Most definately.
In my 30s I did nothing but pvp, raid tanking, constantly,over 12 hours a day every day.
in my 40s slowed down, took time away from the game.
Came back tail end of 40’s now in my first year of 50 and now, I just do quests,exploring , collecting and just trying to have a better time taking my time and enjoying the ride.
It did change but not for the worse, for the better. It changed some in my thirties and now with my forties it’s changed even more. I’d say the difference is that now I play the game for the experiences and for the content and not for the rewards or that those things are the reward. The game is the reward! It’s a huge shift in approach. It happened gradually and naturally and I can confidently say that I enjoy the game more now that when I was in my twenties! 
Right there with you. One of my sons, who was very young when I started playing this at launch, now leads a Mythic raiding guild while I collect transmogs and mounts and log in maybe 3 times a week.
The amount of time I play has decreased over the years.
While I still enjoy the game I’m casual about it now. I have no desire to be locked into a raid schedule anymore or participate in the drama that inevitably ensues.
I play with a small group of friends and the game is really a vehicle to stay in touch with them and socialize.
Its nothing to do with my age, just enjoy less competitive play
When I originally played (Feral druid, backwater server) I just… Ran around. Did stuff. Sometimes queued for WSG. Never hit max.
Now, I am a bit more goal-focused, going for certain activities for a certain reason. I think the one habit that did remain the same was running in circles and yapping in trade chat when I couldn’t come up with a goal I wanted to pursue at the time.
I’m in a similar boat. I’m 56 and played since vanilla. I do enjoy raiding still and want to be in a guild that does raid. However I prefer to go it at a different pace than a 20+ - 30+. I honestly don’t have the reflexes I had anymore. I choose to spend my spare time with family and not in front of a PC. Also the Drama of some guilds is just ridiculous and sours the experience of just having fun. Simply, I’m not in a race with anyone. I pay to play and enjoy.
Not really, i’ve always pvped exclusively, but i do half the pvp i used to do
It did change quite a bit for me, not only in WoW but in other games too. WoW was my first “serious” game (I started with BC), that I played with rl friends while at university, and we were pretty hardcore at the time. From crazy PvP to raiding 5 nights a week, constant theorycrafting, always racing to be the best. Now I prefer to play alone. And just set my own goals. And level ALL of the alts lol
I still really love pushing the limits, I did level to 70 in one go without going to sleep, and I would love to have some challenging style of solo content, but I just don’t have the patience for dealing with people and feeling stressed for underperforming based on someone’s random standards (or dealing with mean people…I keep hoping the world will become a better place one day). It’s just here are so many more important things in life.
I used to be the worst kind of elitist player and now I am the opposite.
Yeah. In my 20’s I played this game 12-16 hours a day. Grinded a lot, tried to min/max, raided all the time etc.
As I got older, I stopped doing/caring about achievements/reputation/gear for the most part(I gear enough to get AOTC but then I don’t care about it). M+ isn’t my thing. I still like to raid, but not as much as I use to. I get tired now and want to logoff and go to sleep lol. I just went more casual.
I started in my 20s. Did a lot of raiding and RPing. Now I do zero raiding and spend most of my time chilling with whatever I wander into.
No, not really, aside from realizing that the game is generally played a lot slower than I thought. Reactions don’t really matter. Also more comfortable binds because hand health is important.
Pretty much the same. Except you got 10 years on me. In my 20’s I was doing Heroics and grinding rep for gear and farming mats for pots for raids. Now, I’ll be 40 in a month, I am flying around farming mats for professions, finding all the fun side quests, looking at the world as I commute … heck I sat and watched a fire snail beat up on a water snail for a couple mins the other day. lol!
Yeah I retired from raiding in Legion. Getting too old for it, eyes got worse, reflexes are slower.
I added in better peripherals to handle higher paced content without having such an impact on my wrists, That’s about it.
For reference people, Foot switches are a GODSEND
Strange how life happens whether we like it or not, isn’t it? I must have been a truly vile specimen in some past life to earn the stuff that has been dumped on me in this one. Can’t wait for the next, but because I expect it to be better but because it means this one will be done.
Yeah like most others. Started when I was in my mid 30s, and even then I was already a bit slower than the younger players, but I still ran all the 5-mans and then the “easier” raids (I never raided Naxx in vanilla, etc.). As time went on, I grouped less and less. Now in my mid-50s, I just solo and do things like profs and fishing and mogs and stuff like that. It’s still fun, but it’s a very different experience.
The game itself changed a lot, of course, over the years. Vanilla wow was very slow and forgiving for low reflexes players compared to the modern game, but also very punishing in its grinds, its travel and downtime. It was made for a different era of gamer, when EQ and DAoC had set the expectations. WoW is now much more of an action/QT/reflexes game than it was at release. That’s good, because players have overall become faster and better at the game, and so the old style would be boring for most of us, including me … I also manage rotations now (managing procs and dots and build/spend and so on) with my characters that were simply not required in vanilla, and without much difficulty, because like everyone else I grew accustomed to this over the years. But at the same time the game has moved decisively in a timed content direction that is very unfriendly to people who are slower and more deliberate, because the entire group dynamic depends on speed. I am fine with this, because I have also grown into playing in a different way, but I do think it has to do with the game as much as it has to do with age.
I am not nearly quick enough to be competitive anymore. My daughter is able to whoop me with ease and I barely even scratch her because my reactions have slowed so much. I also find I like a slower pace in dungeon’s and everyone is go go go now. I guess I just need to make a old person guild where we focus on slowing things down lol.
I’m right with ya but i still enjoy pvp. Looking back at the early years (from classic right through WOTLK) i can’t believe i spent so much time devoted to raiding. It consumed my life. Literally 12+ hours every single day involved either gathering for the guild so we could supply everything needed to maximize players to the actually raid schedule itself. I still enjoy mythic dungeons but as for raiding nooo noooo noooo. How did my wife not leave me back then is the real question lol… Dam i got lucky. PvP is still enjoyable also and yes to fishing and gathering and such. I’m 48 now and cant believe i still have any interest tbh. Me and a buddy have played this and every other game imaginable during what we deemed not so fun expansions and starting to look like we will be playing till they put us in the ground… Just a very limited schedule now and not living here.
Everyday I was doing heroic dungeons to then go raid heroics, that’s all I did all the way to mops end when I took a break, once I came back I didn’t enjoy them as I used to, still do some of that but I would much rather do something else, specially with the “GOGOGO NOW NOW NOW” mentality plenty of people have.