Sorry long post here, but I recently found my love for WoW again, and it is the best feeling. If you’re burnt out maybe changing your mindset will help, as it helped me. I don’t know. I was really bored and felt like writing about my time with WoW.
I started playing World of Warcraft in 2007. Burning Crusade had just released and I was in 8th grade. My friend Nick from Algebra would not stop talking about it. I had never really played anything like World of Warcraft before. I would mostly play games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor. The closest I had ever gotten was Runescape, which in all honesty had left me scarred. I must have been in 6th grade when I was foolishly scammed into giving someone my password. Which they took all of my stuff, and my account locked. By the time I had my account unlocked and password changed I returned to see my character standing there gearless, I was in shock, horrified and it was more than my 6th-grade self could handle. It was my first encounter with how cruel the world could be.
Though that was in the past, it had been two years since that fateful day and I had grown, I was ready for a new adventure. I remember asking my mother to take me to store that night, so I could pick up a copy of the game, this was back when it still came with discs and manuals. I booted it up and I made a Blood Elf Paladin. This was my first character ever and I miss that guy. I’m jealous of the people I meet that still have their first toon.
I was enthralled, I could not put the game down, I played it day and night. Every chance I got was spent playing WoW, and it was difficult, you kids today have no idea how much of a grind WoW used to be. I guess you will learn with Classic, but it was difficult and it would be sometime before I learned about mods and something called Quest Helper; my old friend. I have fond memories of questing around Tarren Mill, which was always attacked and I was killed repeatedly but I couldn’t be deterred. I loved the game, the questing, the skill trees, and immersion like I had never felt before. I remember being wowed when my level 70 Rogue friend Nick AKA Cheeze would come around and help me kill various enemies or give my broke a** gold to pay for riding or spells. Spells used to cost an arm and leg to train in, and it was certainly a grind if you were broke like me. I strove to be like Nick, I looked up to my peer in some in-game way.
As Wrath of the Lich King landed at my doorstep, my sleep fluttered away like a napkin in a strong breeze. I remember getting in trouble for staying up for 3days straight during a school break playing WotLK with my new found WoW friends. Wrath is where I really started to play WoW at a higher level I went from being a casual adventurer to a hardcore raider/pvper. Joining guilds with names such as “Late Night Elites” and “Bloodshed.” I was in my prime.
After Wrath, Blizzard kept making changes to WoW and looking back I see that they were more accessible to new players but this was something at the time I couldn’t deal with and I sold my account. This is the biggest regret of my gaming history, and I have made questionable gaming purchases and sales in my time. (I went through a phase where I bought and sold my consoles almost on a monthly basis.) I made a good amount of money for my high school self by selling my account, but within six months and I believe coinciding with the launch of Cataclysm I had re-purchased WoW buying the base game and all expansions for about $100. I felt back at home but quickly that feeling shifted and I was plagued by the same reasons I quit originally. Not to mention now I had no max level toons. The race to level had begun and I began playing WoW in a particular way that would rob the enjoyment from the game more and more as time went on.
I stopped caring about the lore, environment, raid encounters or PVP matches. All I was focused on was get toon after toon to max level. Gear them as fast as humanly possible and grind through content like a zombie with each release; only caring about the numbers. Was I at the top of the DPS counter, Yes=good. No=I need to grind more gear out. This is the mentality I had and the mentality of those around me at the time. Looking back shifting to this new mindset is what killed WoW for me, and would go on to ruin most games that I tried to play.
I frequently took breaks from WoW, sometimes for months at a time. When I was playing I was never happy, I was simply going through the motions. I would develop resentment towards the game and bandwagon along with whatever people were complaining about on the forums. “You’re right it does take too long to level this is absurd, do something Blizzard!!” I would echo which is preposterous and would be completely hypocritical to me complaining about the game being too easy and rewarding the casuals. This was another frequent complaint of mine but, here I am complaining about the game not being more casual. It is illogical but I did this for quite some time. I was becoming that gamer, the one that always complains but never quits or has solutions to fix the problem, and can never take into consideration that I’m not the only one who plays the game.
I got my wife into WoW and she quickly fell in love with the game. Which I then ruined for her, pushing her to level faster than she wanted to, so we could get to end game and so on. Now she rarely plays the game because my toxic mindset ruined it for her, something I could not understand at the time.
I ended up quitting the game shortly after Battle for Azeroth launched. I just could not bear it anymore. I felt as though Blizzard was a lost cause, the game was dead or dying and there was no way for the game to be repaired. I quit around September 2018 and went on to play other games, such as Elder Scrolls Online and Legends of Aria. Some really fantastic games by the way. I also used the time to play some of the story rich games I had missed and picked up some non-gaming related hobbies to go along with it. I enjoyed my break, but I always yearned to return.
I returned to World of Warcraft in March 2019. I had grown a fair amount mentally as I slid from my early twenties and into my mid-twenties. I had been reading books on psychology and other topics that I felt enhanced my knowledge about my own self, thoughts, and feelings. I was more mature I guess for lack of a better term. I thought to myself, “Hmm, let me give WoW a chance one last time. I will play it differently this time around.” I opened the launcher to update WoW and push that subscribe button one more time.
I figured this time I want to start from scratch, I don’t want to jump on one of my 120s into the fray. I have always wanted a priest but never seemed to level one, this would be my time. I created my Human Priest on my embarrassingly to admit Server MoonGuard, because my mains were all Horde and this was the new me. Though in hindsight I wish I would have chosen a different server. No offense MoonGaurdians. As I named my toon and clicked enter, I did something I have not done in a long, long time. I did not extend my finger for the escape key to skip the opening scene for my race selection. I watched it. After its completion, I fiddled with my UI to get it just right and I walked up to that shiny yellow exclamation mark; I opened the quest and I read it. I read every word of it. I did this, again and again, playing the game as I first had all those years ago. As I leveled I got to areas that I had never taken the time to learn about, I had always blazed right through at a lightning fast pace. Not this time, I took my time. I watched every cutscene, I read every quest and I even did Battle Pets. Weirdly I enjoyed it. Instead of being clouded with Forum chatter and other people’s opinions I just played it and I had fun. At the time of writing this, I’m still not even at level cap after over one month of consistent playing time. I plan on exploring each nook and cranny of Azeroth. I will take time to do things such as Battle Pets, Professions, Secondary Professions, and gear/mount collections. The possibilities really do seem endless right now. I’m rediscovering the world I love. Raiding and Competitive PVP will come in the future, but they will be at a casual pace. It is what it is attitude if you will.
What I have done is slowed down. I have not worried about gear or level or anything else that use to cloud my mind in a fog of rushing. I stopped reading what other people’s opinions were on the status of the game, and I have just played it. I do not care if I’m good or bad, I just want somewhere to escape to after a long day at work, and I have rekindled that love for World of Warcraft, and in doing so I have found that passion and that sense of adventure that I had lost somewhere along the way.
I have implemented this method of gaming for all of my games now. It made me realize something. That I think much to the same degree as in life as with games we get too caught up in the race to the finish line. Too caught up with fitting in; that we jump on board with ideologies or opinions we don’t necessarily agree with wholeheartedly. We look to call out faults in others or a product, that we look through everything with such a fine tooth comb, that we are bound to find something to be upset about. There is something appealing about banding in unison around drama or outrage. What I have learned through this journey stemmed from games. I learned to take a step back and enjoy what is there, do not let others opinions or the need to feel superior in my item level cloud the main reason we play games. Which is to have fun and enjoy your time spent, because if you are not enjoying your gaming session why play? I think the lessons I learned were great to help change my mindset around gaming and find more enjoyment, but in the end, it has been a better mindset overall for my life. So as much as WoW is currently getting hated on, taking a step back let me find that beauty in the game. I now look forward to patch 8.2 and beyond. I have applied the slowdown and enjoy mindset to all facets of my life and for that, I’m a happier and more patient person.
TLDR: Basically, I rushed through WoW and was so consumed with being top DPS or first to max level, that I forgot to stop and enjoy the game. I have began playing the game slowly reading and doing everything and doing that has helped me enjoy the game again. I have carried this over into my life and other games and I feel as a whole I’m happier.
![:laughing:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/laughing.png?v=6" ":laughing:")
![:sweat_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/sweat_smile.png?v=6" ":sweat_smile:")
