I still play but infrequently, having pretty much broken the “addiction.” I’ll occasionally run lowbies or a random here and there just to escape RL for a couple hours – but that’s about it. I think my highest ilevel toon is 341 (Tauren warrior) – not exactly raid-geared lol.

In many ways I miss raiding, mostly the elements of team problem solving and blowing stuff up with intelligent people whose company I’ve come to enjoy over the years. But as a raider & senior guild officer I found that offline study of attribute caps/spells/talents/procs/rotations, as well as replaying TankSpot & YouTube videos of raid progressions and bossfights, took up more time than the raiding itself. Add to that the multiple hours each day committed to running randoms and repetitive dailies on multiple toons, farming – plus guild officer-related responsibilities – and WoW became a 2nd job. As a small business owner and administrator I don’t have time for a 2nd job!

The guild has now downed every boss in Cataclysm save one. Having co-founded the guild and authored their raiding program, I am truly happy for them and proud of their accomplishemnets. But end game’s race to ilevel uberdom is in my rear view mirror. So ya I guess you’re right – it does feel like I’ve outgrown WoW.

I will continue to play (albeit sparingly) and purchase the expansions even though I’m pretty sure raid gear acquisition will endure as WoW’s primary focus. Hence, I’ll probably never again take the game seriously. Nonetheless… I really do miss those wild and crazy “Margarita Runs” with my online friends.

I don’t think the announcement of the new expansion has done much to sway the more mature players who feel they’ve outgrown the game, either.. I’d be interested to know if you still play?

Anyway, thank you for an interesting analysis on the game as it stands, and as it has stood in times gone by! A good read!

Ya… I have a feeling Blizzard’s focus may be shifting away from WoW. Other than the Goblin and Worgen starting areas (Goblin especially) it felt like their heart really wasn’t into it.

StarCraft II expansions and going live with Diablo 3 appear to be their primary objectives right now. SC2 is gradually achieving the same eSports commercial success that the original did, and D3 is also a high priority because of demand. Now, they’ve been leaking tidbits on a “Next Gen” MMO pet-named Titan which supposedly can co-exist with WoW, but I’m not sure the co-existence isn’t a ploy to prevent WoW players from being scared off.

Seems Blizz has designs on recreating the Microsoft model for gaming industry ownership which could spread their resources so thin that the risk of fragmenting their customer base becomes a concern. Unless of course Blizzard somehow comes up with an OS exclusive to desktop gaming. But I’d rather not – oh wait… what a great idea for a blog!