If you’re always looking behind then you can’t look forward. All you have today is to move forward. Don’t lose your future and future joys and potential friendships from being stuck in the past.
We all have grief over the loss of a friend(s). Or, at least everyone I’ve ever spoken with.
I still have some peeps that mean a lot to me after 10 years! But, I’ve lost some and it hurts. It is what it is and you have to move on for your own health and happiness.
i think you just summed up the way i’ve been feeling these past few months too. i’ve been finding myself playing less and less because i feel like something’s missing, and it’s just not as interesting to me anymore.
Exactly. I don’t see my interactions online as less meaningful than when I hang out in real life. In fact, I think the interactions are better because you’re getting to explore a fantasy world together, working as a real team, etc.
That’s why I think it’s hard to let go. The people I spent time with are people I triumphed with, had the best laughs with, got frustrated and worked through stuff with, it’s hard to move on.
That depends solely on the role those people fill in your life. Personally I’m not here to make lasting friendships. You are all like coworkers to me. We can laugh and talk and have fun doing what we’re doing, but i don’t want to invite the same folks to dinner, for example. My rl friends don’t game on pc, so i need ppl to fill that role and that role alone.
So while you might think ppl need to try harder to maintain friendships or w/e, i would argue instead ppl need to stop pretending that everyone you have a good time with has to become your bff. It’s clingy and a turnoff
I understand how you feel, I lost mine back in LK and then lost my new one in SLands due to guild drama. It’s not easy. Good luck to you and your search for new online friends.
I highly recommend during this time to find something irl you are passionate about and go for it. I know that advice is cliché, but it really helps keep your mind busy.
Just know that you will eventually find another group to laugh with all night, I promise. Just be patient. Nothing will compare to your old friends, but they can be replaced. A lot of people play this game.
I would love for there to be another MMO to take WoW’s place. I always thought that when WoW declined something else would come along to be the hit MMO, but that doesn’t seem to be what happened. MMOs as a genre just kind of became less relevant. WoW for all its issues has also kept a unique western aesthetic that no other game has really captured. FF seems like a good game but it’s too JRPG for me.
“Hi, I sit behind you in math class! Want to be best friends?”
“Okay!”
As adults:
“Hi, I noticed we have the same interests and the same hobbies and we are friends with all the same people and we live on the same street. Want to hang out sometime?”
“Absolutely not.”
I have found Lost Ark is kind of fun, maybe something to try for you… sort of gives you the adventure and what’s around the next corner kind of feel, like WOW used too.
How about just play a different game like normal people? it’s entertainment, some of you unironically need to get off your computers and go outside and do something healthy lol.
should be playing these games with moderation and not get so invested, it’s not that serious.
That’ll happen when in the liminal you linger, whether ahead be the rest of your days or their end. Looking back you’ll always want to return, even though you know you can no more do that than you can breathe life back into a corpse.
You’d better serve yourself making memories elsewhere. Really, most anything would serve you better than reminiscent despair, or at least give you something to do to distract from the cloying certitude of our numbered days.
For me coming back to the game after 10 years for SL to occupy the time during the world health crisis wasn’t something I regret. My experiences from vanilla to Cata before I left were some of the most memorable I’ve had in gaming. I met my in game friends on my first server IRL since we all lived close to each other. I did end game content with them from raiding to arena.
My other WoW group who became IRL friends as well I got in touch with through these same forums. There was a Blizzcon section on here and they advertised meetups such as bonfires months before the actual event. We planned after parties at the Hilton but the festivities didn’t stop until BC ended. There were gatherings at Dave & Buster’s and other bars from time to time and we even celebrated Thanksgiving together.
Looking back at my SL tenure it was entirely an empty journey compared to what I had gone through above. Almost everybody that I knew back then didn’t come back for then the game. We still keep in touch on social media but I can understand that they are limited on time with the responsibilities they have now. If you ask how I got by this expansion I just made individual goals for myself to improve not so much expect to have the same of outcome of being friends with people outside of WoW.
I’m not so depressed but I’m at a dilemma of continuing on. I’ve always said in the years in between Cata and SL I wish there was a couple more hours in a day to play WoW. Now that I’ve had that until recently the past two years, I find myself not having time for the game anymore. I go to work at 9am then hit the gym and don’t come home until 9pm. If anything I’m really going to miss playing Lucy since I’ve had her since 2006 if that time comes.
I started playing 15 years ago and I remember feeling the same thing when we logged into WotLK and some friends quit because xrealm LFD ruined the feel of the game for them. More friends kept quitting over the years and a whole bunch of them quit after WoD, once sharding and garrisons ruined wPVP and the social aspect of the server.
here I am though, playing and enjoying wow and and though I’ll never have those friends and those memories back again, I had the time of my life with a random torghast run me and an alliance friend I made through pugging M+ because we got into adamant halls accidentally and we were vibing and exploring the dungeon like it was back in BC and our first time carefully skulking through Jintha’Alor because we wanted our carrot on the stick.
hang in there, take a break if you need to, but be open to new experiences and friendships.
There is nothing wrong with this. It’s okay to feel sad when your friends move on to other things.
Things change; life goes on. As you get older, you will lose others in your life–some will just drift away, and others will die. This grief you feel now for the loss of your gaming friends will help you prepare for the larger losses that will come. That’s actually a good thing.
How to deal with your sadness now? Make new friends. Play new games (if you wish). Go outside and breathe some fresh air. Engage in other hobbies. While it’s fine to remember the good times you had, don’t dwell in the past. Make new memories.
My advice is join an active guild and make new friends again. Making friends in game is just like real life. People come and go. You enjoy your time with them and learn from those experiences and then create new friendships with experiences you have learned along the way. Never dwell because it the past. It just means there are more people to become friends with. Enjoy today and appreciate yesterday.
This alone is going to be difficult because while it might not seem like much, it holds a lot of emotions, memories, and meaning to you. Losing them can almost feel like a breakup and you’re going to need time to go through the grieving process.
I think the only thing I can say to you is don’t feel ashamed about it or that you shouldn’t feel that way. Like all breakups, take things one day at a time, and make conscious effort to spend time on things for your own self-development and enjoyment. You will always think about them, but as time goes on, it becomes a little less until it becomes a sweet memory.
I’ve made a habit of going to a card/cafe shop every week just for the social interaction.
I was looking for a D&D group but the cards are ok…so long as it isn’t MTG commander otherwise it gets a little crazy since there’s no house rules on what kind of cards or decks you can play.
A GREAT expansion would entail little to no need for WoW tokens for the entire player base.
It’s the only way for WoW to return to an authentic genuine experience. Otherwise we are all Pokemon Masters in Red/Blue version with an Action Replay…which is not impressive or intriguing in the slightest.
And yes, WoW’s decline really hurts. It was easy to stay motivated in life when I had WoW, particularly Random Battlegrounds, to look forward to after daily life responsibilities. 3 expansions of NO PvP vendors with those MoP/WoD equal ilvl conquest gear really put me on a downhill slope in terms of motivation.
ultimately you will have to begin the process of decoupling the concept of world of warcraft from your own self worth as an individual. it needs people like you who deeply care and desire for the game to improve more than you need it.