I cancelled my account today.

I realized this morning that I hadn’t logged in at all this month and I wasn’t sure what the renewal date was (turns out it’s February 13th), but I wanted to make sure I didn’t give Blizzard money when I wasn’t even playing. It’s not like they need donations.

It’s not that I hate the game, I’ve just had no interest in finishing the Worgen starting area or trying a Goblin. Everytime I’ve sat down to play something recently, I’ve found myself clicking on either Minecraft or Star Trek.

So, why hasn’t it clicked for me?

I’ve felt very little nostalgia on my return to Azeroth. I think there’s two reasons for this. One, Warcraft was not my first MMO so there’s none of that first love feeling. Two, in my opinion the lore has taken too much of a beating over the last few years. So there’s been no emotional connection for me while playing.

Besides the nostalgia, I’ve noticed I spend more time thinking about features that are missing than having fun. I still like the stylized cartoony graphics and I was impressed with the no-modded UI improvements, but every time I get a quest reward I start missing LotRO’s cosmetic system. I’ve never been a fan or giant shoulder pads, and I miss being able to dye my armor. WoW is not a game for someone like me who will vendor better armor than I’m wearing because I don’t like how it looks.

So I’m letting my subscription run out, I would like to jump back in and at least finish the Worgen starting area just to say that I did, but I’m not sure that’ll happen. Magicka just released. I’ve gotten back into the deep end of the Minecraft pool after splashing around in the shallow end for a few weeks. Champions just went F2P and I hope to roll some alts to play with friends that are returning to the game. Star Trek has their third Featured Episode series coming out this week, and lot’s more exciting changes are coming soon. You get the picture.

WoWed Out
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14 thoughts on “WoWed Out

  • January 26, 2011 at 11:59 am
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    I canceled my account too, although thanks to a recruit a friend it’s active until the end of Feb. I really think appearance armor slots should be mandatory in any game. I understand reasons why it is not, but when you don’t have player housing – you need SOMETHING for players to feel unique and make their mark on the world so to speak. I think this is incredibly important. When I play WoW the only ways I can make the character ‘mine’ is through non-combat pets and mounts. Other wise I look like pretty much every single other player out there.

    Congrats again on the 201st post, as well.

    • January 26, 2011 at 2:06 pm
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      Agreed, appearance slots should be a default system like auction houses and guild systems. It seems bizarre that you can’t customize the one consistent thing you see constantly while playing. I assume that Blizzard’s reasoning for not allowing it is to make classes apparent from a distance for PvP, but I wonder if that’s really a good reason at this stage of the game’s life.

      • January 26, 2011 at 2:17 pm
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        I’d buy that if PvP were as finely balanced as, say, Team Fortress 2. Since it’s stupidly dependent on talent build, gear and level *on top* of player skill, I see little reason to use that crutch as a real argument against appearance slots.

        Any idea of how PvP goes in LOTRO for that matter?

        • January 26, 2011 at 2:24 pm
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          Exactly why I think it’s more of a rationalization than a valid reason now.

          LotRO doesn’t have true PvP but instead they have monster play. I haven’t done much of it so I can’t say if it’s a problem for minster players (or creeps as their called) to know which class Freeps (Free People) are. For all I know the cosmetics are disabled when you go to the Moors.

          • January 26, 2011 at 3:27 pm
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            Actually they are disabled if I remember correctly.

            The lack of appearance slots more than any other feature that’s missing from WoW just kills me. Swapping out my styling pimp hat for something that looked like a can (but had twice the stats) was a sad day for my mage.

          • January 26, 2011 at 3:33 pm
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            I had a vague memory that, that might be the case. I think I’ve been to the Moors once as part of an PvMP-intro quest.

            In my case, I’d just keep the better looking hat, which definitely is not how the game’s designed.

  • January 26, 2011 at 12:39 pm
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    While I am a big fan of post Cataclysm WoW, it’s still WoW. It still lacks basics like housing and a dye/ appearance slot system. Crafting gear is still a huge money sink that yields very few items on even par with gear easily obtained from quests and 5 mans. Combat in the game is still incredibly easy for the most part, though it’s not quite as toothless as it had gotten in the Lich King era. And the endgame still largely consists of activities that I have neither the spare time nor inclination to make progress in. If any of those are game killers to you, revamped or not it won’t have changed enough.

    For me the fact that class progression has been revamped, questing has been streamlined (no more hitting a wall of red quests, leveling somewhere else for a week, and them coming back and finish quests you’ve lost interest in), and neat little capstone quests have been added to most zones was enough to be entertained. However, once I hit 85 I’ll likely be done with it. I’m certainly not going to be playing it for years straight like I did with LoTRO.

    • January 26, 2011 at 2:10 pm
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      I agree about Cataclysm and WoW. Like I’ve said before, I’m not even disappointed that the game didn’t click with me. To use an analogy, it’s like bumping into an old girlfriend that you thought you might still have feelings for and finding out that there’s no chemistry at all. Even so, I would like to at least finish the Worgen quests, but just so I can say that I did not because I want to know what happens.

      • January 26, 2011 at 2:20 pm
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        I can tell you what happens. So can WoWPedia. 😉

        I’m not trying to be snarky there, either. I’ve decided that I can save money by reading questlines on the wiki if I’m really interested in the story. Yes, I hate the subscription model that much.

        • January 26, 2011 at 2:26 pm
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          I hadn’t even thought about that actually. But I’m not even sure I’m motivated enough to bother, which relates back to the lack of emotional connection I felt on returning.

          I guess once I’ve had the experience of turning a corner and seeing Rivendell or watching the Weathertop appear in the distance for the first time, anything else just can’t measure up.

  • January 26, 2011 at 3:26 pm
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    I would like to finish out the Cataclysm questing, but I’m sure I’ll be cancelling my sub before long. Too much good stuff out there to stick with a game that I’m not enjoying that much.

    • January 26, 2011 at 3:35 pm
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      I know what you mean, even with that huge list of other games to play in the last paragraph I’m sure I left out some things.

  • January 26, 2011 at 8:51 pm
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    I’m canceling my account too, though I have another month before it runs out. I don’t think WoW has become any less fun in the last few weeks, but like you, there are just so many other games I’d rather be playing.

    • January 26, 2011 at 10:14 pm
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      That’s really what it comes down to: time.

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