I've got 4 days left on my account...

[LochnarITB]

Do I renew or do I not?
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My vote would be for renew (same goes for Niniuin/Tutelin/Sword of Doom). However, I don't have a vote. There is only one vote, yours.

I've gotten to the point where I can't really do anything without a supporting cast, and though the likely pool of Lurker companions has grown to about a Dozen (60s), I'm finding it increasingly difficult and frustrating finding a groupp to go do something.

I felt I was at, or close to, this point quite some time ago. I want to play Lochnar but I can't find it in myself to ask for people to join me. I have several reasons for this. First, it smacks of "can I play with you big guys? huh, huh? can I? can I go too? pretty please?". Invariably, somewhere along the way I will hear "Loch needs...". While logic tells me that people wouldn't be helping if they didn't want to, the feeling is still that of "geez let's get Loch's stuff done so we can go back to having fun".

I don't try to organize things either. Not because I can't, but because I find it too frustrating. If I'm going to set something up, I want it to happen when I say it is happening and how I say it is happening. I also feel obligated to have everything go well with everyone pleased at how it goes. In reality, I am dealing with real people behind the toons. People don't show when/where they are supposed to. People get upset if things go too fast or too slow. There are always too few or too many breaks for RL, depending on which player you talk to.

Also, there are now many players who have seen everything. They are doing things for loot alone. There is no more thrill of discovery, the concept that really drives me. Bolty's post, which can be summed up in the following quote, is the result of this, as I see it.

Well, because I like to complete my instance runs before the paint peels on my walls, that's why.  If you're going into an instance with me as a tank, be prepared to move from fight to fight to fight without much stoppage of play.
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I see this as a symptom of people being burned out on the end game content. It is still discovery for me so I don't always know what is going to happen around the next corner with the next pull. I still agree that it is the way to play in a rinse-and-repeat scenario. My character can often be seen running into the battle after it has begun because I have stopped to drink while they proceed into battle. Doing so with content I have not seen makes me nervous. Should I have been there to sheep? Are they counting on AOE? I don't know because I haven't been there and it is sometimes hard to asses if the battle is already raging.

Pickup groups are simply out of the question. Problems I see playing with people I want to play with are magnified when I play with people I am forced to play with.

PvP is also not an option for me, at least as it now stands. Even on a PvP server, with all the talk of excitement and camaraderie, it seems the only point I see is to disrupt another person's play. I do look forward to battlegrounds, if done well. PvP, in a capture-the-flag setting, seems like it could be a lot of fun. There would be rules and objectives that all parties would be playing under.

I have, at least for a short while, found new life in the game. I have been playing a Tauren hunter on Terenas. This has done two things for me. It has given me new content to discover. All the alts on Stormrage are just doing the same old content in different ways. As Horde, I have new quests in areas I barely explored as Alliance. I also find that the hunter (as well as the warlock I have also made on Terenas) can solo much more content by waiting until they are almost gray, or even just turned gray. I may not get nearly as much xp/rep that way but I get the satisfaction of being able to handle things with just me and my lion (savannah patriarch), Felix.

With all that, as I said earlier, I still want to play Lochnar. He is my first love. If Bliz were to open another continent of solo continent, I would be as happy as a pig in slop. My new hunter would soon be at full rest state while Lochnar explored with new found vigor. He has a lot of BRD and most everything up from there but he will probably get little of it done due to what I said above.

A guild the size of the Lurkers is also conducive to the formation of cliques. There are not so many people that pickup groups, of guildies only, are easy to form but there are enough that a couple cliques of similar levels and play times can sap the player pool and let a few out of sync players fall through the cracks.

If people happen to want a glass cannon freezer unit in their party, I am easy to find. I am generally playing from at least early evening until most people are getting out of bed. If I am not on Stormrage playing an alt or checking mail, I am over on Terenas. If people want to coordinate something before hand, there is the Lounge, in game mail and even email (always there in my sig).