Not a quitting post

| Monday, March 14, 2011
I didn't quit WoW. I stopped playing, but I didn't quit. Today my sub runs out.

To me quitting is some active decision: "Today I am no longer player" or "When my sub expires I'm done." Quitting results in those long ranting posts about dumbing down and how EQ/AC/SWG/somegamethatcamebeforewow were so much better. I just stopped caring. My bubble burst. After a couple weeks I thought to unsubscribe. Since I'd switched to a three-month sub, this still left a month. I had previously quit, but even when I had only a week or two left I was still back before it ended. This time feels different. I'm not temporarily bored or frustrated, I just don't care. I briefly considered logging on to sort out my mailbox and send some stuff off to friends, but I didn't care enough. So what if I lose whatever materials are floating around? If I return it will probably be for another expansion, at which time those will all be worthless anyway. I'd rather have the empty bags and not waste my time now.

I guess this is a "I stopped caring and playing" post. That seems close enough to a quitting post that it would call for a long ranting list of why I'm not playing. But that seems like a waste of time. There's nothing that I haven't said before, over and over, until people are probably sick of hearing it. Reading it. Beside that, I don't think any specific change is truly the tipping point. Accumulated they may set up discontent, but something in the person's life or mind shifts and that is what actually triggers quitting.

I'm not quitting (sorry, not not quitting (not not not?)) to play another game. I did try Rift and it was fun, but it runs poorly, so I don't think it makes sense to drop $50 and a recurring sub for sub-20 FPS with graphics turned down so far that I might as well play Minecraft. Maybe when I get a new computer. Then again, I've been saying that for a couple years.

I'll keep blogging, but I fear that with not playing a current MMO and not playing current games, I'm going to sooner or later have nothing left to say. I'd use the word irrelevant, but that assumes relevance. It's a silly thing to be afraid of, but I actually fear that. I like this community of bloggers. You're great people, mostly. With no gaming input, what do I say? I still have plenty to say, but about gaming? Perhaps not much. I've never lurked or been a pure commenter. Day one I was making lame jokes and offering useless commentary, a fate which I never escaped, even if from what I can tell, a handful of much better and more popular bloggers pulled me from total obscurity. Not to leave anyone out, but Larisa, Tobold, and Rohan are pretty much the only reasons anyone knows my blog exists. So blame them. Fading away to nothingness just isn't a great way to go. Then again, neither is the bang that some choose with ragequites, deletions, or parting flame wars. Okay maybe that one last could be fun.

As I said, I won't just stop blogging immediately. This isn't my last post. I want to at least tie up loose ends. Maybe develop some coherent statements from this huge volume of inanity.

So uh, I guess that's that.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I honestly hope you upgrade your PC (seriously, that's fun!) and find another game to play and write about. I'd miss your insights otherwise, because your insights take place on a level that is far harder to find than "optimal rotation" and "stat priorities", which makes them valuable (and relevant!) in their very own way.

Regarding WoW, indeed, your archives of the last months pretty much lead up to this and say pretty much everything that needs to be said. You hit the nail on the head, I think: there is no central flaw or broken feature, it's just that it has become very easy to stop caring about WoW, or, inversely, that there's less and less to truly care about.

Personally, every time I quit a game in the past, it was not in an argumentative explosion, but simply a matter of stopping caring and stopping playing. So, yeah, I can very well understand where you're coming from. Too well to not be concerned myself...

Nils said...

Worse than hating a game is not caring about it. I, too, cannot be bothered to log in back to WoW. It is the same thing that happened with Warhammer or AoC. One day you wake up and you realise that you haven't logged in for a long time. Your sub is gone and you don't even miss it.

But there are other games out there. Rift would be an obvious candidate, Bioware's MMORPG, of course, and next year GW2.

If you don't care about WoW anymore that means that you finally beat it - like any other game. But you don't care about MMORPGs anymore, then WoW defeated you. Don't let this happen!

Unknown said...

DCUO is fun

Secret World looks promising

Anonymous said...

Bah - who's rants am I going to be alternately amused and infuriated by now? :) Like Rem, I hope that you find a game that's fun again (and that sometimes makes you cross!) And hopefully there's enough annoyance in the world in general (fantasy or real) that you still post occasionally...

Syl said...

Seems many of us feel the same right now. and I hear you on the blog worry, but I figured I'll always have something to say on games - I played wow a long time and I will always play something and compare it. I doubt you need to actively play wow to run an online game blog. even if you play nothing much right now, you might again tomorrow. until then you keep us entertained with sarcastic posts on the world please, be it general philosophy, politics, history or how you hated literature lessons! :D

p.s. and what Nils said - word.

Klepsacovic said...

@Rem: This thing isn't worth upgrading; the motherboard can only handle so much more bettering before it starts complaining about "processors these days, always doing all their beep beep boop with multiple things, why back in my day we did one thing at a time and we did it slowly!"

But I am seriously considering a new computer. My plan is to get a decent desktop for gaming and a low-end laptop for work. I learned years back that it's a lot easier to work on a work computer than on a game computer.

@Nils: I'm not sure if I can still play MMOs. WoW might have ruined me: made me too quick to curse myself with information and expectations. When I get a new computer I'll definitely be trying out Rift again and then we'll see. From what I could play it was definitely pretty solid, but it's hard to properly evaluate a game when nothing looks as it should.

@nikto77: I had a terrible childhood and missed out on a lot of the superhero stuff, so I can't quite get into such games.

@Moar Alts: Try Tobold. If the post can't make you mad, I'm sure a comment will. Strange that a smart blogger att5racts so much stupid. But don't worry, I'll still be here, sneaking my socialist views into everything and scribbling on my chalkboards.

@Syl: I've been playing other games, just not MMOs. Tomorrow I want to talk about Stalker again, and clarify in the process why no one should ever look here for useful information.

Anonymous said...

A, I used "upgrade" in a more abstract sense of "upgrade the functional entity that is your PC, e.g. by replacing it with a new one" ;)

LarĂ­sa said...

This isn't the farewell post but we're closing in on the moment when it's time for you and me to take different paths in our lives, to make a fond farewell and move on in our respective direcations. This is one of the worst things about WoW as well as about blogging about it. The split-ups. I never get used to it. Above all I appreciate the mail contact we've had over the years. You were always there as a friend who cared a little bit more than the ordinary bloggers.
hugs

Klepsacovic said...

@Rem: Just like in WoW, when we upgrade gear we get a new item, not new gems. I should have figured that out from context.

@Larisa: *brandishes rolled-up newspaper*
NO! Bad! No being sad! NO!
But thanks for the hugs.

Anonymous said...

Don't stop... b-logging! Seriously, I've only been following your blog for a short period compared to most of your readers, but it seems to me as if your entries are 90% real world insight, 10% gaming experience.

Fidjit said...

Regarding WoW, I'm in the exact same position. Just let my subscription lapse because I stopped caring.

Regarding your blog, I come here to read stuff you write. WoW consent, other MMOs, single player games, your socialist-communist-fundamentalist-pagan-terrorist plots to overthrow freedom, whatever. Suffice it to say that if there's anything you want a write a blog post about, I'd be happy to read it.

Klepsacovic said...

@Anonymous: I guess you're right in a way. I see gaming as another human activity, so certainly there are parallels to the 'real world', though as I've said, we can't quite judge a person's real value based on their gaming.

@Fidjit: You are going to LOVE my post on flower arranging.

(there is no post on flower arranging)

Caramael said...

(either my post was unwanted, or something went wrong because it didn't show up, so here's a second attempt)
Bah, this is one of the few truly entertaining WoW blogs out there, don't stop writing please.
As for WoW, I'm still playing it because everything else sucks (yes, Rift sucks too, don't let the hyped up masses trick you into wasting $50). But I see how you don't care anymore. If you're done with WoW, there's no decent alternative to be found.
I don't remember which blog I read it on recently, but the author said the next mmorpg most of us will play, will be Blizzard's next one. I agree, unless Diablo 3 comes out first and it destroys my entire life for being equally or more addictive than D2 was ;)

Klepsacovic said...

Sorry about that, Caramael. I found your first comment in spam. I'm not sure how only one would be blocked, rather than neither or both.

Truly entertaining. I like the sound of that. Thank you. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll always have something to say. After all, I'm one of those people who never shuts up.

Zahraah said...

Blogging has been as much part of my fever as playing wow has. Its in your blood. you can't quit.

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