So it's been a bit over 2 weeks since I gave up on WoW. What I have I learned: it was surprisingly easy to quit.
Sure, I still log in from time to time when I'm bored (until the card expires) and do some stuff on the Warrior or the Rogue, but for the most part I'm quite good without it. I do believe it is the first time since I've started playing it actively that I don't spend all day urging for the time to come home and log in.
This has prompted me to reflect a bit on why that is. What has changed in me or the game that has made such less appealing to me. Well, aside from me wanting to pursue some other goals in life other than spending all my free time in a game, the game itself has jumped the shark, imo.
A few days ago I found a few backup DVDs that I had. When I popped them in I found some old school videos from both vanilla and TBC: both The Prophecy videos that I made, TvL's goodbye from Burning Blade, Laintime's videos, Dopefish's videos (including Last Wallwalk and Nogg-a-holic) and I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. I was sent back to 2005, when I first began playing, to the forests of Teldrassil and my first steps as a lvl1 Night Elf Warrior. I remember how that Summer felt, with awe at every sight ingame (especially when I entered Darnassus for the first time).
Flashforward to TBC launch day, me and my girlfriend picking up my Collector's Edition from the shop and installing the game. The first steps through the Dark Portal and the music of Hellfire filling up my ears. The entire trip through Outland was magical to me but to be fair, contrary to most people, I actually enjoyed the fantasy scifi themes (a heck of a lot more than what I like the current theme).
Filled with this nostalgia, I decided to log back in. Did some daily quests. Ran some dungeons in LFG. Logged back out. The feeling was gone.
I've read that a whole lot of people have already defeated Arthas. This made me disconnect even more from the game. The heroic version will be the real challenge, sure... but you can't tell me it's the same as before. Killing a boss in easy mode is killing the boss nonetheless. It's done. It's over. The lore is finished.
I still love Azeroth (and Outland). I have many fond memories of it, memories that I treasure as much as real life memories. The sights and sounds and the feeling they invoked will always be with me (sadly, the following is only of TBC... Vanilla screenshots are "stuck" in my old HDD):
Maybe Cataclysm will surprise me...
...until then, thanks to all who have made this 5 year journey totally memorable! :)
So last week I took the decision (again) to quit WoW. And, safe for any last minute massive life-changing event or news, it will be permanent.
I've played this game since mid-2005. I went from being a low level, incredible noob warrior in WoW Classic, passing by being an average-playing one to being a hardcore, dedicated, top dps in the best guild that Grim Batol had at the time (IMO, so don't come flaming me for not being a Balance fanboy!) during TBC. As I got a job as a consultant, it pretty much cut down drastically on the time I could devote to playing. I left EX, went the casual way.
Tried being casual twice. In Cartel and in Sanctum Nocturnos. I've met a lot of decent people and also some, rather annoying ones. I met up with people with whom I used to play a long time ago. I had some good times... and also some pretty nasty ones.
Bottomline is: I thrive on competition. I need it in order to give my best. When I got the chance to join EX, I really needed to pull my A-game to show I was worthy of staying there. And my effort pulled off, in the most awesome first kill I ever had, Kil'jaeden (the nerd screams still echo in my ears).
With that as a baseline, it's easy to understand why I simply can't satisfy myself with being casual. If I cannot face up against someone that is clearly a challenge for me, I don't evolve and I stagnate, I lose focus and will. Therefore, I took the opportunity to quit.
My first reaction was to turn "full-time" to EVE or even Star Trek: Online (which I beta tested for an online magazine), but that's just starting the cycle all over again. I'm not quitting videogames, I'm just (finally) taking a more healthy approach to them. I will still report on them (probably EVE), just not as often... I hope!
If all goes well, I will probably start using this blog to also show some concept "art" for my ideas, which I plan on begin development.
And this is the song to which I'm going to have brainstorm sessions to:
