Thursday, May 03, 2007

OK, So I Cried...

Tonight, I took my WoW characters on what was likely to be their final journey. Likely, not definitely. It was actually quite an emotional experience. I felt I should tell the girls that 'Daddy wouldn't be playing WoW anymore' because they really enjoyed parts of me playing the game. At first they were laughing and joking about it but then they became quite concerned about the fate of Kylea and especially Gorthaal.

It's strange, because those are the two characters that I have really grown attached to. Indeed, the first thing I did tonight was clear out some of the chaff from my account. So goodbye to Barklee (my bank alt, made utterly useless by the enchanting nerf in the expansion), Madusa (my warlock experiment) and Gorthadin (a paladin, if you didn't guess). I was going to delete Swallow and Spit, but I thought better of it. She's a babe. Not one flicker of emotion crossed me when I typed 'DELETE' into the box. They are nothing.

Gortessa was my shaman, a figure of much mockery from me. At the time, I loved levelling her but she was such a pain to play - I simply fell out of love with her. She became the worlds best equipped bank alt. So it was fitting that she donned her armour and took vigil above the Orgrimmar bank.

Kylea used to be my alt, but she increasingly became my main. For someone that levelled as a resto druid for 60 levels, the sheer unbridled power of a mage was intoxicating. As a toon she really kicked ass, but she never really clicked with me as a character. She is now sitting on a flying oasis high above Nagrand, with her feet up, relaxing.

Gorthaal however, is another matter all together. Maybe the Tauren 'nature' connected with me somewhere hidden and deep? Maybe the role of the healer that I did for so long was my true calling? Maybe it is just because Gorth is my first character and my memories of his adventures are so vivid, even from Day One, EU Opening. He's been the workhorse character, slow and steady winning the race. He's the toon people associate me with. In essence, in WOW, Gorth is me. I wanted him to, in a very soft 'Toy Story' style ending, to have a peaceful place for his digital retirement. Little was I to know what would happen.

I was hijacked by Nathanial, aka Mark, my mate from the pub and the guy who took over the GM-hood of the Dungeoneers from me and he said 'You didn't think you were going there alone'. I nearly cried. In fact I did have a tear in my eye. In near silence we flew to Thunder Bluff and then rode through Bloodhoof and into Red Thingy Mesa. I found my hill and sat down. We chatted for a moment about my quitting and then with a /salute and a/sleep, Gorthaal finally got his rest. And yes, I found it sad. And that was really strange - it is just a game after all? No, it's more than that, it's a community and a representation of you within that community. It is more than just a game.

And so it ends. Just over two years of a wonderful gaming experience. I spoke at length with my wife about my cancellation and why I had chosen to do it. I think I might just not have the time or rather the regularity of time to be able to really PLAY another MMO ever. However I do not regret the experience one iota. It's been a fantastic experience, with the highest highs and the lowest lows. The worst bit? That has to be the split in the Dungeoneers and the seismic changes that made to so many people's games. The best bit? It's hard to say - seeing Ragnaros and Ossirian dead was great, being able to take part in taking down Azuregos and Kazzak was cool. No, the best bit was probably when Dave, Andrew and I took PAIN to the Alliance in Arathi Basin. Great pvp memories.

Now, it's time to concentrate on my writing - fanfic and roleplaying games - and to squeeze every drop of fun out of the kids before they grow too old to care.

One last time though.... FOR THE HORDE!!!!

Neil

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

How romantic. I believe I left Zoltis wondering confused in Shattrath City.

At this very minute he's probably grumbling, smelling and hassling cute Elves. Muttering about how he should have conquered Kharazan and rules all of Azeroth.

Which would have been easy now it's empty and everyone's gone to Outland.

Ian.

Anonymous said...

Is a significant commitment of time an inevitable consequence of a MMORPG or just of WoW?

Ben

Anonymous said...

It is believed WoW is postively casual compared to a lot of games in the genre. Not sure how that changed with the expansion - but the general vibe you get from long-term MMO people is 'you have it easy' in WoW.

Anonymous said...

Is a significant commitment of time an inevitable consequence of a MMORPG or just of WoW?

To be honest, I think this being our first MMO for most of us, we kind fell for it rather hard at first. For most of us, it wasn't just the gameplay which sucked us in for the 1st year, it was our friends all being online as well and doing stuff with them.

To be honest, as we seemed to drift apart as a group of friends all playing the game together and having a laugh, so the game has become less and less enjoyable to me.

D.

Anonymous said...

And, lastly, to be honest... I use the words, to be honest, far to much in that last post... tbh.

Anonymous said...

Dave,

That has been the case to me. Since defeating Ragnoros (and the subsequent split of The Dungeoneers) the game has felt like a slightly stretched out epilogue.

Defeating Ragnoros was cool though.

Ian.

Anonymous said...

I think the idea that WoW is in any way different to other MMO's is crazy, if you want to advance you have to have the time committed to play it - In any MMO I've played from UO, Eve, EQ2 AC, AC2, DAOC it's really been the same model of play and same type of advancement, same structure of guilds, same beginnings, same endings, same oppottunity *if you want* to be casual, same opportinity *that I like* to form complex guilds and meet new people.

Each game has unique strengths and weaknesses, if we'd all played EQ2 instead of WoW we could have done pretty much all of the same things we did in Dungeoneers.

The best bits? They continue, in meeting and playing with, and chatting with new people - Amboseli and Longfellow two new Polish players, Maleific and Neerez a couple living in London. The worst bits? They continue, in meeting and playing with and chatting with new people - this is my big area for improvement, telling them to **** off when its time to.

I'm really touched you retired Gorthaal back to his homelands, it's really sweet and I think demonstrates how much more than a game WoW is. The buzzphrase if social network, It's certainly mine.

The downside of these games? Its us ourselves, snobbery occurs between games (oh you play Evercrack?), between guilds (Them?, they're noobs), between sides, between classes (Your class is always broken, mine is nerfed). Thankfully all the strengths of people counterbalance the downsides, plus the game appeals to my addictive and collective personality and it sure beats throwing money at a Casino table or downing too many units of beer each night. Or hitting a little ball around a field with a boot or a metal stick.

Matt

Anonymous said...

They are all broadly the same in their structure..I agree. But they are not the same in application and this can influence whether people like the game or not (specifically people new to MMO games).

As an example, I believe a number of MMO games have the concept of XP debt (EQ2 and City of Heroes) which you have to work of once you have died. Not only that, but in some games, originally how EQ2 did it I believe (though it might now be different) you got XP debt if a member of your group died. I also hear constant stories that WoW is relatively unique in how easy it is to solo to the max level.

So while I agree all MMO's follow broadly the same structure and modes of play, the actual application can be significant in terms of whether it makes the player go I've had a enough of this shit or not :)

Ian.

Anonymous said...

It's always there in one form or another - equipment damage means you need to get the gold for repairs, whether I'm killing bog-trolls to get back an exp debt (only matters when levelling) or killing bog-trolls to get the gold pieces to repair my armour, rebuild my bandage supplies and get materials makes no odds to me. I'm still doing it.
I think I could even argue that any time you dont have rested exp, you're in effect in exp debt. I still get a lot out of WoW but my feelings about it are changing, I'm sure I'll play something else in the future. Warhammer looks good, the video interviews and diaries on the web page and You Tube by Paul Barnett are certainly engaging, but does it look different to me than Wow? Nope.

I think the bit of previous games I miss the most is from DAoC, when we held castles and had to garrison them against enemy for our Guild (Ferus Legionis and later ASq). That was real realm v realm battle and fun!

Matt

Anonymous said...

We can agree to disagree, but I am sure if WoW had forced me to re-learn XP I'd lossed upon my death or someone elses. Forced me to run back to my corpse and possible fight creatures to get to it without key kit (it's on the corpse) and other bollocks I wouldn't have been playing it. I'm sure that's key for other people.

I also know I wouldn't have been playing it I'd have been stuck re-gathering resources forever. The truth is in WoW you hardly have to think about money, or I didn't and you can still happily play. I even made a profit on raiding (albeit pre-TBC).

I'm pretty sure a percentage of the millions of new MMO players wouldn't have been too enamoured with it either. And this is just one element.

You can sometimes generalise things to the point of ridiculousness :)

Anonymous said...

A simple yes or no would have done lol

ben