compyadmin
11-25-2007, 07:13 PM
!! Lengthy Read Warning !!!
Between April 06 and October 07, I was addicted to World of Warcraft.
I began the game telling myself that I would play it in moderation, perhaps only dedicate an hour or two per day. But like many I'm sure, I became addicted. Like the other 9.3 million losers who play the game. (I think that's where their numbers are at now)
I even infected my friends, they all began to play too, it made me wanna play the game even more because now my friends were in on it, so we played, and it was fun for a while. Sure the quests often repeated themselves (kill 10 of this and collect 10 of that etc.) but we enjoyed it.
I even began to play at work on my breaks, in the morning before going to work, and then it just got worse. It came to the point where I began to ignore everything else because I would only play WoW, several of my PS2 games saw no love because of this, movies didn't get watched, things around the house didn't get done, and I began to lose my social life. But I didn't care, I was too busy playing the game. I shit you not, before I began to realize the awful condition I was in, I would probably play the game 12 hours a day on the weekends and 16+ hours on weekend days. I seriously can't believe that I would wake up, get on WoW, and then play until I went to sleep.
In November 06 I broke up with my girlfriend Krista of 2 years, we had problems in the relationship but I specifically remember ignoring her on several occasions because I was too busy playing WoW, I feel like such a stupid ass for being that way, I lost her and I didn't realize that WoW had a part in it, even if it was very minimal. Not having a girlfriend meant that I spent even more time playing the game, I leveled my character to 60 and then attempted to do the in-game raids, but the expansion was only two months away and decided to do other things in the game while I waited. The game's central focus revolves around extremely long grinds to get items that you want, and I grinded day and night to get my epic mount in the game, and to get better gear, I ran the same dungeons countless times over and over again, then the expansion came out.
In January of 07, WoW: The Burning Crusade expansion pack was released, and I was there for the release. I waited in line until I got my copy, went home, installed and played until I passed out.
Then the game stopped being fun, and started feeling like a second job, but my stupid ass was too friggin addicted to stop playing.
My friends had gone their own paths in the game, we hardly, if ever played with eachother in the game anymore. Some of us were farther ahead than others, me being the most hardcore.
Then I met my current girlfriend Naida, and I got her into the game, and after leveling my main character to 70, I leveled an additional character to 70 alongside hers. Then I went back to my main, and I joined a guild that did all of the end game content, which is where I finally began to open eyes.
So I joined this guild, they ran the higher end dungeons of the game, and I was there. We raided on Friday nights, Saturday mornings, and Sunday mornings. Raids usually lasted between 4-8 hours, alot of the time was spent dying on a boss, and then trying over and over again. Every boss we killed would drop some good items for everyone and loot was distributed accordingly, but the random nature of the items that bosses would drop proved to be a bit too random, and then began to border on frustrating. The most sought after items came from the final bosses, and these items had drop rates between 0.01%-017% which began to ride my nerves after killing the extremely difficult boss of a dungeon for the 20th fucking time and not seeing anything that I wanted, not even once. And just to add insult to that, I would have to /roll between 4 other people who wanted the same item.
Raiding proved to be the most disappointing and least rewarding aspect of the game, so I left that guild. I jumped in on the games arena system because I would be able to get good loot by simply playing 10 ranked PvP matches per week. But it still felt like a drag and even moreso like a job after I grinded 5000 gold for my epic flying mount, eventually I began to become very disappointed in the game, I still did my 10 games every week and got some good gear out of it but in October of 07, something happened to me.
While I was at work, I suddenly came to the realization that WoW was sucking up my life, and in less than a few minutes decided that it wasn't even a game anymore, it was a pointless grind that will become another pointless grind despite how great I make my character now. Then I stopped playing the game, I had said I would only "take a break" but that quickly turned into "Holy crap what was I thinking?? I need to stop this shit!".
So I stopped. I attempted to log on recently and couldn't even stand 5 minutes of it. I havent played since then and today I officially cancelled my account. I'm finished with the game.
Now I have a social life again, my friends are wearing off of the game as well, they're burnt out and now we wanna do other things, even my girlfriend is beginning to grow tired of it. I own an Xbox 360 now, I play games occasionally, I play other PC games now too, I actually find myself having fun, for once. It took me a long time to understand that the game was a waste of time, but thankfully now I'm finally over it.
And at last, a short list I've compiled of why the game is in fact a waste of everyones time:
- Classes in the game are constantly being changed/upgraded/"nerfed" due to player complaints of imbalance and etc. The class you began as will frequently see changes that also impact the fun factor of said class. Talent tree system will never allow for true balance because the game focuses on both PvE and PvP, one side will always be screwed with changes made to the classes.
- End game content is not easily accessible unless you coordinate with groups of upwards to 25 people to down extremely difficult bosses to get gear to kill harder bosses to get more gear to kill even more bosses. Results in excessive grinding/guild drama/not seeing the item you want for months/people bailing out/etc. Players who want to kill cool story related bosses (Such as Illidan) will need to do this thus screwing the casual crowd who also wanna see this content.
- The hardcore raiding guilds in the game are too hardcore and go as far as asking you to apply for membership (as though you were applying for a fucking job) such a guild is necessary to see the end game content.
- The in-game world feels fake, (my personal gripe) environments aren't seamless and appear forced.
- Addicts neglect friends, activities, work, etc.
- GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND.
And there you go. I'm gonna go ahead and say that I am a god damn retard for putting up with all of that bullshit, I still cannot believe how much of a fucking loser I was playing that stupid game. But now it's over.
Don't give into the crack, it isn't worth it.
Between April 06 and October 07, I was addicted to World of Warcraft.
I began the game telling myself that I would play it in moderation, perhaps only dedicate an hour or two per day. But like many I'm sure, I became addicted. Like the other 9.3 million losers who play the game. (I think that's where their numbers are at now)
I even infected my friends, they all began to play too, it made me wanna play the game even more because now my friends were in on it, so we played, and it was fun for a while. Sure the quests often repeated themselves (kill 10 of this and collect 10 of that etc.) but we enjoyed it.
I even began to play at work on my breaks, in the morning before going to work, and then it just got worse. It came to the point where I began to ignore everything else because I would only play WoW, several of my PS2 games saw no love because of this, movies didn't get watched, things around the house didn't get done, and I began to lose my social life. But I didn't care, I was too busy playing the game. I shit you not, before I began to realize the awful condition I was in, I would probably play the game 12 hours a day on the weekends and 16+ hours on weekend days. I seriously can't believe that I would wake up, get on WoW, and then play until I went to sleep.
In November 06 I broke up with my girlfriend Krista of 2 years, we had problems in the relationship but I specifically remember ignoring her on several occasions because I was too busy playing WoW, I feel like such a stupid ass for being that way, I lost her and I didn't realize that WoW had a part in it, even if it was very minimal. Not having a girlfriend meant that I spent even more time playing the game, I leveled my character to 60 and then attempted to do the in-game raids, but the expansion was only two months away and decided to do other things in the game while I waited. The game's central focus revolves around extremely long grinds to get items that you want, and I grinded day and night to get my epic mount in the game, and to get better gear, I ran the same dungeons countless times over and over again, then the expansion came out.
In January of 07, WoW: The Burning Crusade expansion pack was released, and I was there for the release. I waited in line until I got my copy, went home, installed and played until I passed out.
Then the game stopped being fun, and started feeling like a second job, but my stupid ass was too friggin addicted to stop playing.
My friends had gone their own paths in the game, we hardly, if ever played with eachother in the game anymore. Some of us were farther ahead than others, me being the most hardcore.
Then I met my current girlfriend Naida, and I got her into the game, and after leveling my main character to 70, I leveled an additional character to 70 alongside hers. Then I went back to my main, and I joined a guild that did all of the end game content, which is where I finally began to open eyes.
So I joined this guild, they ran the higher end dungeons of the game, and I was there. We raided on Friday nights, Saturday mornings, and Sunday mornings. Raids usually lasted between 4-8 hours, alot of the time was spent dying on a boss, and then trying over and over again. Every boss we killed would drop some good items for everyone and loot was distributed accordingly, but the random nature of the items that bosses would drop proved to be a bit too random, and then began to border on frustrating. The most sought after items came from the final bosses, and these items had drop rates between 0.01%-017% which began to ride my nerves after killing the extremely difficult boss of a dungeon for the 20th fucking time and not seeing anything that I wanted, not even once. And just to add insult to that, I would have to /roll between 4 other people who wanted the same item.
Raiding proved to be the most disappointing and least rewarding aspect of the game, so I left that guild. I jumped in on the games arena system because I would be able to get good loot by simply playing 10 ranked PvP matches per week. But it still felt like a drag and even moreso like a job after I grinded 5000 gold for my epic flying mount, eventually I began to become very disappointed in the game, I still did my 10 games every week and got some good gear out of it but in October of 07, something happened to me.
While I was at work, I suddenly came to the realization that WoW was sucking up my life, and in less than a few minutes decided that it wasn't even a game anymore, it was a pointless grind that will become another pointless grind despite how great I make my character now. Then I stopped playing the game, I had said I would only "take a break" but that quickly turned into "Holy crap what was I thinking?? I need to stop this shit!".
So I stopped. I attempted to log on recently and couldn't even stand 5 minutes of it. I havent played since then and today I officially cancelled my account. I'm finished with the game.
Now I have a social life again, my friends are wearing off of the game as well, they're burnt out and now we wanna do other things, even my girlfriend is beginning to grow tired of it. I own an Xbox 360 now, I play games occasionally, I play other PC games now too, I actually find myself having fun, for once. It took me a long time to understand that the game was a waste of time, but thankfully now I'm finally over it.
And at last, a short list I've compiled of why the game is in fact a waste of everyones time:
- Classes in the game are constantly being changed/upgraded/"nerfed" due to player complaints of imbalance and etc. The class you began as will frequently see changes that also impact the fun factor of said class. Talent tree system will never allow for true balance because the game focuses on both PvE and PvP, one side will always be screwed with changes made to the classes.
- End game content is not easily accessible unless you coordinate with groups of upwards to 25 people to down extremely difficult bosses to get gear to kill harder bosses to get more gear to kill even more bosses. Results in excessive grinding/guild drama/not seeing the item you want for months/people bailing out/etc. Players who want to kill cool story related bosses (Such as Illidan) will need to do this thus screwing the casual crowd who also wanna see this content.
- The hardcore raiding guilds in the game are too hardcore and go as far as asking you to apply for membership (as though you were applying for a fucking job) such a guild is necessary to see the end game content.
- The in-game world feels fake, (my personal gripe) environments aren't seamless and appear forced.
- Addicts neglect friends, activities, work, etc.
- GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND.
And there you go. I'm gonna go ahead and say that I am a god damn retard for putting up with all of that bullshit, I still cannot believe how much of a fucking loser I was playing that stupid game. But now it's over.
Don't give into the crack, it isn't worth it.