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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast 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 4 of 6)
DarkWalker Aug 7th 2011 11:32AM
WTB proper comment system
Philster043 Aug 7th 2011 11:34AM
I've been slowly fading away - but it's a long process. I might even come back in full force. But still, I can't see myself playing as much as I used to - simply because I've seen all that WoW has to offer. The fun for me really was in discovering it all, and it took two fun-filled years to do so. I won't lie, I am more than ready for a different MMORPG - or I should say, world - at this point. And I think Blizzard is too, hence their new plans to do another.
Nevertheless even if I stop for a prolonged period, when the next expansion comes out, I'll definitely get on my characters and go forth and conquer it as well.
For that reason I'll never delete any of my characters. I love them all, and there's always a chance for further adventures with them.
If I'm not playing, I can always imagine my characters kicking it back in the cities I left them in and doing mundane things for a change. Hence my chosen route of just "fading."
Necromaniac Aug 7th 2011 11:41AM
Last lines of the excellent poem "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Elliot:
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
DarkWalker Aug 7th 2011 11:43AM
I stopped back in January; it was a fade.
Cataclysm was just not my thing. I basically had stopped doing anything apart from tanking a single normal LFD run per day (Heroic took more time than I was able to have in a single sitting), then a week before my sub ran out I emptied my mail, started gifting all my crafting mats to friends and guild mates that could make use of them, said my good byes, and left when my sub lapsed.
I'm still looking at WoW news; I still have some hope Blizzard will turn the game back into something I can enjoy, though right now I don't think this can happen in Cataclysm.
Merrena Aug 7th 2011 11:53AM
I'm already on the verge of quitting again because I log on for like 5 minutes a day unless there's something going on.
Here's how I'm gonna quit:
Wait for the mail to come on (day not announced yet).
Yell with joy and disassemble my giant box of awesome SWTOR Collector's Edition.
Log into Battle.net, cancel subscription.
Create SWTOR account.
Sara Aug 7th 2011 12:02PM
I quit WoW back in the end of March-early Aprilish due to too much social drama between certain people in my guild and myself, as well as the fact a friend (who I'd know for four years and had done almost everything with) and I had a major falling out, with no choice nor want of reconciliation on either side. WoW had not become a game, it had become a social torture. I always felt alone but obligated to play and be available/help my guild, and eventually in early March I decided I had to do something. I didn't delete any of my characters, but I simply logged out one day and never came back.
A few weeks ago, however, my boyfriend and I had a discussion about going back to WoW, and although he was nervous about it because we had had relationship issues due to all the shit going on in the game before, he agreed to come back with me as long as we played on his server. I actually made him go into my account and delete my old characters as soon as we re-subbed together. I was afraid I'd go back to my old server since my 85s were there, and while I loved my hunter and druid, the anxiety and issues I had dealt with in-guild and with ex-friends had tainted them to a point where I couldn't seem them as "just characters", but rather as visual representation of memories I didn't want to see.
We made a druid/shammy team and have already leveled them to 58 in about 8 days, via questing and dungeons. I'm actually really getting into the game again, already planning on raiding, joined a guild that's already Lvl25, reading up on 4.1/4.2, etcetc. I guess to me, this game is made by the people I play with and, once I was able to find someone who made me happy to play, I was able to enjoy the game perhaps even moreso than I had since I started. :)
apharrington Aug 7th 2011 12:04PM
Cata just didnt do it for alot of people.
Though I havent left there's...let's see...
SIlly Goblin Music...
Too much Indiana Jones references. They didn't even try to make it just a little obscure....
Linear leveling...
SIlly Goblin Music...
Too much comedy in the quest writing...
And being able to gly anywhere took the mystery out of Azeroth for me.
apharrington Aug 7th 2011 5:23PM
Fly....WANT EDIT BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wheatbee Aug 7th 2011 12:11PM
WoW for me has been a very life changing journey. I'd moved away from home years ago to seek better opportunities and lost touch with friends and family. Then I'd discovered Warcraft from a co-worker and thought it would be a good way to pass the time since I didn't know many people where I was. Since I started, I discovered many of my childhood friends had been playing also, so most of us moved to the same server, started a guild and now the guild just celebrated it's 4th Anniversary with a big race on lvl 1 Warriors from Northshire to Orgrimmar where we waved at Garrosh before being taken down by confused Hordies. This game has helped me also make new friends whom I will care about for the rest of my life. And most importantly, the game introduced me to my future bride. We met in Elwynn Forest, then months later, met in real life, then she moved in with me and a year and some months later, we are about to go full circle where I will finally return home with her to settle down and begin a real life adventure. She's been my Legendary loot drop, and my best friend ever. So I owe alot to WoW and through all of the ups and downs, the only way I could ever consider spending my last day ingame, barring some real life cataclysm, would be in the picnic table area in Dalaran, with my fiancee and all of my guildies celebrating with Kegs of Brew and Delicious Chocolate Cake, celebrating a victory over Sargeras (hint blizz) and reminiscing over memories, former guildmates lost over time, and reminding each other how great it's been, while at my keyboard , tipping a glass of wine to the best guild I've ever known.
Then my fiancee and I would be off continue the battle against Diablo and his cohorts.
Chase Aug 7th 2011 12:30PM
I fade in and out all the time. Depending on my mood, current stack on my plate, girlfriend aggro, etc. I got my buddy addicted for a while, then he got busy and is playing less and less. I started a new job and have had less time to do raiding. It seems that real life all happened at once.
I have been couch surfing for a week. I have an awkward time from the time my old lease ended (July 31), and when my new one starts (August 25). At my frat house were I am crashing, a lot more happens than in my one apartment. So, WoW kind of gets put on the back burner.
On top of that, I just had to drive 22 hours (Midwest to North Carolina) to help my sister move out here for school. Just been a crazy busy couple of weeks. Moving out of one apartment for me, moving my sister into her new place, and then I get to move all my crap again at the end of this month.
So, to sum up... Slowly fading...
Kimmeh Aug 7th 2011 12:44PM
My husband and I both have subscriptions that we keep valid month to month, but we play about 2-3 hours a month, if that. We got Cata shortly after it came out, and his main is 83, and mine is 82. I guess I'd like to play more, but there's too much else going on. (Our goblins are in their mid-20's...the most established Horde toons we're ever had ;)
omedon666 Aug 7th 2011 12:39PM
Started fading.
Remembered LOTRO (my computer couldn't hack it when it came out, that has long since changed)
Faded faster
Introduced some friends to LOTRO
Contentment.
Benfrew Aug 7th 2011 12:51PM
Benfrew's months of playing run out in August, so Benfrew's paladin spent July completing Loremaster.
That should have been a bang, but felt more like a whimper.
With any luck Benfrew will be back when pandas rule the isles...
Heleos Aug 7th 2011 12:51PM
I take breaks every here and there, so I never really quit.
lolikitty Aug 7th 2011 12:52PM
A few months ago I was in the process of slowly fading away, and I might have quit completely if my guild hadn't brought me back in. Now I'm back in the game again, and I'm happy to raid and kill bosses, but it is clear I don't have the same enraged passion for this game I had before. While convenient, the "teleport in, teleport out, teleport everywhere" system broke the immersion for me.
EaterOfBirds Aug 7th 2011 1:03PM
a very abrupt fade as my laptop screen is acting up so i may have to unsub until i can get it fixed QQ
Cowaryliss Aug 7th 2011 1:22PM
I faded out I suppose. I'd decided to stop being a main raider in my guild towards the end of WOTLK because I was just completely tired of doing ICC every week and trying to kill LK25 heroic without feeling like much progress was being made. Progress was also slowed by having to integrate new players into our tactics etc each week as others quit.
Just c couple of weeks after I quit my raid spot the guild merged with the 2nd best guild on the server (we were 1st) and the LK died a couple of weeks later.
I started raiding again early in Cataclysm but I found I wasn't particularly excited or inspired by the raid content and I didn't really feel any bond to the new people in the guild. A few weeks later after a major disagreement with 2-3 of the new people in the guild I decided to leave. I didn't decide to quit the game there and then but I found myself only logging in for about 15 mins a day to do JC dailies and check the AH before logging off. 3 weeks later my account expired and I didn't bother renewing it. I deleted the game from my system and haven't been tempted to come back although I do still read MMOchampion/Wowinsider and do sometimes feel a bit of nostalgia for the "good old days".
Recently I reinstalled the game but haven't renewed the account. I sometimes feel like it would be fun to play through the redone Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms zones on a new alt.... but I don't want to go back to spending all my evenings playing WOW and neglect other stuff as often happened in the past.
Most likely i'll come back for a short time at some point towards the end of Cata/beginning of the new expansion and play for 2-3 months before quickly getting bored because I wont have a guild to do the end game content. I suppose I could join another guild but after only ever having 2 proper raiding guilds in 6 years of playing, starting fresh in a new guild this late in the game isn't appealing..
Plainswander Aug 7th 2011 1:30PM
Fade. I'm fading now. There' too much real life, and not enough involvement to warrant really being a "player" anymore. My guild feels like a guild in name only sometimes (I can only log on late at night, so that contributes I'm sure), and the "you must raid or grind" nature of things feels pretty dull to me. BC Wrath had more variety. Wrath was FAR more accessible. Cata has an unbelievably awesome leveling experience, but aft that it's falling apart.
Of all the expansions, this one, sadly, is dropping the ball the most.
Plainswander the Older Player
bdew Aug 7th 2011 1:34PM
I "quit" wow multiple times, always just stopping logging in at some point. I also always came back half a year or so later, so meh.
Funny but i never deleted the client either, i used the same installation, copying it to new computers every time i upgraded since i started playing in 2005 until the pre-WotLK patch, when somehow a beta patch managed to install itself over my live client and kill it. After reinstalling from scratch i am still using that installation.
wutsconflag Aug 7th 2011 1:46PM
Step one: Finish my gold plan
Step two: Buy out the auction house
Step three: Vendor/delete everything I just bought
Step four: Enjoy the pandemonium which ensues before logging out for the last time
*eg*