Is WoW Just Too Time Consuming Anymore?

[Speedlance]

Wow is to time consuming, lets spend several hours/days on the forums discussing it.

[Doffen]

We have it easy today compared to back in the day. There isn't much you have to do to keep up. For me the game got worse in WotLK, Cata, MoP and WoD because it lost all the mmorpg parts that were so great back then in TBC. Legion brought some of it back with proper character progression and I loved it. So it is/was definitely more to do in Legion and now BfA(though it's not even near to Legion) but compared to the roots, vanilla and TBC? Not even close.

WoW have always been time consuming though, there is a lot of stuff you can do if you want.

Your problem is that you quit those 2 patches.

Blizzard stop caring about expansion hoppers that return at patch X.3 and cry dear murder that they actually have to play the game, they only care to gear them up asap to be half-relevant, what they farm afterwards, is up to each player and how dedicated they are to their character.

You quit, came back, and you are faced with farming things that you should have farmed last year, that would have come naturally even if you didnt after a few months cause its how the game is designed if you do 5 basic things, example, emissaries.

Its your choice to unsub and skip content, its not Blizzards problem you dont want to do the things you should have done in 8.1, the first month, in 8.2 the first month, and now in 8.3.

Obviously when you stack them up, you end up with 3-6h/day grinding gameplay, not even stuff you want to do, required for a month to catch up with reputations/flying and whatever else you might be interested in getting, which is a lot.

When in reality its less than 1h when its active content and the "freshness" dies out after the first few days so the spawn points arent camped 24/7 for every daily/rare/quest.

And this.

[D4NNYB0Y]

There's a lot of currencies and 'things' to pay attention to, most of which are gated and require fairly persistent play. Once again, it boils down to what people think is worse... having stuff to do that requires one to log on, or getting to a point where you're just afk'ing in the capital until raid reset. People screamed about how awful that was too, so maybe a consensus needs to be put forth to Blizzard.

Really appreciate the responses to this thread. Glad to see it's not just me but at the same time happy to see everyone's perspectives and world views. So I know I will get a lot of flak for this, but I'm in the camp of actually enjoying having less and less to do as the expansion nears its end. I like completing content and not having to do it ever again. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and opens up more time to either knock out other current content (so I feel less overwhelmed with so much to do), content from older expansions, or honestly just log on for a little bit each week and dedicate my time to other games or real life pursuits. This is part of why I enjoyed Garrisons. I did them until they were done, and I felt frequently rewarded throughout the journey.
I suppose I can get to that point in this expansion too, but I guess it just feels too overwhelming to want to bother? The gameplay to me also doesn't feel as rewarding or fun.

I think I might be getting to the point to just make the decision that everything before the current expansion for all intents and purposes doesn't exist. That may help me feel less overwhelmed with choice. I might just run Ny'alotha with my wife in LFR or Normal to see the content and take a break until Shadowlands and then try to stay current through that expansion to avoid this problem in the future. Kind of sucks though, because I usually take a break at some point in an expansion and come back later, and the catch up mechanics have always been enough to get me to where I want to be in what I thought to be a reasonable amount of time.

[Granyala]

I played BFA a lot when it came out, but I took a break and skipped over most of 8.1 and all of 8.2.

It feels like there is so much to do, and it is so time consuming, that I would rather just walk away and play something else.

Honestly?
I believe this is as it should be.

Blizzard already nerfs the crap out of the content when they release the next patch, making it easier for people like you (and me) that are hopping back in after ling breaks, thus devaluing the work of others very quickly. For me, these nerfs are enough to lose the motivation to bother with any kind of grind in the first place. Esp since I no longer raid, thus no longer need the item level.

MMOs are meant to be played continuously and yes, they are meant to demand a lot of RL time dedicated to grinding, if you want to stay at the top of things.
If you do not have the time, it is not the right game for you.

I don't have the time either, which is why I take a peek at the story developments now and then and call it a day after that, leaving the whole treadmill to people that are more motivated than me.

[crusadernero]

Then do that. I'm not saying this like the typical "if you're not happy just gtfo" kind of comment. I'm saying this in the logical sense that WoW is nothing more than just a game. People always flip table when I say this because they love the game and it means a lot to them but in reality they will reach a point in life where they will realize the fact that it's just a video game. You're not supposed to waste your life because of it, it's not supposed to be 100% of your free time, and just like any other game you're not supposed to play it when it's not fun to you anymore.

Maybe you simply reached a point where your life is just not the target audience anymore and it could be your time to walk away, cherish the memories and move on to another game to have new adventures without feeling like it's conflicting with your life/responsibilities.

Speaking the truth here. The second a game becomes to much of a chore/hassle and you start question why you play the game, its time to take a break or quit alltogether.

Early december I realised that I had my time with wow. The formula of wow will never change, it will always be more or less the same stuff in each xpac. The only difference is new zones/story. I can follow up on story/cinematics on this site.

So I called it quits and will never return. It was fun while it lasted but for to long I played wow out of sheer habit, probably cause I played wow since launch.

All in all it is what you said - its just a game, like any other. We are no supposed to spend our life playing it(if we dont have fun with it atleast).

Since then I have returned to playing on my Xbox. It suits me better. Lots of cool games and theres never really any game I "Must" do something in order to stay up to date.

[D4NNYB0Y]

Hard question to answer. Most of the stuff the game has is one and done stuff you only have to do for a short amount of time.
If it takes a month of 20 minutes a day of activity to get exalted with a rep, would you call that time consuming?

It depends a lot on the position the player takes.
If you are the kind of person who dreads logging on every day, then obviously its going to feel time consuming.

But in reality, the game is just a bunch of short but wide grinds.
20 minutes a day for a month or so gets you want you want, and then its yours for the rest of the game.

I've always gotten reps to Exalted in the past, but right now I need to get Nazjatar, Mechagon, Uldum Accord, and Rajani to Exalted. (I mean I don't *have* to, but I would like to.) So that's an hour and a half a day if I wanted to work towards them simultaneously. They're also spread out all over the place so there is a lot of travel involved. Fortunately, I was already Exalted with all of the starter BFA reps; otherwise, I would be spending my entire play session doing WQs and Dailies.

On a side note why did they decide to reintroduce Dailies? My quest log is full now half the time...

Also, don't you start at Neutral with Mechagon and Nazjatar, and there isn't an intro quest chain to hit friendly with them so it takes even longer? Plus you need to level your bodyguard for Lucid Dreams which is a great essence for a lot of specs. I've found questing in Nazjatar to be particularly insufferable. Kind of reminds me of Argus. Would be a lot better if I had flying, but of course I need to hit Revered with the rep in Nazjatar before I can unlock it.

[Phurox]

Even if the time-gating were removed it would still take a tremendous amount to time to farm everything.

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I disagree. I was there back in the day, and I don't think it was anywhere near as time consuming.

Then you didn't care about being max level, having gear etc because that was really time consuming.

Try the classic server

[D4NNYB0Y]

Not really. All I feel tempted to do is login each is that one daily that rewards 1.5k visions. Besides that it's the weekly/biweekly assaults and two raids. That's all I'm logging in for.

A big help for me was realizing I'm not in a top 100 guild or even a mythic guild, so I can stop fretting about doing every WQ and Island expedition I can for AP. My neck having a bit less secondary stats isn't going to make or break my runs. And you honestly don't even have to worry about the new dailies if you're just in it for the cloak upgrades. Those are easily enough done with visions from assaults alone.

What about the huge Essence grind? That's not optional if I want to tank Mythic+ at even just +5s, or if I want to PUG Normal Ny'alotha.

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Then you didn't care about being max level, having gear etc because that was really time consuming.

Try the classic server

I played Vanilla. I know how long it took to level. It took me about 2 months (not /played) to level my first Orc Warrior with 0 knowledge of the game as a 14-year-old. I did not worry about having the best gear in Vanilla. I played with a small social guild at the time so 40 man raids weren't an option. Less than 1% of the playerbase raided back then, because cobbling together 40 people was such an undertaking. Once I hit max level I ran dungeons to get blue gear, leveled professions, farmed reps, explored the world, collected the few pets that existed, played battlegrounds and dabbled a bit with the honor system (nothing crazy), and then rolled alts. Then TBC came out. There was a much better balance of content in Vanilla than there is now in BFA IMO.

[Very Tired]

What about the huge Essence grind? That's not optional if I want to tank Mythic+ at even just +5s, or if I want to PUG Normal Ny'alotha.

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I played Vanilla. I know how long it took to level. It took me about 2 months (not /played) to level my first Orc Warrior with 0 knowledge of the game as a 14-year-old. I did not worry about having the best gear in Vanilla. I played with a small social guild at the time so 40 man raids weren't an option. Less than 1% of the playerbase raided back then, because cobbling together 40 people was such an undertaking. Once I hit max level I ran dungeons to get blue gear, leveled professions, farmed reps, explored the world, collected the few pets that existed, played battlegrounds and dabbled a bit with the honor system (nothing crazy), and then rolled alts. Then TBC came out. There was a much better balance of content in Vanilla than there is now in BFA IMO.

The one time grinds from stuff I was pretty much going to do anyway? It wasn't that bad.

I don't do alts either. BFA isn't very alt friendly, but mostly because to many people focus on gearing their alts but don't activity use them for anything. I just focus on being good at a single main and that's all I need.

[Kumorii]

I do m+ sometimes and raid twice a week... I don't find it time too much time consuming because I consume with as much time as I'd like.

and no, I don't feel obligated to do everything everyday, got neck 75 without barely any effort...so no idea why people claim you have to play 24/7 every day...*shrug*

To me it just sounds like people have 0 restraint and try to shift blame to someone else instead of themselves.

[D4NNYB0Y]

Then you'd be wrong. The PvP grind of vanilla alone was more demanding than literally anything (aside from perhaps top-tier/world-first mythic raiding) in the current game.

In BFA you can go from 'cloakless' to 'doing visions' in about 2 hours. A mythic+ dungeon takes 15-30min and guarantees at least one piece of high-end gear. Even catching up the necklace is hilariously easy, toons I haven't touched in months have 67-70 rank necks now thanks to 8.3, which literally throws AP at your face.

I've been comparing PvE to PvE not PvP to PvP. The Honor System was also unique to Vanilla and was replaced in TBC with Honor 2.0 which also happened to introduce Arenas which made PvP more accessible than ever before. You're also ignoring the Essence grind as a prereq to Mythic+. I suppose as a tank I could just jump in, but I don't want to leech off of other players. Also 50-70 is nothing. 70-75 is where the grind starts.

[Phurox]

What about the huge Essence grind? That's not optional if I want to tank Mythic+ at even just +5s, or if I want to PUG Normal Ny'alotha.

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I played Vanilla. I know how long it took to level. It took me about 2 months (not /played) to level my first Orc Warrior with 0 knowledge of the game as a 14-year-old. I did not worry about having the best gear in Vanilla. I played with a small social guild at the time so 40 man raids weren't an option. Less than 1% of the playerbase raided back then, because cobbling together 40 people was such an undertaking. Once I hit max level I ran dungeons to get blue gear, leveled professions, farmed reps, explored the world, collected the few pets that existed, played battlegrounds and dabbled a bit with the honor system (nothing crazy), and then rolled alts. Then TBC came out. There was a much better balance of content in Vanilla than there is now in BFA IMO.

So you're saying, that you could easily manage to have 10 alts with decent gear in the life span of vanilla compared to BFA?

Either you don't remember the time consuming in classic, or you just had no other things to do which sounds plausible when you were 14.

[makls]

If anything i find it less time consuming then ever,back in wotlk i used to be online every day for 10h,spent 16h in nax 25 just before ulduar came out,but even now when i look back at it such a different expirience,from geting a t7 from sartharion to be showered with epics today.

[reauxmont]

I did 12+ hour days in back in 2005-2007 - where as in BFA I play 2 or 3 hours a day at most (some days not at all) and still progress my characters further, relative to the content, than I did back in my tryhard days. And I have far more active characters now than I had back then.

Have you tried Classic? I also remember playing a lot during Vanilla days, but maybe that was just because everyone was bad. Nowadays, after initially being time-consuming as hell (but not gated!), I only raid-log in Classic because there's nothing else to do. Relevant PvP rewards are unobtainable for people who have a job, so that's not really an option. Raiding takes maybe 3 hours a week - and that's it! I could potentially grind rep somewhere, like timbermaw, but the rewards aren't that good.

Cue BFA, where I could probably spend an hour or two per day just doing Nazjatar, Mechagon and assault dailies, plus visions. The problem with BFA is that you have to do stuff every day to stay relevant. I'd rather grind rep on my own terms, like I could with Timbermaw - daily quests just result in a chore you have to do every day to stay relevant. Guildie asks "hey, want to do a mythic plus?" Sure, let me just complete all dailies real fast, oh wait, it's midnight and I have to go to sleep again.

[Kumorii]

Have you tried Classic? I also remember playing a lot during Vanilla days, but maybe that was just because everyone was bad. Nowadays, after initially being time-consuming as hell (but not gated!), I only raid-log in Classic because there's nothing else to do. Relevant PvP rewards are unobtainable for people who have a job, so that's not really an option. Raiding takes maybe 3 hours a week - and that's it! I could potentially grind rep somewhere, like timbermaw, but the rewards aren't that good.

Is that even a positive argument?

Cue BFA, where I could probably spend an hour or two per day just doing Nazjatar, Mechagon and assault dailies, plus visions. The problem with BFA is that you have to do stuff every day to stay relevant. I'd rather grind rep on my own terms, like I could with Timbermaw - daily quests just result in a chore you have to do every day to stay relevant. Guildie asks "hey, want to do a mythic plus?" Sure, let me just complete all dailies real fast, oh wait, it's midnight and I have to go to sleep again.

Relevant to whom? I don't do stuff every day and I don't see much issues with doing what I want to do. I've raided mythic every tier in BFA, no problem.
You don't really need to do dailies except a day or 2 or maybe just the minor vision to get your weekly cap on cloak due to the big invasion every week.

So not sure what you need to do daily. I don't even do islands anymore since I don't need to level my neck because I got 75 without any effort whatsoever.

[D4NNYB0Y]

Your problem is that you quit those 2 patches.

Blizzard stop caring about expansion hoppers that return at patch X.3 and cry dear murder that they actually have to play the game, they only care to gear them up asap to be half-relevant, what they farm afterwards, is up to each player and how dedicated they are to their character.

You quit, came back, and you are faced with farming things that you should have farmed last year, that would have come naturally even if you didnt after a few months cause its how the game is designed if you do 5 basic things, example, emissaries.

Its your choice to unsub and skip content, its not Blizzards problem you dont want to do the things you should have done in 8.1, the first month, in 8.2 the first month, and now in 8.3.

Obviously when you stack them up, you end up with 3-6h/day grinding gameplay, not even stuff you want to do, required for a month to catch up with reputations/flying and whatever else you might be interested in getting, which is a lot.

When in reality its less than 1h when its active content and the "freshness" dies out after the first few days so the spawn points arent camped 24/7 for every daily/rare/quest.

You make this game sound like a job. I mean it absolutely is Blizzard's problem if they want me to keep giving them my money same as any of their other customers. Not that I am demanding they change anything to suit me; I'll just walk away as I have in the past. I am just one voice among many, but this is their game design. /shrug

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So you're saying, that you could easily manage to have 10 alts with decent gear in the life span of vanilla compared to BFA?

Either you don't remember the time consuming in classic, or you just had no other things to do which sounds plausible when you were 14.

Where did I say I had 10 geared alts? Or are you arguing that you can have 10 geared alts in BFA in the same amount of time? I'm confused.

[reauxmont]

Is that even a positive argument?

In a thread about WoW being too time consuming, I guess it's a positive argument, right?

Relevant to whom? I don't do stuff every day and I don't see much issues with doing what I want to do. I've raided mythic every tier in BFA, no problem.
You don't really need to do dailies except a day or 2 or maybe just the minor vision to get your weekly cap on cloak due to the big invasion every week.

So not sure what you need to do daily. I don't even do islands anymore since I don't need to level my neck because I got 75 without any effort whatsoever.

Relevant to basically everyone. I agree that doing the minor vision daily is enough, but Naz and Mechagon are relevant because of flying, which is relevant not only because you're able to move much faster in the world, but also because gathering professions are mostly useless without it. You also have to be exalted with Rustbolt to play mechagnomes.

The point is, doing dailies has a reward that's somewhat good. Flying and a race unlock. Some people might not care, but most will, especially with flying.

[D4NNYB0Y]

Wow is to time consuming, lets spend several hours/days on the forums discussing it.

First post in years sorry.

[Kumorii]

In a thread about WoW being too time consuming, I guess it's a positive argument, right?



Relevant to basically everyone. I agree that doing the minor vision daily is enough, but Naz and Mechagon are relevant because of flying, which is relevant not only because you're able to move much faster in the world, but also because gathering professions are mostly useless without it. You also have to be exalted with Rustbolt to play mechagnomes.

The point is, doing dailies has a reward that's somewhat good. Flying and a race unlock. Some people might not care, but most will, especially with flying.

To everyone? I think most won't care if you have flying or not. Most won't care if you do dailies since they wouldn't know if you do or don't...What you've said is what you feel that you want, which is personal. Hardly something required to stay relevant. People absolutely don't care if you've unlocked mechagnomes or not... so there is nothing to stay relevant with allied races either.

[D4NNYB0Y]

Honestly?
I believe this is as it should be.

Blizzard already nerfs the crap out of the content when they release the next patch, making it easier for people like you (and me) that are hopping back in after ling breaks, thus devaluing the work of others very quickly. For me, these nerfs are enough to lose the motivation to bother with any kind of grind in the first place. Esp since I no longer raid, thus no longer need the item level.

MMOs are meant to be played continuously and yes, they are meant to demand a lot of RL time dedicated to grinding, if you want to stay at the top of things.
If you do not have the time, it is not the right game for you.

I don't have the time either, which is why I take a peek at the story developments now and then and call it a day after that, leaving the whole treadmill to people that are more motivated than me.

If previous players enjoyed the time they spent playing the game (the journey) was it work to be devalued? Shouldn't the game be designed to be relaxing and fun rather than work?

Not to ignore the rest of your post, but I always find it strange when the word work is used to describe a game.