Ye Olde WoW Hate

This topic has been done to death, I know, but with the inevitable coming expansion, I feel it deserves some re-discussion.

At the this very moment (and for the last week or so) I will be the first to tell you that I am none too happy with ol' Blizzard at this point in Warcraft's lifetime. Not being able to log-in to one's first and favorite mmo will do that to a person. But, it is precisely because I love the game so much that not being able to play it causes my frustration at the company. I fully understand my current feelings for the game and thus am able to cope with not being able to play it for some unknown time. What I don't understand is why any WoW news at all brings out the haters, with the sharpest criticisms usually coming from former players.

Yesterday I was checking Massively and WoW.com for any new stories when this jumped out at me, as I'm sure it did to many others. My first and only thought concerning this revelation was that it sounds totally awesome, if it proves to be true. Now, perhaps it is because these days I mainly read mmo game sites for news, but I was quite taken aback by most of the non-mmo gaming communities reaction to the news. A little while ago I was checking Gamespot's "Latest Headlines" and two things caught my eye. One was this, which just caused me one more groan of Nintendo bewilderment. The other was, of course, Gamespot's own rumor mill reporting of the WoW.com news.

Jesus, god. Please take some time to scroll through the hate. Here are a few of the best:

"Can this game get any gayer?"

"No more new races will be added. This article is pure BS except the fact that the next expansion will be called Catacalysm. Expect a new hero class."

"This game has been going downhill since release, I didn't even bother with WOTLK, it'll take a lot more than Goblins and Worgen to bring me back."

"I don't play WoW anymore but all my friends are still addicted. Just wanted to comment on this. Ok I can see Goblins joining the Horde but Worgen for Alliance? How does that make any sense? Am I missing something? Seems like just a random choice because Worgen don't really fit as Alliance at all. But I guess if all people care about is "cool playable werewolves!" then why should Blizz care if it makes sense."

"and WoW becomes even more stupid, glad I left this piece of crap months ago"

"enough of this game already."


Most of this nonsense is easily brushed off with, "read the damn lore," and, "stop speaking out your ass on a game you have likely never played" but the comments from former players are what bug me the most.

What is it about this game that causes people to feel so burned when they finally call it quits?

• Did they take it too seriously?
• Did they not get out of it as much as they put into it? (time & effort vs. rewards)
  
• Are they just mad at themselves for playing the game for so long, but never really 'getting' what it is about?
• Or, perhaps after all that time spent did they never create the experience they wanted? As we all know, because of the social nature of mmos a large portion of that experience is player created.
• Lastly, maybe they just saw how much they had paid for the game and had a heart attack!

I am no psychologist so this is as far as my gamer-mind evaluation goes. But, perhaps those bullets are something to consider with regards to reasons for Warcraft burnout.

Lastly, when I started to write this post I remembered something Shawn Schuster tweeted the other day:

"Man I hate when sites write about MMO news and don't even play them. Don't you?"

Yes, Shawn, I DO hate that. I'd say that hate even extends to regular gaming sites that only partially cover mmos, but that have a rabid user base of mmo haters.

-Max


"WoW was the Nirvana of mmos"
-Michael Zenke in reference to wow's inevitable legacy