Declining interest

I think my interest in World of Warcraft has peaked, and is now declining. Not that I see any viable alternative for the moment. But last evening I rather spent transferring files, installing software, and fiddling with settings on the new computer than playing WoW.

My guild was doing a UBRS raid. But official start was 20:30 my time, which means that they probably didn't get going before 21:00. And then UBRS easily takes until midnight or so. Not really viable for me on a Thursday, when I need to get up at 6:30 the next morning.

The other problem is that I find raids less interesting than 5-man groups. In a 5-man group, everybody has a distinct role to play. 5-man groups are about teamwork and cooperation. Raids are a lot more chaotic, often more similar to one guy trying to herd sheep (or rather lemmings). Every individual player has a lesser part to play, it is often a Zerg rush with a lot less skill involved than a 5-man group.

Unfortunately 5-man groups are hard to get going nowadays. Even if more than 5 suitable people are online from my guild, often some want to play PvP, some prefer soloing and farming, and a third group says they aren't online long enough to do a dungeon. And then the remaining people are often missing essential classes, like a healer, and can't go.

It seems I'm not the only one whose interest in WoW is declining, there is now a steady stream of people leaving the game. No, no, this is not a doomcast, WoW is still gaining new customers faster than losing old ones, and Blizzard reports people resubscribing after each major patch. But the glorious early time of WoW, where everybody was having fun even if he just could play for half an hour is over. Level 60 activities take more time than that. And leveling your 2nd, 3rd, 4th or Xth character is less and less fun, as you run out of quests and areas you haven't seen yet. I'm still not ready to quit WoW, I'll still try to level my priest to 60 and see if it gets easier to find groups with him. But he has his own particular problems, on an old server like Runetotem it is nowadays nearly impossible to find any low-level groups. The meeting stone system to get groups for dungeons going unfortunately is a flop. :( And soloing is not half as fun as playing in a group.
- posted by Tobold @ 11:31 AM Permanent Link