Very casual player returns to WoW
by David Nelson 
Nov 12th 2006 at 8:00AM
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Jessica over at IGN.com might be the definition of a very casual WoW player. She really liked the game, played a ton, but had a hard time once she got to around level 30 with a few different toons. Why? She doesn't really say, but the word "bored" is thrown around a good bit.So what is her reward for messing around in WoW and never getting a character beyond 30? A beta key! While some might find this annoying, I really don't. A big reason WoW is a raging success is because of players like Jessica. They buy the game, enjoy it for a few months, and move on. And I have to anticipate a lot of those folks will be returning come the Burning Crusade. Her article doesn't have any new information, and her opinions certainly don't jibe with the kind of hardcore player who raids Naxx and reads WoW blogs, but it is interesting to see how the other half lives. And she thinks the Blood Elf hair is "phenomenal", which, now that I look at it, it sort of is.
What do you guys think? How big a portion of the WoW community is made up of people like Jessica? Will those kind of people be likely to come back come the expansion?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
g8rcody Nov 12th 2006 8:43AM
if these people are too lazy to level past 30, they're definitely not going to stick around til 70.
inconceivable Nov 12th 2006 9:36AM
They may not make it to level 70 but they will stay play all the time. I think it's good because with the popularity of WoW there are a lot more casual playrs than your typical MMORPG and, as a fast growing demographic, their feelings about the expansion should be considered as well.
pasta Nov 12th 2006 9:50AM
I am one of them as well, and even though I do read the occasional WoW blog or news-site I still can't manage to get my main above 30. He's been at lvl29 for about a month now, sometimes slowly grabbing some experience by doing some quests, sometimes some PvP, some auctioning, etc. Most of the time I spend playing my first alt, which is still at lvl11 atm.
The problem, as I see it, is as follows. Once you reach lvl20-something or so there isn't a guided path you can follow. For example, a human $class. You start out at Northshire, after which you advance to Goldshire. And so on, so on until you advance to Duskwood. After Duskwood it's pretty much everywhere you want to go and get killed. There is no guidance on where you should go next.
Kinder Nov 12th 2006 9:51AM
g8rcody ! I completely agree with you!
BigDan Nov 12th 2006 9:59AM
I am a casual player as well and my highest toon is 34 with a 27 running second place followed by about 4 other toons on my main server and some others spread out that I started to help a friend here or there get into the game. But I am only recently getting excited about my main again and that is because I found a good casual guild that doesn't mind that I have 4 or 5 alts and I talk to them while grinding through this or that quest and sometimes we even group together for instances etc. They are great and my primary reason for going back to my main and focusing on leveling again. I still only play a few hours here and there and some on the weekends but now I am not rolling new characters every weekend because I want to try something new. I guess I am in it to enjoy myself. I already have BC CE on preorder btw.
Brinstar Nov 12th 2006 9:59AM
Reading her review is a reminder of why I never read IGN. I am a casual player, and I actually did quit playing WOW back in January. However it didn't take reaching level 30 for the boredom to set in. I got bored at level 7, but to be honest, I didn't give WOW a fair shot. So I tried again (http://www.thegamechair.com/2006/10/15/tales-from-azeroth-1-return/), and my main is level 27 now. I am glad I tried again, but I can really understand why most casual players get bored. It's a boring, grindy game with same-y quests everywhere. My entertainment comes from exploration and occasionally, there are challenging quests that don't involve you killin 20 murlocs or whatever. I also like interacting with people. They can be frustrating, but I have had more positive experiences than negative, so far.
Sylythn Nov 12th 2006 1:25PM
I ran into the 30's syndrome as well, with my gnome rogue, who's still stuck at 34 with uninteresting quests, lackluster skills, and no clear direction. However, I did get hooked on my undead warlock which is now up to 46 and I'm on a drive to get him to 60 - maybe even before the expansion hits. Anyway, it does go to show that a truly casual player (I've been known to take weeks off at a time, or just come on to do 1-2 quests) can and will "eventually" hit 60/70. It might take me another year to get all the way to 70, or maybe just 6 months...but I'll get there - as long as it's with a toon I'm happy with. Maybe I'll get lucky and the BC changes will cure my 30's syndrome with my other character.
Lostmimic Nov 12th 2006 10:26AM
The large majority of the beta invites (that havnt been guild invites) have gone to 1 of 2 types of WoW players: New ones (IE less then 6 months), and one that are active in their account. Yes yes the comments about its a business and they are suppose to make money will be flung, but it just shows how much they care of their longtime players *sarcasm*. An example, my buddy has 2 accounts, 1 is his (open for 2 years) and another is for his wife (open 3 months), guess which one got a beta invite?
Razhlok Nov 12th 2006 10:29AM
Well I consider myself casual (5-10 hours a week) and I have a 60 Hunter, 53 Mage, 38 Priest, 38 Warlock and a whole host of 20s. My hunter is also 63 in beta. Getting into the 30s (at least for Alliance) is cake. How can't you fly though Duskwood, Southshore and Arathi (Faldor's Cove)? The only time I reach burn out is when I start in on STV (I'm on a PvP server).
Supamunky Nov 12th 2006 3:45PM
When I first started WoW. I made a character on a normal server. It got up to level 32 kinda slow and when reading up on stuff about WoW, I noticed what PvP servers are all about and really liked the sound of it.
Bye bye normal servers. Now I've got a level 34 and finding things really harsh, I'm getting harrassed by Alliance all of the time. 90% of seeing a ?? level character usually involves being chased down and killed. It's sort of off-putting. I have spent some nights just playing WoW for a few minutes before closing it in anger and firing up a game where I won't get slaughtered so easily.
I think of myself as a hardcore gamer. But for WoW it's more of a casual gaming style.
Gog Nov 12th 2006 11:39AM
Too lazy? It's a game, not a job.
I took a year getting my main to 60 and in the process created dozens of alts (I have several 40'ish characters), tried out several different kinds of servers, and had a whole hell of a lot of fun.
I haven't been playing for the past few months, but when I did I play I probably played as much as any hardcore raider although I did not raid, nor do I like raiding. Like Brinstar, most of my fun in the game comes from exploring around the world, interacting with people, playing AV for the sheer joy of killing horde, etc.
The second the game becomes a grind is the second you should either stop playing or roll a new character. I think it's awesome that she got a Beta and I'm very happy that Blizzard keeps expanding the game for casual players as well as offering Beta keys to those with only a passing interest in the game. Offering it to casual players is a clever way of expanding their fan base.
kuri Nov 12th 2006 1:53PM
Hooray for amateur, ineffective reporting! What better idea than for a beta key to be handed to a person who can't make it past level 30, yet is assigned to "test" the beta.
I wouldn't mind if she actually had some crafty ways to look at World of Warcraft, or contrasted some of the changes from the current release. No, she just comments on Silvermoon, how everything's DAYUM beautiful, and how she wishes she had hair like a Bloof Elf.
Then she incorrectly states "you are no longer a floating orb, you're a walking ghost". Yeah, there's a reason for that: Night Elf =/= Blood Elf.
The beta's buggy? No wai! You didn't make it past level 11, what bugs could you possibly have seen, "Horde Hottie"?
All bickering (and IGN-bashing) aside, you could've given that beta key to a monkey and we would've gotten a better report. What is IGN thinking, letting someone who hasn't experienced 9/10 of the game report on it?
kuri Nov 12th 2006 2:00PM
Oops, there was actually a question below that post.
I think there's quite a good number of folks, kids and adults, who don't play the game "hardcore" and miffle around in the lower levels the majority of their WoW life. I shuffled around from level 40-50 and 55-60 for longer than most of my guild did, so I can kind of empathize with people like Jessica. Point being, if you don't have the aim of getting level 60/setting mini-goals along the way, you're destined to get bored with the leveling process.
These people who never quite maxed out their toons will undoubtedly come swarming back to World of Warcraft to test the expansion content. Three weeks later or so, they'll probably start feeling the lull. Probably even moreso because they can't visit content they bought the expansion for- Outland.
And what we end up with is the same loop. :)
nailPuppy Nov 12th 2006 7:13PM
The fact she is with IGN might have a small part to play in her beta key invite, no?
vlad3060 Nov 13th 2006 12:08PM
nailPuppy
As a part of the "media", she had a Blizzcon invite, therefore she is in the beta.
Even if she didn't go to Blizzcon, editors at both IGN and GameSpy have been given beta keys so they can write up their stories.
Unregistered Nov 12th 2006 9:22PM
Ever bought a game and never played it to the end? WoW is no different, except that you actually don't need to pay more than you want to play it.
So if you just want to play the same quests and grind mobs until Level 30, over and over again (which is actually different each time if you create new race/class/talent), Blizzard is more than happy to take your money. It's your choice.
So in theory, Blizzard can keep on making money off the under 30s group of players, since the combinations of race/class/talent is awesome.
But it does say a lot about your RL character (I don't need to spell it out here), if you keep on doing this and never progressing to 60.
Got Milk?
Cramer Nov 12th 2006 10:05PM
I too have ran into problems getting toons above 30. It seems that as you enter the jungles of stranglethorn everything becomes alot larger and its easy to get lost with no clear objectives.
I played about 15 alts to 20 after getting my main to high 30's before i could go back to him. And the reason i did is because i bought the dungeon companion and used it to set those mini goals to give me direction. I strongly recommend it to those that don't have the time find there path by socializing in game.
My girlfriend just yelled over her shoulder that the reason for losing interest in toons at 30 can be summed up in one word. GNOMER.
signalflow Nov 13th 2006 12:30AM
"But it does say a lot about your RL character (I don't need to spell it out here), if you keep on doing this and never progressing to 60."
Oh really? No, I think maybe you should spell it out here, very explicitly ... we're all adults, we can handle it.
Some messed-up priorities here, methinks. I doubt the failure to level to 60 has *anything* to do with a person's RL character. Let me explain what should be obvious: Time spent playing WoW = time that, while enjoyable, contributes little-to-nothing to the RL world. Maybe some people are too busy trying to contribute something positive to the actual environment to get sucked all-encompassingly into a virtual one?
As these virtual games / communities become more and more engrossing, more and more people seem to be mixing the two realms in their own minds. News flash: there's a big difference between WoW life and real life. Very little about this game is consequential to the real world, no matter how high-leveled, twinked-out, and fancy your character might be.
Same sentiments apply to comment #1 about so-called laziness. WoW is what I do when I'm feeling lazy, not the other way around.
Hey, live your life how you want to. For some people, the real world is a very unfriendly place and WoW might be just the sanctuary they need. It serves me well when I need a break from reality. But PLEASE don't go criticizing people for failing to live up to your personal standards of what constitutes "achievement" in a virtual, online context. It makes you seem very out of touch with "RL".
Destroyer Nov 13th 2006 12:37AM
Once you get to level 13 (19 on the alliance side), you don't even have to quest or grind ever again. You can run instances all the way through 60. Although it does get hard to find groups for some of the obscure ones like SFK or Ulda. This is how I leveled my rogue to 60. In fact I can't stand questing. Even quests with signifigant story lines etc. I find instances much more insteresting.
Karine Nov 13th 2006 8:26AM
Signaflow : very insightful comment. By far one of the best comments I've ever read on this blog.
And that's not only because I wholeheartedly agree with it.