Abradix, on 22 October 2011 - 10:43 AM, said:
Within the first 3 or 4 levels, all of the gear I had farmed for months was suddenly obsolete... Somehow that was OK because there was an entire new world to explore, it was diverse and immersive, well thought out and constructed even better. Do you remember the first time you saw a Felreaver stomping around Hellfire Peninsula? Unforgettable. The guild raced to 70, this time the grind was a cake walk when compared to the hell that was 50-60, so hitting 70 felt like less of an accomplishment... Then they dropped the level requirement for mounts, and the exp required to level... More and more casual it became, which was still OK... Because we enjoyed seeing some fresh blood in the guild (even if they did all happen to be Blood Elves...). Then it was back to the raids, Karazhan and Gruul and Tempest Keep... More months spent with my stranger-friends deep inside the bowels of the internet farming pixels.
Finally came Wrath of the Lich King... Taking my first step into Northrend was nowhere near exciting. It was bland to say the very least. The quests were largely unimaginative and the scenery ranged from snow to blighted forest to snow... to blighted forest again... This time the grind was even easier than before, I felt no sense of accomplishment at all for hitting level 80. And you can now get your mount at 20... Oh and it also costs 1/6th what it used to. More and more and MORE casual... The fresh blood was still coming into the guild, but now it seemed more like blood that was freshly infested with AIDs. There was no sense of skill among these hand-fed newbies... And finally, the straw that broke the camel's back... You can now buy minipets... With real money! I was almost instantaneously snapped out of the dream-state that I had been in for over 3 years. Apparently my $15 a month wasn't enough... Maybe the endless grind for levels and then for gear was just meant to keep me running on my treadmill, always paying my dues. Maybe this game wasn't about fun or excitement for the players anymore, but simply about keeping the money rolling in. This was probably always the case, but it was never more obvious than in the WotLK expansion. I listed my account on craigslist, sold it for $500 of the over $600 I had paid into it and never looked back.
Perhaps one day I'll pick it up again... When/if its no longer pay to play... But after Blizzard merged with Activision I'm pretty sure they lost sight of everything besides profit margins. WoW provided me with some of my most memorable moments in gaming, its just a tragedy that they decided making money was more important than providing the people playing the game with an enjoyable experience. WotLK was the death of WoW for most of the gamers I knew in vanilla. Its for the casuals now. R.I.P.




















