"Why I Quit WoW"

Admin Executive by day, WoW player by night.

4x High Level Characters:
1) Level 80 Paladin
2) Level 71 Hunter
3) Level 65 Warlock
4) Level 65 Death Knight

Play Time
Weekday: 2 to 4 hours daily after work
Weekend: 12 to 16 hours daily
Average Weekly Time = 35hrs/week

Play History

• Started playing for 4 months
• Stopped for 9 months
• Restarted for 1 year
• Stopped 2 months because of work
• Returned for 3 months
• Quit

Question: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your motivation level in each of the following aspects of gameplay?"

1) SOCIAL - 9 out of 10

• "WoW was a great way for me to spend time with friends whom I cannot meet often in real life. Even after our work (late into the night), we can just log on and do things together."
• "I like being able to do quests and level up together, help each other."

2) ACHIEVEMENT - 5 out of 10

• "If you want to play with friends and to help them, you must be powerful enough. You cannot do quests together if you are too far below them."
• "It is the same reason for trade skills and achievements, I do it so that I can be in a position to help friends."

3) IMMERSION - 3 out of 10

• "I like to try out different playing styles and experience the different aspects of the game. However, I am not obsessed with the storyline or virtual environment."

Question: "So Why Did You Quit?"

"My friend (of 15 years) decided to gradually move on to Final Fantasy 11 and I was left with very few real friends in the game. During the implementation of Patch 3.1, a hacker took over my friends (FF11 player) and stole all our gold (game currency) and I had even less ability to help my remaining friends. That was the tipping point and I decided to quit WoW altogether."





Question: "Isn't It Possible to Make New Friends in the Game?"

"Sure, but I prefer to be able to put a face to my online friends. My timings for playing made it very difficult to look for new friends."

Question: "Was it Difficult to Quit?"

• "Not at all. I've never had difficulties with stopping play even at the peak of my WoW-gaming. My play never overtook my real-world priorities like work, rest or church. I could always stop immediately whenever those clashed."
• "In the same way, once my friends left, there was really no compelling motivation for me to keep playing."

Question: "After Investing So Much Time and Effort Into the Game, Do You Regret It?"

• "No regrets. I always took it as recreation and never compromised my real-life priorities even at the peak of gaming. I enjoyed every single hour I spent so I have no regrets."
• "I think it will be harder for people with achievement-orientation to give up the game because they will not want to give up the virtual status they've attained."

Question: "What Will You Do Now With All the Time You Have?"

• I'll spend it on other recreational means - pick up a sport, walk around town, find a girlfriend, read comics and play other games that are not so time-consuming.
• I'll also volunteer to help other gamers.

Dan (not his real name) is a unique case because he was not a pathological gamer even with the amount of time he was spending on games. Games were his primary means of meeting friends.

Given that he was single, do not have many other interests and had a lot of recreational time on his hands, he went into WoW. However his other priorities in life were not compromised.

In a gaming questionairre done on him, he was deemed as an "engaged gamer" (score 5 out of 7). His playing patterns were neither "problematic" (score 1 out of 13) or "pathological" (score 0.5 out of 10).