My friends suffer from “WoW burnout” – and I feel it too

WoW demon Cortyn no longer knows which way is up or down. Because there is so much “content” that you simply feel burned out in World of Warcraft.

Anyone who knows me and my articles knows: World of Warcraft is an important thing for me. I love the game, but I also criticize it harshly when something goes wrong.

I’ve been playing WoW almost continuously for almost 21 years. Sometimes a bit more intensively, sometimes significantly less. But I’ve basically always played the current content and explored everything until I had what I wanted from it. Be it a nice toy, a beautiful transmog, or just another achievement that can join the thousands of others – I can be quite simple-minded at times.

However, with Midnight, a phenomenon is emerging that I initially thought only affected me. In conversations with friends, I realized that others feel the same way. We just called it “WoW burnout” – a term that has certainly been used by others.

The criticism: WoW now offers so much content in shorter and shorter timeframes that you no longer have time to really engage with it, enjoy it, and let it sink in. It’s a large fast-food continuous feast, with some highlights in between, but also a lot of soulless junk that you regret afterwards.

No time for what brings joy

A few days ago, I had a conversation with a friend, and we talked about housing. Because we are both total housing fans, we love the feature and would like to spend much more time in it – if WoW weren’t so overloaded with “filler content” right now. Because at the end of the month, we both realized: We haven’t really played the current endeavor of our neighborhood at all. The question simply arose: With all the content flooding, where is the time left to play old content for a venture?

The state of the released content is also questionable:

• We’ve already talked enough about the really miserable “Decor Duel”. At the beginning, it was basically unplayable.
• Abgrundfishing could also take a long time to discuss. It’s a kind of mini-game, where the primary rewards consist of getting better at this mini-game. Real “rewards” in the form of transmog or toys can be counted on one hand.
• The ritual sites are also just “depths with extra steps” and a separate reward system, which is also based on loot boxes and randomness, but has a totally unbalanced ratio between progress and rewards. Because most probably already have all the relevant rewards from the rituals before they even begin to reach the “fame level” at maximum.

These are all contents where Blizzard should have pulled the emergency brake.

It’s not that the various contents feel like work or duty – as was often the case with Shadowlands. But the sheer amount of content with its small mini-rewards, all of which are somehow “mildly interesting enough” to want, is just overwhelming.

Don’t get me wrong. Despite the really disastrous release of Patch 12.0.5, World of Warcraft is still a great game that I enjoy a lot. But it’s too much. Too much content, too many currencies.

I always liked reaching a state in World of Warcraft where I was “done” with everything that was important to me. I quickly raised the reputation factions to revered (or now to fame level 20) after the launch and, of course, completed all the quests. Then there was usually a few weeks break before the next patch came. During that time, I could work on personal goals – be it pet battles, old achievements, or a bit of roleplay.

Now, that’s hardly possible anymore. Patch 12.0.5 was released before I even finished with the fame factions. I hadn’t maxed out the nice hunting feature with Astalor yet. I completely left the tavern quests of the Arcanetina behind at some point.

I simply can’t get to “more” content.

Tempo, tempo, tempo – No time for unfolding

This pace also affects the story and leads to questionable decisions. Because a world-changing event, like Midnight, was dealt with in 4 weeks. Between the attack on the Sunwell of Xal’atath, the resistance of the Sunwell with Holy Light, the counterattack of Xal’atath turning the Sunwell into the Darkwell, the cleansing of the well, and its reformation as the Dawnwell, there were only 4 weeks.

In a month, the entire core story of Midnight was handled. That this story also robbed a whole WoW nation of its identity, is a topic for another rant Wednesday.

For now, it’s just important: It’s going too fast. The gameplay being significantly quicker than in Classic I find good – otherwise, it would be too boring for me today. But the speed at which content is pushed out that knows no pause is simply too much.

That parts of this rapidly pushed content currently aren’t even “good” makes it easier to simply ignore it. But I really don’t want that. I want to play World of Warcraft, but at the same time don’t want to feel like I have to sacrifice all my free time just to keep up with everything.

I would like to have a World of Warcraft again that allows me to have other hobbies and doesn’t overwhelm me with shorter intervals of more content that seems increasingly unfinished and just unrefined at release.

In my circle of friends, the number of people only showing up for raid nights is drastically increasing. Not because they don’t have time for WoW. But because they feel that no matter how much time they have, it wouldn’t be enough to reach a state in the game that satisfies them.

Perhaps this is a problem for “old” WoW fans like me, who have been around for over 20 years. I love filling some bars. Be it XP, reputation, or achievements. I love earning rewards and then enjoying them.

But I also love having reached a point where I was “done” for a while. Where I stood on my hard-earned mount in Silvermoon and bragged a bit or just chatted casually, without the nagging thought in the back of my mind that I had to complete some kind of content. That’s basically no longer possible and leads to the abundance of content losing its appeal and becoming a burden.

If it were up to me, World of Warcraft should take more time between patches. I don’t need a new update every 8 weeks. Every 12 weeks would be completely sufficient for me. Then Blizzard can refine the respective content and make it more fun, and maybe then I’ll feel less like I’m lagging behind in everything. I don’t want more content. I want better. They can also finally be finished. Then I would have time to just work on my Mage Tower again without a guilty conscience simply.

How do you perceive World of Warcraft currently? Are you satisfied with the amount of content and the quality? Do you wish it would go even faster? Or do you see it similarly to me and think a bit more calm would do the game much better than an increasingly faster patch cycle that’s slowly but surely demanding its toll?