I took a break for four months during BC for personal reasons. I then took a break from May to Nov 2021 because SL was trash and I had little connection to the community. When I returned, I made it a point to connect with the community. I have spent more of my time since then on non-Shadowlands stuff like RP and retro raids.
WoW isn’t really a game to play long-term for the story. If you just play to see the story then sub for 1 month every time a patch drops (every 6-8 months) and that will be plenty. No reason to keep your sub running in between.
There are really 3 main reasons people play a game like WoW continuously every day for years, and none of those reasons are to play the same story content over and over lol.
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Collecting cool stuff. They want the best item level gear. They want to acquire full sets of all the cool transmog. They want to have every single dragon mount. They want 3000 battle pets. etc. etc.
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Challenge. They want to tackle difficult content to have that rush that comes from overcoming something that took a lot of effort and possibly months of hard work to beat.
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Community. They have friends to play with, or at least a community of people that it’s nice to be a part of playing with regularly.
Honestly, a lot of the MSQ in FFXIV is the same way. But! The dialog when accepting and turning in the quests, as well as all the truly beautiful and interesting cutscenes make them more enjoyable. Like, I even watched them all on my one alt. Would having such things in WoW make a difference, even if the story isn’t that great overall?
Ditto. The husband and I have been continuous WoW players since '05, and here’s the thing: you have GOT to take long breaks.
Like anything else, you get “done” with a leisure activity and want something else. It’s not the content. It’s not the game itself. There’s nothing wrong with you, either, for not feeling it right now.
I step away to play other games, mod other games, and generally get into something new about once every other year. This generally coincides with content droughts in WoW, which is super convenient. I leave the game for months. I don’t think about WoW. I don’t come to the forums. I don’t watch videos about WoW. I just…don’t WoW in those months of WoW break.
I find something else that’s new and shiny. Eventually, WoW becomes new and shiny again. Leave…and don’t come back until you miss it. And then you’ll fall right back into wanting to play.
At least that’s been my experience. We’re all different, so maybe you’re just done with WoW for good. /shrug The only way to know for sure is to take a break. A real break. A super long break.
And then don’t come back until you miss the game. If you never miss the game, then it’ll be okay. But you likely will, and when you do, it’ll still be here, and all the content that released while you were gone will still be here. Life’s too short to play video games you’re not into.
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This is what I have been doing since I returned. Running alts through old content, and genuinely having fun.
Besides, there is going to be catch-up gear events pre-launch for the new xpac, and SL’s content will be entirely irrelevant, including legendaries, so why even do it.
What is with this inability of people to take a break from the game or even stop playing once it’s not fun anymore?
smh…
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I haven’t logged in for nearly three months. Taking a break isn’t the issue. It’s still wanting to play in the meantime, and getting met with a mental brick wall. lol
Sounds less like you want to play and more like you feel obliged to play.
They’re not the same thing. If you’re logging in and not actually doing anything before you’re logging off, you don’t actually want to play the game.
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Hm. Interesting idea there. I’ll have to mull that one over.
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This game isnt going anywhere. Take a break and try something else out. Don’t worry about falling behind. Next patch will be another race to max out gear and stats. It never ends.
I used to play during Wrath and Cata. I left for like 8 years once I got tried of it. I came back in BFA.
Are you liking FF14? If you are, you should be ok. Playing 2 MMORPGs at once is not sustainable for long.
About WoW: I have (over)analysed the “I have to force myself to log on” problem and think the problem is the design goal, made worse by Blizzard’s overall attitude.
The design goal of modern WoW is making a pure Skinner box with negligible fun for players. Now, every MMORPG, and almost all modern games, are Skinner boxes. The problem is that WoW, by now, is a PURE Skinner box.
And here comes Blizzard’s overall attitude. They just don’t know subtlety (they should switch to Rogue). If the “ham-fisted” term did not exist, it should be invented to describe Blizzard’s approach to everything. So they will not only make a pure Skinner box, but one that LOOKS AND FEELS like a pure Skinner box. No disguise.
And, I think, is the reason we have to force ourselves to log on. It’s by design.
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That puts my question more into perspective I think. Here’s the issue…
-I am currently taking a break from FFXIV due to finishing Endwalker twice now.
-I have been taking a break from WoW for a few months already.
-Now that I have time and want to play a little Wow, I have the issue I posted about.
-Knowing that, once FFXV puts out their next content update, I already know I’m going to have fun.
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I think you answered your own question. 
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It’s pretty frequent on online games.
People sink a LOT of hours into a game and stop enjoying it and that terrifies them. They try and force themselves into enjoying the game and get more and more bitter towards it when they can’t force enjoyment.
If you’re the kind of person who goes “the game has sucked since X season/expansion” and you still play the game, you’re* exactly the kind of person I’m describing. Hell, I was like that until I had some introspection on why I’d play Overwatch for a couple hours a day and not actually have fun doing so.
(*Not aimed specifically @ you OP, just a general message)
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Shadowlands is meh admittedly. I’ve already had a break from shadowlands and feel I’m due for it again. I’m not even a story driven player to be honest. This expansion doesn’t have anything to keep the interest. WoW is catered to the 1%er esports no lifer and if it doesn’t change in dragonflight, I’m sure it’ll continue losing subs.
Just my view.
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That is very true, it seems like a lot of these people still hanging on around the forums suffer from the same problem.
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because people like to do good damage. to see bigger numbers. to feel like they know what they are doing and can use all the tools in their class to clear mobs efficiently. especially since half the time you have only a small window to do the stuff before the reset ticks over.
as for staying logged in. try doing m+ or just M0 so there is less rush and more chance for random convos to start.
look at the Xmog, mounts, and pets you can get and go after those. Protoform Synthesis does exist in the new zone. basically build a pet/ mount crafting.
for story, it does seem like Dragonflight is what you have to stall for.
maybe try an RP server / guild to engage more with the story telling side. the game tends to be more fun when you interact with other players.
or do old content stories you haven’t really played through.
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Having meta mindset in a non-meta demanding content sounds like a recipe for disaster.
It’s like when my friend complained that he got Crit vers gear instead of Mastery vers gear, “Oh wow, 1 point of Mastery have 0.5 dps higher than the next best stats, my OCD kicked in” or “Oh no, my spec in warcraftlogs does 10% less dps than the best one in a video game where others can gave you a buff that give 25% haste”.
That’s just a terrible mindset to have or worry as a casual, it could ruin your gameplay experience, people should only care about meta in a meta-demanding content.
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I know a lot of people that have never beat Mario. They’re not exactly easy games. I used to be able to beat them as a kid, and I can’t any more. My reflexes are too slow.
Dark Souls definitely isn’t the answer. Even Elden Ring, which allows you to travel around an open world, level up and get gear, and cheese some bosses, has a huge difficulty compared to other games. I could beat the final boss right now, but I’m grinding out levels and power, because I know I’m going to be swearing at my TV.
All that said, I have the same issue as you. I keep trying to get back into WoW, but I feel like it has lost something since Legion that just doesn’t hold my attention anymore. My sub is up this week.
I would say if you have physical limitations, if you haven’t already, check out old school turn-based games like Chrono Cross, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, etc. Take a break from WoW till 10.0. If you come back for Dragonflight and still aren’t feeling it, probably is the game is no longer made for people like us.
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Enjoy the break. Come back when you are ready to face Azeroth, it will be here then you’re fired up and ready to go.
This expansion I’d throw in the good pile for sure, even though I haven’t felt very ambitious. Just not feeling it, but I’ve been playing for some time so it’s not at all that shocking.
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