Don’t Feel Bad About Getting Bored

I recently saw a farewell post on My Life in Azeroth. I’m sorry to see anyone stop blogging, and I hope they resume someday, but the tone of the post got me thinking.

It seems like a lot of WoW players sound apologetic or guilty when they discuss leaving that game, like they are somehow letting Blizzard or the community down. I’ve seen it in blog posts, and I’ve seen it on Twitter. Like they are admitting some deep, dark secret that they didn’t want to tell anyone. Like they are revealing some deep personal flaw in themselves.

I don’t mean to single out WoW here, but it seems like that’s where I see it the most.

I realize I’m probably reading more into this than what is actually there, but on the off chance anyone actually does feel that way, allow me to dispense some unrequested advice from someone who’s been there many times: It’s completely fine and normal and I daresay even expected that you as a player will grow tired of even the greatest, most fantastic MMORPG in the history of the world. (This applies to any game, really, not just WoW or MMORPGs.) There’s just no way that any developer can create content faster than a player can consume it. I actually find it more strange to hear about people who keep playing a single MMORPG day after day for years on end without any break.

The MMORPG genre is basically defined by repetitive gameplay, especially at the endgame (PvE at least). Sometimes repetition is soothing, and sometimes it’s annoying and soul-crushing. If it becomes more of the latter, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking a break from an MMORPG. If you come back to it later, then great, but if not, that’s okay too.

So to summarize: Don’t feel bad about it!