Weaning

I continue to wean myself off of WoW.

I've been selling bank stores on the AH, yet still holding on to certain things just in case I decide to come back.

Yeah it seems I just can't make that clean break.

The more I think about it the more I want to lean toward not coming back for WotLK. I think I used the idea of resubscribing for the expansion as a way to make quitting not seem so final.

I spent a lot of my gold (I didn't have much in today's standards) on buy reputation mats. I then spent the next few days doing dailies and earning it back.

I made a game out of how fast I could do dailies, thinking about what order would have been faster. But once again doing a bunch of dailies over and over, or a bunch of anything (re: achievements) over and over is what I have to step away from.

If it sounds like I'm trying to talk myself out of playing it's because I am. I can't seem to find another game to take WoW's place to make things easier. :(

WotLK release date speculations

We all have them. Here's mine.

Based the previou beta period of about 3 months I want to say they may shoot for an October release.

However maybe they'll try to push for November 23, 2008, celebrating the 14th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. That will also give them the Thanksgiving holiday period were people will have some extra free time to play and advertise to their friends.

Then again maybe they'll want to take advantage of releasing it near Christmastime.

Longest Countdown Ever

No not until the WotLK expansion is released, but when my subscription runs out!

I still have well over a month before I logout for good, and I still find ways to stay busy in-game.

But now that there is mention of achievements that you can only obtain *before* WotLK is released, it makes me wonder...just in case...should I attempt to wrap up more things before I call it quits?

And this is the same web I'm caught in spun by WoW's addictive spider. What about all the goals I never completed??? What about the goals I don't even know about that I want to complete?!?!

It is a nasty web. Nasty, nasty thing. I didn't sign up for beta on the chance I get stuck in *that* cocoon!

The NDA has been lifted from what I've heard. I still like reading all about it and seeing the screenshots. But no! This fly wants its freedom!

*buzzes away*

Achievements!

The announcement about Achievements got me excited about Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

I think EQ already has this, but the achievements actually improve your character. These are more like maybe LOTRO things like exploring several places will give you a "World Explorer" achievement.

I was excited and at the same time sad. Because the things that are stopping me from playing soon - spending too much time in-game, well Achievements make it sound like I'd be on acid.

I never ran out of things to do really, I just ran out of things I considered fun. And achievements sound like a ton of fun things to chase after.

Exactly what would keep me playing hour after hour after hour.

I look forward to them adding it. Not for myself. But for other gamers who don't have a problem with their slash played. :)

L2P terribad scrub

I guess I'm getting all the ugliness that is part of a mostly anonymous social gathering we call MMORPGs out of the way as my time winds down.

With the addition of arenas and the armory it is hard to have opinions on the WoW forums without your opinion's validity, accuracy and importance being called in to question based on how well you have performed and what gear you have acquired.

What puzzles me most is how often WoW players like to point out that WoW is extremely easy to play. And if you aren't a top rating arena pvper or Sunwell gear donning pver or even both there is no hope for you - you know because the game is SO easy! Yet, in usually in the same breath, we are expected to sit at their knee for achievements gained in this realm.

It's like learning to spin out on a big wheel, and looking down on another kid because they couldn't. Aren't you all high and mighty! Oh wait...all you've done is learn to spin out on a big wheel.

This is really only directed to those players who have let their "accomplishments" somehow go to their head.

I guess good sportsmanship is the term I'm looking for here.

Why is it okay here?

For some strange reason I was thinking about griefing the other day. "Griefing" - going out of your way to ruin someone else's time.

In what other games and hobbies is griefing okay?

Killing someone in PvP fine. But corpse-camping them? Going out of your way to wait until they rez only to kill them again?

I remember why I was thinking about it now. Someone went out of my way to say some nasty things to me.

At least I got over it quickly, but it makes me wonder why that behavior is tolerated.

Playing to the end

So what will I be doing for the next 2 months as my subscription nears expiration?

I find it interesting that if I choose to not do certain things because I'm quitting its almost like quitting anyway.

For instance, I went on a shopping spree like most players when Season 4 started. If I happened to already have enough materials to enchant a few of the new stuff I purchased I easily did so. However when it came to purchasing gems off of the Auction House I struggled with whether I should even bother. Because I would need to farm for more gold.

Do I want to spend my last days farming for primals? Or do I want to jump into a battleground?

The answer is an easy one. And I find myself still running around with a several un-gemmed, un-enchanted items.

But the question I've pondered the most is should I bother getting the best enchants/gems if I'm going to quit?

Which leads to should I bother getting honor and arena points or running instances for gear if I'm going to quit?

Which leads to if I don't PvP or PvE I might as well not log on.

But I want to play and knowing I have a time limit encourages me to decide what is most important (read fun) to me. And quit playing for what is going to happen down the line.

A recipe dropped and I collect recipes, so instead of passing I rolled for it. Who cares if I'm not going to play tomorrow. Today I added to my recipe collection and that is part of having fun in the game to me.

What would you do if you knew you only had 6-months left to play? 3 months? 1 month?

I remember a guild member quit raiding because he knew down the line he would have to quit. He didn't want to take gear that other players would need and he also didn't want to take a slot that could be used to train his replacement. So as a result he ended up quitting raiding long before he quit the game.

I don't really want to do that. I don't want to pass on things and quit earning things and stop enchanting things because I know I'll be quitting. I don't want to be left standing around in Ironforge until my subscription runs out.

Following AoC

Back in May I blogged about new Age of Conan fansites.

Can you tell how well a game is doing just by the amount of blogs that exist for it?

You can at least get a few ideas what the game is like from them. Of course they will be biased according to the blogger.

What brings me to this is the end of a AoC blog nearly before it began.

Apparently the blogger had high hopes for the game, but yet we see within less than two months this gamer has decided AoC isn't engaging enough.

As I blog this with the feeling of passing by an accident, I wonder did I want to see AoC fail? No, not at all. I wanted another game to pull me from WoW. And now that I'm canceling WoW I desired an alternative.

Maybe because I felt my pc couldn't run it, I wanted to feel like I'm not missing out anything anyway.

In all fairness, revisiting the blogs I came across back then, one of them mentioned they are having so much fun they haven't had a chance to blog. Then again, they also haven't reached max level.

"See you next week"

People post "I'm quitting!" and the usual response is "Can I have ur stuf?" but also a common response is "See you next week".

I've known several people in my guild who posted what sounded like definitive goodbyes only to pop up again months later. I'm not talking about the ones who decided to take a break for the summer, but the ones who say "It's been great knowing everyone and I'll never forget the fun we had".

I thought about this as I found myself unwilling to actually delete my characters even though I plan on quitting for good.

If that's my plan why do I need to hold on to my characters...just in case? I also want to get rid of most of my banked materials and gold, yet I want to hold on to a few things....just in case.

I don't even really want to come back for WotLK, so why can't I do a mass mailing of all my stuff to friend and do a youtube delete?

Is it because I'll realize I really miss wow and end up re-subscribing a week later?

No, I think it is because I just want to hold on to something I've spent so much time with -- as virtual as the thing may be. I would have bought a Figure Print if it weren't for having to win a drawing for it and also because the quality of the Figure Print is a bit lacking not to mention sometimes gifts are burdens (link to Penny Arcade here).

It is weird thinking about not wanting to lose ownership of my virtual loot. I've heard of people selling their accounts with legendaries on it and here I sit unwilling to part with my characters who were never at the pinnacle of any area of WoW be it PvE or PvP.

I rationalize it by saying I wouldn't get much if I tried to sell my account anyway and if I delete my characters I could always get a GM to restore everything.

So when my subscription expires my characters will still be there waiting for me, whether my break is a week or a month or a year.