The Day the World of Warcraft Went Away

Last week I made mention that I'd ceased playing World of Warcraft. A mention that is indeed worth of some elaboration.

Yes it is true: I decided to give World of Warcraft the flick. It's a decision I made by myself and myself alone. It had zero to do with outside forces - I merely decided that I had had enough and I didn't want to play WoW any more. I've heard stories of people giving up WoW due to problems it created to their health and social life - stories that make my departure anti-climatic by comparison. But that is not the case here.

Really there wasn't a lot else I could think of doing. Across several characters, I'd seen a lot of locations, fought many bad guys, busied myself with multiple professions, ventured into dungeons and so much more. But with multiple characters, it's hard to see anything new without treading over the ground that's already been gone over before. That being said, did having multiple characters hinder my experience in World of Warcraft? Yes and No. Yes it did make things repetitive and dull but, at the same time, it was interesting to try different things and see the game from a different perspective.

According to my Raptr account I have notched up over 560 hours of World of Warcraft - easily the most of any game I've played. There was indeed times when World of Warcraft was all I played - and thus the secret of Blizzard's success becomes clear: Make sure that the people who bought your game play it and it alone (and now that I think of it, me making multiple characters could've well been me justifying the $15 a month subscription fee). That may not have been their intent but if it was, it's an ingenious plan and one that has paid off in spades.
Therefore it is telling that when I've previously stopped playing WoW for something else, I've found myself having a lot of fun playing something else and the satisfaction of beating it.

So, does the experience that was World of Warcraft effect my playing of Elder Scrolls Online? Certainly. So far with ESO, I've found myself confining my play times to two a week and I've confined myself to the one character. This may change in the future but not when I have other games that require my attention.

For now, World of Warcraft still exists on my hard drive. I can tell you from experience that it is an absolute bitch trying to wait for all the updates to be downloaded - but should i find myself short of hard drive space, it will be the first to go.
I suppose I may return to World of Warcraft in the future but I suspect not for a long while. Until then, Rithendal, Beldrath, Kyuzo, Naesandra and Grimcrag will all be sleeping a long sleep - until that day when i shall call upon them again.....