Last Friday John blogged about why he left Rift. Mostly, he said he just doesn't know. So I asked him a question: "(1) Was there something left you wanted to achieve in Rift and it turned out to be not enough fun to bother? (2) Or did you just stop wanting to achieve anything?"
At this point, please take a second and decide for yourself. And do it for WoW, too. Which of these two reasons would best describe why you don't play WoW / Rift anymore?
Done? Good.
Now, John said that it was the latter. And that's what I'd say for both WoW and Rift for me myself. It's not that the gameplay suddenly became boring. I still like to play my Mage or Druid. Every now and then I think like I should resubscribe just to do that. But then I don't really see why I should do that. Where would it get me and what would I actually do? Kill random mobs? Wait in queues to half an hour later spam a few spells? Why should I bother?
An analysis of this will be in my next post, when you hopefully commented a bit on this one. Thanks ;)
If you think you might like to play one of your characters, why don't you? Why must you achieve anything in particular? I know your thoughts on the value of working towards a goal, but I just wonder when was the last time you let your hair down and did something silly and fun, such as Rades' Naked Dungeon Runs?
ReplyDeleteEccentrica, there's nobody of my old guild left. Doing silly stuff all on your own is not always fun ;)
ReplyDeleteI actually did farm the Undead in front of the ice crown citadel in WotLK for a while. But without any goal whatsoever it's really no that much fun.
My characters were also quite overpowered. To the point that I became bored very fast.
I also made al kinds of twinks just before I left. I really tried ...
For myself it's of course the second reason too. but then this is not really a reason, it's just a summary for the overall feeling - the question of 'why' I suddenly felt like that in WoW, is important.
ReplyDelete...and that is what I blogged on today. for me it were those 3 reasons together. :)
It can be both and was for me.
ReplyDeleteI would have stayed had my raid guild held together but attrition at the top end was astonishingly fast. More people hit 50 then quit within a couple of weeks than stayed to raid.
ReplyDeleteI'd say mine was the latter.
ReplyDeleteI stopped wanting to achieve anything because the journey to the achievement was no longer fun. The higher barrier of entry into end-game dungeons just became too much work for me to enjoy, especially given that I love playing the tank role.
Of course, then RP, which I was also into. But I left that due to finding very few people who shared my mindset on RP.
For me and WoW it was definitely 2. One day I realized that I had a lot I could do, but I just did not care anymore. Maybe there could have been more content at the time, since the non-raiding content ran out pretty fast. When it became apparent that most activity outside PvP consisted of dailies or random heroics, I got a tiny bit discouraged and just stopped caring. I didn't even sort out my mail beforehand, since there wasn't a quitting day, just a last day that I cared enough to log in.
ReplyDeleteNeither. Friends drifted away.
ReplyDeleteAnd I might say that friends leaving wasn't the deciding moment either. Like you, I still find the game fun, and get urges to go do random BGs. The deciding factor was the subscription. The non-zero level of fun I would have had was not worth $15, especially not in a world of $1 apps and Steam deals.
If WoW was somehow F2P in a way that didn't impact BGs or the AH, I would absolutely log on for a few hours a week. Hell, I still have the Mobile Armory app on my iPod and would be casually browsing the AH from there, if it didn't require an active account to use.
You listed the two reasons why rational adults quit playing games
ReplyDeleteAdditional reasons I read about are:
1) The game company offends me. Monocles, MT, RMT et al.
2) OMG they really ruined my ... (Not as big a deal when there are a lot of alts. The vocal minority always want something different. My guess is the typical dev under appreciates the resistance to change in PvE by some. Ofc with PvP this is just metagaming to get devs to buff me nerf them.
There is the emotional "I don't like the new..." but occasionally they just ruin the play style. E.g., WoW twinks. Along with a couple of friends, the elder gaming that keeps me in WoW is auction house PvP. It would easy to see Blizzard make some changes that would at most slightly inconvenience the rule breakers but would cause me to leave.
3) H/w & network issues. I had people quit Cata because their laptop (i.e. non upgradeable) video card could not handle group activity.
When I leave WoW, the excuse may be my second one but the reason will probably be one of yours although I think your reasons are related. The emotions that cause me to value the goal less also cause me to resent the costs more.
I don't play WoW because of hatred toward its developers. If some other company came out with a game that was exactly the same, but the money didn't go to the current WoW developers, I would play it.
ReplyDelete@neowolf2: Why do you hate the developers? It cannot be because of the game they make, if you want to play it. Are they all Satanist terrorists or something?
ReplyDeleteFor me it was definitely (2). But I wonder why you phrased both options in terms of achievement. As an explorer-socializer, I tend to leave games either because (a) I've run out of interesting things to do, or (b) I lose my social ties (if my guild leaves, for example).
ReplyDeleteOr to use the goal/journey distinction, I usually leave when the journey is no longer compelling, and not because I run out of goals.
Last time I quit WoW, it was for the opposite of reason (1): I wanted to achieve things, and it turned out to be too much fun for me to handle.
ReplyDeleteRaiding pre-nerf Sunwell every night until 3AM was exhilarating, but not really compatible with a healthy real-world lifestyle.
I agree with Tolthir that journey is more important than goals and journey in the Rift became soon boring.
ReplyDeleteAfter consideration I'd say that for me the answer is 1 although most of things left to achieve were not so interesting but there were still things that might have been worth doing if the work would have been interesting...
It would be hard do pinpoint why exactly I quit WoW. I mean that was the best MMO by far with the gameplay which was still fun (I mostly quit 4 months into vanilla or so)
ReplyDeleteRemember a feeling of apathy. Complete apathy. I just didnt care at all. Realization that to be competetive in the pvp side of game I have to spend way more time in pve side. Feeling that world pvp is dying (it wasnt quite dead back then but the BG anouncements made that feeling sink, I unsubbed when BG hit ).
Overall I still find it strange I quit then. It was still good game and arena in TBC was something I would definetely enjoy. I guess I just burned out of MMOs at that point.
With RIFT? - well its easy. I knew it wouldnt last. I onyl got it to play with new templates and hoping it would have world pvp. World pvp was nonexistent after first month. I got 2 lvl 50s (rogue and warriors), done up to t2 dungeons. There was nothing left . it met expectations which werent high. another 2 months MMO on the list