I have to say, the engagement in this thread is really interesting. One of the better reads I’ve had in a long time. Thanks everyone. Netflix, if youre out there its time for a documentary.
I had fun, probably should have touched grass a few times, but it was my only escape from shitty childhood circumstances. The game I grew up with is long dead and going back won’t bring the fun back(i tried).
I played FFXI and my wife played PSO. The mathematical approach I took has helped me in other games since then but I haven’t played another MMO. We’ve talked about picking a new one to play together but haven’t yet. I am torn, I don’t want to get that far in again.
I try to honor my time spent playing while also acknowledging I played too much of it at the expense of more important things in my life.
Healthy.
The main thing I have from that time is several large boxes hanging about taking up shelf space and a burning hatred of MMOs. My wife and I got into WoW during late Vanilla. We stood in line at midnight to get the collector’s edition box for WotLK and later again for Cataclysm (we weren’t that far gone when The Burning Crusade released). Shortly after Cataclysm released, there was the Midsummer Fire Festival and as we were playing through it, we hit that wall where any more quests became locked behind “Do these daily quests 10,000 times to progress” and the whole suspension of disbelief just came crashing down. I had already hated daily quests and the grindy elements of the game, but at that moment I just said, “fuck this” and walked away from the game.
I do look back fondly on some of the good times we had in the game. Certainly in Vanilla there was some amazing writing and world crafting. We met some good people and had a lot of fun over the years and I don’t regret the time or money spent. However, one thing it taught me is just how pointless MMOs are. They are specifically designed to be endless treadmills. And this can be OK, so long as the treadmill itself is well designed and fun. But, so many of the elements exist just to eat time. Instead of being fun, they suck the fun out of the game and turn it into a job.
We even tried a few other MMOs after that point (e.g. Star Wars) just because we wanted something to fill that niche in our gaming time. But invariably, there would be the grind mechanics which ruined the game for us. Or worse yet, pay to win mechanics where the game would literally dangle offers of “pay $X to shortcut this pointless grind” (ESO pops to mind for this). If the game is offering me ways to pay money to not play the game, then I’ll take the easier route and not play the game at all, thank you very much.
So ya, WoW taught me to hate MMOs and grinding in games. And that’s good, I guess.
I would like to start again but just don’t have the time anymore. Fuck retail tho
I left because of things the company was doing. I liked being part of a community that aligned with my interests.
I miss being able to play with people like that. The challenge of raids were fun and I took a lot of pride in the progress we were making.
Honestly it’s been lonely. I’ve tried to play other games with people but it felt disconnected and eventually I walked away from that and only played single player games.
No WoW specifically, never played it, but Runescape had that GRIP on my psyche whenever I was younger. Late nights staying up to make sure I was still AFK skilling.
Now, it seems so dumb to spend so much money on a game that I basically played alone because CoD was the style at the time (and I guess still is), especially since it doesn’t feel like I gained anything from it other than a love of the game and its style.
I had fun though, so I guess it wasn’t all in vain?
It taught me to use home row touch typing. Before that I was fast enough at search and peck that I didn’t see the point of home row. But when you’re chit chatting in the heat of battle you don’t have time for that shit.
Yeah I can type quick now because of video games. My form is shot though but it works. I never use my left index finger. No idea why. (When playing shooters I still use it for D though I’m WASD.)
Well I occasionally have the impulse to tell my coworkers “That’s Minus Fifty DKP!” but aside from that, I dunno maybe there’s something to be said about just knowing your role, doing your job right, and assuming you don’t need to micromanage everyone else.
TAIL SWIPE 💳
Played from a friends and family alpha (October 2003) until 2021, a little before the big scandals started hitting the public. Rather ironic that the mediocre state of the game and not the nightmare culture is what drove me away.
I think about the good times only when I see it in the news for whatever new expansion they’re pushing. I was in the same guild for almost the entire time, and stay in contact with a handful of them.
Other than that, just a forgotten relic.
Man I miss it like crazy and I frequently think about the lost connection to friends who still play.
I’ve got too many things to do to get back in, but it kind of stops me from gaming at all because part of the allure is being really invested and really GOOD. There’s the UI investment, the research, and just the casual play and chat time… I miss it all.
The guild I was in really kicked off at Cataclysm and we were alliance first for heroic end game (server second) for like 3 xpacs. I quit wow 4 times before it stuck. I started in vanilla in 2005 in college and played until… 2014? Pretty sure my main (and I had 3 characters) had about 370 days in /played.
It lives on a pedestal of gaming and I basically have to leave it sitting there until my family is grown, playing a casual chess game or two instead.
TL;DR: When it comes to games I’ve got no chill now. Even with casual chess I pay for lessons.
Edit:
As an aside, it’s wild to me how many people ITT didnt even raid at all, it’s like 1/3+ of the game! That’s carving some space for PvP, which was also hella fun back when PvP servers and griefing and casual raids of enemy towns was a thing.
points to username
Feels like a dream, tbh. A period of my life that began 20 years ago now and consumed much of my thought and time and energy. For something close to a decade I played almost exclusively one game. My life was on hold.
I also met my partner in that game. We’re still together. I didn’t have a lot going on when WoW became my every waking thought. I transitioned that into a life with someone.
I miss those early days. Like any video game, I have fond memories of that experience. I’ve moved on though. The game itself is recessed, way back. My Druid sleeps.
Did you have a long distance relationship first? Or did they live near you. I hear lots of stories like that and I always wonder how it worked out
Quite a long distance. In under a year I’d packed up and moved. Her career was rooted, mine was a lousy job easily given up. She works from home now but I left everything- family, friends, job, familiarity, and made my life about this relationship. Might still be the best decision I ever made. Easily the most dramatic. WoW gave me my current life and partner, much more than the few years I played it.
were you both not worried about things like physical appearance or is that something that was sorted out before through like public Instagram/Facebook type deal
We’d met in person on more than one occasion prior to me moving. Before those meetings, we chatted frequently, exchanged photos, and talked on the phone.
Tbh there was a lot of that going on in that game. Not sure how many of the relationships that we knew about lasted. Kind of a ren-faire vibe to it all.
Adorable. Thanks for sharing, and I’m glad it all worked out for you two! :-]
I’m sure this doesn’t count, but my WoW life was utterly ideal, aside from me sucking at being a rogue.
I played in the same dining room as several (4-6) friends and we grouped up constantly.
But I also didn’t care one tiny fuck about the endgame grind. I hit level 60 (the max at the time), shouted “I win,” and sold my account to a friend for forty bucks.
My current life, I’m not really a gamer other than mobile crap and D&D these days. Too old, tired, busy.
Yeah I don’t count either because I played for exploration, lore, and social aspects. Never really joined a guild (my friends adding me to theirs doesn’t count I never interacted with their guilds in practice) or participated in raids. Played from launch to just before first expansion pack. My friends wouldn’t play with me in-game anyways because I’d actually fully read quest text boxes and just explore the map sometimes. They kept waiting for me to hit 60 and when I finally did I stopped playing lmao.
The dumbest game I’ve ever played. Escaped into it as a kid on release and got addicted. Sure the initial journey to 60 was pretty magical. It was my first mmo, and I had played WC3 a lot before.
But my god, the dunning krueger effect, the toxicity, the community. Just terrible imo. And of course the utter unfulfilling time sink.
I’ve also been quite a competitive gamer, having played a lot of cs, dota and wc3 ladder, some semi-professionally. And WoW is simply not it.I learned how evil Blizzard is, how addicted I can get to certain games, etc. yeah, the one word that comes to mind looking back at it is “stupid”.
