I dunno. Playing with friends is important, but I came into the game and made a whole new slew of friends who are important to me years later. I met those people by grouping for the harder world quests (and we don't do that anymore) and then by joining groups to run the dungeons a little (and we don't do that anymore) and finally by joining guilds with like-minded purposes. (and jeez, I dunno how anybody goes choosing a guild anymore).

I agree with McCurley's perception that the community has changed, not that the community has gone away. But I'm not sure we could all agree that it has been change for the better. I don't make friends at large anymore. The reputation I tried to develop around my server ("Oh, Merinna. I know her. She's a pretty good healer") isn't worth anything anymore. And there are few things more uncomfortable than bumping into a clique of RL friends and being the odd man out.

Anyway. I don't know that there's anything to be done about it. I can't argue with Neth's points about making more parts of the game more accessible. But I think cheap faction and server transfers, hurt the community as well.

This change in the community (and other things) all make me think more and more that WoW is just no longer the game for me. It seems heartbreaking, considering the good times and good friendships I have had, but the life in Azeroth I enjoyed simply seems to be over.

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