Another “What in the hell I have been up to” post

OK, I know I don't post very often. But does it matter? There are maybe one or two people tops that read this and I don't even know them (you). But I will continue to slog away regardless.

I have been playing World of Warcraft lately ... and am just about ready to call it quits again after only about a month of it. I am pretty much over that game, which saddens me to some degree, but I am running into all the same walls and most of the annoyances that has caused me to quit in the past.

Multiple servers - I know that logistically there is probably no other way to deal with this, but I hate the fact that WoW has 300-trillion different servers to choose from. I am not really happy at this point with my realm which I picked only to participate in a reroll guild. A reroll guild which has since utterly fallen apart, leaving me stranded on a server I don't want to be on. And do I really want to pay $25 to move a level 37 character to another server I might not like either? Do I really want to grind out 1-37 yet again (I've done it probably hundreds of times since 2005) just to be on a different realm? Answer is NO to both.

Boredom - I am bored to death with WoW. I'm not even sure where to start on this one, as it is so general and all-encompassing. I think a big part of it has to do with Blizzard's focus on developing the end-game rather than the whole-game. Where is the housing and the customizable clothing? Where is the actual enforcement of the (Blizzard mandated) RP rules on the RP servers? Where is the push to nurture and strengthen micro-communities like guilds, trade associations or even mercenary guilds within the game? And even though the 1-60 grind has been given quite the leveling speed boost, it is still a solo grind that I have done more times than I might care to admit. In other words the immersion in WoW is non-existent, and it still feels like I am paying to perform repetitive, mind-numbing and time-consuming tasks over a long period of time, not relax and have fun while being mentally stimulated.

Community - I hate to include this, because I really dislike trading in simplified stereotypes of people and their behavior. But damn. There are many kind, thoughtful people that play WoW, but sadly they get lost in a general glaze of immaturity. To me, however, this isn't even the biggest or most annoying aspect of the overall WoW community. It is rather a lonely feeling that one can expect to experience in the game without a pre-existing guild or by sheer luck of finding one.

This last is probably the biggest reason for my most recent cancellation. I took up the game again on a whim, trying out the WotLK trial to see how everything was going. I ended up becoming involved with a reroll guild that went quite fantastically at first. I actually enjoyed logging in and playing - and I mean actually playing with guild members in instances and in the open world not just "chatting."

Then of course everyone flaked. And now a month later the guild has about three or four individual players including myself. Now I find myself procrastinating when I should be logging in. Or I log into LOTRO (the Spring Festival and it's hedgerow maze has made that choice easy lately). Or I read reddit. Or I stare at the wall or google Doom Metal. Anything that does not involve me logging into a crowded ghost town.

I suppose that is in itself a feedback loop since I make it less likely I will find more people. But I find it hard to stay motivated as I'm not looking for a social chat club. Unfortunately that has been my experience more MMOs than just World of Warcraft, but WoW seems particularly bad with this aspect to me. That could also just be a combination of luck and personality on my part, however.

My account is still active, however, and I do log in when I make myself. Despite my focus on the negative aspects of the WoW experience, there are still a number of positives. The original magic is still there - that is the large, seamless world where you can climb a mountain, swim in the ocean and explore for hours and hours.

I quite enjoy the new achievement system, though achievements overall are becoming rather passe; perhaps I should say including achievements just to include them is passe. A well-done system is a pleasure, and I think Blizzard did at least implement a coherent system.

If I were able to wave a magic wand and give myself absolute power over the general development direction of WoW at this point, I think I would make immediate focus on refining the current guild system and developing new in-game community systems to bring people together more. I would also have the game tweaked to be far more rewarding to group play to give the new systems fertile soil in which to grow.

Personally I have always liked the LFG system for instances that was introduced way back when and don't really understand why hardly anyone uses it. Part of my magic wand initiative would be researching why exactly nobody uses it. I suspect there is a skewed reward/effort ratio in there somewhere.

Sadly there is probably nothing to be done at this point to fix the community fragmentation that occurs as a result of the multi-shard model that Blizzard uses. So I would play to the strengths of this model rather than wallow in its weaknesses. That is, introducing realms with slightly customized rulesets.

I always thought they should implement a fatigue XP negative bonus. In fact, having played Diablo, I was expecting it when I logged in to WoW the first time. What I mean by this is having a three-tiered XP system, rather than two. As it is now you earn a bonus rate of XP gain when logged out. With fatigue you earn a negative bonus XP rate the more you play, similar to how you go from rested to normal. So if you are grinding mobs for hours at a time, you eventually go from blue XP to purple XP to red XP, where you will be taking a small percentage hit to the XP you earn for mob kills.

So why not open a few realms with this mechanic in place and see what players make of it? We could also have one or two FFA PVP with full loot realms (of course with the caveat that the overall game would not be balanced for that play-style). One could think of these servers as being griefer-sinks like mounts are gold-sinks, lol.

OK, I am rambling so I'll cease. I am interested in hearing what you think about my ideas, so please leave a comment!