"Life is a cycle, No beginning, no end."

[thistlechaser]

On 9/28/2005 I joined WoW.
I left FFXI for it, after much foot-dragging and months of lingering on the game long after I stopped having fun.
Today, 4/13/2014, I quit WoW for FFXIV.

Want to see something scary? This is the amount of time I spent online on WoW on one character (I had ten total).


More than a year spent on WoW, on just one of my characters. It's a boggling thought. I can't believe how many years I've been playing. I can't believe it took me this long to quit.

As when I quit FFXI, I stayed on WoW too long. Outside of RP (which is player-generated, not something offered by the game), I haven't had fun in two expansions (so about two years). And, as my friends kept leaving for other games, there were fewer and fewer reasons to stay.

I don't know if I'll ever go back. I worry I might run out of things to do on FFXIV. I'm only in my second month, and I'm almost done leveling all the craft and gathering professions (and I don't really like leveling the battle jobs).

I sort of wish I had sold my gold. Doing that is against the rules, but what would they do, ban me? I would have liked to have gotten some RL money out of all that time playing. On both FFXI and WoW, I quit the game as one of the richest people on the server. I've always kicked myself for not giving my FFXI money away (or selling it), so I gave a good deal of my WoW money to a few people.

I'm a little sad to let it go, but I'm sad over the loss of what could have been more than what really was. I had some very good times in the game and some very bad ones, but lately it was mostly all bad. The game felt like a job, something I had to do, which means it was time to go. FFXIV makes me happy. I love the lore, I love the artwork, I have new and old friends I'm playing with. WoW was a part of my life for a long time though, so there will be a hole for a while.

Key for the non-gamers on my friends list:
FFXI = Final Fantasy 11
WoW = World of Warcraft
FFXIV = Final Fantasy 14, A Realm Reborn
All are MMOs/online games.

(Quote in the subject line came from a random online person, though it's hardly original to her.)

Comments

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

You have spent over a year of your life playing one computer game? Heavens to Betsy!

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

It's so haaaaaaaaaard
to saaaaay goodbyyyyyeeeeeeee
to yeeeeeeesterdaaaaaaaaaay!

I'm sad over the loss of what could have been more than what really was

YES. THIS. THIS EXACTLY.

[wow-hazmat.livejournal.com]

The nice thing about MMOs is that, generally speaking, they're always there if you want to go back. The characters, at least.

You made the right decision -- games are supposed to be FUN; if you're not having any, why bother? :)

Hugs!

[spike7451.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm missing something, I've never played an online game ever. lol

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

When did you actually leave FFXI? Because it wasn't in 2005. I started playing FFXI in 2004 (holy, crud, in a few months it'll have been ten years) and we hung out together for far more than just a year.

[adam-0oo.livejournal.com]

I did this once with an arcade game that showed how many hours you played. I showed my number to a friend and he was like, "oh, that isn't that much", then I pointed out that the screen cut off one number, so it was actually a four digit number.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Hi. :P

XIV is probably the most fun I've had in an MMO overall since XI for sure. A few mild things here and there that aren't amazing but on the whole it's so well crafted.

As for running out of things to do... maybe. At least until 2.3 or so I would imagine. While there is a bunch of stuff there right now most of it is oriented to endgame. Sure there are little things here and there you can do to fill time in the day but it never feels like enough. Although that's probably just because it's still relatively new (what with Bahamut hitting that reset button) so hopefully as time goes on we get more awesome stuff. I'm holding out for new jobs personally, nothing wrong with the ones there but after coming from XI and it's crazy jobs I feel I might be spoiled for choice...