For anyone who played anything other than endgame content and quit because it was too boring: yes. Yes, it definitely blows. Leveling blows. Dungeon grind blows, even if you get fast queues as tank. Grinding professions to max blows. Making money by b... er, manually gathering herbs and ore blows. Making money by using an insanely complex network of interconnected addons to run the glyph market on several servers blows. Makes you rich as fuck, but still is tedious and quite unenjoyable.
However, none of that is why I played. I played because the raiding content was, and still is (to this day!) the best cooperative PvE experience ANY game has EVER offered. If you've ever been in a guild long enough to learn everyone's name, location, what classes they like to play, etc, your guild starts feeling like an extended family. Then you take that family, that group of people you've grown close to, and you throw yourselves against a difficult (hardmode) raid encounter, and it tests not only your individual skills, but your ability to play as a group, to shelve pride and do what needs to be done to win, and your ability to work under stress. After literally months of wiping on Ragnaros Hardmode, that moment when we finally got the kill... it was way, way, way better than sex. I know it sounds fucking nerdy, but I get sex all the time - I only work with my guild to down an insanely difficult boss once or twice per expac. There is really nothing quite like it - raiding is the epitome of cooperative, massive-scale PvE content. (This is also why GW2 pve is awful - the most they do is cheesy/easy world raid bosses and shitty 5 mans, incapable of capturing the same feeling as a real raid boss).
Two things are relevant to this. Firstly, non-endgame content is nothing like endgame content. You don't do the same things, you don't play the same way - you're part of a group, and your job is all you need to focus on. Learning every aspect of your class in and out. Every utility skill, every pet ability, every CD and every spec. For leveling you hardly even need to be awake - you can just wander into mobs, randomly mash skills, and woo exp or woo quest complete. That doesn't cut it in raiding. Not knowing how to play your class is a one-way ticket to failville. But at the same time, the majority of raiders are actually pretty knowledgeable and friendly. If you're making a serious effort to learn your class, you can ask for advice and it will be SHOWERED upon you - in addition to all the online resources for specific fight tactics, spec theorycrafting, gear theorycrafting, etc. Even for players who aren't in a core raiding team or guild, they can find help if they put any amount of effort into it.
Secondly, anyone not willing to do the grind to get to endgame... well, that's it, I guess. I mean, it's a video game, it's what we do for fun. I can tell you raiding is the most fun PvE experience you'll ever have, but if the grind to 90 turns you off (and I can totally sympathize if it does), then rest assured that you at least looked into the game and it just wasn't for you. However, if you started the grind to 90 (particularly if you did it alone) and quit before the end, don't trash talk the game. You didn't actually... play it. You got through some old, shitty content - content that is boring, and does suck. The graphics of the old zones are honestly shoddy, even with the revamp of cata. The new zones are sharper, more colorful, and come with much better looking weapons and armor. The tier gear in particular is incredible. But if the grind is just too much for you, then... it's fine. Not every game is for everyone.
A bit of advice for anyone attempting to get into WoW in 2013 though - there's a thing called recruit a friend. Despite the name, a new player can recruit a friend too, by simply having him wait until you create an account, then you send him a recruit email, and he signs up via that. Your accounts will be linked for 90 days, and both of you will receive triple EXP up to level 80 (and as of sometime last year, "vanilla" wow extends all the way up to level 80). This makes the leveling MUCH less painful, especially if one of you is a healer or a tank. The ability to dungeon queue in between hitting quest zones (or more likely, hit quest zones in between dungeon queues) makes the levels fly by - brand new players can be 80 in 2 weeks. If one of the players is experienced, you can hit 80 in a matter of days. It's that easy.
TLDR: don't bash WoW until you've raided or done serious PvP at max level. The leveling sucks, but the grind is worth it in the end. If you're new or looking to get into the game, grab a friend or family member and recruit-a-friend with them - triple EXP is far too good to give up, and quickly gets you past the worst part of the game (everything that isn't raiding).
TLDR addendum: This is obviously from a raider's perspective. WoW is such a successful game because it has appeal to many people, not just raiders - I know old couples who "enjoy" spending time together in WoW running around picking herbs or some shit. I mean, whatever, it's their monthly fee, whatever floats their boat. But I wrote this with escapist forums in mind - typically posters here are a little more "hardcore gamer" than that, and I find hardcore gamers are looking specifically for something like the raiding content, and can easily be turned off by the awful level grind that precedes it. Just stick with it. RAF if you have to. Just get to max level, get enough ilvl to raid, and have a blast.
However, none of that is why I played. I played because the raiding content was, and still is (to this day!) the best cooperative PvE experience ANY game has EVER offered. If you've ever been in a guild long enough to learn everyone's name, location, what classes they like to play, etc, your guild starts feeling like an extended family. Then you take that family, that group of people you've grown close to, and you throw yourselves against a difficult (hardmode) raid encounter, and it tests not only your individual skills, but your ability to play as a group, to shelve pride and do what needs to be done to win, and your ability to work under stress. After literally months of wiping on Ragnaros Hardmode, that moment when we finally got the kill... it was way, way, way better than sex. I know it sounds fucking nerdy, but I get sex all the time - I only work with my guild to down an insanely difficult boss once or twice per expac. There is really nothing quite like it - raiding is the epitome of cooperative, massive-scale PvE content. (This is also why GW2 pve is awful - the most they do is cheesy/easy world raid bosses and shitty 5 mans, incapable of capturing the same feeling as a real raid boss).
Two things are relevant to this. Firstly, non-endgame content is nothing like endgame content. You don't do the same things, you don't play the same way - you're part of a group, and your job is all you need to focus on. Learning every aspect of your class in and out. Every utility skill, every pet ability, every CD and every spec. For leveling you hardly even need to be awake - you can just wander into mobs, randomly mash skills, and woo exp or woo quest complete. That doesn't cut it in raiding. Not knowing how to play your class is a one-way ticket to failville. But at the same time, the majority of raiders are actually pretty knowledgeable and friendly. If you're making a serious effort to learn your class, you can ask for advice and it will be SHOWERED upon you - in addition to all the online resources for specific fight tactics, spec theorycrafting, gear theorycrafting, etc. Even for players who aren't in a core raiding team or guild, they can find help if they put any amount of effort into it.
Secondly, anyone not willing to do the grind to get to endgame... well, that's it, I guess. I mean, it's a video game, it's what we do for fun. I can tell you raiding is the most fun PvE experience you'll ever have, but if the grind to 90 turns you off (and I can totally sympathize if it does), then rest assured that you at least looked into the game and it just wasn't for you. However, if you started the grind to 90 (particularly if you did it alone) and quit before the end, don't trash talk the game. You didn't actually... play it. You got through some old, shitty content - content that is boring, and does suck. The graphics of the old zones are honestly shoddy, even with the revamp of cata. The new zones are sharper, more colorful, and come with much better looking weapons and armor. The tier gear in particular is incredible. But if the grind is just too much for you, then... it's fine. Not every game is for everyone.
A bit of advice for anyone attempting to get into WoW in 2013 though - there's a thing called recruit a friend. Despite the name, a new player can recruit a friend too, by simply having him wait until you create an account, then you send him a recruit email, and he signs up via that. Your accounts will be linked for 90 days, and both of you will receive triple EXP up to level 80 (and as of sometime last year, "vanilla" wow extends all the way up to level 80). This makes the leveling MUCH less painful, especially if one of you is a healer or a tank. The ability to dungeon queue in between hitting quest zones (or more likely, hit quest zones in between dungeon queues) makes the levels fly by - brand new players can be 80 in 2 weeks. If one of the players is experienced, you can hit 80 in a matter of days. It's that easy.
TLDR: don't bash WoW until you've raided or done serious PvP at max level. The leveling sucks, but the grind is worth it in the end. If you're new or looking to get into the game, grab a friend or family member and recruit-a-friend with them - triple EXP is far too good to give up, and quickly gets you past the worst part of the game (everything that isn't raiding).
TLDR addendum: This is obviously from a raider's perspective. WoW is such a successful game because it has appeal to many people, not just raiders - I know old couples who "enjoy" spending time together in WoW running around picking herbs or some shit. I mean, whatever, it's their monthly fee, whatever floats their boat. But I wrote this with escapist forums in mind - typically posters here are a little more "hardcore gamer" than that, and I find hardcore gamers are looking specifically for something like the raiding content, and can easily be turned off by the awful level grind that precedes it. Just stick with it. RAF if you have to. Just get to max level, get enough ilvl to raid, and have a blast.
