For all the years and money I’ve blown on this game, playing it off and on, I can’t say I’ve hated it. It was alright.
Classic was a magical experience from about… levels 1-25. Burning Crusade and Wrath on Daggerspine loads of fun, playing ganksquad with my brothers in Nagrand and… I’ll admit I didn’t get very far in Wrath. Pandaria, I’m sad I missed so much of it. Would’ve liked to start my monk there rather than in WoD.
WoD was my start here on WrA, introduced by my friend who only ever sporadically plays. The identity of my character hadn’t really formed until I went through and leveled her twice-- once here on WrA, and once on MG. It took several months of thinking “What would be fun?”, and then comparing that with “What would be interesting to me?” and “What would work with the lore?”. Gotta say… it was a mess trying to get that working, because the guilds and night elf communities in WoD on both WrA and MG were not in agreement about what was and was not proper for Night Elves. Not adult till you’re 300. Don’t even look like an adult till you’re 300. I still express bafflement at the notion that a species that is expected to crap its diapers into its twenties could survive at all.
WrA, despite unfortunate first impression, was most accepting of the story I started to form for Vey.
Young Night Elf from Auberdine, probably one of the most recent children born there (and last) considering how dangerous the place is and how crappy I assume Night Elf birthrates to be. Given a vaguely Troll-sounding name, because her mother liked pissing people off-- especially relatives. Even pronounces it such, “VEY- ah-tee”, with a deliberate hold on the first syllable. Twenty years old by the time a couple thirty something Pandaren washed up somewhere on the Zoram Strand. Long story short, she turns from the druid her mother urged her to become to a monk with a decent grasp of druid knowledge.
Suffering awaits, of course, and everything begins with The Shattering. From Auberdine, into Blackfathom. Blackfathom to Ashenvale. Ashenvale to Hyjal.
Got flak from all sorts trying to play a Night Elf monk with any kind of relevance, but it definitely didn’t stop me. Hell, I gave flak to people. Still, wasn’t going to stop them either. Felt like I was playing twice the underdog. Girl from the boonies just wants to figure out what she wants out of the world, make her parents proud, and go on and be successful. Horde is against us. Twilight’s Hammer is against us. Naga are against us. And, a portion of the community is against us. “YOU CAN’T STOP THE STORM. LOK’TAR OGAR FOR THE HORDE.” And I missed Cataclysm so I don’t know any meaningful quotes from the Twilight’s Hammer. And on the other end, “You can’t play a night elf with any amount of martial expertise if you’re only forty. That’s ridiculous. You can’t be a monk, either. That’s equally ridiculous. Only Pandaren can be.”
Of course, this wasn’t a large portion of the community, and the fact that these thoughts exist weren’t at all a surprise. Lessens my pool of roleplaying prospects, but only barely.
WoD blew. Straight up. Well, the questing experience was actually really fun and magical, and the second time through was almost as good. I liked playing through the story of a “What If?” scenario on Draenor, I liked that the Draenei got a whole bunch of lore to work with, and I loved the soundtrack. But, end game took too long to come out, was a horrifying grind for the most part, and was overall not worth sticking around to. I dipped before Tanaan even opened.
But then Legion dropped. That expansion I’ve got memories about. I actually solidified my character right there. The whole thing, finally filled out, ready to rock, and ready to try and save the world with her two new friends: Melethorn and Telania, Demon Hunter and Vindicator.
What a motley crew we were, smashing our way through demons in Val’sharah, Stormheim, and plotting in Suramar. There was a lot going on in that expansion, and a lot to roleplay even as we were gearing up. Hell, I remember roleplaying out world quests because why not? Of course we’d take up tasks from the Wardens to beat up escapees and high priority targets. Of course we’d try to help out the Nightborne. Of course we’d try to cleanse the Nightmare. It’s bigger than just one adventuring group can handle. I mean, if you put together all the lore of the Legion’s invasion, Azeroth got freakin’ WRECKED. In the two years I played, I had this character go all over the place to combat the Legion and their co-conspirators. I even raided for the first time since BC, and I loved it. I hate raiding! Why did I love the Emerald Nightmare? I don’t know entirely why but I loved it to death so much that I went for Ahead Of The Curve, and got it while healing. We took our story all the way into Argus. We kicked butt. All kinds of it. I don’t regret a penny spent on my Legion subscription at all.
It was good. It eventually calmed down, I had to ramp up at work, and I cancelled my sub until the next expansion was said to drop. I was actually excited to continue our story.
Aaaaand… then BFA dropped the bomb. And then it dropped a real actual bomb. And it’s probably going to drop another real actual bomb. And then, in my opinion, it just plain bombed after the questing experience. I wanted to join the war, but I actually couldn’t be bothered. I forced myself through isle expeditions and dungeons, but realized it just didn’t have the same appeal as the last expansion. I tried getting in touch with my old roleplaying buddies, but… eh, we all got busy with work. I don’t blame any of them for it, of course.
Truly, I don’t think we would’ve been able to go very far with the BFA story anyway. All the talk about ‘incoherent storytelling’ and ‘cartoon villainy’ made me think, “You know actually this is way crappier than I first thought”. Night Elves have had the crap kicked out of them since Vanilla. We lose. A lot. From many sources. Most of our earlier allies from WC3 are gone, retconned, corrupted and killed during quests, or useless. Most of Kalimdor seems to not be viable for settlement, and the Horde’s capital is right there next to us, pushing ever onward for eventual total conquest. Even more so, now, than it was in Cataclysm. I’d say this is a great way to start an arc for “Lost my home twice-- now I’m bringing the fight to the Horde”, but I don’t want to. It doesn’t interest me to play a character that’s part of an overarching story that feels like it’s gone entirely off the rails.
That’s when I realized that, at about this point, I could liken my relationship with WoW unto a bitter romantic relationship, seen through rose-tinted lenses. I like the idea of WoW. A lot of ideas of it. I like what it could be, but not what it is anymore, and I don’t think any of my efforts can make it better. Everything I enjoy out of the current expansion is what I put into it, and even then only enough to log in every now and then to flap around like a feathery turd on my hippogryph to see what’s happening in Stormwind and lurk. I definitely enjoyed what I had, and I am now willing to just take that and walk.
I was mostly writing this just for me. Felt like I needed to get it off my chest. Eulogy for an old friend that was kind of a turd growing up, but still a good friend. Deserves respect from me if I’d taken the time to play it as much as I did.
I hadn’t really made a big mark on the forums like the heavy hitters of the WrA community. I mostly just used the forums as an outlet for cheap sass and snark, but I wouldn’t have bothered if you weren’t a fun bunch. Just have a hard time acting like it, I guess. Hard time connecting.
For the rest of you that don’t feel the same, I hope you have a great time doing whatever you do this expansion. I lament that there are probably more of you I could’ve made connections with. But, I’ll be watching from the sidelines, lurking on the forums to see what the community is up to, and maybe get updates from the few I know that are still subscribed.