World of Warcraft has ruined its players – they just can’t enjoy other MMORPGs anymore. There are many reasons for this.
The players who have been playing World of Warcraft for many years are quite a strange bunch. Many of them would call themselves “gamers” – yet they really only play one single game persistently, and that is WoW. With this, Blizzard has managed not only to bind many players to WoW but also to ruin them for other games.
A particularly significant contribution to this comes from the collections available in World of Warcraft. Anyone who has been completing their collections in the game over the course of more than 17 years will not give it up so easily. With over 600 mounts, more than 1,000 pets, countless achievements, and transmog items, the hurdle grows larger with every expansion that one must overcome to “escape” from it.
Because who wants to “sacrifice” 17 years of playtime just to chase the next hype game for a few weeks?
That this massive attachment to World of Warcraft is something beautiful on one side but can also be disturbing on the other is something that more and more players are realizing now.
Thus, “SonofSeth13” wrote in the WoW subreddit a post in which he expresses his experiences with other games and WoW. The post states, “Damn you, WoW, you ruined me for all other MMOs”:
For the umpteenth time, I download the client, create a character, start playing, and think: Yeah, this is fine, maybe the voice actors aren’t perfect, maybe the art style lacks a clear vision, maybe, maybe, maybe …
No matter which other MMO I try, be it Lost Ark, Guild Wars 2, Old Republic, Star Trek Online, there is always something that just bothers me until I can’t stand it anymore and never log in again. Most of the time it’s about how fluid the combat is and the animations, but even active combat systems like Tera or WildStar just feel less smooth than WoW, even if it’s just tab-targeting and ability-spamming.
It’s so frustrating. On one hand, I want to play something new, but when I try something new, something is always missing. On the other hand, I just can’t go back to WoW because I’ve been playing it since 2004 and simply can’t anymore.
So in that sense, thanks WoW!
“-Jouten-” also shares his experience:
I thought Final Fantasy XIV would be my game of choice after I left WoW. But no. I missed the “open world” feel of WoW. I knew something was wrong when I kept hitting walls while flying in Final Fantasy. The world just didn’t feel that open because I wasn’t used to having such a low ceiling for flying and bumping into walls everywhere. FFXIV is a great game, but it just couldn’t replace WoW for me. That’s why I am back in WoW now. And I see more and more people returning. So it’s not just me.
“DanteanWyatt” sees the great advantage of World of Warcraft in the ability to customize and adapt the game, especially the interface:
This is exactly how I feel. It’s strange that more realistic MMOs with more modern graphics somehow feel less realistic than WoW. But the main reason why WoW wins for me is the extensive support for add-ons. No other MMO has this amount of customization options. The ecosystem for add-ons in WoW is vast, and every other MMO can be jealous of it (but won’t implement it because it’s too much work).
Do these experiences resonate with your own? Do you also always return to World of Warcraft even though you actually long for another game? Or do you not know this problem at all?
