You'll buy it, love it, play it every extra minute you have, then 4 years later realize you've spent thousands of hours

 
playing a video game, and that you can never get those 4 years of your life back again.  Or so I've heard...

Of course you should buy it!

From what I gleaned from developer interviews, they are trying to shorten the span between expansions.

This.

You you have any semblance of a social life that you enjoy? A girlfriend? Yes? Then if you want to lose all that, WoW is for you!


.. In reality the game used to be fun, but in coming from A to B, they managed to drop off some of the most fun parts so all that's left is a grind.

Subscriptions drop between expansions. More frequent expansions means fewer walk aways and more subscription stability. It's also why they are only dropping one raid every couple of weeks or so. Keep those subscribers on the hook as long as possible.

Edited...VA-gunnut
also not sure if this against the CoC
 

This expansion sucked, and they want to get more money for the expansion from their diminishing user base.

I thought Draenor added some neat features and introduced some nice ways to be lazy.  edit -  the old X villain got away, and now he is universe/time traveling bit is pretty janky though.

A little disappointed that there is only going to be 2 raid tiers, but shit being in Siege for over a year was crushing.

Because it's grindy like vanilla but unlike vanilla all the social stuff is dead community wise. Took me all of a week after release to say "fuck this shit."

Flying in Draenor! Today

I have most of the Acheivments completed so hopefully it wont be too long before I can get the ability.

I had avoided Tannan Forest for a while just because doing it solo, low geared was brutal. Once you pick up a few Baleful upgrades and buy some upgrade tokens to lift you ILvl it becomes much easier. I grouped up w/ my wife's cousin and we rolled through the dailies several times and I was good to go. It still can rough, but tolerable.

I used the time away from the TF to upgrade my garrison and build a nice gold stash to finance heirlooms for some other toons and purchase things to make lvling life easier. I've not raided all summer so I have stores of consumables to craft whatever I need which is awesome. Raiding and trying to gear up to raid is taxing, and that is why I quit after Cataclysm. I love to raid but unless you have a great supporting guild that gives out stuff to help raid then you need to buy or craft it and that is a grind.

Gearing up has qualified me for Mythic raiding but I haven't yet. I joined a new guild with members from an old guild so this will the the 4th raid we have had.

WOW can suck you in I play 3 evenings or less a week. My son dominates the PC most of the time (Not WOW-he plays but not much), now that school has begun even moreso. I call the PC on raid nights, and we will swap the TV if he wants to play on the PS. I have learned not to give a crap too much any more. Before it was always wanted to be the top DPSer in the raid and raiding, reading, therory crafting-ugg! PITA! So now I play with folks that I know and it is fun. If we wipe 10 times we wipe, and we all get fresh drinks and call each other names over vent. Getting loot is good too.

So, the fact you can just fly over the landscape is a plus for you? I agree. I just think WOW is so boring now. EVERYTHING is a grind...minus camaraderie. Better just to fly past it all.

Sounds like a good guild. Its so easy to gear now you would think raiding would be more casual. I don't raid much anymore either but I can tell when the guild I am in has a bad night everybody logs off.

With Legion being released later this year, I'll continue playing my original char, my Critchicken, but will be maining a blood DK. I know it's a bit of a ways off, but if anyone on the Horde side is going to be on right when the xpac opens ( IIRC 2AM CST, midnight PST ) and wants to join me, you're more than welcome to group up to do the new quest lines.

I'm surprised you're still playing. I got burnt out, and it felt too much like a 2nd job to keep up.

I stopped raiding a while back.  I log on and putz around.  Still haven't gotten an alt up to 100 yet.  (my post you quoted was from last July)

I figured that I'd check in here.

Played since 2007. Started on aggramar in a vanilla guild called masters of shadows, my wife is still there.  I Loved TBC, looking back wrath wasn't bad. (Ulduar was the pinnacle I think.)

I retired from wow 3 years ago.  Came back last November.  
Prior bragging:

Stormrage alliance : midnight sanctuary. Holy /Disc

Transferred to Ghost lands, got realm 1st HLK.

Zuljin; I went horde;  I raided around farmed Firelands and DS with now defunct Duality.  Retired after an arguably world 1st Heroic Garajal kill.  (Vodka claimed it, wow progress had us as 10 man,. Manaflask still has the page with proper rankings.)

Retired for 3 years, I keep my alt resto shammy in a large alt guild called "Crits n giggles". I still raid her in open raid on Saturdays.

My priest now exists as Alliance on Lightbringer. An Old friend from my Firelands days has a semi mythic guild I fill in for and I run the weekly Heroic farm raids as a holy priest.  Nice non hardcore, "super casual"

I'm around.  I have a slew of 60-100 alts everywhere.  From shu'halo, to Aggramar, Stormrage, Zuljin, Lightbringer.

If you pop up on Lightbringer I can offer you a home, or a hangout in my little alt guild.

I'm on Lightbringer to pursue interests in Legion,I don't want to raid 40hrs a week anymore, but I am cozy as a casual in my old freind's guild, and can jump into full-time mythics or heroics at will.

I've waited 8 years for Legion.  I hope it's good.

Pm me if you are in my AO

Zeds dead baby

Yes a month ago. Legion

i just got back in before the release of legion and created a new fury warrior. Got her up to 70 so far....leveling seems to go by a lot faster than i remember it

Hail Lagbringer Master Race!

Too bad I've since decided to perma-retire. The min/max crap has gotten so old. "Oh, you like this spec? Well, Blizzard doesn't like this spec, so unless you're full BiS, lol fuck you. Go play the spec Blizzard wants you to play!" *Cough*life of a fire mage*cough*

You killed the thread like Blizzard killed the WoW

Demon Hunter FTW

Started back playing over the weekend. Been well over a year.

I quickly found I dislike my shaman now and boosted a lock to 100. Never played one in years past and I'm enjoying it.

Anyone still play?

Like Lazarus...the thread rises....

Playing on a server from out of the country.  Lich King with x7 exp rate.

Hadn't played in years when pandas started...please.

Now, it is fun in moderation.  30-60 minutes here or there as a fun distraction.  And leveling is so much faster (obviously) so it keeps your attention.

I haven't played since Pandaria.  I keep thinking about going back, but its such
a time sink, and I've forgotten so much about it I'd have to pretty much relearn how to play.

I have been playing for 2 weeks now and have most of the Legion raid gear already (I used the level 110 boost)

Seems pretty easy for playing the game for the first time

I got the free trial...

I could see me getting sucked in but the whole subscription thing is kind of lame IMO.

Rip vanilla, TBC and WotLK.

Classic vanilla servers are still in the works they just have never given an update on them.  Probably won't be until after the new expansion.

Now you can solo the old raids in about 20 minutes

You get all of the old gear and can make your current gear look like the old stuff

I've been raiding constantly trying to get my old gear back

They had the xmogging right before I quit during Cataclysm.  Took me a lot of tries to get my dk's Gorehowl axe from Kara and some pvp helm that only covered the bottom part of my shamans face.

Sounds like the game is worth picking up to play casually but the raiding doesn't sound great.

I bought the original game the day it dropped at Circuit City of all places. I played up into Pandaria. I just got burned out, and I used to play like every frigging day. I miss pre-expansion WoW. If they do bring the WoW Classic servers back online I'll probably bite again for old time's sake.

If you value your time, don't get the ALL THE THINGS mod, it will tell you everything that you are missing from an xmog, achieve, pet, title completionist perspective.

The raiding is better than it ever has been, from either perspective.  LFR makes things accessible to low skill or no group people, or if you can find a group the harder difficulties are a much bigger challenge than anything in vanilla or BC. *

* I should say Legion raids were when it was fresh content, now that we're on the slow decline until the next xpac there are less groups running.

Recent update regarding classic servers.

Long story short: they have to figure out how to undo 13+ years of progress and make the game work like it used to, while being compatible with modern computers and graphics cards.

@VA-gunnut
@45FMJoe

Some Classic WoW news.  Jump to about 11:20 if you just care about that.

Guess I'll play again at some point. Have they said anything about it being a free download or paid?

A vanilla WoW server would be awesome, could finally finish the Rhok'delar quest.

I played the day vanilla was released for about 4 years. Had a great time in that game doing the 40 man raids.

I left right before the first expansion. I wouldn't know where to begin now.

God help me....  I reinstalled WoW.

I quit shortly after Burning Crusade.  My main was an alliance hunter and main-alt was a rogue.

I didn't reactivate any of my old accounts, mostly because I wanted to switch to Horde and go to a better populated server than what my old Horde alts were on.

So...  What to play now?  I made a shaman, priest, warlock, druid, and warrior.  I also made a panda monk, but I wasn't too keen on that play-style.  It's probably going to just be a bank alt for the most part (I just wanted to see the panda starting story line.)  I'll re-roll a hunter once I get the moose-Tauren, and probably do a rogue on the Horde night elf race once I get them opened up.

I don't want to go back to a raiding style of play.  That was too much of a frustrating time dump due to farming mats for potions and what-not and miserable experiences with people CONSTANTLY doing the wrong thing in raids.  I usually didn't mind PUGs, hell, most of them ran smoother than guild raids.

Are proc warriors and holy priests still the big desire for groups?

Also... money.  HOLY SHIT!  I remember starting this game and taking time to get some gold on my toons, but I see people in chat selling gear for 500K+ in gold.  Is gold easier to get now or something?  What profession is the go-to for making money while leveling?

I see a lot has changed in the classic worlds.  I assume they did all that to kill Barrens chat?

I am sad I lost my Murky though.

There were some incredible sources of in game gold in the last 2 or 3 xpacs that Blizzard has only recently sought to curtail.

A lot has changed since BC in terms of social game play.  It is a much simpler game to play than it once was in many respects.  In some ways that makes it fun but it can make you miss the "good ole days" that required a cohesive and tight knit group to get things done.  One of the most obvious things you will notice is the 5 man instance runs.  They no longer require the team work they once did and you literally run through them now.  There is no stopping to top up on mana or explaining things to new people.

It's literally run from the entrance to the last boss and you can basically put your face on the keyboard and roll it around to clear them.  In fact, for all but the most difficult raiding modes, guild team work isn't really required anymore.  Even raiding can be done in pugs now, although "raiding guilds" that go after the hardest modes do exist.

As you have noticed, the economy has inflated a bit.  It's still fun though, I am enjoying BFA so far.  I don't think I will return to guild raiding, even though I am in one but the single player and pick up group content so far is enjoyable.

One thing I will suggest is if you are going to go mostly solo, consider not jumping into BFA right away.  You missed a bunch of content that comes free with the latest expansion.  Some of it certainly isn't the best, such as the panda crap.  That content cost the game a bunch of players. That said, if you are not going to be raiding in BFA right away and you want to get as much out of the game as possible, you could go back to where you left off instead of boosting and run through that content if you want, or boost an alt to that level and run through it that way.

This expansion should last around 2 years and it just launched a week ago so you certainly have time.

If you do jump into BFA on a boosted toon, don't be suprised when you hit the new level cap very fast.  Everyone does.  It's much less about the leveling experience now and all about that rep/gear grind.  Some hit 120 in less than a full day.  I hit it in about a week of sane/normal people/I have a job and other shit to do play time.  That's still stupid fast compared to old school expansions.