The unthinkable has been done, I have quit World of Warcraft (WOW).For those who have been living under a rock for the past 6 years, WOW is an MMORPG(Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). Known to be highly addictive, difficut to quit and having a subscriber base of 12 million to date, WOW is the de facto industry leader in fantasy themed MMORPGs. For myself, I was introduced to the game back in 2006 and since then I have had the chance to see the game progress from a maximum level 60 to level 80. When it was released initially WOW had a maximum level of 40 compared to other MMORPGs such as Ragnarok Online which allowed a maximum level of 100 and higher. However it proved to be both a profitable and sustainable strategy of expanding the maximum levels slowly in stages as gamers will not be affected by the unbalance that occurs when working adults get ass wiped by teenagers who have more time on their hands for leveling of the characters.
The strategy WOW used to entice players to keep playing(USD $15/mth subscription fee) is the gear reward system. The more you play the higher the chance of you getting that epic piece of equipment for your character. Walking into cities with full epic equipment means you're elite because the stats on the equipments lets your character hit harder/increases your health bar so you can take more damage/heal more with every cast( depending on which character class one plays). To get these epic equipment one has to spend countless hours(3 hours on weekdays, 5-8 on weekends) fighting monsters with 25 to 40 other players. Most guilds used a point system to calculate your attendance in these fights(we call them raids). When a piece of random equipment drops from monsters, you will be able to use these points to bid for the piece if its meant for your role/class.
As the game progressed, Blizzard realised that although they removed much of the "grind"(tedium of leveling up one's character endlessly) compared to most other MMORPGs, there was still issues of working adults feeling ostracized because they lacked the time to organise 40 people to raid or spend time in battlegrounds getting PvP gear(Player vs Player combat ). Hence in the 2nd expansion of the game called Burning Crusade, the raids were reduced to 10-25 man sizes. Arenas were also introduced so players could fight short combat rounds and gain points to purchase PvP gear. In the 2nd expansion they also introduced 2 new races, flying mounts that allowed the players to ride gryphons and chimera in a new continent named Outlands and 10 more levels to a maximum level of 70. The 3rd expansion named Wrath of the Lich King had the maximum level increased to 80 and introduced a new class: death knights. At the same time Blizzard was acquired by Vivendi and grouped with Activision into Activision Blizzard. This was also the time when the number crunching came to WOW, they started selling vanity pets and mounts. As an experienced gamer with more than 20yrs of gaming under my belt I could see where the game was heading : Profit Margin Maximization and dumbing down of the game to satisfy the majority of casual lazy gamers who don't bother learning their characters mechanics or maximising their gear.
And as expected the coming expansion Cataclysm(SGD$60) which will hit stores tomorrow, will only have 5 more levels, bringing the maximum to 85. The other cosmetic changes were bringing in 2 new races: goblins and worgens, allowing some races to roll classes previously unallowed eg Tauren Paladins and Human hunters, changing the original Azeroth map and allowing flying mounts in Azeroth. There was also a bit of reduction in unecessary stats like Mana Recovery and introduction of "stored power" for special attacks in various classes. All in all not attractive enough to entice me to continue my subscription. Also my calculations showed me how much this game has costed me financially and how I can buy 5 new single player games for every year I spent playing WOW. Moreover 4 years of raiding without much success(thanks to guild dramas & work commitments) I have seen probably only about 50% of the high end raid content. Coupled with high latency of 500-800ms compared to US players of sub 100ms its a miracle I stayed for 4 years. That also attests to the addictive nature of the game.
So to close my WOW chapter I will say So Long WOW. To the guildies who I have played with I hope you guys will continue to enjoy the game. Hopefully I have entertained you guys with my silly naked dancing Rezzledaz and my awesome pink pigtailed Ashikubido(which means Art of the Ankle btw). Meanwhile I will pick up my old love of photography and start heading to the gym to build myself. And to say goodbye together are my lovely Level 80 characters:
So to close my WOW chapter I will say So Long WOW. To the guildies who I have played with I hope you guys will continue to enjoy the game. Hopefully I have entertained you guys with my silly naked dancing Rezzledaz and my awesome pink pigtailed Ashikubido(which means Art of the Ankle btw). Meanwhile I will pick up my old love of photography and start heading to the gym to build myself. And to say goodbye together are my lovely Level 80 characters:
