalgia hit me, so I started a new account on the European realms and leveled up another warlock as well as a paladin to 85. In the first months of MoP i didn't really do any raiding or pvping, I just farmed for mounts and did daily quests. This got boring after a while, so I quit once again right before 5.1.

2013: SUMMERTIME! It's July. And I decide, I want to play WoW. No school, no hard work, just time to be lazy. So I play for 3 months until 5.4 and I get bored again, plus school had started again so my playtime was reduced once again. During that time I mostly worked for vanity stuff, like pets/mounts and cool transmog. I did lots of LFR and began the legendary questline. But when 5.4 hit, I quit.

2014: I am back once again! Started in early January, been here since then. Joined a nice raiding guild, we only raid on Fridays/Saturdays which is PERFECT for my schedule! Lots of people I know IRL are also starting to play, so I can have lots of fun with them as well!

[Driahtvacahtve]

This is also my first year as a full time worker after university (the year finishes this summer).
It hasn't really affected the way I play wow very much, except I know that I cannot just play the entire Tuesday to catch up on stuff I faffed too much around on earlier in the week. Like capping arena or doing Ordos.
I have 2 hours of transportation to and from work every day, so I leave ungodly early and come home at dinnertime.
I don't really play less wow, but I play more spread out over the week (I used to play maybe a whole day, and then not at all the rest of the week), and more at the same times.

I stopped raiding seriously back in Wrath when my guild disbanded midway through ICC.
As my gf had basically just moved in with me, and had pestered me for some time to quit raiding, I saw it as a good opportunity (sign from heaven?) to call it a day.
It meant hardly playing for a month, as I had to figure out if I wanted to keep playing.
That turned out to be the case, and I have been playing largely single player since.
Together with being somewhat of an altoholic, and since cata a multiboxer, I have plenty of entertainment and have enjoyed the game that way since, basically nothing changing.
Until that point it was hardcore raiding on main, and alt raiding on as many alts as I could manage.
Without that access to gear, I simply turned to other ventures, dual boxing 2v2 arena for that gear for example.
Thats also how I leveled my own alt guild to 25. 28 wins a day to cap the xp, took some time I can assure you..

I guess if there's one thing that has evolved, its getting the whole "I don't have to have the best/do all I can/complete everything" mentality.
I don't really know when that has come in, just getting more perspective in life I guess?
That has made playing a lot more relaxing. I have my little things that I care about, and I do my best for that. Otherwise I just enjoy myself.
When I was younger, I felt a lot like I didn't want to miss out on opportunity.
So I guess "time in general" and "life moves on" stuff is what has had the biggest impact.

It also has a lot to do with how accessible the game has become though.
I actually quit for 2 months back in vanilla cause it was just so fucking boring, endless mindless grinding.
Each expansion has become better. If things had stayed that way I would definitely not still be playing.

[DingDongKing]

I started WoW just before I began working fulltime again. I played SWTOR for 18 months before that whilst taking a sabbatical from work. I never missed stuff in that game. Was online a lot. Now I log in daily but in 6 months I've played the game, I've taken two one month breaks and generally just stuck to one character. A (former) friend of mine in that time got himself 3 550+ers but with time restrictions I just cannot commit to that.

Initially it irked me, but now I just enjoy other aspects of the game. I keep gearing my main however I can but I augment my love for the world by not playing more but reading the books when relaxing and listening to the music at work. Much less pressured and I don't need to deprive myself of sleep in order to keep running the gear race.

I'm in a guild that has schedules to suit me but not the interest in meeting those schedules so it rarely works out. I don't mind. I just crack on. It feels good besides the times when free time is made for raiding that then gets used up spontaneously by something else to fill the void.

[Deleted]

Played from Wrath til now, started working full time and forced to live with my girlfriend and her family after I got kicked out ( ). It's difficult but I think she understands that I enjoy raiding. Working on getting a laptop so I can spend time at least sat next to her :<