Today in the morning I logged into WoW, as FFXIV is under maintenance for patch 6.3. installation. I spent about 3 hours in the game, and it’s gonna be a swan song of the game as an entertainment for me.
I’ve said all that had to be said about the current story. It’s super boring and primitive – another example of Blizzard’s extreme pendulum, from Shadowlands’ mindfucks to the one brain cell “narrative” (actually, narrative is too strong a word). I’ve seen the raid finale cinematic, and the major announced villain that we didn’t actually get acquainted with, dies… to release another couple of no-name villain dragons. I’ll pass.
Modern Blizzard, whenever they try “interesting twists”, end up with mindfucks, and keeping it down-to-earth and simple results in primitive. Dragonflight is devoid even of rule-of-cool moments – you know, the cutscenes that you like to rewatch later for a dozen of times, apart from the story (Sylvanas/Tyrande melee clash in Shadowlands was probably the last that comes to mind).
I’m interested in how the universe lore ends (or dies), especially with Metzen back on-board since December, but let it be from the passenger seat from now on: reading recaps, maybe watching walkthroughs and cutscenes, but without my personal participation. Another reason is: gameplay.
Warcraft’s gameplay is outdated to me. I did several world quests, killed a world boss and did a couple of Sojourner hubs – and I don’t want to anymore. The “boss” encounters were chaotic and primitive. The yellow hubs and world quests required some insane grind: I killed about 25 creatures to get 8 quest drops. I killed another 30 for a quest hub, and hey, as you give them in, they immediately give you another couple of grind quests to proceed with the “story”. When they offered me a third grinding iteration immediately after – I groaned, I said enough is enough, and I left to never come back.
What has been driving me previously to bear these grinds – and on so many alts? I don’t know, maybe the overall engaging story, the sense of what you do – matters, the vibe and engagement of locations – and its inhabitants as a whole, and of course, rewards as a means to push on. Dragonflight feels completely hollow and uninspiring, and am I ready to kill 20-60 mobs (plus collateral click/gather actions) for some pants? I don’t think it’s the best I can do with my time.
Dragonriding is the last nail in the coffin to me. I managed to fly through every glyph and unlock all the abilities, and it still doesn’t work for me. Well, I said it before mutiple times: it’s a way to get from point A to point B, but it doesn’t allow to research and explore, to stay awhile and listen, to admire the terrain, to find spots of interest and of need – in short, what makes adventure an adventure. I can’t shake off the feeling of a freight train trying to navigate the alleys – it’s just not the tool. A plane is good to deliver you fast across distances, a race car is good for racing, but they don’t fit whenever you need to find a certain spot or explore it.
I have dungeons and raid to explore yet – and I simply don’t want to. I don’t see any sense, interesting lead-ins or excitement lorewise, I don’t want to grind gear to get there, and not to mention the toxicity which I almost forgot about in FFXIV’s candyland, but was reminded vividly during world boss encounter (not directed at me, but still repulsing).
And that’s gonna be it. Nothing in this game is attractive to me anymore – so why make myself play it? It’s hard to say goodbye to my decade-long major hobby, but it’s time to be honest with myself and face the reality: it’s a walking dead, a shadow of what it once was. When you’re reluctant to log in, have boring, excruciating time within, and happy to log out – I think there shouldn’t be any place for regrets.
I’m officially done.
Gnomecore 
We still haven’t bought it. We’ve logged on a few nights, finished the last zone and hot flying, and there isn’t anything there compelling except a rep grind. And that says a lot coming from someone that did Hydraxian Waterlords for months to get exalted. Right now we are back in Korthia trying to finish that story line. Is there a story?? Seems like it was a test zone for a loot system. Current talents and class play for my Shadowpriest are just not fun. They added back in some of the worst abilities from the past without the parts that made them work. It’s like they wrote a bunch of things on scraps of paper, dropped them in a hat and pulled them out at random. Once we’ve got the last of the story, we will probably go all the way back and work on old achievements. There is nothing new in the game for me. Except maybe higher gear to make doing old content easier.
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