Breakfast Topic: Will you quit with a bang or fade away?
by Stephen Cheatum 
Aug 7th 2011 at 8:00AM
I always thought I'd go out with a bang, one last hurrah. Perhaps a ride through the Horde capital cities with 39 of my closest Alliance pals, leaving a path of devastation as we destroy anyone who dared get in our way. Maybe I'd take my druid on one last flight from Booty Bay to Light's Hope Chapel, or teleport to the Moonglade and fly down to Un'Goro crater. I'd take in the disjointed, chaotic beauty that is Azeroth one last time.
How did I hang it up? After logging on for a few weeks only for jewelcrafting dailies before leaving for work, I was late one day and skipped my dailies. I never bothered to log back on. After a week, I finally realized I'd stopped playing, went to the forums, and informed my guild leader that I would be removing myself as an officer due to lack of playtime. I hadn't fully decided to quit yet, and then I was cleaning up hard drive space. Five years of patches and expansions had inflated my World of Warcraft folder to almost 35GB -- and with one quick keystroke (and a subsequent confirmation), it was gone.
I was always under the impression that I'd have to actively try to quit, agonizing over the thought of never logging on again. I was wrong. Quitting was just the way life worked out. It wasn't something I planned, it wasn't something I was hoping for, and it's just the way it worked out. And it was one of the easiest things I've ever done.
Would you want to go out with a bang or out with a fizzle? Is there one thing you absolutely must do before you hang it up?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
dodgeballer2005 Aug 7th 2011 8:07AM
Shadowmourne.
dodgeballer2005 Aug 7th 2011 8:09AM
To clarify, I would go out with a bang. After killing the Lich King with its better, I would have fulfilled my Death Knight's prophecy. He would ride into the frozen wastelands a true hero.
Iano Aug 7th 2011 3:41PM
I consistently find that this kind of fizzle out is the only real way to quit WoW- my buddies who call it WarCrack and such- I keep thinking- you don't stop something easy and fun like WoW, you must always crowd it out. Decent Job, Family, Kids, Social stuff- and of course other games at other times- they just crowd things out. The idea isn't to quit something fun and relatively harmless like WoW- it's to crowd it out with other things you enjoy more.
That said, the Huge, Powerful hook that WoW has is that it can become an online community of friends- many people these days don't actually care much for the game, but instead care for the friends they've made in the game, and can't bring themselves to quit because it would let these people down/cut off contact with them- and they're your friends!
Activision/Blizzard totally knows this aspect, it's why so much effort is going into improving connectivity among people, like Real-ID and cross-realm dungeon finder.
Supapaw Aug 8th 2011 7:16AM
So I'm not the only who is thinking about leaving wow? Interesting...
Shela Monster Aug 7th 2011 8:12AM
I think most people will fade out.
Many people DON'T want to quit, yet they don't really have a choice most of the time.
Like you said, people get too busy outside the game and just slowly lose time and interest.
And so this is how the World... of Warcraft ends, not with a bang, but a confession that real life is intrusive.
Thomas D Aug 7th 2011 3:07PM
I cant wait till wow is gone and nothing but a memory,,, I dont know why,, I love the game but ive spent 7 years on it and no matter what they do its the same thing over again. I cant wait until writers are no longer interested to write columns for blog sites like this about WoW, I cant wait for the day the servers come down. Im really not trying to be a hater,,, I just want to see it end. I still play an hour or so here and there, but I still want to see it close.
SR Aug 8th 2011 1:18AM
You can always "see it end" by... You know. Not playing it.
I mean, sure. I'd love to see Justin Bieber's career end, but I'm just going to ignore his existence instead of waiting till he dies.
Circus Aug 8th 2011 4:46AM
For me it wasn't quite fading. It was more like disappearing immediately. I spent an entire day workin' on getting my warriors blacksmithing to 525. I went to log in the next day and discovered I had no game time left. Haven't been able to bring myself to pick up a time card since.
Sbao Aug 7th 2011 8:21AM
I'd probably just fade out. I'm pretty much just a social player now; so no need to inform the officers ahead of time. My closer WoW friends have mostly quit already so no big deal there. I'd probably send my gold to the remaining ones + cool guildies. I doubt that though. Most likely I'd put WoW away for a few weeks, months or until I get sick of D3 and re-install. So many cheeeeevs :< I'd never type D-E-L-E-T-E; that's for sure
Greyhame Aug 7th 2011 8:32AM
Fade. One of my week long breaks I take about every 2 to 3 weeks will just eventually keep going.
ferninii Aug 7th 2011 8:32AM
Mostly fade out here. It' just isn't worth the $20 to log on and do dailies. I'm sad to say that, as much as I love the old world revamp, the new zones, the more challenging dungeons/raids and particularly the new races; Cata just hasn't done it for me in the same way WoTLK did. WoTLK had a vibe to it, a certian something in the storyline and in Northrend itself. The look and the feel of the place that made it the most awesome place I'd ever been in a videogame. Add to that the best raid in the game [Ulduar], and the most awesome fantasy fortress ever [Icecrown], and the three best raid bosses [LK, Yoggy, and Algalon]; I just couldn't get enough of the place. Unfortunately Cata has been totally unable to inspire me the same way. The over all story line while it has it's moments lacks the impact to me that WoTLK did, the quest zones while great contained stories also contain one missed opportunity after another to me and so forth and so on. Cata, just doesn't grab my attention. I may well come back when the next big content patch hits, particularly if the Old Gods are involved directly and most certainly if Bolvar and the Scourge are involved. Until then however, our dear firelord friend and his buddies just don't entertain me enough to be worth the time and money. And sadly, most of my guild feels the same way.
Philster043 Aug 7th 2011 11:23AM
Why not work on alts in the meanwhile? I mean that is what Cataclysm really is - a chance for almost everything old to be new again.
I think people keeps overlooking this. Yeah, if you're only interested in maintaining your top level characters, then this isn't the expansion for you. I quickly realized that a few months ago with my own 85s. I stopped for a while (easily at that). I didn't fade out, I just plain decided the game wasn't grabbing me anymore and that it was time for me to step away and I cancelled my subscription. Then last month (I blame Blizzard's e-mail telling me I could come back for 7 free days) I decided to start up again and I've actually been having fun again by doing different things with all my inexperienced characters. And now I'm even gearing up my 85s again, too.
I'll admit my subscription is more off and on than ever before, though, and I might even cancel it again next month (as things are going to become more busy for me shortly here in real life) but that might be for the best. I like taking breaks and recharging my batteries.
But the next expansion should deliver better than Cataclysm if only because they'll be fully focusing on the future again, not the past. I'm looking forward to it.
ferninii Aug 7th 2011 11:39AM
The problem there is actually quite simple, all my alts are already lv85 and more or less raid ready. There's literally nothing left for me to do now but dailies and raid. And sadly the current crop of raids just don't interest me enough. I dunno, I joined WoW just before the launch of Ulduar and that was my first real raid, and nothing since has been quite so awesome to me.
vocenoctum Aug 7th 2011 12:11PM
I"m in a similar boat, I've got an 85 of each class, and a couple other lowbie alts on other servers. The issues as I see them:
1) Leveling is way too fast still, even lacking heirlooms
2) lack of content and diversity of that content: everything is linear and there just aren't that many branchs to run down. Once you hit 80, it's just the same roadmap.
3) accessible content is tedious. Dungeons have become the same "chain pull" as they were in wrath, and I think it was even quicker than in Wrath myself, but that's debateable. BUT, they're still long dungeons. Lots of trash, lots of spready out bosses down winding hallways, arbitrary fight mechanics that are are "save or die" mechanics. ("you interupt, you live, you fail just once, you wipe, have fun!")
SR Aug 7th 2011 12:57PM
The main issue with Cataclysm, in my opinion, is the fact that there's SIGNIFICANTLY more grinding to do in order to get anything done (compared to Wrath of the Lich King).
Considering I entered the game late-BC and only got to raid in Wrath, the amount of required grinding was... just right. Most of the reputation grinds were done rather quickly, save for Hodir, which didn't take much to finish. Once the main quest line was done, we resorted to turning in the Ulduar scrap thingies and doing their dailies, but it still flowed rather well.
We look at Cataclsym, and while I enjoy the content very much, I've noticed a few... errors... in their approach to designing this expansion:
GRINDING. We enter Tol'Barad, and.... Oh hey. Bunch of blue exclamation marks, filled with boring, "go here, kill this, fetch that" type of quests, forcing players to repetitively do these time-consuming yet boring dailies from neutral to exalted. Worse, the exalted trinket, "Mirror of Broken Images", was required by most guilds because of its high mitigation through resistance. Other trinkets were... Sub-par.
TOO LINEAR. With Wrath, playing 2 characters, one could reach from 70 to 80 without crossing over ANY quests, and it felt like playing another side of the storyline. Do I want to go from Borean, then to Dragonblight, then to Scholazar and finish up in Icecrown? Or do I want to go to Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills, Zul'Drak, then ding in Storm Peaks? Not to mention, the instance choices were fantastic; although it got grindy and old after... HUNDREDS of runs for Emblems of Frost and such, the burnout didn't happen until the JP conversion. (at least for me) "We look at Cata, and... Oh hey, I can go to Hyjal or Vashj'ir! And then... Oh, Deepholm... I'm already 84? Oh... Gotta go to Twilight Highlands. Uldum? Why would I... Ohh, I leveled too much in Vashj'ir... I alrady out-leveled it..." And then the grind begins. On nearly ALL factions.
Not to mention... Most of the quests in Wrath had little hubs that we could go to once we got bored of the main questline, and skip most of the irrelevant finishers. Whereas with Cata, well, if you stray from the main quest, you're stuck with dungeons or good'ol' grindin'.
As much as I love Cata and raiding, I'm tired of grinding. Now, excuse me, as I help the guild get the legendary staff and work on exalted with Avengers of Hyjal... 21k rep purely from bosses sound like total bliss.
SR Aug 7th 2011 4:15PM
Another critical flaw that was present in Cataclysm and not in any other expansion is the lack of entry-level raid tier at release. While I can't disagree with their stance on "Epics have ceased to become epic" opinion, the fact that we received the same quality of gear as we always had (rare) even at 85 after a day's worth of nerve-wracking, heart-breaking runs of early Heroics (Admit it... Those things were hard as hell at release of Cata.) probably discouraged a lot of people. The rewarding feel of completing a bloody run through a cave filled with rocks and cultists and more rocks... was just another blue, rare-quality item. It doesn't help that they've re-used many of those models from leveling, and... Since that's what we had to wear to start raiding, as Wrath of the Lich King showed, we got burnt out on it. Fast.
With Wrath, heroics had epics at the end of the run, and most of them used unique models. The Loyal Crest of Lordaeron was a very special shield, and one of the best looking shields to date (in my opinion). Red Sword of Courage was an excellent tank weapon, and didn't get a re-tex until Halls of Reflection. Drake-mounted Crossbow is still a unique model, to this day. And who can forget the awesome visuals of Colossal Skull-Forged Cleaver, or Greed? While armors were the same as raid-quality drops, they still shone brighter than typical loot. (Planetary Helm, which used the typical Vrykul drinking bucket-helm Vs. Chitin Shell Greathelm, which used the DK starting helm)
Apologies for making this a bitchfest for Cata, but... As much complaints Wrath got (and how easy it was... I won't deny it. I PUG-raided quite efficiently the whole expansion, even seeing end-bosses), they've done some things right.
jealouspirate Aug 7th 2011 8:36AM
I quit back at the end of February (but still read this and other WoW blogs on occasion), and it was basically a fade out. I just kept logging on less and less until it no longer made fiscal sense to pay a subscription to something I wasn't using.
I think, generally, if you care enough about WoW to "go out with a bang" then you probably care enough to keep playing. It's the people who no longer care enough to even empty their mailbox, turn in completed quests or say goodbye to people who are really quitting.
For me I remember opening up my stupid Myterious Egg, which I had done faithfully for years, to find another Tickbird Hatchling. Sighing, I thought "Well, I guess I have to head to Northrend and get another one". Then a thought came to me: "No, you don't. You don't have to do that". That was basically when it all came crumbling down. Once you stop wanting to do repetitive tasks that aren't fun for some temporary reward down the line, there's a lot less reason to play.
Miz Aug 7th 2011 2:44PM
That's exactly what I was thinking. If you care and enjoy the game enough to make a big event out of you quitting, than you probably will be back in a couple of weeks. Most people simply fade out, enjoying the game less and less and eventually dropping it.
I also stopped playing WoW for like half a year now. I simply disliked the quests, I loathe dailies as a concept and refuse to do any, and I am socially active therefore I can't dedicate entire nights to raiding.
I also find PvP in WoW lackluster - if you want to PvP, play a real game designed with it in mind, like LoL, Starcraft or Counterstrike. You don't have to endure the "gear>>>>>>>>>>>skill" system used by Blizzard.
Therefore, besides a hole in my funds, there is little that playing WoW offers me. I'd rather spend the money on a game that I play because it's fun, not because Blizzard waves in front of me some gear with leet numbers or shiny mounts to motivate me to go through these chores.
Billlop Aug 7th 2011 8:37AM
I met my GF in wow and we have both made too many friends in wow to just quit, if we did then it would probably be a long process
Yamara34 Aug 7th 2011 8:42AM
When I quit this past June, I guess I just was fading all this spring. BUT I knew I was starting grad school on a certain date this July, so I logged back on to get my last "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been" achievement - the Midsummer Fire Festival. I got my title, I got my Violet Proto-Drake, and I unsubbed and then uninstalled the game from my computer...
Don't have the heart to delete my Main or her drake, though...
Or to not go check out WoW Insider...(Mostly I avoid it though. It makes me sad. But even if I hadn't needed to quit to focus on school...I wasn't playing much. I actually went an entire month without WoW without noticing! I think that was this April...)