Completely Abandoned and pushing the Red Self Destruction button.

It was somewhere around a year ago when I went on hiatus from WoW and started playing other MMO games to broaden my MMO horizon and gaming habits. Had started another blog on wordpress under the same name for whatever mmo games I played, but mostly kept both blogs somewhat separate somewhat to keep blogging about WoW separate mostly for the WoW readers. Sometimes I double posted on both.

This blog has been a constant companion for my entire WoW career. Its also been apart of the WoW blog community through out the years and considered it as valuable as my own WoW characters. Its also tough to have and somewhat maintain two different personal blogs about playing mmo games just because the player base and readership can be different in the games one chooses to play or move on to.

I've agonized about the thought of what to do for almost a year in my on and off declining play time with WoW. I've always maintained to myself that as long as I continued to play WoW that I'd keep the blog till whenever.

But not too long ago made the decision that my WoW career is absolutely over and as this blog has been my constant companion its life shall come to a complete end as well. It was great to be and have this blog be apart of the WoW community through out the years. Times eventually change for us all and so does out gaming habits. Really thank all the WoW readers for all their support for the last 5 years, blogging here on this blog and playing WoW was made more fun because of all of you. However it will be much easier having just one blog to focus on and blog about whatever other mmo game I choose to play or enjoy whether its just one, a few or others.

This blog will officially Self Destruct in 24hrs!

That decision if absolutely Final!

MMO's, Gaming and Why I quit playing WoW

I really don't post that often or haven't really been posting that often about opinion and gaming for almost a year now. At least not on this exact blog which I consider to be my backup blog since its mainly been about WoW for the last 5 years. I really didn't have anything in mind to post about or intention to post about today either. I do enjoy trying out and playing other MMO games with moderation because that's one of the reason I do play games to see other worlds, try out other games and have other points of view.

For the weekend and the last few days I've mostly been playing EVE Online to get some things done because that's my main mmo for just about a year now even though I just also started playing some RIFT. I have some game projects I had been working on and just spend most the time working on those in EVE. I regularly cruise the mmo blogosphere and read a variety of opinions on other blogs, some more than others.

Their has been allot of tension in the WoW blogosphere community about players bored with WoW, people leaving WoW for RIFT, WoW players playing other mmo games and the rebound of many those players back to WoW when their gaming honeymoon is over. Earlier as well I was reading a blogpost which lead to reading a blogpost at Larisa's and Gevlon's blog as well as reading all the various comments on both. At that point I just had allot of conflicting thoughts and emotions about other mmo's, game community, why I play games and why I left WoW.

In 5 years of playing WoW I've never ever been a highly opinionated member of the WoW blogging community and thats just fine by me. As well I'm sure never been thought of as such. Usually I've blogged about my game experience in-game or in any other game as I've experienced it and about things that have affected WoW game wise. As well I've always expressed on the blog when its time to quit WoW it will be fast in decision. I will have no need to rant about it like some people often do. I'll just quit, move on and that be the end of it!

So why did I really quit WoW

When someone I know as a player or a blogger quit playing WoW and move on to playing other games that interest them or to do other things Its sad to always see them leave the game you also play. They may have made some difference while they were here. But for me personally I just simply wish them well in whatever they do, real life and whatever game they move on to. I'll still play the same game i enjoy playing, because I play the game for me and not for how you may feel about it. Yet people always wonder why some others are leaving WoW and when they will come back after maybe a month.

Just about one of the few comment I can really agree with to Larisa's blog post was by Nils and Spinks to the post. Its too long to quote them here. While allot of players likes to play mmo's, allot less of those players are really even open minded about playing other games or trying other games for fun or to expand their gaming horizons. One the best things in my opinion that can happen in the mmo industry is for good games to be made that are healthy competition to the ones that are already there to help make them better or spur some form of innovation vs just more of the same always. So I'm not afraid to try other mmo games besides WoW or even quit WoW. In the year I spend away from WoW on total hiatus I realized I can absolutely live without WoW and felt better when I wasn't playing it.

For me, I've been playing WoW since right before Burning Crusade expansion launched which is over 5 years of WoW. That's 5 years of my life daily having been invested in playing WoW which is the longest I've committed to playing any game in my life. I've loved and enjoyed playing WoW and the game is still a great mmo game. Over that time I guess you can say one has matured playing and learning WoW as a mmo. The first few years was an experience playing and learning the game and quite addicting to play and had a great community. As more expansions occurred, years and times changed the in-game the community also changed not for the better but for worst in my opinion. Eventually I also got more burned out on the game just too much WoW and blogging as well about WoW.

Over the years I've taken breaks away from WoW being burned out on the game and time away from blogging about WoW as well. So I took time away from the game to do other things, play other MMO games to find other interest, get different game perspective and broaden my mmo horizons. The more I got burned out the more time I went on game hiatus. A bit after WotLK I got burned out on WoW and just wasn't really enjoying the game. Nor did I like the in-game community of totally rude players I had often deal with and tank dungeons and raids with. With 5 years of WoW and a changing community I just got tired of all of it. And I just easily took a long break from WoW, blogging and the community as a whole.

In the time away from WoW I decided one the things I wanted to do was experience other mmo games and in the future play a variety of games vs just one game. So in 2010 I played STO at launch, enjoyed the game and leveled to the max but wasn't much to do at the time. Cryptic has since improved the game much since. I loved Sci-Fi and space games and wanted to try something much more complicated and complex to wrap my mind around so I picked up playing EVE Online some time after.

I truly enjoyed playing EVE Online and for all its complexity and huge learning curve as a mmo. Being so much different to WoW was a complete plus. I really didn't care if you didn't play EVE, didn't like the game or don't play EVE Online. I enjoyed it so I played it. The point was I enjoyed the damn game. That is why I play the game and any other mmo game to have have a enjoyable time. It was a good distraction from the world of WoW trying out other games.

Over the last year the more I played EVE Online the less I had thought about WoW, the community and blogging about it. And I did realize that. So for most of 2010 I mostly played EVE Online even though I had decided to also try other mmo games to broaden my mmo gaming vs just WoW. Some players are just totally stuck on WoW. Even though I do really like WoW, I'm not simple stuck on WoW either. I'm simply willing to try other games that's of interest to me.

So when Cataclysm launched I bought the game and see how things were. After years playing WoW I still did enjoy the game. So i played through Cataclysm going from 80-85 as that was the main part of the game that was of interest to me. Leveling up alts has always been something I've never been a fan of, its just not my style. But I did level up 4 my other 80's to 85 for Cataclysm all the while in the back of my mind thinking of the game overall and if I wanted to dedicate to keep playing WoW.

After transferring back to an old server 4 characters, leveling up my characters to 85, reflecting on my WoW guild, reflecting on the game community 5 man dungeons and raiding, reflecting on playing EVE Online and my future to that game as well as also reflecting on other new games I wanted to also play. I simply made a decision as to I wasn't going to do. Right around that exact time RIFT appeared out of no where and sounded interesting.

However after 5 years of WoW even though I liked and enjoyed the game I was just DONE! I had no interest continue to play the game for another year. The love affair was over! The love was gone! I can call it whatever I want, I was simply done as the more I played WoW the more I kept thinking I should rather invest that time in EVE Online. I'm far more than just the average WoW player skill wise and in learning. But for me its just time to quit WoW.

I also was going to also try out RIFT as a new game also, so good timing quitting WoW after 2 months of Cataclysm. Some people just won't get that decision as a WoW player walking away from WoW, its no more different that when I had decided to just walk away from WoW to take a break going on hiatus. But in the end I decided this was game over for me. So before I left WoW I sold everything on all my characters and gave away all the gold which was a heck of allot on my account to seal the nail in the coffin of my decision walking away. I would of deleted my characters If i had time to, but the time that i decided to quit and the time my subscription expired was maybe just 24hrs to have thought of it.

In the big debate of things I can give a rats ass if a game or a new game is better than WoW in all the ways one can compare it to WoW. After 5 years of WoW the game i'm just simply done and don't care to continue playing.

There is no coming back to WoW for me. While some players do raise from the dead in WoW this one player aren't coming back! WoW, the in-game community and the WoW blogosphere community has changed allot over the 5 years that I have played WoW. I do still like WoW but I'm going to be honest to say that after 5 years I just know when to call it quits and leave this WoW community. I'll continue to play the other games I play and move on and try any new MMO games I want to play. I'm just not that stuck on WoW that I can't enjoy trying playing other games for fun even as a above average WoW player. I realized before I could live without playing WoW, did so just fine last year and at this point its now permanent.

Everyone decides to leave WoW for their own reasons and it won't be the same reason for everyone. Currently I play 2 games. EVE Online which I very much enjoy that many WoW players won't touch with a ten foot pole and probably is my main mmo and RIFT which recently launched. There are other mmo's on the horizon that I will probably try but make no mistake when i do play a game its for my own reasons and not for anyone else's.

Charging with Wings

Its really odd sometimes the little things you can really like or appreciate that your character can do. I really like that Shield Charge and charging to the enemy.

But its cool to have a range charge on my Rift Warrior which is from the Paladin soul ability to quickly close range. Fist very few times i had used it never noticed anything unusual in the animation since mobs wasn't that far away but the more i used it seems when you charge at close to max range on the target divine wings pops out and you really notice it. Which is rather cool to see. With the short 15 sec cooldown its pretty cool to charge at range aggro a few melee mobs, grab aggro then switch target and charge at range again to that range caster mob and have all the melee mobs come running behind you. I just think its cool and always love seeing the wings pop on charging. Kinda wonder why Blizzard never gave Paladins something like that to close on a range target quickly.

So far i'm enjoying playing my Warrior Tank at lvl 31. Its getting more fun to play as i level up and have more buttons to push than I can seem to get to most of them before its time to push something else or a main ability again.

Images from Rifting & Telara

There is some cool things to do in RIFT, but one the coolest things of all is being first to arrive upon a rift Planar Tear and using your Planar Lure ability to rip it open and create some chaos and more for everyone around, close by or zone wide.

Random Guardian invasion at Granite Falls in Stonefield often a hotbed of Guardian invasion activity in trying to assault the town/npc and wardstones there. Always fun to fight them.

Repelling rift invasion forces across the landscape and taking the fight all the way back to the rift itself in a public raid group assault.

When a massive raid gets going these things can get heart pumping exciting and fun like a herd of ants out for the kill even if a invasion boss is in the way. Just jump in and go enjoy the fun.

Sometimes your just there at the the NPC area chilling for a few minutes, vendoring stuff, picking up quests or just to get a break...... so you think! No place is safe in RIFT except maybe going afk half way up a mountain clearly not in direct path of any invasion action. But hanging out at a NPC hub you can sure see allot of Invasion action constantly along with the NPC's that all fight back with full vengeance protecting their precious Wardstone from Invaders. I would too those things give some nice buffs. For sure the action scene is far from boring!

A full public rift raid on way to meet the final objective of a rift event the rift boss. Which encountered a another Invasion force and the Guardian faction and somehow ended up turning into a full all out assault on the invasion and each other. That caused one hell of a massive pvp chaos that was just to much fun.

The dynamic action of RIFT really puts a whole new spin on the experience one gets from just the PVE world as it is. In that something is happening in that zone all the time or about to happen and you never quite know when it will be about to happen until you feel the earth tremble, shakes or by other means.

You can believe whatever you want about RIFT, but the damn game is exciting! And probably more fun if your also playing with some good friends as well.

Edited

Busy Rifting, RIFT official launch today

RIFT officially launches it MMO game today and with it the newest and one the most polished new MMO game I can remember hearing of as well as having played in a long time. However I've have been playing in the Head Start launch for about a week now and so far have made it to lvl 28 on my Tank. Having a blast of a time leveling, questing, dungeon, rifting and exploring. Its been a while since I've had so much fun playing a new game.

RIFT as many have mentioned don't really add that much new, mostly borrowing some the best feature and concepts from allot of other MMO's and adding its own game lore and twist on things with their own MMO. And so far I really have enjoyed the story of the game even though I really never usually get all that caught up in geeky lore conversation of things. I've just been enjoying the game world for what it is as designed and the world in which my character exists.

So I've been playing on the Faeblight server a PVE-RP server with a few other bloggers all playing with the great friendly folks from Multiplying.net. I can't say i really know everyone well in our fairly new guild Circle of Trust except mostly the few friendly bloggers. But so far everyone been great, helpful, friendly, respectful, funny and welcoming. And that's rather nice to have a great bunch of folks to journey in a new game with. And so far I've just been having a great time.

I'm playing a tank named none other than well "Ardentdefender". For obvious reasons if you been reading my blog for a while i do enjoy playing the role. I do like to melee and hear stuff slam into my shield and because I'm also good at it as well a role I truly enjoy playing and trying to master. Always have! Anyway I started my primary souls as a Warrior for tanking as a Paladin. I eventually also picked up the soul for Warlord for some the complementing defensive abilities and some the great group buffs it provides in a group. Then also picked up the Void Knight soul to add great anti-caster defensive as well as offensive abilities. I had played back in RIFT Beta all the souls I picked up so it was what I went with for my primary first soul build. Overall I think with all the abilities it fits well for a build all the way to the end. Back in RIFT Beta I primarily played as a Paladin/Reaver/Void Knight and really enjoyed the dots and aoe the Reaver provided and with all its aoe abilities while being a defensive soul.

Playing thru as a Paladin/Warlord/Void Knight though stronger in build defensively felt more mechanical in play and felt more like work to me and allot less fun to me and in my style of play. I played that thru all the way to lvl 20 at least because I really wanted to grow into and get the feel of play style from my own personal experience. I feel its a great soul to have tanking a boss. But it felt less fun leveling, questing generally all while still playing with fairly good tanking souls. So at lvl 20 I bought another "role" or more like a second spec from the trainer which wasn't too expensive. A character can have up to 4 roles with various souls combination which gives a person a whole lot of flexibility of play all in playing just one class. Buying a 3rd role will cost you quite a bit more and a 4th much more expensive.

I completed the Reaver quest and the others to pick up the other souls and then made a 2nd role as a Paladin/Reaver/Void Knight for optional play style while still being able to tank on demand fairly well. So currently have both tanking roles to play with and test and at least learn to master the play styles that also fits my style of play. So for the most part I've normally been playing not my main role but as my second role which for me is also allot more fun to me to play. I'm not sure what I'll make as my 3rd role build but I imagine i probably make a dps warrior of some sort for flexibility in a group.

RIFT does get allot more fun the more you level and going into new zones. Starting out in the starter areas can seem unimpressive and is probably the most underwhelming part of the game experience getting thru lvl 1-6 at least. However in my experience it really don't take you that long to get thru those levels or the very initial starter zone. I tend to call it more the initial tutorial zone. Because to me in my opinion the real starter zone starts for Defiance starts when you get to Freemarch which is around lvl 6 or so and it don't take you long to even get there. At around lvl 8-10 the game starts to ramp up in fun as you encounter Rifts and Invasions.

The game does get progressively more fun the higher level you get to. Zones are quite huge and quests are plenty if not many. You can quest or do rifts to level up or a mix of both. Questing got you down, hey drop questing and go fight back a Major Invasion when one spawns. Try and beat back some Invasions when your just hanging out in a quest area for a little while and a invasion mobs come rolling thru. You just never know when a Invasion is gonna come rolling you way which all of a sudden can change your game play suddenly. Many times i've just been at a NPC area picking up a quest or vendoring stuff and a invasion force incoming. Easy to quit doing that and get into action.

For most of my lvl 20's which have been spend mostly all in Stonefield zone so far and currently at lvl 28, I've just been rifting as much as questing. I've been enjoying the story and lore of the game and doing quests and dungeons. However no matter where I'm heading in the zone I always take the time if any rifts or invasion cross my path to get in on the action and fight the fight. You can get allot of XP just doing rifts. Needless to say I've spend several levels doing nothing but beating back rifts when many are spawned, fighting invasion forces, beating back footholds, tearing open a partial rift and have me my own rift to fight back.

That's allot of fun. Especially when your in a area and a rift tear appear and your the only one seemingly around. What do you do? For me I decide to go have some fun and tear the rift open with my Planar Lure ability and have me a rift with mobs to fight back.

Sometime I've been there alone fighting the rift and it spawns a invasion force before its sealed and that invasion force runs off immediately to wreck havoc across the zone area or heading to a NPC area. Sometime and often someone jumps in on the public grouping and helps out for the fun. But if you do seal the rifts you get allot of nice stuff, gear drops, artifacts, consumable stuff and lots of planarite shards and some rare ones for the effort which all adds up. All the shards adds up to being able to purchase some very nice gear from the planar vendors. That has allowed me to purchase at least 2 Epic pieces, several blue gear just from doing allot of rifting so far which were way better than quest gear.

Biggest issue I've had so far in game is tanking allot of rifts and invasion bosses with a group and no one in group can heal or wants to heal the tank or just no healer around to do so. That has lead to many a times I have died tanking various rifts and invasion forces in a group where no one is around to heal whoever is primarily tanking the invasion forces. That has lead to many a visit to the NPC healer to restore soul vitality which drops 10% on every death which makes you ineffective if it gets to 0. As a result so far would have to say my biggest gold sink is at the NPC healer paying to restore lost vitality which can add up allot if you visit often.

As for profession you get a choice of three professions. I decided not to craft anything or spend any time at it but instead do all gathering with Mining, Foraging and Butchering. That fits my style for being a bit the explorer type and usually roaming all over chasing rifts and gathering stuff that I come across in the process. And so far I'm enjoying doing just that.

So far its just been a fun time leveling up and getting in on the action of questing, rifting, dungeons, exploring for artifacts which leads to fighting invasion forces and footholds wherever I've found them. Artifact finding is a whole mini-game of exploration all of its own and a whole lot of fun. But so far the RIFT has just been running smoothly, rather bug free as I haven't encountered any and rather allot of fun. Only real issue is the daily choke on the server queue that happen at peak login time but that issue has being getting better daily as Trion have added more servers and as the server loads get balanced. So far Trion seem to be working relatively hard and doing a rather impressive job in having a smooth running game, even if they didn't add anything all that new with a new MMO.