1921

Depends what you mean by proper. I am a huge fan of gw2 endgame precisely because it only has a tiny bit of vertical content scaling. because of this you have to set your own goals.

1922

What is the endgame PvE you like? I never really got there – got a character in the 30’s before I stopped playing – but I thought the endgame was mostly the server vs. server PvP. I know there are some dungeons but there didn’t seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for that part of the game.

1923

There is map completion, exotic armor hunting for stats, armor hunting for looks, the legenary grind, wvw and whatever goal you set for yourself. The only vertical scaling is fractals.

here is a vlog about scaling

1924

Eve’s primary scaling is horizontal…it’s not a new idea.

The problem in WoW is the character advancement is very limited, there’s no AA.

1925

They’ve said they’ll be adding skills over time.

1926

Where? I missed that.

All they’ve said is they’ll be reducing the skill count still further… (which seems to them to mean removing fun/cool abilities like eye of the beast and sentry totem)

1927

Sorry, since the horizontal scaling discussion was about Guild Wars 2 I somehow parsed your comment into being about GW2 as well. Their “look ahead” said they’d be adding new skills. But in regard to WoW, which is after all the subject of the thread, that’s definitely true.

1928

Man, do I miss Eyes of the Beast. PvP again raises its stupid head and ruins my PvE head.

1929

That’s primarily why, after being a huge WoW supporter for years, I cancelled my account a few months ago.

I returned to Rift when Storm Legion went on a fire-sale. There is just so much to DO in Rift, even at max level. It’s not all about gearing up for raids or grinding factions. If I’m itching for some Rift, I have a dozen options of what I want to do that day. Work on some dailies? Do some zone events for stones and xp? Do some chronicles? Do some harvesting and AH-fun? Work on one of my dimensions? Whatever mood I’m in (killing, grinding, creating), I can do it, in Rift, for free. With WoW, my only real options are “kill stuff” or “farm nodes”.

If WoW were to add something like dimensions and AA, I would probably come back to it. But I’m just completely burned out on the idea of end-game content. Tired of raiding. Tired of hours of grinding on mobs for 5 rep each so that I can buy a 2% higher stat version of an item. Yes, Rift has end-game content, but I just choose not to participate in it. If you decide not to do end-game in WoW, you really don’t have anything left to DO in the game.

1930

I’m not defending WoW and in fact I unsubbed soon after Panda for the reasons you listed, but WoW has plenty to do besides raiding. Rift is just fresh and different for you right now (and free). You can do plenty in WoW endgame like Pet Battles, play the AH, dailies for unique items (mounts, etc), solo old content, PvP, crafting, achievements, etc etc.

I find that when going back to or starting new MMOs they feel different at first, but eventually burn out settles over everything. WoW was just unique in that it managed to keep most people for longer than any other one out there.

1931

That’s a succinct explanation. A new MMO feels new for a bit but I have yet to find one that resisted that feeling of MMO burnout after 2-3 months of play. Usually it only takes a few weeks to get that burned out feeling.

1932

Agreed with Jag here - WoW has pretty much everything to do at end-game that Rift does short of dimensions and AA (assuming AA is what I think it is - some form of advancement at level cap?). But if you’re happy with what Rift provides, being free is a big win. My kids are hooked on it, moreso than they ever were with WoW.

1933

I haven’t played in several months, but after listening to the podcast and reading this thread I fired up the game and rolled up a brand new character.

It was like sitting back down again into your favorite comfortable chair. I had all the (outdated) add-ons disabled and just started playing through the (Tauren) newbie zone – I decided to read all of the quest and flavor text rather than just burn through everything, and after an hour or so I found myself not wanting to log, to keep going through Mulgore. I found myself wanting to try to document this experience to try to determine what is was that kept me back at it.

I’m not sure if the reason that I can return to and so enjoy WoW is having been in the Beta and playing it through its whole life, but I suspect that that level of investment and interest in the story and lore are a large part of it.

1934

I was a regular raider for many years, until Lich King messed up my lock in a really bad way. I realized I was spending 4 hours a night, 2-3 times a week, just not enjoying myself. They later changed locks to make them more palatable, but I just never got the urge to get back into the raiding grind. It’s not so bad now, but a few years ago to afford repairs, enchants, gems, flasks and food you typically had to log on and grind for hours between raids. Now my guild covers most of my repair bill and easier dailies can rack up the money you need in pretty short order. But, now I like to go to bed around 11, not be raiding. That real passion is done.

I don’t blame it directly on Blizzard. It’s true, WoW is a very different game today than the one I bought in 2004, but my life has changed a lot in the past 9 years. Not all the changes have sat well with me, but my natural inclinations have changed too.

I thought it was interesting that they’ve announced Titan will not be subscription-based. I wonder if that “reboot” they announced was change the model, since I don’t really see subscription-based MMOs these days.

1935

I just got 10 free days from Blizzard after someone jacked my account. I guess they wanted to give me time to log on and get all my stuff from the mailbox.

Anyway, I’ve been enjoying dipping back in again. It’s a great game when I want something that’s mindless enough it doesn’t require a lot of concentration but still can engage me on some level. I may go ahead and get the Pandarian expansion next time I see it on sale and spend a few months leveling my characters to cap.

I have to give props to Blizzard support too. I got the email saying my account was banned for doing whatever it is the account thieves do when they jack an account. I got online, chatted with a rep immediately, and had everything restored 30 minutes after that. It was superlative service. I also ordered an authenticator. I don’t want it to happen again.

1936

Your experience with their service is the polar opposite of mine. But I came back eventually. Like addicts do.

1937

I decided to chat with someone online rather than wait for an email to be processed. I was pleasantly surprised when I got into chat within seconds the the rep looked up my account and immediately began to restore it.

1938

This thread gives me the itch to resub but my massive backlog of games is screaming noooooo! Panda also left me flat. I also hated hanging out in the same Stormwind from Cata. I needed a change of scenery. I heard Org is going through some changes this patch so may be better Horde side.

Hopefully we will get some info on the next XP soon and I’ll probably jump in during the beta again.

1939

I spent about a month dealing with people repeating that they stood by their decision to ban my account and that they couldn’t comment on the details of why I was banned, what if anything they’d done to investigate my assertion that my account had been hacked (nothing, I suspect, since they never asked me to prove my identity or anything of that sort) and insinuating that if I had indeed been hacked it was my fault. It was pretty Kafkaesque. Eventually I gave up. It was an original collector’s edition, too. :(

But that was back in like 2005 and they’ve no doubt had to shape up since then given continually expanding popularity and widespread hacking.

1940

I will be very surprised if the next expansion isn’t the major announcement at Blizzcon in November.