Breakfast Topic: What keeps you playing?
by Andrew Ross 
May 23rd 2011 at 8:00AM
World of Warcraft has been around for seven years this November. Over the course of those nearly seven years, we've seen three expansions, countless content patches and a world event to usher in each expansion. That's a lot of content to experience for someone who has been playing since WoW first launched. Even for a relatively new player, there's a lot of content to experience on the way to 85.
What does someone who has leveled to 85, experienced all the endgame content and seen all the sights of Azeroth do next? What keeps them playing after they see and do everything Azeroth has to offer? I myself have various alts that are all at different levels. I'm an achievement seeker and always going after various achievements that I can do on my own or with the help of some friends. Even pushing the limits of my class by seeing what past raids and current dungeons I can solo is something I enjoy.
Not everyone likes alts, the achievement system or playing alone. Everyone has their own definition of what they consider fun while visiting Azeroth. What do you consider fun, and what keeps you playing WoW?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Rezai May 23rd 2011 8:06AM
My guildies.
MattKrotzer May 23rd 2011 8:30AM
This was going to be my answer, but lately, I'm not so sure, honestly.
Borick May 23rd 2011 12:30PM
My family.
If I could convince my daughter, my sister, my brother-in-law and a handful of others to switch games, I could save on the four accounts I maintain (Only one is mine).
Recently my long-time guildmates have switched to Rift, and while I'm not a fanboi of that game, it would be a lot easier to herd casual cats around there than in WoW.
I haven't desired to play WoW since Burning Crusade, but when that's where I get to spend quality time with distant family, Blizzard has me over a barrel.
WaterRouge May 23rd 2011 8:10AM
To be all honest? At this point it's 100% my friends. I enjoy the game when I play with them. The game is boring when I am not playing with them. The time I spend with them is enjoyable enough for me to buy a month's worth of time, as long as they do too.
Jay May 23rd 2011 8:12AM
What keeps me playing after I've seen all there is to see?
Short answer: People.
And sometimes when I get tired of them or loses all faith in humanity in some PUG I just give the game a rest for awhile and when I get back there's new fresh content and happy greetings for my return.
Rinse reapet.
furry May 23rd 2011 9:48AM
Answer: Short people.
The alliance loves them. Gnomes and dwarves are all over the place. Even the worgen who are cursed with height hunch over so they can pretend to be short "people".
Jari May 23rd 2011 8:12AM
I like alts. :(
joshychrist May 23rd 2011 11:44AM
this is it for me and thats not even holding me to the game anymore i log in maybe once a week
Dershum May 23rd 2011 8:19AM
At this point, I'm not sure...it might be some form of severe addiction, and I'm not kidding. I'll be honest, I did the raid thing in WotLK, but come Cataclysm, I find myself burned out. However, because I don't raid, I'm extremely frustrated that I'm so limited it my gearing options...the fact I can't get my hands on the t11 shoulders irks me to no end.
I feel like I'm just "doing the grind" for the sake of doing it at this point. And looking at 4.2, I'm still trying to figure out what it has for me, other than more dailies to grind. I just don't have time to raid any more (or the wherewithal), and I feel like the only thing I have to look forward to is an hour or two of dailies added to the queue, until I hit revered...then what?
wow May 23rd 2011 11:09AM
"...However, because I don't raid, I'm extremely frustrated that I'm so limited it my gearing options...the fact I can't get my hands on the t11 shoulders irks me to no end..."
This, in spades. Admittedly, I don't handle pugging very well due to the EJs i keep running across, but thanks to a very friendly Raiding Guild who helps my guild on occasion has helped a lot.
Shinanji
thepiratester May 23rd 2011 1:17PM
I feel the same- Its almost a WTF moment when all I worked for in wrath is over and the grind back to the top- Endless hours of wipes in my past progression guild sucked the fun out of raiding for me. I just don't have the drive to go through that again. Every patch just made me less interested thinking wow cool stuff ill never be able to see now lol.
I have been playing since the launch of BC and this past weekend I sent my letter of cancellation to Blizz and uninstalled it from my computers. I plan on trying out Rift until Star Wars comes out.
jessieveller May 23rd 2011 8:22AM
Raiding. With good people. Content never gets old or stale for me as long as everyone is logged on at raid time. I started raiding in BC, and I've never missed one lockout of any raid since. And it doesn't bother me that we raided ICC for a year...as long as I enjoy the company of the people I'm raiding with, its always fun for me.
Strawder May 23rd 2011 8:24AM
Right now I'm playing with my wife, and my cousin, who I just started hanging back out with after 17 years.
If not for that, I'm not entirely sure my new hunter could even sustain my interest in the new world and all the changes.
Saz May 23rd 2011 8:26AM
I'm also one of the folks who keeps playing for their friends. Sure the content is fantastic, Azeroth is an incredibly stunning world with a ton of engaging things to do in it after all, but without the people (namely the people who I've grown very close to over the years) I probably would have quit many moons ago.
Tim May 23rd 2011 8:29AM
I like meeting new people and chatting with old friends usually while I play alone. It's all good though. As long as I have someone to chat with, it's all good. I don't think I could play another game without the social aspect to it ever again. For me, something would be missing. MMO's or nothing as far as I'm concerned.
sprout_daddy May 23rd 2011 8:31AM
For me, it used to be the people. For years, I was in a guild filled with people I'd gotten to know and had fun with. Gradually, those people left the game (most after LK had been out for a while), and eventually I moved to a new guild. That guild was just as strong, but fell apart in the boredom that has been Cataclysm. I quit about seven weeks ago and haven't been back. For the solo player, there's just not enough WoW anymore - Blizzard has seen fit to de-emphasize the opportunities for solo players to enjoy themselves right as they eliminated the motivations for many groups to stick with it. This isn't the same experience as it was in BC or LK - without guildies around, there's just not much to keep me playing.
loop_not_defined May 23rd 2011 10:06AM
I'm not so sure about this. Strictly in terms of soloing, I cannot think of any expansion or major patch that has introduced as much content as Cataclysm, primarily because of the complete revamp of the vanilla zones.
DarkWalker May 23rd 2011 10:57AM
Really agree with this. In Vanilla, BC, and WotLK, it seemed to me I always had something to better my character that either didn't demand help from other players or (for running heroics in late WotLK) could be easily done using the LFD.
In Cataclysm, seems like the plethora side-treks in Vanilla content have been removed, leaving just a single linear path; going back to do WotLK or BC content became too much of a time waste with the removal of the old portals; the number of optional, soloable content in Cataclysm seems to not even come close to the previous expansions; and running Heroics through LFD both takes too much time (I long for it taking 20-30 minutes, total, between queuing and completing the instance) and, with the high failure rates, is too frustrating.
@loop_not_defined:
The remade content, while nice the first time, is too linear and limited. After going back on my main character to get the individual zone loremaster achievements, I couldn't stomach the idea of going through the content again with another character. The content is almost as if I was watching a movie; problem is, watching the same movie twice (or more) is not something I like to do.
loop_not_defined May 23rd 2011 11:59AM
DarkWalker: "In Vanilla, BC, and WotLK, it seemed to me I always had something to better my character that either didn't demand help from other players"
Could you give some examples? The only stuff I can recall is finishing uncompleted zones or grinding dailies, neither of which really compare to Cataclysm - unless you look strictly at 80-85 zones. Remember that many BC and WotLK dailies were patched in after release.
I understand your frustration with LFD time commitment, but it's not a clear-cut decision for Blizzard to make. The #1 complaint with WotLK dungeons was that they felt meaningless due to the incredibly fast pace and almost non-existant social interaction. It also meant regular dungeons went almost entirely unused - how many times did you use LFD for regular Halls of Stone or Halls of Lightning? I feel WotLK conditioned people to not care about regulars, or think the dungeons "don't count", which Blizzard is probably trying to change.
In terms of linearity of questing, I feel Blizzard has gone a bit extreme in some places where it wasn't necessary (Twilight Highlands - many subzones have their own unrelated quest lines, so why do they have prerequisites?). All in all, though, I feel it's really worked for places like Mount Hyjal and Ashenvale, where each subzone is tied together into one overarching storyline. The zones are far and away more interesting to me, compared to pretty much....every expansion, ever.
I do *not* agree with you regarding the trouble with redoing zones. I have *never* enjoyed redoing zones, *especially* in Vanilla and Burning Crusade. WotLK at least offered the choice of starting in Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord, but that's a pretty limited plus. Sure, watching a movie twice can get stale, but what are you comparing it to? Vanilla and Burning Crusade weren't/aren't even movies. Questing was almost comparable to simply grinding on mobs for XP.
Lweydd May 23rd 2011 8:36AM
I started playing not long ago, two months I think, so I'm still amazed with content. I enjoy PvP, raiding, dungeons, professions, lore and achievements, so the game is very rich for a player like me. Everytime I think it's about to get boring, I find out something new and awesome to do...
I.e., yesterday I got cata's "to all the squirrels...", the cooking achiev "critter gitter", the Hemet Nesingwary collected quests and had a fun time with my priest alt. Great sunday, amirite?
Also, my guildies are pretty cool, so that kinda adds up :)