Breakfast Topic: What story does your WoW subscription history tell?
by Andy Propst 
May 20th 2010 at 8:00AM
Some of us have been addicted to World of Warcraft from the beginning. Like me, some of you may have been addicted at the start but wavered off and on over the years. Alternately, some World of Warcraft players have only joined the world recently. A quick look at an account's payment history (found in account management on the World of Warcraft website) can provide an interesting tale regarding a player's obsession (or lack thereof) with World of Warcraft.
Personally, looking back at my payment history brought back memories of World of Warcraft as well as the games that sought to tear me away from Azeroth.
The journey (not the one shown in the screenshot above) started on Nov. 28, 2004, five days after the first adventurers had stepped foot into retail Azeroth. At that time, it took me a year and a half (non-/played of course) to get to 60. I suppose that could be considered to be an incredibly casual rate of levelling -- but eh, the times were simpler back then. That first chunk lasted until March 14, 2007. Still, after nearly two and a half years of enjoyment in Azeroth, I found myself pulled away to other pursuits, one of which was most likely one of my numerous forays into the complexity that is EVE Online. These distractions kept me away from the World of Warcraft for another year and a half, until I returned on Sept. 16, 2008.
I do not specifically remember, nor can I explain, my return to Azeroth. Alas, it was not to last. After that initial monthly subscription, my time in Azeroth is blank until a later date. Perhaps this was the time that I found myself drawn into Warhammer Online, an intriguing alternative to Azeroth that would ultimately prove to be no match for the appeal that World of Warcraft presented to me. I made my second-to-last return on May 18, 2009. This would be a four-month stint in which I would find myself levelling both my druid and my death knight to level 80 and getting them partially geared, before yet again dropping off the face of Azeroth on Sept. 23, 2009. The game that most describes this last absence? Global Agenda.
This brings us to my most recent return on March 2, 2010. I have spent the past two months getting sufficiently geared to be able to jump into 10-man ICC with my guild, and we have almost already conquered the zone. To bring the story full circle, it is important to note that I recently transferred my night elf hunter, created all the way back at the beginning of my journey, to my main's server in order to finally get him to 80. (He has been languishing in the mid-60s for the past few years.)
The above is what my subscription history says about me as a World of Warcraft player and a gamer and general. What does your subscription history say about you?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Josin May 20th 2010 8:12AM
Mine says "Addicted customer since July 2006."
Zalvi24 May 20th 2010 8:17AM
too many zfer, too many alliance to horde change, just too much history
Nina Katarina May 20th 2010 8:19AM
Mine shows my daughter's 9th birthday (unless Blizzard terms-of-service lawyers are reading, in which case she was 12, really), when I bought a new subscription and transferred my main to it, giving her her own account stacked with my old alts.
Radium May 20th 2010 8:22AM
I don't dare to look how much money I already spend on this game ^^
Banndit May 20th 2010 2:14PM
Another thing I don't dare do is add up all the /played time on my toons.
Radium May 20th 2010 8:23AM
spent*
WTB Edit button!!
epsilon343 May 20th 2010 8:24AM
Mine's a single large chunk of time ending in August with two smaller stints prior to that. I've been thinking about getting back into the game at some point, I have the client installed on my computer but haven't gotten around to actually reactivating.
Some day.
Dreamstorm May 20th 2010 6:24PM
Wait for Cata
Poxus May 20th 2010 8:24AM
Mine is much the same as yours, except I started at the start. I have left for other games and always come back due to the fact that WoW just has the feeling of how a MMO should play down.
It's fast, fun and tons of people on to do things with.
They integrate new ideas to make things better (Dungeon Finder) and stay fun with Easter Eggs about cultural events going on in today's world to sort of tie us even more to the game because we can now relate to something in the game to our life outside the game.
I think Blizzard likes the lull they bring in their game, especially before expansions, due to the fact that people go out and try other game but realize that everything they are comparing the newer games too are in WoW, in which case just brings them back hooked more than ever to Warcraft.
Jamie May 20th 2010 8:24AM
Mine is a tale of debauchery, high treason, sexy parties, tales of pirates versus ninjas, tea parties with the queen of England & a war between a highly evolved space aliens and a pact between several african tribes, available in your local Borders now!
Other than that it's mainly 3 months, 3 months, 3 months, etc....
Darky May 20th 2010 8:25AM
guh the safecount.net ad needs to be removed and my history says on and off since release :P
Tinwhisker May 20th 2010 8:25AM
Mine says I probably should start paying for larger blocks of time. I've got years now without a single lapse in service and paying for 6 months or a year would save more than paying quarterly as I do now.
wdm+hall May 20th 2010 2:47PM
Worse, I have paid for two accounts monthly for the last three years straight. Forgot the option even existed to pay for more at a discount.
Vote for most useful Breakfast Topic ever!
Lankey May 20th 2010 8:26AM
To me, that payment history said a totally different story.
Credited days? Free months? Things forgotten in today's game. Had a night of unplayable lag throughout the server while in Blackwing Lair? Expect to see that day given back to you on credit. Have a night of unplayable lag in Icecrown? Deal with it.
I'll admit it makes very little difference to the amount of money spent but it at least showed that Blizzard cared and was trying to say "sorry" for the problems. Seems like we're just meant to roll over and accept it when it happens now.
StGeorge78 May 20th 2010 8:30AM
Free days of credit does not compute for the Kotick-owned Blizzard. I think he'll find a way to charge you a $5 premium each month when your average latency is under 3000 and less than a week of outages as a "superior service surcharge."
Iirdan May 20th 2010 9:20AM
Kotick owns Acti-Blizzard, not Blizzard.
Terrant May 20th 2010 9:39AM
I thought Kotick, as CEO, is management, not ownership (which would be Vivendi)?
dayninator May 20th 2010 10:21AM
I've been playing this game from the start in 2004. I remember when we got credit for lag. But I also remember that the lag and downtime was MUCH worse than anything we experience today.
We're talking about servers being down for days on end while Blizzard fixed or replaced hardware. Queues were sometimes hours long on more crowded servers. The lag experienced today is nothing like it was the first year of vanilla WoW, so there's really no reason to compensate players for it.
Also, Blizzard was never obligated to compensate people for downtime anyway. That they did so was a sign they understood customer frustration. They still do, despite perceptions to the contrary, but again, things are not nearly as bad today as they were 5.5 years ago.
Holy $#%# have I been playing that long???
theRaptor May 20th 2010 11:39AM
Blizzard aren't LEGALLY obligated to compensate people for downtime, but if they hadn't of compensated us for those really bad bits a lot more people would have quit the game.
People whine about the lag these days but it is practically lag free compared to only a year ago (when WG lag could cripple most of Northrend for 30mins every few hours). I remember honor lag and having to twiddle my thumbs for 10-30 minutes because you couldn't even move when the honor updated every evening. Oh and 2-3 hour log in queues at peak time (some of your raiders late? You aren't raiding tonight).
Mike May 20th 2010 8:30AM
Mine is a lot like yours... play for a while, get tired of it, leave, come back, get tired of it, leave, come back. I have a personal credo that one should never get back together with one's ex. Unless there are overwhelming circumstances involved, it REALLY is just not a good idea. However, I find myself coming back to WoW over and over again, like that on-again-off-again girl from college. So thats what WoW is to me... definitely not marriage potential, but when we get together, the late night romps are amazing.