Today my son announced that he's quiting the World of Warcraft. I'm surprised on one level and not on another. I guess he's serious. He's already uninstalled the game and told me to take my Warlock back and put it on my account, so that his account can be closed.
He said the game just isn't the same. He's a competitive player and their guild just isn't what it was pre TBC. The guild that we were both a member of used to be one of the top three raiding guilds on Illidan. You may recall that I quit several months ago over the war between the casuals and hardcore, when required raid attendance suddenly reared it's head in our guild, which had always been - even before WOW, a casual family oriented guild. We were a family and that was our mantra. People wanting to get into Naxx while others were just burned out and wanted to PVP or play alts, was the first spike that started the divide amongst friends. Then TBC came along and fanned the flames with the raid size changes, completely new content and new races, player differences and varying priorities just became more pronounced.
The first real splintering came with the drive to 70. Some people ran, some sauntered and others just started over, choosing to leave their former personaes behind. When the more hardcore got to 70 there weren't enough members along side so new cliques formed, some of which were with other level 70s outside of the guild. The first ten got into Kara without looking back, and the once f"amily above all" guild, wasn't quite the same.
Trying to piece things together they'd made some unpopular rules about raiding with alts versus mains - made and A team and a B team, which caused some hurt feelings and drama. In the end, they've slipped way back in the raiding pack on the server which my son hasn't been happy about, yet he's also just not inspired enough to find a new guild and begin again, so he's quitting.
Part of me finds it hard to believe that someone who loved WOW like he did, knew so much about the game, classes, raid encounters, weapons, armor, etc. can just up and walk away. For me, the apple hasn't been shiny for quite some time, but him - quit? WOW, is about all I can say. He didn't like LOTRO and really disliked EQ2. For now he says he'll just wait for Warhammer.
Meh, this leaves me feeling a bit down about it all. It's one of the things we could always talk about and bond around - MMOs. Blizzard's lead Dev recently posted on the forums that they feel priest healing is right where it should be in the game, so any hopes of seeing the Holy Tree fixed have been nailed into the coffin. And given that in the same post they basically said that they needed to nerf Paladins to bring them in line with the Priests, we can stop hoping for a miracle on that score as well.
It's definitely not a good week for WOW in our household. However, with summer coming, us buying a new house with more space and great backyard for entertaining, lots of work and a trip to Quebec in August, I'm sure we'll find plenty of other things to do until Conan, Spellborn, Pirates of the Burning Sea or Warhammer release.
I completely understand where your son is coming from. While my old guild wasn't into Naxx or even AQ40 or BWL, we did do MC, Ony, and AQ20 a bunch, and we had a ton of fun doing so, but once people got to 70, only the officers would run Kara, and our guild basically fell apart. I'm currently in a raiding guild now, but I think I'm done with WoW myself. The combination of continuing to make end-game content so raid-heavy while shifting the raid sizes, as well as all the attunements and rep farming is just too much for me I think. I'm having a little fun going back to Asheron's Call (free trial), but I think it's going to be a good 6 months before I really get into another MMO again, and I'm bummed about that...
Posted by: Kanthalos | April 22, 2007 at 02:39 AM
He also tried the AC2 trial. He still has fond memories of AC2. But I knew the graphics wouldn't live up to what he's become accustomed to and they didn't. So he's MMO-less for now.
Posted by: Saylah | April 22, 2007 at 11:25 AM
I also understand where he is coming from to some extent. I have only been playing WoW for about 2 months, so I am a relative "newbie", only have a level 40 toon to show for it and have never done a raid. Yet I feel the pressure of having to group with 30-40 other people I dont know just to finish a game that I feel I should be able to finish solo if I choose to. It is rather frustrating to say the least. I will still play it until this fall when my subscription is up, after that it is anybody's guess. After initially liking LOTRO, I have backtracked a little. I find the characters have very little personality of their own, and grinding is nonexistent. Too much questing and the grinding gets so little xp that it is a waste of time. I still have an unopened box of Guild Wars, but not sure what I will do with it. After I hit the wall with WoW, not sure what I will do either. Do I take a chance on Conan? I empathize with your son.........
Posted by: HunterMan72 | April 23, 2007 at 10:10 AM
@ Hunter...I hate back-tracking too but I'm leaning with you on LOTRO. I like it well enough but I can't grind, which is a hallmark of how I level. I'm not big on doing quests. I do some. Oddly enough I'm a fan of the kill x and retrieve x, because they blend in well with grinding. I really dislike quests that send me running in circles talking to people, who basically, just run me back and forth like a pingpong ball. I'm finding that LOTRO has a bit too many of thooooose for my taste.
And something that I mentioned before regarding EQ2, there's some element of excitment that's also missing. There was something thrilling that was a core part of WOW that I don't see yet in these other games.
The character models are rather bland but that doesn't bother me as much as my armor looks like something a hobo would be wearing. :-) Dunno. Maybe I'm just burned out on MMOs? It's possible that nothing will give me that unquenchable excitment until I haven't been playing for a while.
Posted by: Saylah | April 23, 2007 at 11:37 AM
I signed up for Age of Conan Beta.
High hopes for Warhammer.
I have full level 70 pvp set + epic gems. Some Arena for the Gladiator weapon.
After 5 level 60's and one 70 I'm done at 3675 arena points.
Posted by: AimedShot | April 23, 2007 at 03:54 PM
I don't know you guys might feel about this, but am personally delving back into some of the old school games (or will be shortly.) I am going to give Asheron's Call a try since there is so much new content that I haven't seen in the three years I've been away, and if that doesn't pan out, I'll probably give EQ1 a go just for some variety. EQ2 looks like crap on my PC, I'm burned out on WoW, and LotRO is a pretty WoW. Hopefully Spellborn or AoC live up to my expectations, or Vanguard gets playable soon...
Posted by: Kanthalos | April 27, 2007 at 01:12 PM
sorry but what is TBC. I also see where your son is coming from, im getting sick of it and ive only been playing for three months i think they should put ina line of quests for each race annd class that are and actuall story and so you actually get somewhere instead of just hanging around.
Posted by: tanner | September 02, 2007 at 01:12 AM