Does Warcraft still feel like home?

[Doranian123]

From playing it after school, to the long summer breaks spent in front of my computer screen wow has always been there, I am no longer living in the country with my parents but rather work full time at a call center and have my own place and gf. Life feels very surreal lately since things are so drastically different than they were two years go. Including world of Warcraft.

Maybe it's the new models that removed a bit of the subtle familiarity to make it feel so foreign to me. But wow has felt less and less like home too someone such as myself who likely has about 3 to 4 years of total played time logged if not more.

It's strange that a game can make me feel this way, but it's the place I had friends my first gf and adventure, now none of those apply and I live in the real world again this time with different friends and an irl gf. Warcraft feels like home after a new family moves on and you go over to visit and see that they didint decorate your room quite how you think it should have been. Does it still feel like home to you after all these years?

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Warcraft has felt calming and I have always felt confident and assured behind the keyboard. Now a days I miss having an outlet like it because my stress and anxiety levels are always high due to bills and health issues, and always feel as if my time is spread to thin on things that make me miserable, I just want my world back.

[Queen of Hamsters]

To me it sure does. Has been my virtual home of choice ever since I started playing mid-WOTLK. Not been unsubbed once.

[Kolvarg]

The models may or may not help (don't forget you can disable them though), and yes overall the game nowadays allows/makes for a less social and long-term experience in trade of acessibility, but I think the biggest factor for you might just be missing not just the "old" Warcraft, but the whole situation you had going on for you when you were playing Warcraft back then. It's ok to sometimes miss just being a careless kid/teenager with no worries in the world just going to school and having fun the rest of the day, it's a burden most of us face as (more) intelligent and conscious animals.

It's also pretty common to remember something different than what it was: remembering how you felt playing a game, rather than how exactly the game was. If you think back on certain things from your childhood you might think of quite a few things that this apply to, it's fairly common especially common with food/taste. For me one of those cases is a meal that my late aunt used to make me on a particularly conflicting part of my childhood (mother with cancer + parents divorcing at the same time). It was just simple scrambled eggs in a bit of olive oil, sided with simple fries. Really nothing special about it, she wasn't even a very great or regular cook. But I remembered it as some of the best meals I've ever had and have never enjoyed scrambled eggs as much since then, and likely I'll never will. Chances are I remembered them as being so good because honestly overall I was pretty miserable and that meal prepared with care and love by my aunt was the highlight of my day and one of the few things I enjoyed about my days on that period.

With that said, be careful not to get "trapped" under such "escapes" and nostalgia. It's perfectly fine to use a virtual world, a video game, a movie, a tv series, whatever it is, to escape from reality and forget about your duties and stress and problems for a while, but don't forget too much can be hurtful for you and those around you. Nostalgia, melancholy and sadness is part of us, but we need to know when to stop feeling sorry for ourselves/longing for the past and either accept our situations or work towards making them better.

Either way hope you get to feel better soon and manage to get away from stress and anxiety as much as you can

[TheWindWalker]

Part of the reason is the word that is viewed quite negatively but does, in fact, apply here: Nostalgia. When you're taking in those familiar sights and sounds it allows your brain to relax as it's somewhere familiar and it "grounds" you taking away a lot of the rushing feeling of being in the middle of a hectic day.

It's why some people will keep the same book with them for years to read on while sitting on a plane, or a train, or out of the rain, not because it's entertaining so much as it has a mellowing effect.

There's nothing wrong with that, of course. It's probably quite healthy to know where to go for that.

[Kryos]

To me it does. I just put all my screenshots into a long video and watching it brings back nice old and new memorys. I still raid, I still have friends online I played with since Classic and I still enjoy it. While I don't enjoy the content drought and don't enjoy to pay full price for a 2/3 expansion with only only 2 instead of 3 tiers (or 4 like WotlK), I still log in every day. I tried many other MMORPGs, and I even played and raided in SW:TOR for 3 months, but I always returned to my "home" WoW.

[Lochton]

Compared to all the other MMO's created in this time of age that I have been playing games, yes. I love a few other MMO's but World of Warcraft always ends up feeling more like home.

[TheVaryag]

From playing it after school, to the long summer breaks spent in front of my computer screen wow has always been there, I am no longer living in the country with my parents but rather work full time at a call center and have my own place and gf. Life feels very surreal lately since things are so drastically different than they were two years go. Including world of Warcraft.

Maybe it's the new models that removed a bit of the subtle familiarity to make it feel so foreign to me. But wow has felt less and less like home too someone such as myself who likely has about 3 to 4 years of total played time logged if not more.

It's strange that a game can make me feel this way, but it's the place I had friends my first gf and adventure, now none of those apply and I live in the real world again this time with different friends and an irl gf. Warcraft feels like home after a new family moves on and you go over to visit and see that they didint decorate your room quite how you think it should have been. Does it still feel like home to you after all these years?

- - - Updated - - -

Warcraft has felt calming and I have always felt confident and assured behind the keyboard. Now a days I miss having an outlet like it because my stress and anxiety levels are always high due to bills and health issues, and always feel as if my time is spread to thin on things that make me miserable, I just want my world back.

I understand how you feel man, WoW always felt calming and nice just to be In, gave me confidence, hell I learnt english because of It and that gave me a career In tourism. However, Blizzard would rather choose to deny me further pleasure from WoW by being dicks and unloyal to their 11 year long customers, they've banned my account since April 2015, reasons? I got hacked, do they give me back my account after It all got solved and figured out? Nope. Why? Who knows...

I see people getting free pets on wow for "Sticking around for 11 years, yey!" While I stuck around so much, spent many thousands of euros and more on the game, and would have spent more were I not banned. Yet people like me can't feel any confidence and happiness because Blizzard randomly decides my account Isn't worth giving back to me. Nothing changed on It, my chars are there, my gold Is there, all Is there... Blizzard just does not talk to me. After 250+ tickest, 100+ emails, 50+ live web chats 2+ phone calls and even an email to CEO Mike Morhaime himself, nothing... do they think I'm still a hacker? Cause I have the box from Vanila from 11 years ago with the Authentication key I used 11 years ago, that's as legit as you can get, still nothing.

So while I understand how you feel, because I feel the same way as do my friends, me and them can't play because ultimately Blizzard decides at random If we play or not these days, and during WoW's downfall with the lowest subs since Mid-vanila, or even lower at around 3.5 mil, and with the next expansion being a giant fan service I can't say I'd last long on wow... but dammit I'd want to last until the very end if I could, but I can't.

Thanks Blizz, thank you for rewarding loyalty, even KFC shows me more loyalty In 3 months.

[Deleted]

Not anymore, I used to get home from college and load up my PC everyday purely to play WoW. Now it just doing have the appeal it used to. Maybe im growing out of it? Maybe as im always in a shit mood i cant enjoy it as much? i dunno...

[Cien]

Somewhat skeptical, played since vanilla and im more than happy to wait till legion now before resubbing, i *could* use my level 100 boost for something meaningful to do by gearing a new char up, but it just feels boring to do so right now. even making gold doesn't seem fun anymore because of how easy it is, i find it becomes a chore and rather than logging in for fun it seems like 'work' almost

here's hoping legion spruces things up a bit, i've played for years i don't want to lose my precious <3 rerolling my main next expansion too so that should be even more fun woo

[Gib Lover]

I understand how you feel man, WoW always felt calming and nice just to be In, gave me confidence, hell I learnt english because of It and that gave me a career In tourism. However, Blizzard would rather choose to deny me further pleasure from WoW by being dicks and unloyal to their 11 year long customers, they've banned my account since April 2015, reasons? I got hacked, do they give me back my account after It all got solved and figured out? Nope. Why? Who knows...

I see people getting free pets on wow for "Sticking around for 11 years, yey!" While I stuck around so much, spent many thousands of euros and more on the game, and would have spent more were I not banned. Yet people like me can't feel any confidence and happiness because Blizzard randomly decides my account Isn't worth giving back to me. Nothing changed on It, my chars are there, my gold Is there, all Is there... Blizzard just does not talk to me. After 250+ tickest, 100+ emails, 50+ live web chats 2+ phone calls and even an email to CEO Mike Morhaime himself, nothing... do they think I'm still a hacker? Cause I have the box from Vanila from 11 years ago with the Authentication key I used 11 years ago, that's as legit as you can get, still nothing.

So while I understand how you feel, because I feel the same way as do my friends, me and them can't play because ultimately Blizzard decides at random If we play or not these days, and during WoW's downfall with the lowest subs since Mid-vanila, or even lower at around 3.5 mil, and with the next expansion being a giant fan service I can't say I'd last long on wow... but dammit I'd want to last until the very end if I could, but I can't.

Thanks Blizz, thank you for rewarding loyalty, even KFC shows me more loyalty In 3 months.

Isn't it about time for another thread about your hacker brother that is driving you to drinking/smoking/drugs because you don't have WoW to play, and because Blizzard banned you, you are going to out them to the public for being evil?

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Absolutely. Even when I play private servers or don't log on much, my paladin that was made during TBC will always be my connection to the game, and the guild I run will always be my brotherhood.

If for some reason these things were ever severed, I would probably be done permanently with the game.
These connections are more important to me then the actual game anymore.

[Cæli]

Yes. I've yet to find another online game with such well made world, that feels like it's a real place, with perfectly chosen colors, architecture and stuff.
This has to do with how successful is the game (money and review wise) I suppose.

[Thirstblood]

Sometimes not, sometime yeah.. Wow is like "Quick fix" for me!

[Deleted]

I always end up returning to WoW so yeah it feels like home when it comes to MMO's.

But i have other "homes" like Tekken, Street Fighter and League of Legends.

[PolarityER]

No, it doesn't. It feels empty to me. Maybe there's a spike of nostalgia that I enjoy by logging in once every few months. But that soon wears off after I run around for 10 minutes and realize I'm just alone (all my friends have moved on) and doing the same boring, repetitive quests that I've done a million times. It's a good thing I can log in to under level 20 characters occasionally and engage the nostalgia or I might have accidentally bought a sub just to walk around for 10 minutes and realize I've made a mistake. It used to feel like home. It was a place where there was always something to do and always friends to chat with/do stuff with. All of that is gone now.

[hulkgor]

Not since Cataclysm 're-vamped' the world.

Before that? absolutely.

[Orangetai420]

Not anymore. It felt like home when all my friends were playing and the world was immersive. It was a slow decline starting with WotLK (the beginning of the end imo)

[Deleted]

No, it doesn't. It feels empty to me. Maybe there's a spike of nostalgia that I enjoy by logging in once every few months. But that soon wears off after I run around for 10 minutes and realize I'm just alone (all my friends have moved on) and doing the same boring, repetitive quests that I've done a million times. It's a good thing I can log in to under level 20 characters occasionally and engage the nostalgia or I might have accidentally bought a sub just to walk around for 10 minutes and realize I've made a mistake. It used to feel like home. It was a place where there was always something to do and always friends to chat with/do stuff with. All of that is gone now.

Sadly, same story for me.

My epic adventures, that were still very much at full throttle at the 1st month in WoD, ended around the 3rd month in WoD. After my 10-man cores death, that we had transitioned to a 20-man functioning mythic guild but failed to maintain since the average standard was simply too low for our former good raiders... I moved on, along with some others but we all seperated.

And ever since, it has been kind of off and on until I finally finished it for the time being in this year January. I had been through 2 20-man mythics, 1st guild was better than the 2nd one, even though we still ended @ 11/13M or at least, I did.

But yeah, devs have kind of left the game in the dirt at the moment. There isn't much to praise or call "home" these days. But even with me right now, it sometimes still creeps to mind to try and return.
Hence, ultimately. Yeah, it still has a bit of that sentimental value to me but I am trying to stay objective every time I think about returning, because just as the one I quoted, it ends up running around 10 minutes and realising that it was a mistake.

[Daedius]

Garrison has been my home for the past one and a half years, and I hate it...

[Akka]

WoW hasn't felt really like home since WotLK put it in a state of brain death, and the last remnants have been shattered when Cata murdered the world.
The home is rather my guild, though with the neverending dumbing down, it now feels like WoW is a kind of social chat with some Facebook games included.
A 3D MSN or so.