When WoW becomes casual for everyone

A friend of mine tried in vain to get something going with a bunch of friends and family (some in different time zones) in WoW Sunday.

All of us can be considered casual now, with only a few raiding here and there. The problem was unwittingly expecting we'd all be free to do something right then and there.

My friend logged off exasperated, and a bit overblown in my book, commenting about quitting WoW completely.

Yet I think it explains how WoW has become for me perfectly. I want to play casually, when, where and for how long I want to. I thought this only affected raiding. You can't progress very far if everyone in the guild has my attitude. (Keep in mind if you're down two person that's actually an achievement.) So if more and more people have my attitude and decide not to show up that doesn't fare well for the raids.

But actually it works the same for smaller instances too. If a group of friends all have the attitude of logging on when they want to, the odds of them actually accomplishing something together are low as well. What each of us are doing is asking our friends to keep their schedules free on the chance we want to do something together. You might do that for a movie, or a night out for wings, but it doesn't feel right anymore to do so for WoW.

I think casual WoW really means going solo. If you log on and want to do something with a group, it will probably end up being a pug. Because if you and all your friends play casually and no one wants to adhere to a schedule, its just not going to happen.