i’m just an altaholic… which is dumb because the whole game discourages that in terms of getting to the max level for new content
I know this isn’t really the point of your post, but I dunno, 2 hours of entertainment elsewhere like a sports game, pool hall, movie theatre, or bowling alley can easily cost way, way, way more than 15 bucks.
Granted there are FTP games that can scratch the itch to play I suppose.
I probably would have quit WoW a long time ago mid way through BFA if it wasn’t for M+ honestly. Perhaps you’ve simply exhausted yourself of the things you like in game, nothing wrong with that.
Perhaps you’re sensing that everyone is kind of over Shadowlands. The between-expansions lull is is always a weird time in an MMO.
So much of this game has been taken away/changed.
I use to enjoy selling ports to cities, advertise my highest enchanting and tailoring abilities and helping my guild as much as I could.
I’d enjoy long battlegrounds like WSG before timer and slowing debuff of flag carriers were introduced.
I’d enjoy a heavy detailed storyline until ms Chromie came along.
I’d enjoy crafting things until those too became next to useless with the exception of a few items.
I’d enjoy random city trade chat with my fellow players until it became so swarmed with people selling boosts every 5 seconds.
I enjoyed many aspects of the game before they were changed.
You’re not burnt out my friend, warcraft, in their attempt to evolve, has become a horrible game experience and has burnt themselves out.
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They chased the type of gamer that really doesn’t want to play a MMORPG.
I can feel the corporate stink all over the design of the game since Legion. You couple that with the total lack of passion and talent from the developers and you have a recipe for one of the blandest gaming experiences in gaming.
Blizzard devs are just cashing checks and designing systems to pad MAUs, that is it. You can feel too every time you log in, the game just feels devoid of passion.
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I’m in the same boat friend. WoW helped me through some tough days and long bouts of insomnia, but now when insomnia hits I listen to audiobooks or play online chess.
For me, it was the loss of character ‘evergreen systems’ as I was attached to my avatar as if it were a pet dog. Then came crz and the loss of any real seamlessness, then the failed squishes, then scaling, then phasing.
Now it’s just resetting your character every few months and I can’t get the feeling of attachment I once had. I feel they became apathetic and squandered the fortune of cash we piled on them so there’s a personal resentment towards the folks who ruined wow in the name of more money.
For me, the ride is over. I know they are no longer willing to do the hard work it takes that once 12 million played and I am just tired of the lies and disappointments. So I’ll try to gimp myself outdoors more in the day and enjoy Michener and Asimov and the multitude of other books I read as a young man through audiobooks as my eyes won’t let me read well anymore.
I have nothing against the players who find this fun, have at it but, my days playing are done. I certainly do not want to flounder about trying to find other games, I just want my old character back and new worlds every so often and old familiar worlds where my avatar was all-powerful.
I went through the raid and guild days and thought what I had were friends, but the truth is folks who play cards together across a kitchen table and eat chips and dip are real. The connections in this game to others were trivial.
I hope sharing a little of my experience helps you understand your sense of loss because for me it was very real and I kept playing long after they ruined that.
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This thread has a lot of great replies. I am in the same boat as OP. I too started playing wow back when it released in 2004 and I became disabled/retired in 2016 and just cant get the magic back I was had for wow.
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For me it was the lore.
I thought ‘Battle for Azeroth’ - had caused some serious damage, but it was merely the calm before the destruction that followed — ‘Shadowlands’ just ruined so, so much for me and many many others.
It’s part of the reason to why I made my most recent thread. 
Honestly this is burning me out too, and I know a few great gamers who are in the same boat. Guys who can clear mythic in their sleep who are just so tired of chasing the carrot over and over and over again that they’ve quit to find a place where gains feel lasting.
I respect that there’s a line for the devs to walk between letting us hold onto something and giving us things to do with our time to keep us playing, but man, this present game-state, progress is really miserable to maintain IMO.
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It is empty and pointless. Go outside, you’ve outgrown the game and can leave it forever.
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sounds like burn out, but seeing as playing the game feels like we’re just spinning our tires, i don’t blame ya OP.
also, it’s the game that changed. lore changed to be much crappier, characters changed to be lame, people who make the game changed, and the overall vibe of the game changed.
game lost it’s heavy-metal-ish vibe, and became fanfiction of itself, even though everyone said ‘we don’t like this, we want the game we used to play back’. gameplay became very same-y between classes (there’s a little difference here and there, but not much), the factions received un-fair amounts of attention, to the point where if they were blizzard’s children, the horde would be suffocated by their overbearing parent, and the alliance would be neglected till it was caught in-school with drugs in their locker.
point is, game’s got worse.
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This is so bang on and when I feel like the op I remember the people I played with way back when I became really immersed in wow. I think that’s truly what I miss.
What is missing for me is guild raiding and comradery. In previous expansions there was not option for LFR and guilds were not optional for those wishing to raid. But now you have this uber elitist attitude where it’s almost a status symbol just to be in a good raiding guild. You can’t raid above the LFR level unless you’re the best of the best or you have good social connections in game.
In my opinion, this is the biggest problem currently in retail WoW. I can’t answer for you though in regards to your issue with the game.
WoW is really in a bad spot I think, for me at least.
I started in vanilla, and I will say that back then, being even a young adult, I had a lot more free time on my hands, and fewer obligations, and I found enjoyment in some of the oddest areas of this game because it was new and fresh.
As I too have gotten older, I’m been around the block with WoW countless times and it frankly continues to just be a rehash of existing stuff, innovation feels lacking, and most importantly for me, my favorite class’ design is utter garbage.
I’ve said countless times in the past if the lens through which we play this game is skewed and the player doesn’t have a great experience, it doesn’t matter what the rest of the game is like, the player will be unhappy. If you improve that lens (the class/spec they play), you’ll find that people will be more apt to play even if they find the content less fun or engaging.
For me, over the years, I’ve found playing new specs help but it’s only a band-aid. Eventually, I find myself back in the same slum with the same mindset of why do I bother continuing to pay for something that I find little joy in playing. Being disgusted that my favorite spec is always lacking or never iterated upon just adds fuel to an already smoldering can of worms.
Why have I stayed so long?
Part of it is friends. I would miss playing with them, I would miss their laughter at my mistakes or mine at their lame jokes. We enjoy cutting up and being kids at heart, and that’s all I find special about this game these days.
And as my friends continue to get fed up and decide money/time should be spent elsewhere, that pool grows smaller and smaller, and my commitment wanes.
Perhaps you’re in a similar situation.
I will say that despite how bad it may feel, you have to do what is right for you. If you aren’t having fun and you can’t justify the cost, then don’t. There is nothing wrong with accepting that it was a great run while it lasted and it’s time to start a new chapter in life.
Overall I don’t disagree with you but I just want to point out that innovation is not necessarily an issue currently. There’s been plenty of innovation with open world bosses, questing and events that has kept Shadowlands exciting and set it apart from previous expansions.
Lots of things are subjective, I’ll grant you that.
Yes, there have been areas of innovation, particularly in open-world content, but that isn’t the only place where innovation needs to happen. That isn’t the only place where this game is at an all-time hemorrhage.
One could say with class innovation, the new talent trees solve that. I would agree with that sentiment if the new trees actually lived up to their goal if they actually made a class or spec better rather than making it worse than its current state in Shadowlands.
So sure, there has been innovation, but perhaps I should clarify that the innovation that I feel is lacking is in areas where I feel it’s far more important for me.
The reason you don’t enjoy the game is whatever I complain about all day on the forums.
Sincerely
GD forum poster
People not enjoying the same hobbies for going on 17 years straight is actually pretty normal.
I played in Vanilla and I’ve always tended towards healing classes/specs and I have to say that from a big picture perspective, most healing classes such as priest and druid have evolved dramatically from the days of Vanilla, especially holy priest. And coming from that perspective of being mostly a healer, I have to say that the current changes to the priest class and other healing classes are highly innovative and dramatically different from the early days of WoW. It encourages a lot of different focuses and different play styles. So from the perspective of playing a healer I will say the current talent trees are quite exciting and innovative.
But perhaps you are coming from a different perspective or playing a different role? Your opinion on the matter is welcomed and encouraged.
I do miss the days of Vanilla and wish the game would go back to the way it was, not going to lie.