Over the weekend, I made a decision that may come as a surprise to many of you. I canceled my World of Warcraft account, as well as the one belonging to my wife. Part of me was saddened by this, while another part has a since of relief about it. After all, we’ve been playing WoW since beta.
Truthfully, the accounts should have been long closed. My wife hasn’t been able to play for months, as she killed my HP laptop which she had been playing WoW on…. her PoS HP desktop is 5+ years old, and can barely handle Solitaire these days, much less WoW. Sure, she could used my PC… provided she could find time between work, house related stuff, and I wasn’t on it.
Me? Yes, I have had more important things that I should be doing than playing video games. But there was more to it than that. I don’t know if you would call it WoW burnout, or simply a failure on Blizzard’s part to keep the game interesting. After all, I haven’t played that much since before the release of The Burning Crusade expansion.
For the most part, I just haven’t had the desire to play. Gone is the difficulty in acquiring the high end PvP gear, that alone makes it far less useful. While I loved PvP, that’s not the main reason though. Having 2 level 60 characters (pre-TBC) as well as a number of toons in the 20-40 range, I am simply tired of the same old quests. Sure, with the new races that were added you have a new version of the old quests which are slightly different and will get you to level 15 or so. After that? It’s back to the same quest you’ve done 100 times before. What’s new? Oh sure, there are thousands of new quest for the 60+, but what about those of us who are tired of playing the same character for the past 2 years?
The game is more of a chore these days. And for what? To get to level 70? Then what? Sometimes we need to face reality, most World of Warcraft players will never see the inside of a “end game” raid dungeon. Much less see the last boss of such dungeons killed. What is the reward for these players? The ability to wait another year or so for 10+ more levels of questing/grinding where the reward will be more of the same?
I’m not sure if my account will ever be reopened. I have no desire to sit through the drudgery of leveling another character for no real result. My wife’s account, well that’s different…. she enjoys playing a rogue, and only a rogue… she’d be more than happy to level 15 characters all the same class. She’s just silly like that.