Warlords of Garrison. Thoughts on burnout and attrition?
primesuspect
Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
"I'm a huge WoW fanatic. I love the game. I love the lore. I love the aesthetic. I love raiding. I'm in a decent raiding guild (6/10 Heroic BRF) and have a passel of alts that I enjoy leveling, etc. I'd say I'm on the "upper mid-range" of players in terms of play time and skill level. Not hardcore by any means but a dedicated player.
Lately I've gotten close to the dreaded "WoW burnout/boredom" stage. Our guild has been losing members and attrition seems a bit higher than normal, and in talking with some other players, we all sort of have the same general malaise feeling that the game has gone from the WoW that we know to a "game that takes place almost entirely in a garrison, alone".
Think about it: The hub, the place you spend the most time, is now a single-player experience. We used to hang out in capital cities or Shrine, and even on your daily grind you would be surrounded by other players. You could see gear sets and see mounts and see tons of activity. There was always something going on. Now, the only time I go to Stormshield is to get my seals for the week and occasionally visit the AH (which I wouldn't even have to do if I had one in my garrison).
A lot of people complained about the Dailies grind in MoP but now that it's gone, frankly, I miss it. It got me out and about and forced me to reach for goals. Now that my garrison is maxed out and all my followers are 675, it's just a daily grind of missions, collecting work orders, and making a circle back to the Town Hall in my garrison. It has almost zero effect on my raiding; I feel that at this point I only need to log in twice a week for our guild's scheduled raid night, and that's it. There's nothing else happening.
Thoughts?"
Comments
I can honestly say the biggest reason I left was time constraints. The fact that, originally, it felt like I needed to log on every day for multiple hours was kind of a drag, that and the time I had to play was definitely outside the norm of most folks because I work central time zone. Which reinforced the feeling of being alone when I was playing. That and I'm not really big on mumble/voice chat outside of raids.
That said, when I was playing it was some of the most fun I've had in WoW since at least Wrath (and was actually a bit more enjoyable).
I still find raiding very entertaining, recent travel commitments notwithstanding, but I absolutely cannot be bothered to care about my garrison any more. I used to be smitten with it, but now I dread it and, on some days, actively loathe it.
The fact that I have to manage one for each character is the most irritating of all. I wish alts were treated like lieutenants for whom I could handle missions with a dedicated main.
I regularly end up taking breaks from WoW. Pattern is about 2-3 times per expansion, each lasting about a month or two. Reasons vary but are generally two things:
1: Real life is busy. Namely school. Blizzard has made WoW more accessible for this vary reason though. If you manage your time, you can still progress at a slower pace compared to not at all.
2: The biggest reason. Simple burnout. This is why I extend my playtime in WoW as much as possible. I take my time playing and I avoid shortcuts (the blasphemy that is Handynotes for Treasure. Disgusting.) Still I manage to eventually catch up to the current endgame (to a degree) and get bored. My problem now is that I have also caught up on some other forms of content. My transmog library is huge. I have multiple lvl 25 battle pets. I've completed most older content in many regards. I've completed/looted multiple legendaries. I had collected all the mounts I wanted for a time. When the new content of Warlords was running low, I had little alternatives to play.
Also,I'm routinely juggling 3-4 games for regular playtime. Evolve and Monster Hunter 4 came out right as the burnout was setting in. I love the Monster Hunter series so that was a guaranteed interest shift. I'm taking my time with that too for the same reasons and it's anywhere from a 100-300 hour game minimum.
WoW has two main hooks to keep you playing: Content, and the people you play with. Those work in tandem to make an enjoyable experience. If one is lacking or outright missing though, you likely won't be having fun. The content is most likely to burnout. The people can also cause burnout for normal and sometimes tragic reasons (my previous guild had that misfortune. WoW is too painful for them to even log in anymore.) I would argue that the main point to WoW is having fun with friends, and your friends want you to be happy and have fun. If you're not having fun because one or both of those two hooks have burned out or outright dropped completely, then do what you can to make it fun again or drop it and come back later. I'd rather have a friend take a break for awhile, then have them think they need to trudge through content they don't think is fun for the sake of the group. Honorable, but defeats the purpose of the game.
My suggestion: Blizzard supplies many alternatives to extend your playtime. Find the ones that interest you. This can help you get outside your garrison and stay out for awhile. I don't feel burned out of my garrison because I had enough reasons to leave it and not come back till I was ready to grab a new quest/objective or end that day of play. Should those burn out too (which they will), then just drop it and come back later when new stuff gets patched in. If your only reason for logging on is to raid/get ready to raid, then do so and then logoff. The longer you stay on trying to find a reason to play will only increase your burnout. Do that research offline while talking with friends, looking over WoWhead or some other fansite, or just in your head. Get out and refresh yourself, then come back swinging.
I also kinda miss the stupid grinding dailies -- at least you got on to accomplish something. I really can't be bothered to do most of my garrison stuff unless I'm logging in for other reasons.
I love raiding with you guys -- it's one of the highlights of my week, even if I have to put up with a grumpy bear co-tank.
For our group, I'd love to see more fun activities during the week -- drunk raiding, go back and do stuff for old content, leveling alts, etc. Reasons to login for me usually equate spending time with relatively cool people.
I also have had a hard time leveling alts. Some of them sound so cool, but it seems like a slog. I need to get in on some group leveling things.
The real slog is from 55-65 because basically you're running BRD and Hellfire over and over again. Luckily it goes fast with all heirlooms.
this has been on my mind recently as well. two things that have kept me from playing recently have been money problems, and my computer being out of commision. both problems will be resolved soon so getting back to WoW is looking to be a reality, and i find myself wondering if i even really want to. i was getting burned out even before my money problems began. So...
there are two things(aside from raiding nights) id like to do when i return; level my hunter through questing which would be more fun wih friends, and explore some of that content that people frequently pass over in favor of dungeons. if anyone else thinks they might want to explore some of that content, i think we could bring a little more of that social aspect back. so...thoughts?
I loved questing with friends back during WotLK days. Some of my best gaming memories of all time involve questing with @TiberiusLazarus, @NiGHTS, @Ryder, and others. However, now that people have level 100 characters and full heirlooms, "questing together" is almost impossible unless you roll all new characters with NO heirlooms... because unless you all have the same heirlooms and buffs, levelling is very uneven. I can level up four levels in a low-level dungeon and if I'm questing with someone who has fewer heirlooms, they're left in the dust. Questing is so fast now that it's just "quickly get to the next exclamation point" because it's almost always a race to 100.
I'm not saying questing together is impossible, but it's very frustrating for someone who has done it many times on alts and most of the time we're just doing everything as quickly as possible to get to the level cap.
Yeah, I unfortunately got hit pretty quickly with burnout. I loved leveling new characters, but once I got there, the raiding aspect just didn't appeal as much as it used to. Garrisons lost their appeal quick, no real dailies/rep with benefits, there's no more trading in trade skills. It got to where I just logged in to raid/collect my engineering parts/missions.