Should I Return to World of Warcraft? Or .. any game?

[IronArms]

Lately I have been considering coming back to World of Warcraft because of the lack of other games and entertainment I have. I watch two new anime episodes a week, I've played up to Inferno mode in Diablo 3 and I have yet to beat SC2 campaign but I have played plenty of it's multiplayer but the player base there seems to be stagnant with cannon rushing and smurfed players. I occasionally like playing LoL and some steam games but after I beat them there is nothing. I recently got rid of my Xbox360 with the new ONE coming, I want nothing to do with Microsoft. I do play some Minecraft but there is no one to play with. I own a 3DS but I have beaten all the games on it and currently waiting for new titles that won't be out for some time.

Now the whole purpose of this thread is to get some answers. Am I starting to float away from gaming as a whole because of my lack of social interaction with players online? Or am I just getting sick of gaming overall?

I ask these questions because I used to really REALLY enjoy playing any game with community no matter what it was, even when it was with strangers. Then I started to only play when my friends were on or if I was having fun with something in particular that some friends didn't care for. But over the passed few years my friendship pool has been running dry. The guild I was in since BC had been the people I had known the most and played with them not only in WoW but on XboxLive, Steam, Minecraft. Eventually that guild went under "new management" and bridges were burned due to poor management and new players joining that were back stabbing veterans. I moved to a new guild that did 25m Heroics, and this is around the time Dragon-Soul came out. Most of the people in the guild were elitist jerks and very snobby, stubborn, cocky, prideful jerks. I couldn't talk to anyone except for a real life friend and one of the only friendly players in the guild. I am no longer in this guild, I found a new guild on the Alliance side of my old server which was filled with friendly players but they were all older than I and were extremely casual. I left them due to every raid night being the same boss for three hours with the same excuses. Don't get me wrong they were very VERY nice people with a lot of patience but I felt like I was wasting my time.

I have about four real life friends and the rest are acquaintances that don't contact me online even though I give them my info. One friend doesn't like Blizzard games let alone Minecraft, he only has Steam which would be great but every game I have that also has, he doesn't keep installed because "they don't interest him" and he only ever had them installed for a few months even though he was always hyped about them(TF2 as an example)

One is married with two kids but he would always strive to continue gaming but he was only ever decent with console shooters. He tried WoW and a few other games but he just flat out sucks with PC games, not to mention he always asks to do stuff with me on those games at the worst times including the consoles. Now he doesn't game at all but keeps talking about getting a PS4 but I see it being extremely short lived.

One recently had his girlfriend move here to Indiana from California and ever since he hasn't been the same, he's the one that was in the new ELITIST guild that I knew but since then I left that guild due to rude players. Regardless that I was really closed to this friend ever since High School. He doesn't care to talk to me much anymore because all he does...is raid...raid...raid. The times he does talk to me it doesn't seem to be about anything but what he cares about. He no longer players anything on Xbox, can't raid with him, he doesn't like Starcraft and never takes time to do what others want. We are currently on a one word a month basis it seems.

Last friend I have also known since High School, we talk every day and he seems to be the only one who actually ever cares to get in contact with me anymore. He enjoys World of Warcraft but not like I do. He doesn't PvP and anymore he is reluctant to even log on to WoW. Now he doesn't even want to raid after our experience in our last guild. He only cares to play Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3, he does play Minecraft but his internet is so bad he cannot stay connected to it for long. He has an Xbox but doesn't care for any shooter or multiplayer game on it. We played LoL together about two months but again his lag problems killed the game for him.

Now I am stuck, I feel like I am the only one that wishes I could do anything with friends. I don't care to find new ones online because it doesn't seem to be the way it used to be when I found new friends online. Most people are either jerks that only care about what they want in the game or they are just so casual that they don't realize friendly players when they see them. I can't find anyone in any community willing to do anything with me, not Arena, not raid, not play games like TF2 or LoL. When my only friend that talks to me anymore isn't online I don't do anything...nothing is fun when I'm alone...Am I slowly becoming a loner or has the gaming community really gotten this cold?

[BenBos]

D3 is a creeper. I think the game killed lots of guild play, because you can crawl dungeons whenever you want without the need for guild play or attunements. Hop in for 15 minutes and out.

The same goes for a lot of other games these days. The commitment in on line games to play with structured guild play is becoming less and less.

10 minutes on line fast playing sessions is the buzz word these days.

[Ronduwil]

Now I am stuck, I feel like I am the only one that wishes I could do anything with friends. I don't care to find new ones online because it doesn't seem to be the way it used to be when I found new friends online. Most people are either jerks that only care about what they want in the game or they are just so casual that they don't realize friendly players when they see them. I can't find anyone in any community willing to do anything with me, not Arena, not raid, not play games like TF2 or LoL. When my only friend that talks to me anymore isn't online I don't do anything...nothing is fun when I'm alone...Am I slowly becoming a loner or has the gaming community really gotten this cold?

Let me guess: you're about 25 or so? This is just a natural part of getting older. Find yourself a nice lady and settle down. If you're smart you'll lay off the games for a while and find something productive to do with your life. You'll be much happier. The other option is to follow your raider friend's lead and immerse yourself completely in the game so that you lose all awareness of the fact that you no longer socialize. The downside is that you'll eventually lose the ability to relate to non-gamers so your social life will be even worse than what it is now.

[IronArms]

I am 23 and I have had other things on my mind but I just don't know how or when to take action.

[Angella]

Yeah man. Do what you enjoy. If gaming sucks for you then don't game. Not like you're gaining anything from gaming in the first place. It's all entertainment.

[Mindark]

Let me guess: you're about 25 or so? This is just a natural part of getting older. Find yourself a nice lady and settle down. If you're smart you'll lay off the games for a while and find something productive to do with your life. You'll be much happier. The other option is to follow your raider friend's lead and immerse yourself completely in the game so that you lose all awareness of the fact that you no longer socialize. The downside is that you'll eventually lose the ability to relate to non-gamers so your social life will be even worse than what it is now.

So over 25 and we're not allowed to enjoy games anymore? Why is gaming, settling down, and being productive mutually exclusive of each other? How do you know he hasn't? Why will he be happier not doing it, when gaming was something that he really enjoyed doing?

And why is the (only?) other option complete opposite and just do nothing but game? Is the world really that black and white to you?

To address the OP, just play what you feel like playing. You may have "outgrown" certain genres, which is fine. Tastes change. I can relate to what you're going through. The majority of my friends no longer play the same games I do. I'm not that social in the communities to make new online friends. In WoW, I pretty much just sign on and raid. I think, like me, you want to game out of habit, not because you really want to now. It feels conflicting. I just log off when that happens and do something else. I might go run, hike, watch a movie, visit some friends in real life, etc. I still enjoy gaming, it's just in a different capacity than, say, 10 years ago. Gaming, to me, feels more like how it was 20+ years ago. After work, I might go out and have some drinks with co-workers, just force a social thing. If you aren't working, work! If you're going to school, do stuff with them.

Your gaming experience doesn't have to stop, it's just not as important to you anymore. Best of luck!

[Phurox]

Well, I haven't played World of Warcraft for about a year or so. Everytime I stop, I swear that I will never join again.

Last weekend, I signed up again. I have played Guild Wars 2, Rift, SWToR, and other games. But none of them cannot even be compared close to World of Warcraft, sadly.

My friend did not play, but it was easy to convince him to play again when I related to the nostalgic fun we have had in World of Warcraft

[TEHPALLYTANK]

So basically you need to make some friends. That is the main thing I got out of your post. So go and make some friends, join a guild or club or some sort of community you can get involved in. Isolation is bad for humans in general, we're extremely social creatures. Games aren't your problem, the lack of social connections if the real problem.

[Saranthas]

At times, I have similar apathy toward my gaming. 20 years ago I was all about games, couldn't get enough of them. Mind you, this was during the Nintendo, SNES, Genesis days and there seemed to be endless games that fascinated me. I would rock the consoles for hours and hours on end. Especially stuff like Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Shining Force, Tecmo Super Bowl (had to throw that last one in), etc. I was 15 yrs old back then, so of course it's easy to see that your priorities, in 20 years time, can definitely change.

I'm 35 now and I have a wife and a daughter. I've gone from discovering what raiding is all about in a large community that formed raid groups of over 80 people from my time on Everquest to finding a tight knit, much smaller group of friends on WoW that I still raid with to this day. This WoW group I raid with have been raiding together since Vanilla. We're not hardcore and we're not casual. We always finish whatever tier is current, but we're not the first guild to do so, nor are we even close to last. It's the perfect pace for me; consistent progression with friends I've known for years and enjoy spending time with. Community is what you make of it. It doesn't have to be a large crowd of folks all sharing your enthusiasm, although there's nothing wrong with that either.

All that said, I've also never minded gaming alone, especially on those old consoles I mentioned. Of course a lot of those games were single-player only, and nowadays consoles come with internet capabilities, but I've never even tried messing with xbox online or the playstation equivalent. Over the years though, I've noticed that my passion for gaming in general isn't what it used to be at 15. I don't scour game magazines to see what's coming out, I rarely pre-order anything, and even though I have multiple games on my pc I tend to play just one of them (WoW mostly). I'm realizing that the older I get the easier it is to put aside games, even when I have no immediate responsibilities to take care of.

Still, I don't know that I'll ever stop gaming entirely. I continue to game because it makes me happy, and I don't let it interfere with family or work. Obviously you have to do what feels right. Keep searching for the guild that will fit your expectations, or if WoW doesn't do it for you keep looking for a game that seems to fit the current pace of your life. Or spend time doing things in real life, as often those activities will predetermine what time you have for a game or even your mood and tolerance for particular games.

[IronArms]

So over 25 and we're not allowed to enjoy games anymore? Why is gaming, settling down, and being productive mutually exclusive of each other? How do you know he hasn't? Why will he be happier not doing it, when gaming was something that he really enjoyed doing?

And why is the (only?) other option complete opposite and just do nothing but game? Is the world really that black and white to you?

To address the OP, just play what you feel like playing. You may have "outgrown" certain genres, which is fine. Tastes change. I can relate to what you're going through. The majority of my friends no longer play the same games I do. I'm not that social in the communities to make new online friends. In WoW, I pretty much just sign on and raid. I think, like me, you want to game out of habit, not because you really want to now. It feels conflicting. I just log off when that happens and do something else. I might go run, hike, watch a movie, visit some friends in real life, etc. I still enjoy gaming, it's just in a different capacity than, say, 10 years ago. Gaming, to me, feels more like how it was 20+ years ago. After work, I might go out and have some drinks with co-workers, just force a social thing. If you aren't working, work! If you're going to school, do stuff with them.

Your gaming experience doesn't have to stop, it's just not as important to you anymore. Best of luck!

I think I have to agree with this post the most I really appreciate everyones posts. You're all giving me some good insight to get an answer.

[yjmark]

I'm a bit confused. What exactly do you want? You seem to want to play online games socially, yet you don't want to make friends online. So, does that mean you want to only play with RL friends?

[Ronduwil]

So over 25 and we're not allowed to enjoy games anymore? Why is gaming, settling down, and being productive mutually exclusive of each other? How do you know he hasn't? Why will he be happier not doing it, when gaming was something that he really enjoyed doing?

That's not what I meant, and I'm sorry that it came off that way. It's not uncommon for people to experience a quarter-life crisis as they approach 25. His friends have either immersed themselves completely into the game or quit it altogether. He is just now realizing that he's not going to replace those friends in WoW or in any MMO because he doesn't have as much in common with the majority of the players there as he used to. That's why my advice was to step back, lay off the games for a while, and re-evaluate where he is right now and where he wants to be. If he really craves that socialization he should be out and about with people his own age, not hanging out in a virtual world with faceless strangers.

An MMO is an easy escape from your problems, but those problems don't resolve themselves. The last thing he needs right now is to escape. He should face his quarter life crisis head-on. Once he's in a better place he can go back to gaming if that's what he wants.

[IronArms]

I'm a bit confused. What exactly do you want? You seem to want to play online games socially, yet you don't want to make friends online. So, does that mean you want to only play with RL friends?

I know it seems conflicting...but the thing is in a nutshell, I still want to game but when I try it doesn't seem as fun anymore because of lack of social interaction and no one seems to really care to try and create that environment with others even when I try to. So I am confused if it's just me or if it's community or if I am just lacking in RL friends.

[Daetur]

I know it seems conflicting...but the thing is in a nutshell, I still want to game but when I try it doesn't seem as fun anymore because of lack of social interaction and no one seems to really care to try and create that environment with others even when I try to. So I am confused if it's just me or if it's community or if I am just lacking in RL friends.

It's a little bit of both. Having RL friends who can join you in-game makes it a lot easier to foster the social environment that you want. The community is less tight-knit than in the past, because community interaction and development of in-game social connections to complete in-game content is less required.

However, with Flex raiding (coming in 5.4), Heroic Scenarios, and Challenge Mode dungeons all requiring the formation of a group (instead of random queueing), we are seeing a slight increase in the social aspect of the game.
Finding a sizeable, active guild that fits your schedule and has enough friendly people around that you can pull from the guild roster for that content would help if you do decide to try coming back. It is going to take effort to develop a social group and garner a rapport with some other players, and it's going to take time. It's up to you to decide if that's worth it.

[yjmark]

I know it seems conflicting...but the thing is in a nutshell, I still want to game but when I try it doesn't seem as fun anymore because of lack of social interaction and no one seems to really care to try and create that environment with others even when I try to. So I am confused if it's just me or if it's community or if I am just lacking in RL friends.

imho - In the past, more people were proactively social because the game was new and people were figuring things out and social circles were still developing. Now, the game is old, and most people don't fall into that bracket. So if you want to develop new social relationships in the game, you will need to be the proactive one most of the time. The reason is that most people are already settled in their social circles.

Most people I've run into are really nice, and great to talk with. However, I usually need to be the one to initiate conversation. My assumption on the reason is what I stated above. So if you want to have more social times in the game - you have to go find them. They will not just fall into your lap like they did years ago.

[Deleted]

I'm 21 and I feel quite the same as you. At the start of WoW it was cool to meet new people, apart from the RL friends we had who were already playing. At that age no one had their responsibilities yet and between the time being at school you were gaming with your school mates, atleast I was. Now I'm someone who likes to game, so in the spare time I cancelled my WoW subscription I played Nintendo games because that's what I really like besides WoW/online/other games. I know, you need nostalgia if you like games as Mario, DK, Zelda and Metroid. But if you do like it or never tried it, I'd suggest to maybe buy a Wii and buy all the good Nintendo franchises.

But, if you're not that type of gamer I have another suggestion. Recently I found out about the Steam Summer Sale (the sales just been over since 22 July I'm sorry :P). But atm I'm gaming 24/7, games for a few bucks or games like Borderlands which I'm playing now for 10 euro. The game is HUGE, has plenty hours of gameplay and you can play it co-op with 3 friends. It depends on how much money you'd like to spend on games but I spent around 80 euro for 15 games + DLC. I recently found out about this and I'm quite happy with this tbh, a few mouseclicks and for a few bucks (or 80 if you spend it like a madman like me ) you can have a game you can play anywhere, anytime. Just download it on your PC and within a few minutes you have it. Only thing is sale is just over and you have to wait till sales on december? I'm not sure about that but I hope anyone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh and about WoW, I just subbed again and if you're max level either you get into a guild and get all the awesomeness or you can aim for heroics, scenario's, heroic scenario's and do daily's everyday if you want to gear quick and go Looking for Raid which is just facepalm with another 24 ppl who all are whining in raid how bad everyone is playing except themselves. It just sucks and totally gives you the wrong raiding experience, not to mention that it takes way too long to down a boss. Everything is so easy, no one dies (sometimes you wipe ofcourse and ppl are instantly ragequitting etc you know the drill), but the bosses mostly take quite long to kill. So it's not a quick raid, it's a 30-60 minutes ''heroic'', only with 25 man. Everyone just wants to get it over with as quickly as possible. So, if you don't find a guild, don't bother LFR in my opinion. Heroic scenario's could be an option but i never tried that out, I only know you need to form a group on your server so it's quite impossible if you're on a dead realm or a dead faction.

PvP on the other hand is quite good (yes unbalanced but it will always be), battlegrounds are more fun than before from my perspective. And last but not least, the leveling! In MoP it's pretty cool to level if you don't hate the Pandaria theme, which I don't Cataclysm quest are quite awesome, so if you didn't do those I'd suggest you try it out. Class mechanics are totally cool too.

So just figure out for yourself if you definitely don't see any other options in another game. I shouldn't suggest playing WoW at max level if I were you, because in my experience it's quite depressing if you had the good times at WoW. The game hasn't changed much, but the community did somewhat, no one wants to RP anymore, they want to push a button and get gear. This ofcourse doesn't count for everyone but it does say something. If you can find a guild or are aiming to raid in a guild again the WoW experience could be totally awesome again, but that's up to you ofcourse

Well good luck! I'm off playing Borderlands 2 haha

[Reclaimer]

Well, I try and give my opinion without being 1 sided but I would stay away from WoW. In the end its just a waste of time. Blizzard just keeps feeding new stuff into the game such as new tiers of gear which makes all your work that patch obsolete.

I mean in a game where you have to "apply" with a guild to hit end game gear is stupid. I want to play a game with people not get a 2nd fucking job having tit raid leaders going berserk or having people rage quit cause they lost that 1 trinket they want. Raiding is pointless due to the fact all raid Achievements will be easy as hell to get next expansion so the only thing you really get is Transmog gear and that comes down to taste.

PvP? PvP in WoW is class and Marco based. No skill is ever involved. Just because your a expert at making up cheap cleave combos is not skill. and you're an idiot if you believe that. Can break 1800 on my enhancement shimmy back in Cata but jumped on my druid heals and it was 2300 in 2 nights. Its a broke system they will never balance
why play something unfair and broke?

Achievement hunting and mounts? Also pointless. coming from a guy that have 16670 Achievement points all raid and dungeon mounts I wished I had put my time into a something else. They bottom line is that blizzard is just feeding you shit to do to keep you hooked so they can keep raking in your money. 15$ is nothing yeah but I have found more fun on other games that don't required you to be forced into a class you cant stand or get a 2nd job to hit end game

Last weekend, I signed up again. I have played Guild Wars 2, Rift, SWToR, and other games. But none of them cannot even be compared close to World of Warcraft, sadly.

Just your Opinion. WoW is well done game. that's quite obvious. If only it wasn't so obvious that they are stalling to take your cash or the fact that 1 amazing player cant get anywhere with out 24 others. Ill stick with GW2 and D3. At lease my skill is shown and not given to be by 24 other people.

[Jainzar]

don't come back. WoW has seen it's best days and it's not worth it to play this game anymore. Subscriber numbers area dwindling, guilds are dying left and right and it's more or less a single player game now. Do something else with your time, theres so much thats a lot better than playing this game.

[Godric]

Meh, honestly I wouldn't come back until they release something new. I hit 90 and was pretty geared in 2 weeks. I wasn't do heroic modes or any of that boring ass shit, because I didn't hate myself enough. I would try Rift or maybe some offline games to lose yourself in, gw2 is fun but max level is kind of meh, was really hard to hold my attention.

[Dunker]

Based on what I've read in your first post I'd give up on WoW unless you want to stick around to see what's happening. Getting into a guild has become more and more difficult these days, and the content is much the same as it was years ago- the bosses just have more abilities.

I ran into a similar situation a year ago and I decided to switch to single player games in my free time. It's nice, I get a change in scenery, a pause button, and I don't have to invest nearly as much time. Time has become a factor with a house, girlfriend, career job, etc. I'd invest in STEAM, if I were you. There's a community there, and so many games to choose from it's ridiculous.

If you're looking to stay, I'd try the WoW General and Server specific forums to find a guild that caters to your play style and schedule. I wouldn't keep your hopes up, but it's worth a shot.

This is the thought process I went through. Do I want to stay with WoW? Yes. Do I enjoy the content? Only with friends. Do I still have friends to play with? Not anymore. Can I make friends? Tried, unsuccessful. Do I really still enjoy WoW? Honestly, no. Do I still want to game? Yes. What outlets can I game through and still manage my personal life? Single player. What do I need to do this? Console, STEAM. Which do I really want to play, my PS3 or STEAM? STEAM. So on and so forth.

A side note: If you really, really need to continue gaming with friends I'd recommend a console. I was surprised by how many people I could get into the party and racing games (ladies included) as well as buddies coming over to play some NCAA, Madden, FIFA, FPS' and the like.