Poll: Escaping WoW

[thiosk]

I quit during the burning crusade "end game" raiding.

I had turned down parties for weeks, and spent 3 nights a week huddled in front of my computer ignoring my fiancee while making vashj attemps.

One week I went to the bar instead of logging on, and i have not logged on since, has it been almost 2 years already? I lost track of time, since my yardstick for time used to be measured by raid progression.

 

[MassiveGeek]

I kind of lost interest when I finally reached the highest level, right before the Wotlk expansion. I though it would be fun to finally be able to do everything, but I was so wrong, it just took ALOT more time to play, and it simply wasnt funny, thats when I realised Yahtzee really was right about WoW being a second job. Jeezus.

 

[Uszi]

P.S. Night Elves are sexy.

This.

When you are bored with the emptiness of the spreadsheet quality late game, start a level one NE, dance naked in the Auction house and ask for tips.

But you're not looking for tips. You're looking for lulz at the expense of all the people who are now PMing you and telling you that you're confirming stereotypes about alliance players, and that you're stupid, and then people will start dancing fully clothed next to you to try and prove some point, for hours on end (hopefully you'll have left your character afk and dancing though). And it will all be very amusing, especially when you pretend to speak Chinese and offer to sell ninja'd loot to your haters.

 

[buckythefly]

I have never gotten that into MMO's but when I did quit Star Wars Galaxies, back in the days before it was raped by Sony, I definitely had trouble quitting, It took me two days to say goodbye to everyone I played with on a daily basis.

I personally don't understand Americas obsession with MMO's, The game play is kinda reminiscent of typing the number 123013913013913 over and over. Its endless with no story progression except the shape and color of the character giving you the "Collect 20 Wolf Pelts" quest changes over time.

I've repeatedly been told "you have to play for the end game content" but why should I do that, when I can skip the 6 months getting there and go play mass effect, or any RPG that lets me have the end game content from the minute I stick it in the tray and won't charge me 15 bucks a month to do it.

I guess I really just don't understand.
But, getting back to the question at hand. It was definitely a sense of community and friendship that kept me playing.

 

[John Funk]

What about "some of the above?"

I love my guild, I love the WC lore (and am psyched for Ulduar), I'm obsessed with Achievements. I have some of the best gear in the game so I don't really need any of that yet. I just like it because it's fun to BS on vent with my friends as we raid.

 

[quellan_thyde]

I had to dump my account when I got laid off. I plan to reinstate it as soon as I'm earning money again.

 

[Panayjon]

As lame as it sounds, I don't understand how people in non-RP servers have any fun.

Not to spoil the surprise, but eventually all of you WoW Players will take a second and consider your WoW playing from the outside perspective: not the inside perspective, where you're fighting dragons and flying on Gryphons, but the outside perspective, wear you sit at your computer and click you mouse and key board for 8 hours without pause. You're realization that you might as well be sitting there playing with Microsoft Excel becomes complete when you reach the end game, and you start doing the calculations to figure out if the half point of extra strength will increase your DPS more than some % chance to hit on another item.

The only way to alleviate the one dimensionality and spread sheet quality, I would think, would be to play with some close friends and RP your character. But then you might as well be table top gaming and not spending $15 a month. Plus you don't need to wait a month for the Dungeon Master to patch enemies out of the game.

--------------------

For me, I'm not into roll playing, so the fix I stated above did not apply. Once the freshness of the game wore off and the fairly reasonable back story to your questing dies completely in the level 40 range, I typically quit whatever character I was playing and started a new one. You can only do this so many times, and so WoW had nothing left for me and I quit.

Funny that you should mention tabletop roleplaying. The thing is for many people its hard to get everyone together for a session. Even if we all have the same amount of total free time, it almost never overlaps. At least for my group anyways, haven't gotten together in a month.

At any rate, this is how the cycle of MMOs go for me. Join up, maybe even with some real life friends. Play for a while, but always in moderation. It doesn't feel like grinding if you only play a few hours a week. Moreover since you aren't going through a lot of content at once, the game world feels large and seems to always hold more prospect for stuff. Then every online friend you have made and even some of your RL friends out level you by such an absurd amount that there is no hope of catching up. Make a new character on a RP server, then realize that no one actually roleplays outside of a guild. Join such a guild, then find that no one else is online when you are online.

/quit

Its only happened twice and each time was at least a year but I'm seeing the pattern. Maybe third time is the charm.

 

[ZeroMachine]

I never really "quit" it. I just play for two months, take a few months off (anywhere from 1 1/2 to 4) and then start it up again when I'm finally in the mood for it.

There's no reason to full out QUIT and get rid of your characters. Even if you think you'll never play it again, you can never know, so it's always a good idea to keep them there just in case.

 

[Zildjin81]

About the same as you, when I realized I was doing the same crap as I was 79 levels ago.

 

[curlycrouton]

Thankfully I've never played WoW, mainly because of the whole subscription fee, something which I simply cannot afford. I occasionally dabble in Guild Wars maybe once a fortnight, but MMOs aren't really my thing.

 

[joeychuckles]

I never really "quit" it. I just play for two months, take a few months off (anywhere from 1 1/2 to 4) and then start it up again when I'm finally in the mood for it.

There's no reason to full out QUIT and get rid of your characters. Even if you think you'll never play it again, you can never know, so it's always a good idea to keep them there just in case.

I should note that a canceled account can be reactivated at any time, and Blizzard very kindly holds your characters for you if you ever change your mind and want to come back. Just like that dealer that lets you know if you ever change your mind, he's still got your favorite crack on hand.

 

[Azaradel]

As lame as it sounds, I don't understand how people in non-RP servers have any fun.

Depending on your personality, there's a certain ammount of roleplaying to playing on a non-RP server as well. If someone comes up and goes "SWEEEE!?!?!?", I'm suddenly from GB. If someone tries to make a move on me 'cause I'm a chick, I simply tell them they've misunderstood everything, but if they really want it, we can still spoon.

-----

On topic, though, and perhaps less retarded than the above stated; I've been playing for some one and a half year by now, but stopped playing because of various reasons for some 2-3 months. That was when I realized quitting WoW wouldn't be that hard, 'cause there's always other things to waste your time and life on, should you grow bored of raiding (which is what I mainly spend my time doing on WoW nowadays, when not lvling alts since I'm one of those odd persons who actually find lvling quite enjoyable).

However, I don't spend all that much time online anymore, save from raid nights, but those are only some 2 days a week (thanks to the expansion which is severely lacking as far as raids go, at least as it stands now). Earlier, I easily found myself stuck in the game, even if I didn't actually do anything. Of recently, however, I found it's just as easy to log off and go watch some gory movie or something.

-----

Also, I kinda wonder why so many people seem to think you can't play any other games if you play WoW. What's with that? I play WoW, but I still reckon console gaming more fun, if there're anough players for a proper multi-player mayhem (hell, I doubt I'll ever have as much fun as when playing in the slowmotion mode on SSBM with 3 of my friends... best thing ever)

 

[Uszi]

There's no reason to full out QUIT and get rid of your characters. Even if you think you'll never play it again, you can never know, so it's always a good idea to keep them there just in case.

To be honest, I also found it easier to quit leaving my characters there. When I cut myself off completely (deleted my characters, uninstalled, etc) I relapsed for a whole summer. But if you leave it installed but your account inactive, then I have an easier time remembering why I quit. I think having it all sitting there waiting on my desk top keeps me from getting nostalgic and idealizing my memories of playing the game.

 

[Brotherofwill]

Just out of curiousity:
If you quit do you sell your characters? Asumming that some do, how much are they worth?

Just thinking that the time it takes to get to level 70 must be pretty long and there are still quite a few players that want a good character, so it could be quite profitable.

Never played the game so I have no idea

 

[ZeroMachine]

I never really "quit" it. I just play for two months, take a few months off (anywhere from 1 1/2 to 4) and then start it up again when I'm finally in the mood for it.

There's no reason to full out QUIT and get rid of your characters. Even if you think you'll never play it again, you can never know, so it's always a good idea to keep them there just in case.

I should note that a canceled account can be reactivated at any time, and Blizzard very kindly holds your characters for you if you ever change your mind and want to come back. Just like that dealer that lets you know if you ever change your mind, he's still got your favorite crack on hand.

I didn't know that, I thought you could request deletion of everything... good to know!

There's no reason to full out QUIT and get rid of your characters. Even if you think you'll never play it again, you can never know, so it's always a good idea to keep them there just in case.

To be honest, I also found it easier to quit leaving my characters there. When I cut myself off completely (deleted my characters, uninstalled, etc) I relapsed for a whole summer. But if you leave it installed but your account inactive, then I have an easier time remembering why I quit. I think having it all sitting there waiting on my desk top keeps me from getting nostalgic and idealizing my memories of playing the game.

There's a fundamental difference between you and me, though, if I understand what you said correctly... you wanted to quit completely. I still love the game, I'm just not "addicted" to it (I seriously believe that isn't possible) and get bored of it sometimes.

Therefore, with me, having my characters there and remembering them makes me nostalgic. I swear, couple months down the road, I'll hear or see some sort of reference to a Death Knight and I'll want to go back to good ol' Reynolds again.

 

[beddo]

I have never found MMOs interesting in any way.

 

[Cerebrium]

As lame as it sounds, I don't understand how people in non-RP servers have any fun.

Not to spoil the surprise, but eventually all of you WoW Players will take a second and consider your WoW playing from the outside perspective: not the inside perspective, where you're fighting dragons and flying on Gryphons, but the outside perspective, wear you sit at your computer and click you mouse and key board for 8 hours without pause. You're realization that you might as well be sitting there playing with Microsoft Excel becomes complete when you reach the end game, and you start doing the calculations to figure out if the half point of extra strength will increase your DPS more than some % chance to hit on another item.

The only way to alleviate the one dimensionality and spread sheet quality, I would think, would be to play with some close friends and RP your character. But then you might as well be table top gaming and not spending $15 a month. Plus you don't need to wait a month for the Dungeon Master to patch enemies out of the game.

--------------------

For me, I'm not into roll playing, so the fix I stated above did not apply. Once the freshness of the game wore off and the fairly reasonable back story to your questing dies completely in the level 40 range, I typically quit whatever character I was playing and started a new one. You can only do this so many times, and so WoW had nothing left for me and I quit.

Funny that you should mention tabletop roleplaying. The thing is for many people its hard to get everyone together for a session. Even if we all have the same amount of total free time, it almost never overlaps. At least for my group anyways, haven't gotten together in a month.

At any rate, this is how the cycle of MMOs go for me. Join up, maybe even with some real life friends. Play for a while, but always in moderation. It doesn't feel like grinding if you only play a few hours a week. Moreover since you aren't going through a lot of content at once, the game world feels large and seems to always hold more prospect for stuff. Then every online friend you have made and even some of your RL friends out level you by such an absurd amount that there is no hope of catching up. Make a new character on a RP server, then realize that no one actually roleplays outside of a guild. Join such a guild, then find that no one else is online when you are online.

/quit

Its only happened twice and each time was at least a year but I'm seeing the pattern. Maybe third time is the charm.

Good god, this feels eerily similar. Are you me?

 

[TJM8]

I quit about 5 months back, basically right before the expansion came out, and I don't miss it at all. Basically it became so time consuming that I would barely sleep trying to balance WoW with a gf, classes, and lacrosse that I wasn't sleeping much. Seeing the expansion come I feared the worst; a revival of interest based on gameplay. Basically I stuck with the game so long because I had found a bunch of decent people.
Word of advice to anyone that finds themselves only staying with WoW because of the people you've met: Get their SNs and you'll quickly find the appeal to the game fade away. Like literally within days you'll just log on less and less until you just don't bother anymore. Instead pick up a copy of fallout3 and satisfy your grinding need in that game : P

 

[Sewblon]

I got hooked because I really liked developing my human warrior and Gnome mage, I quit because I could never find any healers for instances.

 

[Lukirre]

I stopped playing WoW recently due to the fact that I was bored of running around Dalaran for the majority of my playing time.

Yahtzee was right in saying that MMO's shouldn't feel like a second job, and that is what WoW was turning into. The only reason I satyed was for my guild and friends, and recently the guild has completely disbanded and I really have no real motivation to log back on.

My name is Lukirre, and I've been WoWsober for almost a week now.