Breakfast Topic: Comeback kids
by Zach Yonzon 
Apr 29th 2009 at 8:00AM
I got a message from an old friend this morning asking me if I still played WoW, saying that he might play again once he's finished moving to his new pad. Just like Gibernau, who once declined an offer to continue to race, we also know players who have come back to play the game. What interests me, however, is everybody's reason for coming back. Our GM, who quit midway through the Burning Crusade, was enticed by the promise of Wrath and became a total Achievement-addict, returning to the game and eventually leading us to remarkable raid progress.
Patch 3.1 and Ulduar, along with other game improvements, are certainly enticing to players. If you had to cast Scroll of Resurrection on an old player who's retired from the game, what arguments would you use to convince them? Or if you quit the game once before, what compelled you to play again? Was it something in the game? Was it merely a temporary break, and that you'd always intended to play again? Was it the invitation of friends? While we all have good reasons to quit the game, I know we have equally great reasons to come back.
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
steve Apr 29th 2009 8:07AM
i quit just before my exams back in school. deleted my lvl 50 warlock (my first char) just to make sure i couldn play it while i revised. after finishing my exmas i realised what a dumb mistake that was (shouldve just cancelled my account) got my character resurected by a gm because two of my friends decided they would start playing wow over the summer, so for it was the lack of any responsibilities in the real world and the thought of been able to play online with my friends that brought me back
Pexxle -=SilverHand (RP)=- Apr 29th 2009 2:05PM
Or you could have changed your payment method, from credit card, with automatic charges, to Retail 2month WoW cards, 29.99(US)
Pretty much the same, when your time is up, the account is frozen(unplayable) yet, when you add time any character you have not 80, will have amassed a bunch of rested exp. You went the extreme route.
Neyssa Apr 29th 2009 8:15AM
I never had problem managing my wow-time / work-study time, however I did quit for a while also. We were raiding TK/SSC, and one night after some guild drama I quit and didnt look back for a few months. My poor once-in-a-while great tank druid is still sitting lonely, because what brought me back really was rerolling another server, other side, new friends. Now we run our own casual guild, slowly want to step into Ulduar and everything is fine :).
Wyred Apr 29th 2009 8:22AM
The holy priest and healing leader who taught me how to play. He quit shortly before the end of TBC. He came back part way into wrath and spent some time lvl'ing to 80 and collecting acv's, but rarely logs on. Before I got some lessons from him I was clicking on peoples' unit name tabs and then flash-healing them. By the time he left I became the new healing officer. A good friend and I miss having him in raids and gchat
Gilbert Palau Apr 29th 2009 8:23AM
I never have a problem with wow and my family affairs. I guess some people pretend to address their internal stressors by playing, and not talking.
My wife and I play the game toghether, but we also watch movies, go out into town, do stuff.
It sometimes amazes me how simple it is, to keep a job, have your family time and have time for your hobbies, without affecting your other responsabilities.
We just moved from Maryland to Texas, and with that move we both took a break from the game. Now that patch 3.1 came out we are looking to return... But we do that all the time, play some time, then take a break do other stuff...
I read about BRK and its sounds like he had some priorities out of line... I am glad he recapacitated. He certainly is a good blogger, but Family comes first than guild bro!
My .02 cents.
Karilyn Apr 29th 2009 9:01AM
"It sometimes amazes me how simple it is, to keep a job, have your family time and have time for your hobbies, without affecting your other responsabilities."
Agreed. And I'm glad BRK is getting his priorities back straight too.
Average person...
Works 40 hours a week
Sleeps 50 hours a week
Drives in the car 8 hours a week
Which 70 hours left in the week for family, other responsibilities, and free time. So it isn't too hard to find the 10 hours a week or so that you need in order to play WoW effectively.
But, if ya find yourself neglecting family and responsibilities in favor of free time, gotta reprioritize.
PandaMarius Apr 29th 2009 8:26AM
I left WoW pretty early on, in Vanilla days about 4 weeks before BC came out, with a 54 Rogue. Silly Idea, but I had other things on my mind, Music was the biggest thing. Pursued Some gigs and touring with a band, didn't go very far so I picked up a few other MMOs along the way. Played them for a while, but when I got back from being an exchange student, my girlfriend at the time ( now my wife XD ) and a few friends decided to start playing WoW, So thats what got me back, I re-rolled a hunter, did all the BC content, and then 4 weeks before Wrath came out re rolled a Warrior who is now tanking in Ulduar.
Was a good decision, but I suffer from what some refer to as Altism. heh, best disorder, EVER.
Slackbladder Apr 29th 2009 8:42AM
I've actually decided to re-sub for a bit. I quit back in Jan back things with my guild were getting too stressful and in a constant state of people quitting and struggling to get good raids going.
So, I've started a DeathKnight on another server (great change for 3.1 I think to allow creation of deathknights on other servers) and am moving one of my alt characters, a lvl 70 Pally over. Also got a 70 rogue and my 'main' lvl 80 priest to move if things work out. But I'm most reluctant to play her, as I don't want to get into the grind of heroics/raiding. I want to enjoy messing about with alts mostly solo, and playing solo with my priest has never been that fun....
Elesarr Apr 29th 2009 10:34AM
Valentino Rossi FTW.
Circ Apr 29th 2009 8:44AM
> what compelled you to play again?
TLDR: WoW is stateful and CoD4 is stateless.
I have quit the game four times and come back each time because everything else has left me feeling empty. The lack of ongoing value and progress in non-mmo games makes them feel empty to me.
Over time I can build my toon into something that is optimized and has a lasting value (until the next expansion). My rank in CoD4 is entirely meaningless but my collection of weapons from years of raiding isn't and tuning the balance of my gear, gems and spec is more engaging than most other video games.
Also, I like Blizzard's boss fight mechanic design as much as the art style and overall world design. It all comes together in something that captures my imagination and compels me to come back and see it for myself.
Rhaycen Apr 29th 2009 8:44AM
I started playing just after WOW came out. I played a NE Priest and though I enjoyed the game, and enjoyed playing with my wife I never get her beyond lvl 43. I got bored with the game in the 30-45 range, in a time when people didn't run SM at lvl 32, but at lvl 40'ish.
We quit playing and didn't touch the game until a few months before BC came out. BC got us interested in the game again and we found a good guild, which kept us interested in returning day after day. The guild got me interested and playing endgame content and 2½ years later I'm in charge of the guild and still enjoying the game very much.
DrKillebrew Apr 29th 2009 8:56AM
New features usually keep me coming back. I take breaks ranging from 2-4 months to revitalize my interest in the game. Usually a nice big patch brings me back.
Consistent content upgrades will always keep people coming back. Unless of course you pull all off something like Age of Conan. People run from that.
Karilyn Apr 29th 2009 8:56AM
I quit for about 6 months once and game back.
Why did I come back?
Because non-MMO videogames get ****ing expensive ****ing fast when you play like 35-50 hours of videogames a week.
rosencratz Apr 29th 2009 8:57AM
I quit way back in teh vanilla days.
I came back after 3-4 months when some friends started playing, also spurred me into switching from horde to alliance, somewhat bitterly.
I then quit again for quite a while because raiding was not an option, we'd come along too late, were too inexperienced and undergeared and the guilds were mostly too elitist at that time whilst simultaneusly got tired of repeatedly running dungeons for the gear we HAD to have to even be considered as an applicant to a raiding guild and bored of even battlegrounds. I'd gotten the knight achievement and thus unlocked my nice new officers lounge, clubhouse(that has been opened up to the riff raff) but realised getting to the top of the ladder simply meant sacrificing all of m time so... I came back for the patch pre TBC where all of a sudden my class owned all and sundry, i had a shiney new demon, all 3 talent trees apepared significantly more polished and times were fun again.
Not had a break since really, though one is undoubtedly impending as fatherhood looms. :)
Pexxle -=SilverHand (RP)=- Apr 29th 2009 9:30AM
lol Rosencratz @ the switch from Horde to Alliance from persuasive friends.
The opposite for me made the switch from a Alliance to Horde also leaving behind a RP-PvP server for just regular RP(which = PvE in my opinioin)
-Stopped playing WoW many times for no reason other than, i have other things to do ie.
-Going out more, doing things with friends or family
-Playing console games on/offline.
-Just getting over the initial addiction itself indirectly by doing things mentioned above. Meaning not wanting to play 24/7 like when the WoW bug first bit me.
ConstantLvL Apr 29th 2009 9:46AM
I quit just before BC came out due to not having time to actually play. I picked it back up about 3 months ago and now two of my friends are starting to play, one of them being the one who got me into the game. We decided to play horde so I'm re-rolling on a new server and we'll quickly be hitting level cap I'm sure.
SINisterWyvern Apr 29th 2009 9:58AM
I left wow on terms of lack of money. Once things got going again I had a stint with EQ2, which I did quite enjoy but just didn't find the right people and that finished when I had a massive hardware failure. Upon getting everything fixed I just didn't pick anything back up until I gave FFXI another go and enjoyed that. I left that though to rejoin the people I knew here last august and have been here again thus far.
So really, it was the quality of people I knew here.
SINisterWyvern Apr 29th 2009 9:59AM
Oh, I had left before AQ opened and we were just finishing up BWL. So I basically missed all of BC.
Kiltreiser Apr 29th 2009 12:36PM
I quit back when my guild was in the middle of TK/SSC for reasons of wife aggro. Unfortunately I couldn't dump said aggro and the marriage wiped. I decided to come back once I was back on my feet as I had a fair bit of time on my hands but needed to save money, WOW is pretty damn cheap in terms of cost per hour! Was great to see most of the old faces still there, they've helped me gear up and I'm now raiding Ulduar, just like old times...
Pexxle -=SilverHand (RP)=- Apr 29th 2009 2:21PM
WoW and casual relationships do not work, married or not.
Casual meaning the "other" has no interest, or respect for the game itself.
In a past "throw away relationship"( i wouldn't marry or be with her forever anyway...)
Over time i began to see, that on a day off i can sit in a corner with the TV all day and be ignored/unneeded to no end, but once i turn on the PC. ALLLLL OF A SUDDEN, i am wanted for intimacy, attention, "talk", random (spiteful) generic questions( I DONT KNOW, why the TV shut off on its own when i wasn't here.... ghosts maybe?). It was quite immature and tacky IMO, but ever failing reverse psychology was used to make it seem i am immature for gaming. I spent the time, i gave attention, willingly, not a chore to satisfy her and resume WoW. BUT when my hobby is WoW, and your hobby is "what ever strikes you at the moment," there is a problem. Poisonous situation, where unless both parties can agree on something, the relationship will crumble eventually.
Old news, new day...If you play MMOs (WoW) often and enjoy it, make sure you know what kind of person you are dealing with before things get serious. Its just a game, but no one is worth sacrificing happiness that is brought in a non-harmful way.