The sky is falling on WoW!!!

Ok well really it isn't, but to read some blog posters you would sure think it is. Having just recently fallen in love with WoW myself, I was very distraught when I started reading certain WoW blogs and found so many writers and commenters talking about how WoW was dead, and that people are leaving in droves, and that it is a mere shadow of its former self.

I admit that some of this is probably true. A lot of people who once played have probably left for other games or pursuits. I mean, the game is something like 5 or 6 years old, right? This is to be expected. Most games aren't capable of holding someone's attention for such a length of time. But I see new players like me coming on all the time, as well as plenty of "old-timers" who still find the game very enjoyable. It may not be as orgasmically popular as it was at its peak, but I don't see it falling off the cliff any time soon either.

What I've come to realize is that most of these doom-sayers are people who have fallen out of love with the game for one reason or another, and now (for reasons that are only clear to them) want to convince everyone else that they should leave too and come play whatever game they've now chosen as their preferred MMO. Misery loves company. In this way, they remind me of people that go through a bad breakup and then do nothing but talk shit about their ex: "That WoW, she's a dirty old whore. I don't know why anyone would waste their time with her. She's all broken down and nasty."

You know what, grow up and have some dignity. Just because she wasn't the right girl for you any more, doesn't mean that there is any problem with her, and that others might not be perfectly happy with her now or in the future. (Maybe, just maybe, YOU are the problem, and not her.)

The chief shit I hear, in no particular order:

"WoW sucks." Thank you for the erudite, well thought-out criticism.

"Blizzard only cares about making money." Well, duh. Blizzard is a business, not a charity. So they will do things to make their game more appealing to a larger audience, without actually killing it. This will lead them to do things that will cause people to say...

"WoW has been totally nerfed." Yes, I gather the old-world content has been made easier. It continues to get easier to level new characters. And I was the guy they did it for. When I started playing, I had several RL friends who were already level 80. I didn't want to spend a year solo questing just so I could play with them.

I read a post today about someone addressing the Emblems of Conquest issue in 3.2 (the fact that everyone will be able to get them). My thoughts exactly.

Also, Tamarind has made several good points about how most of the complaining about content being nerfed is just a way for people to proclaim their superiority, or as he refers to it, "showing off their WoWcock." I agree.

If you like making alts, you too are the one the content has been nerfed for. One of the fun parts of WoW is being able to create totally new characters of different classes and races, because it can be a very different experience. But would you really want to do it if it took years to get up to max level so you could re-join your guild for raid nights? Hell no.

Conclusion

The most appropriate part of this "falling out of love" analogy is that people remember how they felt about the game in the beginning when it was all brand new and very exciting to them. You couldn't wait to log on, spend hours playing, exploring new content, learning new skills, etc. In that way it is JUST like falling in love. But eventually the initial excitement wears off and you settle into more of a comfort zone in the relationship. Hopefully you can find things to keep the relationship interesting, though it is unlikely that you'll ever get back to the sparks-flying times of the first few months. And at worst, you totally lose interest and you break up. But there is no need to try and drag everyone else down with you just because you no longer find your relationship exciting.

The sky is not falling on WoW. Despite the fact that bloggers like Tobold and his readers no longer hold any love for WoW, there are still plenty of us who find it quite enjoyable.