Leaving a MMOG after 18 months

caff

caff

caff

Soldato
Joined
8 Feb 2004
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Location
London
Last night I made the decision to stop playing WoW. I think I just felt let down by the quality of the quests in the expansion, and the massive in-game material and reputation requirements it would take to start playing with the rest of the guild again. Real life also has new requirements!

Having been a level 60 raider and spending months in all the high end raid instances, I've put a lot of time into this game. I had many good times, and only a few bad times. I shall certainly miss some of the characters in my guild, which is strange as I've never met any of them in real life.

Last night as I tried to sleep my whole WoW life flashed before my eyes... I'm sure getting away from the game can only be a positive thing, but it still freaked me out a bit. Does everyone go through this when leaving one of these online games?
 
not really but im still playing, do you really need to leave it because you cant play in moderation?




rotters
 
The time will always come to leave an MMORPG.
When exactly depends on your reason for leaving.

I started playing UO when it was still in beta.
There were only US servers in place and my connection to the internet was 28.8k
I haven't worked out exactly how many years I played UO for but it was a lot.
The final nails in the coffin for me being first the introduction of the "Safe Lands" where there simply was no risk vs reward - there was no real risk because with no blocking and/or PK'ers the money and items were just rolling in.
The very final set of nails was when what had taken me over a year to do (reach GM Blacksmith) could be achieved by somebody using "Power Hour" in around 3-4 weeks.

I've played numerous MMORPG's since:
EQ
DAOC
EQ2
AO
SWG
Matrix

None of them ever gave me the enjoyment that UO gave me.
AO gave me a good 12 months and then suddenly I levelled up one day, realised all of my main attributes were capped for the next 10 levels or so and that all I had to do was collect XP over and over again.
EQ was fun, but I just didn't like the community.
SWG was just badly made - a crazy Jedi character release ruined the game.
Matrix could have been good - it was rushed towards the end of pre-release...
EQ2 I played from day one and I have actually stopped playing it twice and gone back to it twice...I haven't played it now for well over 6 months and doubt I'll go back again.

If you have had enough then walk away, don't try and lower the amount of time you spend on it, just leave - it is the only real way.

I'm now awaiting the full reviews on Vanguard (another game that could have been great, but I hear isn't going to be as great as it could have been).
LOTR Online could also be a good game - but we'll just have to wait and see what the devs do after all of the beta feed back they are being given.
 
I left WoW after 6 months of hardcore playing, now i've gone back to it a few weeks ago and really enjoying it.

I think it depends what you play the game for, i just like to play casually and quest about for a bit, i dont have the time to dedicate hours to raiding, so my intention is to get to the higher levels and then start PvP'ing in the battlegrounds, which i find much more fun than high level raiding.

You'll find that if you take it less seriously you might enjoy it a whole lot more, go help some lowbies in the starter dungeons or difficult quests, much more fulfilling that raiding MC for the nth time.
 
The first MMO I played was EVE, always like the "elite" kind of game style and EVE suited me as I don't get 24/7 to play (skill training is real time and can be left while you are offline)

Although I do hate to miss the action while I'm not on there I try and forget about the game when I'm not on the PC which isn't easy for me as I really enjoy it.

I don't know if it will hold my interest for another year but so far I have been playing for for a year and a half and so far I still enjoy pvp'ing in it.
 
I left WOW... TWICE. The first time I managed to stay away for 3 months and then I came back. I have been a hardcore raider for the last year, and been the raid leader for much of that time. I had 2 level 60 charactors with which to raid with, and spent all my spare time on it.

I felt bad when I left both times (most recently in DEC), it is the friends that you leave behind. And they are the things that keep you playing I suppose. Now that TBC has finally come out, I am thinking about going back in. I suppose you never really leave a game like this.... :(
 
FranchiseJuan said:
I left WOW... TWICE. The first time I managed to stay away for 3 months and then I came back. I have been a hardcore raider for the last year, and been the raid leader for much of that time. I had 2 level 60 charactors with which to raid with, and spent all my spare time on it.

I felt bad when I left both times (most recently in DEC), it is the friends that you leave behind. And they are the things that keep you playing I suppose. Now that TBC has finally come out, I am thinking about going back in. I suppose you never really leave a game like this.... :(
Click to expand...

Doesn't sound like you enjoy it a whole lot, uninstall the game and throw away the disks if you really want an incentive.
 
chimaera said:
Doesn't sound like you enjoy it a whole lot, uninstall the game and throw away the disks if you really want an incentive.
Click to expand...

I did that once. I went out and bought it again just to play it. I even "lost" all the longin details to my guild Vent servers and all the vent servers of all my friends, but I cought myself considering installing the game last night. :(
 
Yeah it's definitely the friendships in game and banter in guild chat that kept me going for so many months... raiding is often seen as 'hardcore' but ultimately that seemed quite the most fun and social part of the game. Killing 1000 creatures to gain reputation required to enter a raid is what seems hardcore to me.

I guess the game just looks too familiar from 60 - 70. I hated levelling to 60, especially the solo 'kill 30 boars' quests. And I know what's coming next, which would be raiding at level 70... followed by another content expansion... etc.

I'm going to spend some time looking at the games I could have been playing over the last two years, pick a couple and try them out.
 
FranchiseJuan said:
it is the friends that you leave behind. And they are the things that keep you playing I suppose.
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Make sure you don't have any to leave behind. ;)

When I left the second time, I made a joke on the offical Draenor forum, which got taken way out of context. In come the haters. :p
 
i (tried) to do the same

playing wow since the 2nd EU batch of copies were shipped (couldnt get hold of one first time round), started playing on my server the day it opened/more copies of wow were released - mid April 2005.

hit 60 fast, and have been raiding everything upto and including naxx since summer 05 till December ish 06 with largely the same group of players. I am/was an officer in the guild, and led my fair share of raids.

decided to quit due to having started full time employment/the fact i needed to be online by 6 o'clock all nights bar friday/saturday (which was good tbh, seeing as they're the nights im out).

during my month / 6 week absence, i tried playing numerous other games, online and off, but never got the same 'buzz' of raiding/teamplay acheivements you get when your raiding, and, as mentioned, wanted to play with the same people i'd been gaming with for almost 2 years.

picked up TBC about a week after release, atm trying to power to 70 after work (only 65 atm though ;<) and get back to some raiding.

the new areas/dungeons and leveling have refreshed my interest in the game, and i'd go so far as to say that a lot of people that do quit, do it moreso due to wanting a less 'hectic' lifestyle than the game itself (feel free to laugh at 'hectic lifestyle', but those who've been in serious raiding guilds will know what i mean.)
 
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bloodline76 said:
Seems just like an expensive chat room to me. Go to the pub instead or attack people in the park dressed like a gnome. :D
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Maybe your opinion, but its hardly expensive in context to the pub - £8.99 once per month, compared to at LEAST £80 average if you're going down your pub and getting hammered once a week, ofc if you're a light drinker, that could be less :P
As long as you maintain a balance in your lifestyle - VR + RL, its also far less damaging to your health and wallet, than constantly getting ratarsed, or spending your money on a lot of other things that are popular like smoking, or more taboo substances.

TBH, yes there are aspects of a chat room in it, however theres also a lot more to it, there are aspects of a chat room in almost every larger online game, so its not exactly confined to WoW or even MMORPG. You could argue that a clan you play in for fun with friends is arguably nothing more than a glorified chat room, but like with other types of games, its generally accepted as not being that way for other kinds of games, neither should it be for games like WoW, EQ etc.

On your second suggestion, someone somewhere has probably already tried that to be perfectly honest. :D
 
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I've played the game since release and was a hardcore raider for a long time doing all the high level stuff but quit just after the Naxx patch, didn't like the instance or the grinding for pots etc. Had a break for about 4 months and have just returned for TBC. This time I've decided to do the grinding at my own pace and told the guild I'll just be a social member rather than hardcore. Working well so far and enjoying it immensely. Game just seems more chilled out.
 
caff said:
Last night as I tried to sleep my whole WoW life flashed before my eyes... I'm sure getting away from the game can only be a positive thing, but it still freaked me out a bit. Does everyone go through this when leaving one of these online games?
Click to expand...

Had the same thing when I came to fully quit UO after 5 years of playing it back in 2002(ish). Its hard and the temptation to play for a few hours will still be there. More in your case than mine, as the UO gameplay was butchered by EA so there was no game to go back to really. I still always want the good old days of UO back though, more so for the people who I played with at that time. No matter how or what MMO I play, I always compare it to UO, they always fail in that regard and I don't stay on them long (well not for 5 years anyway).
 
My Names Badger and i'm an Addict.

That should be the opening line for these games. I played SWG for over a year before the Jedi grind was realeased, was "clean for 2 months" before i got in the WoW american Beta, then the UK Beta.

Played since it was released and was enjoying it until November when they decided to wipe out months of effort by re-doing the PVP system. (I was rank 13). spat my dummy out and Quit, for good. Well until Christmas and started playing again. "Clean for 6 weeks" that time.

One of the reasons I went back in, was a lack of alternative good games. I replayed a couple of old ones and got NWN2 but they just didn't last long enough for me.
 
I walked away from the game after taking a week out for whatever reason. When I came back and trudged out of Ironforge to begin grinding once more, I suddenly realised that it was like a job, just as pointless and one I was paying for :eek: There was also the nagging question, is this fun? Within a few moments I came to a decision... I left my guild, deleted my characters, canceled my account, broke my Warcraft CD and binned anything vaguely WOW related.

That was in October 2005 and fifteen months later I'm still going straight. But I must admit when I watched the South Park 'Warcraft' episode recently and heard the Stormwind music, it got the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end...

Dangerously addictive game.
 
Tical said:
Had the same thing when I came to fully quit UO after 5 years of playing it back in 2002(ish). Its hard and the temptation to play for a few hours will still be there. More in your case than mine, as the UO gameplay was butchered by EA so there was no game to go back to really. I still always want the good old days of UO back though, more so for the people who I played with at that time. No matter how or what MMO I play, I always compare it to UO, they always fail in that regard and I don't stay on them long (well not for 5 years anyway).
Click to expand...

Started playing UO in around '99, guy on this forum forced me to play it, took me a month to actually get in to it....

My accounts are still Active! :eek: :D
 
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