*cough* Guild Wars *cough*

I am so going to get flamed for that.

Yeah, I used to love WoW, tremendously. I remember when I started playing the week it came out, it was quite incredible. It was my first MMORPG, and I was amazed at the depth of the world, and all the things that I could do, and the thrill of entering areas where all the creatures were displayed a skull as their level. Needless to say, I played it frequently, and loved the idea of Rest XP, since it relieved the constant need of continually playing it to keep up with everyone. It was also quite fun to see the enemy gang up on Stormwind, and you'd rally with everyone else to try and repel them, or to join up with a whole bunch of team mates and attack Oggrimmar.

Alas, as I got closer and closer to the end game, things slowly started going down hill. It was almost impossible for me to do any UBRS runs, since I wasn't part of a guild that was of adequate size, and things seemed so pressured. There was this constant need to keep playing it, and keep playing it just so that I could keep up with what seemed like everybody else. Before too long, it felt more like a chore to play than something fun to do. It felt like a compulsory job so to speak.

Not to mention it became somewhat monotonous running the same instance over and over, and over again, trying to get a drop that falls off of one boss. I think it would have been nice if there was some randomness built into the instances to keep a somewhat fresh feel to them, rather than being robotically running it with everything essentially becoming instinctual.

Finally managed to stop playing it, as my grades were kinda lagging and I was determined to bring them up and so one. When I came back, I was so far behind, and so little else to do that I just quit. And besides, I didn't want to get caught up in the cycle again where I try to get better gear, just so that I can get better gear, so that I can get better gear, etc.

I couldn't be unique, at all, in any way. I tried to be unique by being an undead level 60 warrior, protection specced.
the ways i was unique was by my means of communication, i used to arrange people imto groups of 5 into instances to grind experience. When i changed classes for a moment or two i noticed how severely my main character was lacking behind, it would take me to much time to grow out of mediocracy. WoW is an endless struggle to get better gear all the time, a struggle that everyone is doing. you can practically not do anything else. Crafting is just that, crafting. You can't make unique things. Its combine premade this with premade that to craft a premade that, i cant really create anything. There are no real innovations beside the nice lore and graphics.
But i quit WoW a long time ago.

It are these things that keep a game interesting or not and they make or break a game for everyone that is not looking for a social life on the internet.

regards

First Post .. new with GC2 (LOVE IT!! btw), long time MMO player (DAOC, SWG, EQ2 .. now WoW, on since launch day).
I feel some loss in WoW. By far the best MMO so far still after over 2 years I am getting little tired of the grind. My guild has really been the only reason I may have stayed, the expansion is nice and does cater to us casual more so that also is keeping me around.
I got into the LoTR beta and still the grind (quest / gear grind) feeling seems to be there.
I agree what Mich1003 posted "Once you hit max level, a lot of the fun factor goes away."
I even thought about deleting all my 60/70's and pushing the money/bages, etc to new alts.

I've been playing Wow since beta days and have 3 level 70's etc etc...
I have experienced it all, even BT now on test and i must say i feel the need to quit to as the grind to get to BT is going to be rediculous.

Now lets not get started on the netherdrake quest line, sheesh its easy now because its on test. Once it hits live it will take forever!

Also my 70 druid /sigh , 5000 gold PLUS i have to do Shadowlabs for eternity for revered just to get what everyone else can get with simply 5k gold!!!?!??!?!

Yah blizzard ruined my emotions for their game   

MMOs are ingeniously designed to exploit a weakness in the human psyche. Everyone that plays them gets addicted to some degree. This is somewhat true for all games, however other games actually have an ending. Without closure there's nothing to stop people from playing, just an endless supply of goals.

The worst thing about MMOs is the more you play, the more addicted you become so the more you play. Eventually in game acheivements mean more than real life acheivements, and the friends you meet in game mean more than your RL friends, simply because of the time you're spending with them.

I quit WoW about a year and a half ago, I was an addict, I had a level 60 with all epics and was in a fairly decent guild. Eventually it was boredom, lag and my guild collapsing making it such that I couldn't progress any further that made me quit. Since I've quit I've found a job that I love, am averaging Distinction at College (as opposed to just barely passing or failing) and have lost about 10kg.

Having said that though, sometimes I would still rather be playing WoW. In WoW you actually get respect from people for having awesome gear and being good at PvP, in real life it's almost impossible to get respect from anyone, which I guess is what it comes down to in the end. The desire to be great, which most people can never attain in real life.

You can't even EAT FOOD if its not your level. WOW never had a soul, and never will have one, just like any other MMO. MMOs are not games, they are psychological traps based on serious experimentations that is meant to trap you into spending times doing something thats not fun, so that the more time you spend, the more you feel you have invested, and they less likely you are to STOP.

The reason they make it so that it takes 8 hours a day to compete is so that you would PLAY 8 hours a day. I know plenty of people who quit school and relationships with the other sex to have more time for their MMO of choice. They had to constantly increase the time they spent playing the game. When asked why not just quit the answer is simple, they spent a year building up their character and they don't want it to go to waste. And the more time they spend, the greater their emotional investment in NOT breaking it up is.

Just say no to World of Warcraft like you were taught to say no to crack, and you will have a life!!

Alright. I'm still a fairly serious WoW player. 3 70s, a 65 and a 63. (War, Hunter, Mage, War (Fury), Priest)

That said, I am emphatically NOT a PVPer. I'm pushing 40, and my reflexes and manual dexterity are not what they used to be. Add to that the lack of ANY kind of sportsmanship (the game is filled with poor losers and worse winners) and I am completely turned off by the PVP aspects of the game. What the original poster listed as the biggest flaws in the game, are to me it's greatest strengths. I would have quit the game he envisions in seconds.

That's not to say I completely avoid PvP. I did enough BGs on my warrior when I was in my 50s to get the Insignia of the Alliance, and then quit doing them. I bit the bullet 3 times a week to do 3 arena matches (takes maybe 15 minutes at a time) until I could get the arena (season 2) shield. Now I'm doing the same thing with my hunter for the season 2 crossbow. (not season 3, I'll never have a rating high enough)and last night we were 2-2.

The rep grinds are annoying. And yes, the best part of the game when it was brand new was the lack of EQ-style faction needs, which they seem to be bringing back to the forefront. Mostly my wife and friends are doing an instance or 2 a week, and hanging out and helping each other level lower level chars, waiting for Wrath of the Lich King.

Blizzard is balancing the needs of casual and hardcore, PVPers and PVEers as best they can. Could they do better? Of course, but the game will never be perfect for everyone.

I do have to laugh at what Taltimar said. "The reason they make it so that it takes 8 hours a day to compete is so that you would PLAY 8 hours a day."

Clearly he has no concept of MMORPGs economy (I mean the RL economy of the company running the game). Blizzard doesn't WANT you to play 8 hours a day. If all of their subscribers played 8 hours a day every day, they would have to add HUGE amounts of bandwith to accomodate the load. It's a monthly fee, not a fee based on time logged in. Blizzard gets the same amount of money from you if you stay connected for the whole month straight as they would if you didn't log into the game once that month. What Blizzard aims to do is to make you feel like you are still progressing and that it's fun. When they designed MC/BWL/AQ, they THOUGHT people would love the huge dungeons. They were wrong, which is why the instances in BC are much shorter. A lot of you have complained about the tedium, and boredom in WoW now. What Blizzard put out didn't meet your needs and you moved on. The subscriber base keeps growing though, so Blizz must be pleasing some people.