I have two 80s, three mid-70s, a couple 70s, several in the 60s. Learning the ropes of various classes, seeing various dungeons and challenging myself – I think it’ll remain interesting for a while. Taking the leap into Alliance waters for the first time in three years definitely helps.

Once in awhile I wonder if I should do something different with my spare time. I wonder if this is all a “waste”, but I’m still having fun and for now that’s what is important. If it weren’t for the people, I’d go in a heartbeat, though.

I’ve tried starting my own guild.. .but everybody who wants to raid is already in a raid guild, and I don’t WANT to be in one. I don’t want to be in a guild where a dozen people are expected to stand around outside an instance so someone can be replaced for one fight because the core group that gets all the rewards doesn’t include a hunter that can use tranq shot in the one fight it’s useful. Or be penalized for not being willing to do so.

I can’t even pug. Nobody running at the times I can. I hate achievements. I wanted the iron drake really badly… and there’s no chance in the world I’ll ever get it.

I get told that if I’m just doing it for the gear than I’m doing it for the wrong reason. But then why, when I was online and wanted to go to a raid that you were forming, you told me I didn’t have the DPS? What happened to ‘it’s not about the gear’? If I don’t get any drops, I don’t get any better, if I don’t get any better I fall farther and farther behind and I’ll never get a chance to do anything.

I WANT to keep playing… I do… but what else can I do in the game?

While there are many players that have been playing for 2,3,4 years and may be ready for something else, at the same time there are new players coming into the game. In my guild, it’s great to hear and see the excitement of someone getting a big upgrade, helping to take down some huge boss in a raid, reach 80, get their first mount, or collect 50 pets. It reminds you of when you started out and had that excitement. Like anything, the freshness and excitement of WoW fades over time and you’ll never re-capture the experience of your leveling first toon. But there are still many things in the game that are fun to do and enjoyable. It’s a testament to the game design and depth that after so many years people are still enjoying playing WoW.

My main is raiding again. After clearing MC, BWL, and AQ40 in vanilla, I skipped “serious” raiding in TBC. Blizzard’s relaxed difficulty levels has allowed me to raid 1 or 2 days a week and still see everything (we’re working on Yogg25 tonight). TBC raids were always “srs bsns” and I never found a guild willing to work around my limited game time.

At the same time, my Druid is at the level cap and I’m having an absolute BLAST as a Cat in PvP and a tree in PvE. At this point I’ve moved my warlock from “Main” (vanilla) to 1st alt (TBC) and now Enchanter for my mains.

Sooner or later WoW will lose its appeal, or something better will come up. But for now, I’m still having fun – even if it’s a different kind of fun I had when I first started.

I think this phenomena is a matter of growing up. WoW splashed on the scene and drew millions of subscribers. Now obvously people of all ages play, but the bulk core of the game was likely that group in roughly the college age group, or generally the demographics that could manage the huge time input.

That whole age band of players is now in a different place in their lives than when they started the game, to an extent they’ve grown up in terms of their RL careers, families, what have you. And WoW has grown up with it. Pure conjecture on my part but I think the core demographic has shifted because that core has had life changes in the intervening years. That and the playerbase has grown beyond it’s original demographics, you have to draw from other wells to get to 12 million players.

So WoW adapts, and content is sized more for shorter time frames and more forgiving tuning. The often heard lament that they’re pandering to the casuals has some merit, but the demographics of the game has changed with the passage of time and the expansion of the player base.

I’m actually dabbling in Multi-boxing as a diversion from just raiding or waiting to raid on my main. Which makes me wish I could mail BoA gear between accounts, so long as they were battle net linked. I’m the owner of all 5, why not? But I also don’t know how much it’s worth it on a toon already L60.

BBB I always enjoy reading your stuff, you’ve always had a good writing voice and you don’t take yourself too seriously. I’ve noticed a lot of the bloggers I return to these days it’s more about their voice and anecdotes than it is their analysis or commentary. Hell, EJ carries most of the load for numbercrunching for ferals, but it’s far more entertaining reading hero bear stories on a blog.

I’m with the poster who said they wished Bizz would slow down the release in content. I don’t feel I’ve had a chance to go deeper into the various choices and also feel I have/can fall behind the uber-achievers who’ve zoomed through levels and dungeons. For this, maybe you are right: much of the mystery is gone. We don’t really fine tune our end game gear anymore; all we have to do is look up which is the best head piece for a lvl 80 boomkin and go buy it or farm until it drops.

Online, I look for good solid information. Your article on Vuhdo was fantastic, the timing perfect since I’d just started using the add on. Actually, I like the blog a lot (thanks again) it has a nice range of interest, information and story-telling. Keep up the good work!

I’ve even thought about stopping raiding as a way to cut down my play time. Call it burn-out or blame it on the constant machine gun changes we’ve gotten thrown at us or the new instances every second — who knows?

I still love the game, but I think there’s so much to do that I just end up cutting a lot out of it.