That is an excellent question that you left in a comment two months ago, Kring. I am not particularly anywhere. This blog has been mostly about my thoughts on WoW, with other non-MMO games sprinkled in because I can't always write posts that people care about. Lately I've not played much WoW, by which I seem to mean nearly a year. The rest of this post is pretty much going to be me complaining about Warlords of Draenor.
I have been playing WoW again, but only because it is free. Thanks to the token things, I can buy game time with gold. Gold is something I have. So I am playing, but rather half-heartedly.
In vanilla I often heard raid or die. That was, of course, stupid. There was plenty to do beside raiding. There were an abundance of quests. Leveling took a while, so it's not as if everyone had a dozen 60s. That is a slight exaggeration, I only have a paladin, two rogues, warlock, priest, and a death knight at 100. That's only 6 max-level characters. It's not the most I've ever had, but it's partly because I very much do not want any more. I barely play the ones I have.
The unfortunate situation is that WoD is pretty much garrisons, raiding, and LFR. And also Tanaan, which you need for oil for your garrison and gear so you can skip LFR. I don't find garrisons very rewarding.
Garrisons aren't much fun for me at max level. I enjoyed building it up. Then it becomes a static ore-printer. Occasionally I'll run through the garden and mine, set up another couple days of work orders, and then stop caring again for a week. I'll set up follower missions somewhat regularly, since they're mostly just "click button, wait to collect gold".
Raiding isn't really in the cards for me. My tendency to want to be prepared for everything, while useful at work, makes raiding far more stressful than it needs to be. Throw in a touch of social anxiety and I'm out of the raiding game for the foreseeable future.
LFR is garbage. I've complained about it elsewhere for years. It's not much different. This time it gave me a legendary ring. It doesn't even give me a cool animal head on my back.
Tanaan is fun on a weekend when I have some time to burn. I like grabbing a few dailies and finding a group for Throne of Kil'Jaeden.
So I play a little here and there. I'll play alts, but any time it starts to be fun I remember where I'm headed: for my seventh time through Shadowmoon, followed by Terrokar. Plantland to the north is terrible as Alliance, but seemed better as Horde.
So, that's where I've been: half-heartedly playing Warlords of Draenor because it's free. Who'd have thought I'd look back and think that Pandaria was actually a pretty decent expansion: Pandas got a whole lot of story, the plot made sense, and it didn't at all build up expectations for something great, so I wasn't ever even the slightest bit disappointed. On the plus side, I like Timewalking, though I wish it had more dungeons in it.
On the plus side, I started playing Minecraft again, finally got Dragon Age 2, and tried a few strategy games: Europa Universalis IV (now with 4x the Europe!), Crusader Kings 2 (twice as much murdering of babies for minor provincial gains), and Galactic Civilizations III (I never played the earlier ones, so for all I know it's only 2.5 times as civilized).
I have been playing WoW again, but only because it is free. Thanks to the token things, I can buy game time with gold. Gold is something I have. So I am playing, but rather half-heartedly.
In vanilla I often heard raid or die. That was, of course, stupid. There was plenty to do beside raiding. There were an abundance of quests. Leveling took a while, so it's not as if everyone had a dozen 60s. That is a slight exaggeration, I only have a paladin, two rogues, warlock, priest, and a death knight at 100. That's only 6 max-level characters. It's not the most I've ever had, but it's partly because I very much do not want any more. I barely play the ones I have.
The unfortunate situation is that WoD is pretty much garrisons, raiding, and LFR. And also Tanaan, which you need for oil for your garrison and gear so you can skip LFR. I don't find garrisons very rewarding.
Garrisons aren't much fun for me at max level. I enjoyed building it up. Then it becomes a static ore-printer. Occasionally I'll run through the garden and mine, set up another couple days of work orders, and then stop caring again for a week. I'll set up follower missions somewhat regularly, since they're mostly just "click button, wait to collect gold".
Raiding isn't really in the cards for me. My tendency to want to be prepared for everything, while useful at work, makes raiding far more stressful than it needs to be. Throw in a touch of social anxiety and I'm out of the raiding game for the foreseeable future.
LFR is garbage. I've complained about it elsewhere for years. It's not much different. This time it gave me a legendary ring. It doesn't even give me a cool animal head on my back.
Tanaan is fun on a weekend when I have some time to burn. I like grabbing a few dailies and finding a group for Throne of Kil'Jaeden.
So I play a little here and there. I'll play alts, but any time it starts to be fun I remember where I'm headed: for my seventh time through Shadowmoon, followed by Terrokar. Plantland to the north is terrible as Alliance, but seemed better as Horde.
So, that's where I've been: half-heartedly playing Warlords of Draenor because it's free. Who'd have thought I'd look back and think that Pandaria was actually a pretty decent expansion: Pandas got a whole lot of story, the plot made sense, and it didn't at all build up expectations for something great, so I wasn't ever even the slightest bit disappointed. On the plus side, I like Timewalking, though I wish it had more dungeons in it.
On the plus side, I started playing Minecraft again, finally got Dragon Age 2, and tried a few strategy games: Europa Universalis IV (now with 4x the Europe!), Crusader Kings 2 (twice as much murdering of babies for minor provincial gains), and Galactic Civilizations III (I never played the earlier ones, so for all I know it's only 2.5 times as civilized).
4 comments:
I feel your boredom about all the single-player parts of WoW. I've been more or less on a break recently since trying to find a guild that I could get along with was getting too stressful. The monk class is really good but I eventually got bored about 70 levels into the fourth one.
But on my main toon I've had a few really great 5-man pugs for both Mythic and Challenge Modes. WoW is still extremely fun if you can just find a few other players at your level.
Finding people has always been one of my weaknesses. It's the sort of thing that makes me wish I were more outgoing.
We're all disappointed with WoD... but... can't you just find something to complain... I mean, write about?
Well, the problem is that for someone to complain they have to care, at least a little. I don't care all that much about it anymore. I'd say it goes back to my old post on the bubble bursting: most things in life have value because you care about them, and you give them value from time, and you give them time because you care about them. Break the cycle and there's nothing to hold it up. Without some social element, which I no longer have in WoW, there's nothing beside the steadily-declining investment in the game.
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