Love WoW/Hate WoW

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

As of late and growing more so each and every expansion I have found myself enjoying WoW less and less. Mind you, I was playing this game 24/7 when it first hit several years ago and wasn't even raiding(nor attempting to raid for that matter) but found endless enjoyment in socializing/making a name for myself and for my guild/faction. I'd seriously prowl the realm forums just to see what people were saying about the night before in Hillsbrad--it was FUN being so connected to others in an online community. It added life to what would otherwise be a mundane experience.

Now, even with all of these new and neat features I kind of feel like it's all dead. I don't get that same tingling of pride nor do I enjoy my connections and friendships as I once did. The lack of necessity in befriending people, building that network, and spreading local communities to the four winds has essentially killed the experience for me that once drew me so much to WoW. Even the tedious work of building groups(which made guilds and friends all the more important) added a great deal to the game that Blizzard doesn't seem too interested in acknowledging these days.

It doesn't help that with all the technical upgrades, I'm still not seeing an upgrade to what I feel is the most important detail--your own avatar and its customization. I don't like the painfully generic templates you get and I definitely don't like the fact that even the one or two choices you DO like look terrible to much of the world(and NPCs) around it. So even trying to approach Warcraft as a more solo-orientated title with less emphasis on community, the inability to really make the character you want is dampening future prospects at this time. This continues well into the combat department. Don't get me started on the new trees. They're a step in the right direction but still severely lack imagination.

However, all that aside, I still have that nostalgia from years ago. Even though I quit MoP shortly after hitting 90 I have lingering feelings towards the franchise. Is anyone else getting this way? Am I bizarre for thinking like this or am I legit? All I ever wanted was a strong and enjoyable community in my MMO experience. If I can't get that, is it so much to ask for more personal and endearing identification with our beloved characters through not only improved visual options but more customized game-play so that the growing solo aspect has more weight to it?

I feel more at home on the latest CoD game than I do WoW. What's up with that?

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

You're just board of WoW/MMOs. That's pretty much it.

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

You're just board of WoW/MMOs. That's pretty much it.

...I like Guild Wars 2 pretty good and it does bring back some old feelings that "Vanilla" WoW once gave me. So it's not the genre necessarily. The main thing holding me back is all the time and money put into Warcraft only to have it continuing to go down an awkward and strange path. It makes my eagerness to invest time into another MMO very limited. Blizzard as of now seems vehemently opposed to any and all social aspects within the game and slow as Hades in giving us improved customization options.

In fact I'd say they're more obsessed with the "treadmill" than any other aspect of their game at this time which to me is severely disappointing. I understand you need to continue giving people their carrots but it's gotten out of hand, more balance needs to be achieved in the design going forward to appeal to a broader spectrum of players. I mean come on, they're destroying the cohesiveness of their community(at least in-game) at a breakneck pace just to ease more people into the carrot race. I'm not digging it, at all.

Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm not seeing something here. Hence why I'm posting. I want to see if others are seeing the same things and developing similar concerns--whether at my current level or not.

[Aspect of Death]

Well i used to have the same feeling when i comes to the community, i loved it, everyone knew everyone. We even knew the alliance (enemy), not to the point we talked to them, but we knew their names, what they had done/killed, and emotes>_< Everyone knew everyone on my server, it was awesome and fun, then came faction change and server transfer-lfd-lfr etc and noone knows anyone anymore, i know maybe 2% of my server now. I met most of my friends through this, the friends i make today are not because we meet out in the world, or because we talk etc, but because we join the same guild... I miss it..

But im not quitting wow because of it, i still find joy ingame so i will stick around!

[Deleted]

I feel like you, but without the nostalgia. I loved this game, it was fun while it lasted but now it's over for me to the point i don't care about it anymore ^^
I just randomly read news about it like every game out there

[Deleted]

Just shut up! again whit the "why am I not feeling it anymore!?"... just stop! all of you stop, whit this posts... every day whit this posts...
This post misses the "social" part, that post misses the "raiding" part, that post misses the "no life" part.
If you have so much feelings to share, do it whit something else (girlfriend, dog, cat, fish, plant), stop whit this "twilight" drama "love/hate wow"!
Play the game YOU like to play, quit it when you're done whit it. Easy!
What kind of sentence is this: "I feel more at home on the latest CoD game than I do WoW. What's up with that?"
Who cares? Like CoD play CoD, easy! Nobody cares! Don't be a drama queen.
When you'll get bored whit CoD, just don't go on the forums and start whit: "As of late and growing more I have found myself enjoying CoD less and less."
Posts like this are just crying for attention... "Look, I've played WoW just for the _______! Now I don't! What's up whit that?"
Just man up!

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

Just shut up! again whit the "why am I not feeling it anymore!?"... just stop! all of you stop, whit this posts... every day whit this posts...
This post misses the "social" part, that post misses the "raiding" part, that post misses the "no life" part.
If you have so much feelings to share, do it whit something else (girlfriend, dog, cat, fish, plant), stop whit this "twilight" drama "love/hate wow"!
Play the game YOU like to play, quit it when you're done whit it. Easy!
What kind of sentence is this: "I feel more at home on the latest CoD game than I do WoW. What's up with that?"
Who cares? Like CoD play CoD, easy! Nobody cares! Don't be a drama queen.
When you'll get bored whit CoD, just don't go on the forums and start whit: "As of late and growing more I have found myself enjoying CoD less and less."
Posts like this are just crying for attention... "Look, I've played WoW just for the _______! Now I don't! What's up whit that?"
Just man up!

1) You're incredibly rude.

2) You miss the point of these "love/hate" posts as you call them. It's generally to get a discussion started to explore the direction of a beloved game(if genuine) naturally. There is no harm in that. In fact, most posts to some degree or another are based upon some kind of emotional stimulus whether minor or severe. In the end, again, it's just further discussion.

3) If you REALLY hate these sort of threads, I recommend not posting or even reading them. Why upset yourself? Seems a tad bit ironic considering you're basically aiming to create drama by doing this. Right? It's like me going into political threads I know will agitate my more problematic side but doing so anyway and then exploding into a fit as if I didn't already estimate the ultimate conclusion that would come from such a choice.

[Deleted]

Just shut up! again whit the "why am I not feeling it anymore!?"... just stop! all of you stop, whit this posts... every day whit this posts...
This post misses the "social" part, that post misses the "raiding" part, that post misses the "no life" part.
If you have so much feelings to share, do it whit something else (girlfriend, dog, cat, fish, plant), stop whit this "twilight" drama "love/hate wow"!
Play the game YOU like to play, quit it when you're done whit it. Easy!
What kind of sentence is this: "I feel more at home on the latest CoD game than I do WoW. What's up with that?"
Who cares? Like CoD play CoD, easy! Nobody cares! Don't be a drama queen.
When you'll get bored whit CoD, just don't go on the forums and start whit: "As of late and growing more I have found myself enjoying CoD less and less."
Posts like this are just crying for attention... "Look, I've played WoW just for the _______! Now I don't! What's up whit that?"
Just man up!

You definitely need to grow up for normal discussion.

[Smittles]

You're probably just bored.
I feel the same way now. It isn't like Mists is bad or anything, but I've been playing this game non-stop since like 2007. I've explored the whole world, leveled up countless alts, did all of the old raids a dozen times each, I've quested mostly everywhere, I've got two 90's, both geared for LFR and...I have no motivation to do anything. The game is fun, the heroics are fun, the raid finder is (kinda) fun, but I'm not having fun. And I realized that the magic from this game is gone. I've done pretty much everything.

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

You're probably just bored.
I feel the same way now. It isn't like Mists is bad or anything, but I've been playing this game non-stop since like 2007. I've explored the whole world, leveled up countless alts, did all of the old raids a dozen times each, I've quested mostly everywhere, I've got two 90's, both geared for LFR and...I have no motivation to do anything. The game is fun, the heroics are fun, the raid finder is (kinda) fun, but I'm not having fun. And I realized that the magic from this game is gone. I've done pretty much everything.

I think the magic is gone because the social aspect is basically gone. Games with a weak social aspect, a weak community, they tend to die off quicker regardless of quality of content. I mean think about it. "Vanilla" had slim pickings compared to what we have now, most of what guys like me did we did with a little imagination(wasn't even scripted content) because we wanted to do things as a group with our acquired friends/guilds. It felt more like a living world, naturally, due to the players more than Blizzard has ever managed with content update.

Perhaps this is something they should consider going forward? Giving tools to the players to really evolve their own experience and the world around them is ideal for creating longevity. Instead they continue to go further and further to a more "hop on and hop off!" mentality, making WoW a quick fix and completely forgetting the fact that this is an MMO and not a really advanced form of Farmville(in a loose sense naturally).

[Xl House lX]

As of late and growing more so each and every expansion I have found myself enjoying WoW less and less. Mind you, I was playing this game 24/7 when it first hit several years ago and wasn't even raiding(nor attempting to raid for that matter) but found endless enjoyment in socializing/making a name for myself and for my guild/faction. I'd seriously prowl the realm forums just to see what people were saying about the night before in Hillsbrad--it was FUN being so connected to others in an online community. It added life to what would otherwise be a mundane experience.

Now, even with all of these new and neat features I kind of feel like it's all dead. I don't get that same tingling of pride nor do I enjoy my connections and friendships as I once did. The lack of necessity in befriending people, building that network, and spreading local communities to the four winds has essentially killed the experience for me that once drew me so much to WoW. Even the tedious work of building groups(which made guilds and friends all the more important) added a great deal to the game that Blizzard doesn't seem too interested in acknowledging these days.

It doesn't help that with all the technical upgrades, I'm still not seeing an upgrade to what I feel is the most important detail--your own avatar and its customization. I don't like the painfully generic templates you get and I definitely don't like the fact that even the one or two choices you DO like look terrible to much of the world(and NPCs) around it. So even trying to approach Warcraft as a more solo-orientated title with less emphasis on community, the inability to really make the character you want is dampening future prospects at this time. This continues well into the combat department. Don't get me started on the new trees. They're a step in the right direction but still severely lack imagination.

However, all that aside, I still have that nostalgia from years ago. Even though I quit MoP shortly after hitting 90 I have lingering feelings towards the franchise. Is anyone else getting this way? Am I bizarre for thinking like this or am I legit? All I ever wanted was a strong and enjoyable community in my MMO experience. If I can't get that, is it so much to ask for more personal and endearing identification with our beloved characters through not only improved visual options but more customized game-play so that the growing solo aspect has more weight to it?

I feel more at home on the latest CoD game than I do WoW. What's up with that?

I quit WoW shortly after hitting 90 in MoP as well. Nostalgia ruined the game for me, the game hasn't necessarily been getting worse and worse with each expansion, but my own entertainment with it got worse. I'll always remember playing in the beginning of BC with my friends... those were the best times.

Anyways, nostalgia seems to have ruined the game for you. You were addicted to the game just like many of us are/were, and its definitely acceptable to still have lingering thoughts or feelings about the game, after all, it was a major party of your life for a long time. Also, the game is just old, and you always know what to expect in the next patch, or expansion, nothing is new or exciting any more. Things like LFG, LFR, and any other queuing system in the game did ruin that old sense of community, the only real way to get involved in a community now is to do something like youtube videos, which, with all the software and hardware needed to do it is quite the expensive task.

You feel more at home with the latest CoD because its new and exciting. While every new CoD is... well... a CoD, it is a different game. In WoW, expansions just kinda pile on to previous expansions, except for cataclysm since it actually changed old world stuff.

My advice to you is that WoW will never, ever be as much fun as when you were playing many years ago. Never. If you can stop playing WoW for the next... 10 years, and if WoW is still in existence after those 10 years, you can try playing again and see how much its changed, but even then nostalgia will once again ruin the game. Find something new man, whether its video games or not.

[Deleted]

It's all about how much you play and maybe expansion theme matters too, not all like chinese culture and panderaneans. I think it's a combination of what is current expansion's theme and how much u play. I myself kind of still like wow, but I just dont like mists of pandaria continent, because it just feels like it exists just because to offer dailys and a "place" for raid zones. It's my opinion, but whole pandaria continent just doesnt feel like a "place" like outland does.

[salamala]

Nothing brings back that love to play feel like a long break away from WoW.

[akaTheDude]

Try the free trial of RIFT. I did and I am loving it! This is coming from almost 6 years of WoW

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

Nothing brings back that love to play feel like a long break away from WoW.

Except the breaks keep coming more abruptly and lasting longer.

I take breaks from Minecraft. However, I always come back to it. It's a game who's appeal will never really fade without a major usurper. Why? Because no matter how much I might play it, I can always go back and do something different when I'm ready to go at it again. It's only limited by my imagination and desire essentially.

WoW is missing key elements and creative drive that continues to make every content release feel more and more shallow. Blizzard's obsession with the proverbial "carrot on a stick" has blinded them to expanding their universe in more fundamental ways. Instead of giving life to the world and offering players more ways to express and interact with it, they just build up their ever-growing treadmill to greater heights. Often at the expense of what community they have left via the introduction of more streamlining services such as LFR and LFG.

Again, if all I want is a pure progression system I can play just about any modern shooter. Ironically, I have more customization on them than I do on WoW currently in just about any fashion. I might sound bitter but that's because I kind of am. Many-a-year later and Blizzard has essentially turned their greatest prize into another cheap sell--no offense to the people that still like this game in its entirety.

---------- Post added 2012-11-25 at 12:30 PM ----------

Try the free trial of RIFT. I did and I am loving it! This is coming from almost 6 years of WoW

Been thinking on it. I REALLY was intrigued by their latest expansion. Player housing placed in instances where you can essentially create a neighborhood for you and your friends? That's more of what keeps me enthralled in a game--that ability to make the world a bit more mine and have more reason to interact with the connections I've made.

[Deleted]

World of Warcraft have kept me playing for around six to seven years. I have stopped playing from time to time due to boredom and such.

There is no way I can say I hate World of Warcraft as a game because I will only contradict myself doing so, since I played the game for a very, very long time. At the moment, I play Guild Wars 2, but due the sudden turn of ArenaNet going from no more added gear after max level, to new added gear with more stats I don't feel like playing Guild Wars 2 as much as I did before.

I still like Guild Wars 2 as a game, but I do not agree with the sudden turn ArenaNet did. It's the same with Blizzard, I like World of Warcraft, but I don't like some of the choices Blizzard choose to do.

The lovely part with Guild Wars 2 is that I can stop playing it for a very long time, and then return, and I don't need to worry about a subscription fee. I can't really do that with World of Warcraft.

[MoanaLisa]

The lovely part with Guild Wars 2 is that I can stop playing it for a very long time, and then return, and I don't need to worry about a subscription fee. I can't really do that with World of Warcraft.

Getting current in WoW after a long absence is a relatively straight-forward affair and getting to be even more so since Blizzard is actively working on making professions easier to catch up. Leveling is not really a problem. Reputations are optional and there are multiple paths for getting gear as you go along. You can even see the raids now with LFR. Blizzard is simply acknowledging the reality that going forward from here a lot of people won't be subscribed 12 months a year and will need ways to get caught up relatively easily.

I would think you could more or less skip an entire expansion and still be caught up inside of a month or two when returning. That's certainly the case with someone returning who dropped out at the end of Wrath. You could very easily be past 85 and into MOP leveling after a week or so; faster if you really wanted to rush.

[Deleted]

Getting current in WoW after a long absence is a relatively straight-forward affair and getting to be even more so since Blizzard is actively working on making professions easier to catch up. Leveling is not really a problem. Reputations are optional and there are multiple paths for getting gear as you go along. You can even see the raids now with LFR. Blizzard is simply acknowledging the reality that going forward from here a lot of people won't be subscribed 12 months a year and will need ways to get caught up relatively easily.

I would think you could more or less skip an entire expansion and still be caught up inside of a month or two when returning. That's certainly the case with someone returning who dropped out at the end of Wrath. You could very easily be past 85 and into MOP leveling after a week or so; faster if you really wanted to rush.

No doubt it's easier and more friendly to catch up if you so desire. However, it's still a thing I really dislike. Catching up all the time when you haven't been playing for a while, either it be easy, or hard, it's not something for me.

The main thing I meant with a subscription fee is that you get the feeling of- ''I paid to play for this month, even though I'm rather bored of the game at this point, but I just can't log off because that would be a waste of the money I just spent.'' And that's why I find games, and MMO's like Guild Wars 2 to be really good for players like me, that can jump off whenever they feel like, or if they must.

[MoanaLisa]

The main thing I meant with a subscription fee is that you get the feeling of- ''I paid to play for this month, even though I'm rather bored of the game at this point, but I just can't log off because that would be a waste of the money I just spent.'' And that's why I find games, and MMO's like Guild Wars 2 to be really good for players like me, that can jump off whenever they feel like, or if they must.

Once you pay that's quite true that there's that pressure. Like you, I like GW2/D3 for exactly those reasons. There's a community to engage with if I want to but if I don't play for six months, it's not a problem. That said though, I visit Rifts about 3 times a year for a couple of months at a stretch and it's not a terrible experience. It depends a lot on what kind of game you like to play.

As for WoW, I'm not bored and enjoying MoP as much as anything I've experienced in some time so I'm good. If we get to the end of the expansion like we did with Cataclysm and there's little to do I'll take a few months off this time. I didn't do that with Cataclysm (Annual Pass) but this time around I very well may.

[Deleted]

As for WoW, I'm not bored and enjoying MoP as much as anything I've experienced in some time so I'm good. If we get to the end of the expansion like we did with Cataclysm and there's little to do I'll take a few months off this time. I didn't do that with Cataclysm (Annual Pass) but this time around I very well may.

I bought Mists of Pandaria and made my way to level 90. It was quite fun and interesting, and the guild kept me company in the chat so I had fun. I play on a roleplaying server mind you, and as said before, I'm not that interested in getting new gear with better stats and such, so the expansion didn't keep me busy for that long, and roleplaying can't keep me playing forever either. However, the guild I'm in is lovely, and I'm a long term member so they pretty much understands me that I leave from time to time, so they keep me without kicking me.

But I like doing videos and such, call it Machinima or whatever, so that's one thing I want to do again soon when they update the camera-tool. I don't know if this camera-tool is 'legal' to use, I would guess not since it releases me from my character and I can fly around with the camera anywhere, everywhere at whatever speed I want, making cool angles and whatnot. Though my character is stil lstanding at the same place, doing nothing.

But, I gladly sacrifice that for art.