[World of Warcraft] Well, I’ve been level 59 for about a month now. I hit it right before finals week and my camping trip so my efforts to hit level 60 have been somewhat slowed. While I still enjoy playing the game, it does seem as if a lot of people are quitting. My realm is often empty and the people on my social list aren’t logging on as much as they used to. Even my real life friends have been largely taking a break from the game.
Maybe it’s just the people I play with or just my realm, but from what I’ve been reading on the MMO blogs it appears as if WoW may be dying a bit. As a guy that has owned a PS2 for the past 3 or 4 years and has yet to beat a game, I consider myself a pretty casual gamer. I don’t know what I’ll do when I hit level 60, but what most people seem to do is either concentrate on PvP or start raiding to get the the high end gear. I’m not sure those goals appeal to someone that enjoys a more casual experience. Several of my friends who are fairly casual gamers have quit the game already. With the exception of a few people I know who are very hardcore players, everyone else that played with any regularity is either taking a break or playing with alts.
The overall problem seems to be that there isn’t much to do for those gamers in the middle. Much like you’re stuck pretty much being a Republican or Democrat in the United States, in WoW you’re either a guy that has fun taking a month to get to level 10 or you’re someone that plays 5 hours a night every night. Those of us who play with some regularity, but lack the ability or desire to devote that much time to the game are usually not asked to join large guilds. Without a guild it is near impossible to do raids that require 30-40 people (and if you do you know you’re going to get ninja looted). The attitude a lot of people have (Blizzard included) is that things are the way they are as to encourage people to socialize and work together. I can see their side, but since I am personally clearly not able to do this; perhaps the game is not for me. My plans for now are to hit 60 and see how things are once they release Battleground (tomorrow maybe? hope hope). If things don’t improve, the end of my account may be near. Until an expansion comes out of course.
DC
Casual MMO’s are a contradiction in terms. There was a long and very good post about why WoW in it current incarnation is not sustain able, casual gamers by definition cant keep a MMO going. WoW needs some new high end content and it needs it now.
I found WoW to be extremely boring once I hit 60. I played for 2 more days /played and then quit. There is just NOTHING to do. If I wanted battlegrounds style play, I’d prefer to play a FPS. Raiding…. well 4 hours spent for a 10% chance at an item…. no thanks.
I went back to CoH and I’m have fun again :-) It certainly doesn’t suit people with a need for the next shiny, but it is a lot of fun. There is also a bunch of content I’ve never done, so once my buddy hits 50 we will be playing through that content with our Kheldians.
The content output of Blizzard is laughable, just a few instances that are done in a few hours and thats it. I think I much prefer where CoH is going, especially as they have a storyline that they are following, they haven’t just thrown up a static world and left it at that.
Battlegrounds are in. They suck. The queues take forever to get you in and then once you are in it isn’t really fun. The CTF style of Warsong wasn’t too bad, it was confusing though when only half our 10 man raid got sent in and we had to drop some people and add the guys that got in before us.
Alterac Valley is a nightmare. The place is huge and, like all instances, you have no map. Not a big deal in regular instances, but in this one, whenever you lose a graveyard or the opposing team captures something, it tells you the name of the place and who took it. Not even useful at all if I can’t find it on a map or get directions to it. The other problem is that if you lose the graveyard closest to your starting point, it’s a long walk from the zone-in back to that point. Even if you own other graveyards, you still have to walk back because the closest one to your corpse is owned. Friggin stupid.
THese are my initial impressions. I spent 4 hours online, played one of each and spent 2 hours in the queue before logging off in disgust.
I’d count myself in the “casual gamer” category as well–in all my time of playing RPGs (or games where you level), I’ve never, ever, not once, not even in FFVII, hit the max level. I have a dreadfully short game-attention span–which is horrible for my wallet, but, what can I do?
With WoW…my Hunter is lvl 53, and I have good days and bad days. It’s mostly fun because my friends in real life play, and we started our own guild…but I feel like the higher you lvl, the more your play relies on other people. I’m much more inclined to solo when I can (thus the hunter), and, I can’t decide if I’ll even really hit 60.
In short…I sympathize. Nice blog, btw.