Why I No Longer Play World of Warcraft

I almost feel bad writing this up because at the end of the day, World of Warcraft was such a large part of my life. And discussing what the game has become - in my eyes - feels like a personal attack on that part of my life. Maybe I just outgrew World of Warcraft. But it's just.. not what it was. It's changed. And not for the better.

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[MMOByte]

I almost feel bad writing this up because at the end of the day, World of Warcraft was such a large part of my life. And discussing what the game has become - in my eyes - feels like a personal attack on that part of my life. Maybe I just outgrew World of Warcraft. But it's just.. not what it was. It's changed. And not for the better.

[vbjoker]

Let me just say I am happy you are doing well. I too grew up poor, but as an adult in hindsight it makes you appreciate things so much more. Keep up the good content creation. We appreciate it.

[pepperonization]

I started WoW at age 17 when it was released, work a part time job to pay for the sub.

Raid from Classic to WoTLK, the story, the progression, zone design, etc is soo good. And the community back then was less toxic then it is now.

Went onto Cata, quit within a few months, skipped MoP and WoD, came back in legion, the game felt sooo different from WoTLK and the community became pretty toxic, the lore is good but you just feel that something is different.

After that I didnt continue my WoW sub, play other MMORPGs instead.

Recently i picked up FF14, working thru shadowbringer now, the lore is much better then WoW, less monetization compared to WoW and the community is great!

[Josh-]

I started playing WoW during Closed Beta phase 2, back when Forsaken could still speak common and were actually "undead" (and thus vulnerable to Paladin Exorcism). I played it pretty much constantly until Mists, at which point my interest started to wane. I didn't realize why I was playing it less and less until Battle for Azeroth: streamlining.
Classes were becoming more simple to play, which less intricacy and difficulty. The skill floor and the skill ceiling were too close.
Endgame was reached far too quickly. There was little incentive to explore.
Everything became repetitive: daily quests, weekly quests, garrisons, mythic dungeons. There was so much to do, but it was ALL THE SAME every week. And to quote one of my favorite movies: Hell is about repetition.
Well, Shadowlands was the nail in the coffin. They had a free weekend a few weeks after release, and that one weekend was all I needed to get through ALL of the story content and into the endgame. Less than 20 hours of playtime and the grind started. I never returned after that free weekend.
WoW used to be an adventure game with a dangerous world, intricate classes that could fill multiple roles (PvPing with a Druid in Vanilla WoW was a blast), and serious challenges to overcome. All that heart and soul is gone now.

[anthonyr]

Right there with you. I have memories in this game that will never die and it was such a large part of my life i'll never forget it. Two of my groomsman were people I met in WoW over the years and I have years of /played in there. But to me, it began dying years ago when they forced all the cross realm and LFG mechanics it destroyed the best thing about the game....the community. I said that at the time and very few people agreed with me, even veteran players, but I could see the writing on the wall. PvP and local PvE runs where you have to interact with the community and band together to get shit done was what forced teamwork and comradery and gave realms and guilds an identity. Years on and the realms are full of carries, pay to win mechanics, people with 100 alts because you can pay to level them and it takes little effort, etc It just became so soul-less.

BC and WOTLK were two of the most impressive, addicting and down right great era's of gaming. The shit show it has become leaves a bittersweet taste in my mouth, but the years I spent playing with great people all over the world will never be forgotten, one day I logged in and realized it was all gone. It reminds me of that time when as kids where we all went out to play with our friends, then one day we all went out for the last time together and we never even knew it.

[jescha]

I just liked the days back in MoPs when just Dailies, Raids, Dungeons, Gorgeous Landscapes, Intense Music&Tracks, Interesting class mechanics and story existed. All enough what could make a great MMO. With WoD all the mess started in WoW

[toffeem]

this is one of the nice videos about your self identifying and self progress view over time, thank you for opening up and sharing some part of your personal life.
We all have good times on WoW, but i'm gonna be honest we got older and have less and less time playing all day, the new generation of online gamers play a lot of Mobas/Battlegrounds/...,

[Kira]

Admit it, we all played WoW to see the conclusion to Arthas' story

[Barramut]

A lot of issues also made me quit NW after more hours I want to admit, waiting for Lost Ark now

[Dasmesee]

WOW = What do I NEED to do today

FFXIV = What do I FEEL like doing today.😏

[leo-jx]

I feel you. I started playing wow since the very beginning while I was still a kid. Same as you, WOW was actually part of my life and I enjoyed it so so much. AFK on WLK since I found my passion start to fade. Until I came back to play in BFA. Honestly, I didn't know why I came back to wow. But I just enjoy BFA even though it still gets lots of controversy. I met my teammate and we end up with 2300 in arena. That were both our first time getting into arena. It was such a beautiful memory. Now, I've quit from the game for months. Maybe I grow up, maybe it's because of the real life. However, it's just no longer the World of Warcraft that we remembered. I wish the best luck of my teammate in his real life. And I wish every one of us may get the chance to become a WOWer once again in the future.

[The_Based_Batman]

The first time I booted up WoW, I ran it at 15 FPS during the MOP era. Grabbing my first green item was so cool, then finding out there were, rare, epic and even legendary items shattered my mind. I played a rogue, and had so much fun because it felt challenging. The exploration, the fact that everything I picked up felt important, every quest low level felt fun, experimenting with abilities, getting my first strider mount, the roleplay community and aspect, the lack of a massive filter and normal players, it was... Beautiful. Listening to the LOTR soundtrack (Breaking of the Fellowship track) while exploring the Belf starting zone, I yearn for those days. Now it feels... Corporate. It's overly complex, it's too busy looking. It doesn't feel like world of warcraft. I liked fighting pirates and orcs and dwarves, there was something for everyone. Now it feels like a solo game ft. Multiplayer.

[atraxian]

World of Warcraft started pursuing engagement metrics over entertaining players.
The more gates that block your progression unless you log in every day and do your chores like a freemium mobile game, the higher the engagement metrics. Who cares if players have a good time when you put them into their little hamster wheels?

[Shurpy]

No MMORPG hits the same that WoW does to this day I quit 4 months ago after playing off and on since 2007 tried to play FFXIV off and on since launch also it never gave me that feeling that WoW did sad to see WoW in this state

[richardc]

I started WOW within 6 months of its original release, and still have my shadow priest from that time. The high point of the game for me was fighting weeks in Molten Core and farming Stratholme for Holy Water to ultimately be able to do the Benediction quest and beating it after hours of attempts and only after switching to a holy spec (may the dark side forgive me!) At that time, my character was me and I was him, the immersion was complete. I cried tears of joy when I got Benediction. But little by little, expansion by expansion, that immersion dissipated --- I started viewing my characters as animations. They couldn't be trusted to have the same skills after a release, the shadow went from superiority in raids to mediocrity. And fighting beside Pandas as allies --- well that defied logic (and lore.) I go back in every once in a while to visit my priest and take my drake for a ride, and morph Benediction onto a lvl10 priest to see if anyone notices. But it's not the same.

[carrieschmidt]

the beginning of this story is exactly the same as mine <3, honestly was not expecting much when i clicked but thanks for this video :)

[accelerator]

dont worry, you will end in Ff14 as one of those lost souls and become a bunny boy

[dusk]

Good summary.
I can't argue your points, nor would I want to. Your criticism's are are justified and warranted.
And given the history of this game, I find it sad that I share most of your reasons. my sub was canceled after 9.1 along the same lines

[binaryburnoutd]

Wow ended for me with Legion. that was the end of my story.

[Aaron-B]

Been a off and on WoW player since Alpha and i officially stopped playing back in April and i have 0 interest in coming back, for years my interest in the game has declined mainly due to blizzards poor design choices, awful system choices, and the consistent recession of adding meaningful content to the game but instead they plagued it with temp systems that go away year after year, time gate everything with bad RNG, awful time vs reward practices and the consistent decision making to kill the core audience in favor of the hardcore and E sports, on top of that there arrogance in the leadership and overall dev team pretty much since WOD has been staggering and it shows, the game started Dying after MOP for me, it started moving farther and farther away from what made the game good after MOP. Class Fantasy, content, reward systems, end game systems, time vs reward, expansions that actually added content not take it away, all of that started declining after MOP and had only gotten worse.