Ross Peroting It - Quitting & Rejoining
iTZKooPA on Friday, October 31, 2008 - 11 Comments Tags: bail, double dipping, quitting, quitting and rejoining, spaceships, subscription expiration, the burning crusade, wotlk, wrath 
There was another topic I almost addressed in yesterday's post on World of Warcraft and other games (they do exist!). I chose not to discuss it because it is a wholly other topic, deserving of its own post. Also, it would have derailed the main point of the post, seeing what you guys are playing, and how you fit it into your MMO regiment.
So here it is folks. I once stopped playing World of Warcraft. No, no. It wasn't one of those times where your friend throws a hissy-fit and quits, only to return a week later. I was gone for awhile, and I went cold turkey to top it off. This was actually around the same timeframe that I quit, just before an expansion.
There are a handful of reasons behind my decision, but the main issue was that I felt Blizzard Entertainment was double dipping. I had no issue paying for a subscription fee, but that, coupled with planned yearly expansions – that cost $39.99 – kind of pissed me off. I knew that the double dipping was the norm of Western MMOs, but that didn't mean I had to like it. So there I was, just a month before The Burning Crusade was set to drop, still raiding Naxxaramas, and I let my account expire. At the time, I would have been happy with paying $20 a month, so long as they kept releasing the awesome content patches semi-regularly.
My main reason was clearly a fiscal concern. The other reasons, not so much. My number two would be that I was constantly upset at missing all those classic games I mentioned. Then there was my concern with the upcoming content. I just wasn't excited about what The Burning Crusade had to offer. The feature set seemed too underwhelming to me, two new races, umm, okay, whatever. Swapping Paladins and Shamans? Sorry, but sounds like they just got fed up trying to balance the classes. Spaceships??? Add to that a collapsing guild, changes in the raid structure and a host of small issues and I had enough reasons to bail.
I never lost touch with the community, and frequently conversed with my Rogue buddies while I was away. A few tried to suck me back in, and luckily, they finally did. Months went by, but I was finally pulled back into Warcrack and was happy to return. Even if things weren't the same. TBC turned out to be a lot better than I anticipated (I thought it was going to suck...), with my favorite feature being short and sweet 5-man content mixed in with more epic stuff.
No worries about me ditching this time though. Blizzard has me on the edge of my seat waiting for Wrath of the Lich King. Arthas, you are not prepared!
Reader Comments (11)
FIRST :P
Back before the BC expansion came out, I played while I was in college and it was hardcore, between classes and work, I'd be playing and would typically play until the wee hours of the morning. I got to somewhere in the lower 30's shortly after I graduated and got a full time job and started a relationship as, so since obligations in RL took up most of my time I decided I had better quit as I couldn't see playing just casually. Fast-forward almost two years later and I still have the job and got married but was rather bored with the writers strike and no other video games entertaining me, I decided to get back into the game and play casually. I know play maybe an hour or so a few nights a week maybe a couple hours a time during the weekend, I got myself up to a 67 Shaman (enhancement) and will hopefully be at 70 before Wrath hits. I do find playing as a casual rewarding, just in a different way then when I did play hardcore.
Spinebreaker US - 67 Tauren Shaman
second ? i also quit for a really long time (started a few weeks ago), after playing from release up to naxxramas as i felt TBC was a pile of horse dung. My concers weren't fiscal, merely those that the the game was lacking it's initial luster and the expansion did nothing for me. I came back a few time, but was disappointed. Now I'm super excited for the expasion (wotlk looks amazing) and i'm back to stay for a while i think
I'm really glad to hear someone else unhappy about having to pay full price for the expansions on top of the subscription fee. I made the mistake of complaining about this when BC came out and got shot down in flames. But it still felt wrong paying just as much for an "expansion" as I did for the full game, on top of the $15 month I'd already been giving Blizzard for over a year.
I have also taken these last few months off before the expansion to play other games. I felt that I got all I needed out of TBC.
As price goes I still think WOW is the cheapest game you can play for the amount of content you get. If i did not play WOW I would have to pay $50 for a new game and have it finished/bored with it with in a month. WOW allows me grow may character and only pay the $50 for an expansion every 2 years and only costing me $15 a month. In these last few months off WOW I think I have spent $200 on games.
As other games go I hate it when I find a game that I really like but it ends to soon or you get stuck on section and there is no alternative route. That's what I like about WOW there are options to grow your character.
When will you childish little kids stop posting first underneath every single blog without any other really reaction? plz grow up
I wont lie. I feel like quitting wow a lot.. The current plan is to level one of my lvl 70 toons to 80, to raid all the lvl 80 instances/raids and than to give it up for good.
Your web is great, I learned something about WOW here.
Man,I love that picture,I was wondering how the page to unsubscribe looked like,pretty funny how they're trying so desperatly to keep you playing,YOU MAKE PEON UNHAPPY! lol... then asking to call them first before actually unsubcribing AND add why you leave.WoW seems to be hard to get out of,which got me wondering,is it just a game or a cult?
More on topic,I don't mind buying expansions seeing how much more content they give,I just hope they haven't showed all the coolest content(seen alot of awesome looking quests) which got me wondering if what's left are quests of the "kill x and give me y item" like we've had hundreds of in vanilla wow and BC. All in all,blizzard really adds alot more free content than most other companies.
Dude, A lot of posts already with you whining...write about something interesting plz...kinda getting annoying already.
Rsin what are you talking about? I haven't read many posts by iTZKooPA with the general topic being complaining...even so, complaints are needed sometimes.