One of my grand vices is World of Warcraft. I started playing about 9 months after launch and with the exception of a few months here and there, I have played ever since.

Originally I played with a few friends in real life on Hellscream, Alliance side. After a brief foray onto a PVP server I returned to Hellscream, took advantage of a free transfer and popped over to Madoran. My Hunter reached level 70 and I nearly quit the game. However right about this time I got a new job and there my boss played WoW as well. Only he played on Uther, Horde, with a large and active guild. So I rerolled on Uther.

The longer I played on Uther the more I liked it. There were plenty of interesting and active people in the Guild and it was quite a different game than I was used to playing, especially when I got to 70 and started raiding Karazhan. I decided to make Uther my home and used the Recruit a Friend promotion to level a ton of alts up to 60.

I now have 14 characters across two accounts on Uther. Until recently I raided 3-4 days a week and spent any excess time running Heroics and leveling alts. The we crashed into the Wall of Ulduar. As a Guild we did quite well up to this point, we even did well back in Burning Crusade, taking down Kael and everyone but Vashj, Archimonde, and Illidan. However Ulduar was a different story and the formerly wonderful Guild became a pit of despite and malice. After a particularly poor run I got fed up with the way I was being treated, esp since I had not wanted to raid that night and only came because they were so short on heals, and logged off. When I logged on the next day I had been kicked from the Guild.

So I quit WoW, knowing full well I would be back eventually. I spent a few weeks playing other games and enjoying myself quite a bit. When I restarted to do the Midsummer Fire Festival, I expected to fall right back in. Only it turns out, the game just isn’t the same anymore. Oh it is fun, especially when you have help, going around stealing fires, infiltrating capitals and whatnot, but for the most part the game is the same old boring game.

The design philosophy of Blizzard has also changed. Nerfs are prevalent. The attempt to make everything viable in PVP and PVE has weakened both and made certain classes and specs completely unbalanced. The desire to make things “special” has lead to 1% of the population getting all the best things while those who do not make the game their life or serious are left with the crappy looking stuff and trash that no one really wants. Not to mention exceptionally buggy patches, inconsistent changes and stances, and just poor planning all the way around.

Is this the beginning of the end? Will WoW pass into oblivion? I suppose they have to make room for their next MMO…