Omigawd! I sound like such a twinkie on our WoW Insider Podcast. I'd like to blame playing dozens of levels as a female Night Elf with all that bouncing or blame my move to The Valley this year, but a good friend assures me I have always sounded like a twinkie, even though I'm not one, so it's ok. Regardless of my twinkie status, I had a great time with Mike and Turpster and we got to discuss all sorts of interesting stuff. And, when it comes right down to it, it's all about fun.That's the reason why we play video games in general and WoW specifically: fun. Otherwise, why spend so much time immersing ourselves in Azeroth and Outland, if we aren't enjoying ourselves? I get the idea from the comments, forums, general chat, guild chat, etc. that there are a lot of people playing the game who are currently not having fun, however. I'm not talking about the restlessness most of us are feeling in the extra long gap between content patches. There are many vocal people who seem to be very unhappy, even with all of these fun changes coming up in the next few weeks -- or because of some of the changes. So, if you aren't having fun, why are you still playing WoW?
There are some people who play the latest and greatest big game so that they have an audience to complain to. An audience potential of 9 million is a bit hard to resist for those who enjoy attention of any kind. And there are people who have so many online friends in Azeroth that they don't want to let their account lapse -- it's more of an expensive chat program for them. (Flashback to my last months in EQ, all those years ago.) But the players who don't fall into those categories and are still playing through the pain may be in such a habit of playing WoW that they don't realize that their leisure activity is no longer providing the benefits that it should.
A vacation from WoW may be just what you need to bring the leisure back to your life now and the joy back to Azeroth later... if you return. Is it time to take a break from WoW? Ask yourself these questions:
Are your grades or work performance declining or other responsibilities being neglected?
If you aren't getting your real life taken care of properly, the stress will severely reduce the enjoyment you have in any leisure activity -- not to mention that you are endangering you or your family's basic survival. Captain Obvious to the rescue! Cancel your WoW account now. After you have real life back in order, scheduled your time more wisely and gotten into an established routine that successfully balances responsibilities with leisure activities (it may take a few tries), then you can replace some of your leisure time with WoW time.
Are you considering buying gold or an account or a powerleveling service?
It is actually pretty easy to get gold without spending real life (beer/manga/yarn) money and risking getting your account banned. The daily quests are specifically for that, but there is also playing the AH, providing crafting services for pay and doing all those quests in Outland that you skipped over while leveling to 70. Using a leveling guide (link goes to my favorite Horde one) makes those pre-60 levels go much more efficiently and, I think, more enjoyably. Once you get to 58, leveling in Outland is almost too easy -- with so many quests that you can do different areas with each character. If none of this sounds like fun to you, then what are your plans for your new character (or your old character with the new epic flying mount) after you give your real life (beer/manga/yarn) money to someone for playing the game for you? Questing, achieving and acquiring is the whole point of playing WoW and if these aren't enjoyable to you anymore, it is time to spend your leisure time elsewhere.
Are you upset that all of your quality AFK time in AV has been eliminated?
What were your plans after collecting all that unearned honor? Hitting autorun in the other Battlegrounds so you could collect marks one at a time? And then what? Standing in a cave, pressing spacebar while you watch TV is a waste of your 15 bucks a month. Cancel your account and come back when 2.3 is released so that you can do the PvP daily quests. They will be a much more fun way to get honor and the Season 1 Arena gear will be available for honor purchase instead of Arena points.
Are you upset about the new ratings requirements that will be coming for the Season 3 Arena gear?
No, you aren't going to be able to get the same weapons and shoulders in Season 3 by losing 10 games a week that players who win 10 games a week will be able to earn. But grinding Arena losses can't possibly be fun. If you don't have the time to practice with your team so that winning games can be your goal and you don't have fun doing anything else in WoW, then it may be time to find another home for your video game hours. Please do remember, however, that while the Season 3 weapons and shoulders will be more uber than the Season 1 and 2 gear, the Season 3 set bonuses will be retroactive to the previous season gear. Also, all other Season 3 gear will still be available to you without rating restrictions. Therefore, while the high achievers in Season 3 will undoubtedly look cooler than you, they will not out-gear you by too much.
Is "Blizzard can't get anything right" your mantra?
There is a very easy way to make them pay for their transgressions and stop the madness -- quit giving them your money. If enough people agree with you and cancel their accounts too, Blizzard will have to work harder to "get things right". Now, I'm an unabashed Blizzard fangirl -- I think they do get most things right. But I'm also an MMO veteran. I've had my newly crafted goods pickpocketed from me when I tried to sell them in UO. I've lost levels when dying in EQ. And I've spent hours playing AO when it was so buggy, it was in worse shape than most of the games I tested when I did video game QA for a living. For me, WoW is the best MMO I've played (though the months I played Galaxies before Sony ruined the game were true gaming bliss). But I have a lot to compare it to. If you feel that Blizzard is getting everything wrong, but have too much invested in the game to just give up on it, then take a break and go play another MMO. You can play Anarchy Online for free or try out the betas for upcoming contenders. If you have the spare cash, City of Heroes/Villains is a blast (at least for the first 20 levels or so) and there are a lot of other MMOs out there trying to coax you away from Blizzard. If you play another game for a while and still feel Blizzard got it wrong, then the time away will make it easier to press the Cancel Subscription button.
Leisure time is supposed to be fun time. It should be a break from your stresses and an escape from your troubles. Your leisure time should give you enough relaxation so that you are more refreshed when you tackle the less pleasant parts of your life. If WoW is not accomplishing that for you, then it is time to step away for a while. We'll be here wearing our Eyesight Enhancing Romance Goggles (hic) if and when you come back.
Robin Torres juggles one level 70 Tauren Druid, multiple alts across multiple servers, two cats, one toddler, one loot-addicted husband and a yarn dependency. After years of attempting to balance MMOs with real life, Robin lightheartedly shares the wisdom gleaned from her experiences. If you would like to ask Robin's advice or if you have a story you wish to share, please email Robin.Torres AT weblogsinc DOT com for a possible future column.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-01-2007 @ 5:26AM
Bobby Hansen said...
I play because I find it fun. I can't imagine putting the kind of time WoW needs and then NOT have fun at it.
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10-01-2007 @ 6:03AM
Blacksabre said...
Robin, at the risk of sounding unhappy...god forbid...you've taken a lot of free shots here, mostly at popular targets...powerlevelers, PvPers and gold buyers. We might hope those people are not the majority, and thus, maybe also not the majority of the unhappy people.
When people whine about Wow, there's usually a reason. It might not be a great reason, or even a majority reason, but it's important to them. It may not even indicate they're unhappy with Wow in general, but only one facet of it, and it doesn't mean we ought to be shoving them out the door.
Blizzard has improved vastly in communication and response to the player base, but it wasn't always that way, and a lot of people who got turned off by the early Blizz attitude of "We're god...don't even ask..." aren't gonna change back overnight.
It bothers me as much when players take the "love it or leave it" attitude as much as it did when Blizz was doing it. Neither one is helpful to Wow, and both should be seen as counter-productive.
Your comments might apply to some players, but I'd bet most people who pay for Wow are doing it by conscious choice and not mindless habit. Be a little more charitable, and remember other people's issues with Blizz and Wow, don't need to become yours.
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10-01-2007 @ 6:14AM
Khthon said...
I donno, this post seems extremely preachy; seems like you are talking down to everyone and you know better then everyone else. Not a tone I am used to on Wowinsider.
Trivializing anyone who disagrees with anything in the game as someone who just "enjoy(s) attention" (I would say the vast majority of upset forum posts have VALID foundations, if misguided ones) and I think having the answer to almost every problem in the game be "just quit, or quit for a while" is silly.
"Questing, achieving and acquiring is the whole point of playing WoW and if these aren't enjoyable to you anymore, it is time to spend your leisure time elsewhere." Seems hollow the way you put it. While you mention that people might have friends in game, you didn't mention that that might be the entire reason for starting to play in the first place...making friends with cool people from all over the world and sticking with them through perhaps even different games is a huge draw of MMOs. Its not all about who has the bigger virtual dragon skull on their belt, or who has more time to grind.
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10-01-2007 @ 6:15AM
OrionPaxt said...
I play because it is an inexpensive activity where I can meet and chat with people from all over the globe. As a guild leader I take interest in not only my characters development, but also the members of my guild. Our guild is casual (with option for raiding thru guild alliances) and we take interest in each other lives and chat about real world problems (we had a college algebra tutorial going in guild chat one day). If I find myself losing interest in WOW, I simply switch gears and take one of my characters out and aid guildies for a few days (or weeks)
In the end, it is not always about the game, but about the people that play it and the fun of questing and chatting with different people.
OrionPaxt
70 Paladin
Runetotum
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10-01-2007 @ 6:37AM
Manasseh said...
Thank you, voice of reason! Games are meant to be fun -- to help a bloke relax, not cause him undue stress.
A month after I started playing WoW, I rerolled to an Undead warlock with a casual guild of friends that just started raiding Karazhan. The first thirty or so levels were fun, but the last two-to-three months of my WoW experience has been nothing but stress to level, gear-out and get ready for our first raid experience.
I tried finding enjoyment in alts, but only found myself thinking how this or that class was or was not needed by our guild, thus hampering my enjoyment of the game. When I found myself miserably leveling a Tauren warrior to serve as an off-tank for our Kara runs (I'm NOT a melee player at heart), I took a step back, took my wife (who plays WoW in the same guild) on a vacation and came back to create my new "for fun" alt -- an Orc warlock. I haven't had so much fun playing the game since I created my first character. My orc lock is for no one but me -- I love the class, I know how to play the class, and I think Mr. Orclock looks totally sweet with his newly-restored shoulders and burly physique. My wife is also taking great delight in her Blood Elf paladin (she raids with a mage) and the game has become fun for us again.
I had, in the rush to please my guild-mates, forgotten that games are supposed to be fun! I hope more people will read this article and be reminded of the reason they started playing World of Warcraft to begin with. I think Azeroth would be a much nicer place if that were the case.
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10-01-2007 @ 6:44AM
Gorganzola said...
I have to admit im probably one of those people you enjoyed complaining about in your article.
SO i'll try and explain my position.and why i get a little upset with blizzard at times.
1. Recently my young son transferred my character to a differant server. i phoned blizz to ask for this to be placed back and much to my surprise they allowed this to happen and placed my character bect to where it belongs with my online freinds.
My Girlfreind's brother who also used to play online with us recently threw a huff and part of that was to transfer my GF's character to a differant realm. when she contacted blizz they refused point blank to do this.
Similar situations but a differant responce to each.
and yes im sure someone will write a responce about account sharing. TBH im sure someone in everyones life knows your login details if not then you possibly need to get out more.
2. I played a prot warrior for almost 3 years and i dont feel the changes being made to it are helping my favoured class any. so i've stopped playing him. no matter how many valid points are made regarding prot warriors blizz do not seem to listen. and instead seem to now be tuning aspect of the game towards the PVP whingers. i dont PVP i dont enjoy that aspect of the game but i continually have to deal with a lack of buffs because some players are have epixx and kill people on the BG.
3.10 Man raids. i love the fact blizzard has implimented 10 man raids. but the fact is most guilds cannot run 2-3 teams into places like kara simply due to resources. that means that now the only way to progress my character is to get myself through kara.(p.s i now play a hunter) dps slots are easily filled on most servers but the healers are few and far between. so your left outside due to rotation which is fair but not an ideal situation.
4.Heroics - imho the laziest way for blizzard to try and progress the game. its a simple rince and repeat with harder mobs of everything you've seen and done before. a lot of times bearing in mind you have to have earned the key to be able to go to these instances.
I loved the old instances start was my favorite. would i want to do it 200 times for rep so i can get a purple. nope :(
Anyways despite all this im looking forward to WOTLK im hoping for more fun to be added into the game more story a personal touch that will make me want to grind 40 camel testacles (probably from 400 camels 1/10 drop rate) something that for me brings the fun back. theres nothing more daunting than returning home from a hard days work to sit online and do nothing.
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10-01-2007 @ 7:56AM
xdiesp said...
People are not letting the game go, because it is built exactly with the goal of being addicting and very hard to leave. And it works. One day, there will be class lawsuits against this kind of thing, like there are now against tobacco companies. Think, both corporations are telling you the same: "you can quit by yourself at any time". Except it's bullshit. And one day, they are going to pay for this over all the lives they have ruined.
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10-01-2007 @ 8:15AM
nirikun said...
#8, that was...pathetic. No way going around it.
"You can quit anytime" is not crap or lies. It's true. People just don't want to give it up. If people are not having any fun in WoW, but they still play it day after day, they are addicted indeed. But it's self-induced addiction. Blizzard did nothing to "make" them buy or play the game. They can give it up anytime if they have the will. All it takes is to push a few buttons on their computers and a website and all of Azeroth will be gone from their fingertips. The only thing stopping it is *them.*
I wish people would stop blaming Blizzard for every last woe in their lives. There was so much QQ in my guild about how stupid the developers were in the last Patch and how everything got ruined for them, as if it's so easy to patch everything up in a game with hundreds of millions of lines of code and that they're just lazy or incompetent. Most people in the game have no idea what it takes to change the color on a Tier 4 set, let alone fix the problems of 3 million American players.
Please have fun in this game. Or leave. We'll all be better off, especially you.
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10-01-2007 @ 8:21AM
FelDork said...
I'd just like to add Final Fantasy XI to the list of games to play if you think WoW is messed up. I came to WoW from FFXI and I'm still amazed at how much of a breeze WoW is compared to it...not only the downleveling if you die but imagine if you had to zone out all the way to Durotar or Stonetalon everytime you pulled unwanted aggro in the Barrens...LOL.
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10-01-2007 @ 9:04AM
killer_twinkie said...
I dunno I'll bet probably 8/10 people that post on the forums and say ZOMG I got nerfed wtf Blizz I hate you are still having fun but won't ever admit it.
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10-01-2007 @ 9:35AM
ThorinII said...
I'm burned out. I'm taking a break from playing. I've even stopped the recurring fee. But, I'm still reading the forums and downloading the patches. I plan to come back someday, but I really needed to get away from it for a while. Kill 100 *insert any mob here* to get a few *insert drop here* was just getting old. Never much veriety no matter the level.
It can be done! ;0)
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10-01-2007 @ 9:35AM
Richard said...
I love you, Robin; you and your "this is how it MUST be" preaching.
Case in point:
"But grinding Arena losses can't possibly be fun."
Au contraire. You'll have more fun running 2v2 in silly outfits (ogre suits, naked, full Defias gear) trying to see how long you can live before the other team gets you, all the while spamming taunts at the other team (all the yells from the Deadmines work very well, for example).
You've never heard two people on vent laugh so hard EVER.
Quit preaching.
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10-01-2007 @ 10:54AM
Michel said...
but blizzard are gods and Metzen the Creator ! they made the world and control it as they want !
I welcome my masters !
... I take the blue pill.
--
seriously, I still have fun with wow , can I still play and like the works of blizzard ?
(of course I have TOoOOons of requests and complains about wow :) but it's because I think blizzard did a great job. People tend to want to own what they like.)
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10-01-2007 @ 11:22AM
Robin Torres said...
Richard,
That sounds like a blast! But it doesn't sound like GRINDING losses. It's all about fun.
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10-01-2007 @ 12:10PM
Dabura said...
When ur bored shitless is when u quit/take a break.
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10-01-2007 @ 12:40PM
rcdan said...
@6 "TBH im sure someone in everyones life knows your login details if not then you possibly need to get out more."
What?? don't try and justify your stupidity by saying somoene else needs to get out more. My wife doesn't now my login info nor does anyone else, why should they?
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10-01-2007 @ 12:55PM
Savant said...
It's a lot like Charlie Brown vs Lucy and the football. There are many people, myself included, that kep hoping Blizzard is going to do something to make the game more fun to play. Over time many classes and/or specific specs of certain classes have become a lot less fun to play. Some people may "why don't you quit" while others (like me) say "why doesn't Blizzard fix the game?" However, in the end, yes it is my choice to remain. Like Charlie Brown, I keep thinking I will get a chance to kick the football, but as expected Blizzard (Lucy) will pull it away at the last moment and I'll fall flat on my behind.
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10-01-2007 @ 1:39PM
John said...
@ everyone who considers Robin's advice preachy:
Like it or not, a great many people are addicted to WoW. People with addictions often need help recognizing them. It is an unpleasant thing to be confronted with, no doubt. No one wants to be told that they have a problem. No one likes being criticized.
Sometimes it is necessary though.
It is hard to recognize our own addictions and even harder to make healthy decisions about them. That is what makes them addictions.
Imagine what it feels like to be taken aside by friends and told that you need to do something about your substance abuse problem. Imagine what it must feel like to be confronted by a relative about a destructive relationship that is tearing your family apart. Imagine what it feels like to be told that you are a negligent parent for doing something that endangers your children (like not putting your infant in a carseat). I am sure those are all intrusive, humiliating (at the very least humbling), and deeply unpleasant experiences. They are also the sort of experiences that can literally save someone's life.
Do not get me wrong; I am not comparing WoW to a heroine addiction. I am just trying to make the point that sometimes we need to be made to feel uncomfortable. People who are really addicted have difficulty making good decisions precisely because they are comfortable in their addictions.
If Robin's suggestions make you uncomfortable or defensive, maybe you should stop and ask yourself why that is rather than jumping to criticize her.
A few months ago I cancelled my account. Last time I checked, I had about 240 days /played. I fit soundly in the first category and should have quit long ago, but I kept playing until the last of my good friends burned out and our arena teams died.
I had a lot of fun playing WoW, but there were also points where WoW was the primary source of frustration in my life and I kept playing anyways.
Looking back, I do not really regret pushing my dissertation back a year to accomodate my WoW addiction, at least during the good times (maybe 75% of the time). I do wish that someone had pulled me aside to question why I played through the bad times though, or maybe that I had come across an article that made me feel a bit self-conscious and embarassed about the amount of time I spent playing a game I no longer enjoyed.
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10-01-2007 @ 6:03PM
Rob said...
I totally agree with you Robin. Last night, for example, our guild leader was trying to tell us how he wanted to quit the game because it was boring and wasn't fun (being GL isn't fun I think). Another guildie ranted on him about how he was a terrible GL and so forth. That'd make me want to quit the game right there, or at least move to a dift server. The game is really about fun. If you aren't having fun, then stop playing, or do something different. I'm not going to play if i'm not having fun. I probably won't do raids because its a ton of work (40 hours of gaming per week? No thanks). I can't imagine doing anything for 40 hours a week and consider it fun.
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10-01-2007 @ 6:05PM
Zerrian said...
Funny this topic shows up. After many nights of frustration with Gruul's Lair and other 25man raid nights and just getting tired of the daily grind (Leveling a 3rd toon in outlands). I finally tossed in the towel and canceled my subscription.
WoW just consumed to much of my time and was a huge distraction for me. Finally getting my responsibilities back on track. Also heading back to college to get my Bachelors degree as well, so WoW had to go.
I still have a few days left to my account before its officially closed until I decide to start it back up. I log on and look around and realize that no matter what I try to do, it just takes too long. I also think its a great time to stop playing WoW since there are tons of new and great games coming out for all the consoles out there. Just dominated Metroid Prime 3 and get my hands on Heavenly Sword.
All in all, I don't miss it anymore. I miss my raiding friends a lot but I try to catch up with them on the forums.
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