by Drain » Thu Dec 11, 2014 4:37 pm
Great video, because I know many of us can relate. It's not too different a story from my own, but I got out earlier in 2008 after 3 years. I too started Feb 2005, couldn't have been more than weeks apart. I quit having almost everything in the game memorized, from quests, to abilities, to dungeon layouts, with a garage of characters at 60 and 70, and so on. When I came back playing in later years(2010 Wotlk, then again for 2011 Cata), it wasn't the same and I had fewer elitist or hardcore complexes. Some years in college refocused my priorities and I played a lot more casually. You can't put "WoW grandmaster" on a job resume, nor is anyone going to care about how many hours you put into it. Even paid game developers don't put in as many hours playing their own games, or games in general, as we do.
It's a shame I threw away some of the best time of WoW's life, because the later years ruined the game. I should have quit AFTER BC, but I had no idea where the game was going and was thinking about my own life. But even if I return to playing the game again now, it won't be the same. I'm just not the same kind of person that I was in 2005-2007. That was a long time ago, and I don't fear touching the game again. It'll probably take me ages to get characters to max level alone, something I used to do incredibly quick, and that was when leveling took a long time. The funny thing is that now days, the game has become a complete joke, as casual friendly as it can possibly get, and I couldn't be less interested in it. It's just not the WoW I remember or like. If I had played it first, perhaps I'd prefer it over the hardcore version from its old days, but we'll never know. The time and difficulty to do everything though is what made everything worth doing and made things valuable. WoW always had a sense of accomplishment because of the time and effort it took to get where you wanted to be, or get what you wanted to get. Those things are long gone.