This waters my eyes, is WoW over for us?

#1 - Jan. 28, 2013, 5:55 p.m.

Us meaning the vanilla/tbc players that cherished community.

http://i.imgur.com/sPLBsw3.jpg?1

'The picture displays how the game has changed in terms of the social perspective. Back during the first years of the game, commitment, friendship and determination were the dominating themes, but as it developed, things started changing rapidly and old school players started feeling disconnected from what they used to enjoy. Things became too easy and little by little social interaction merely became a choice. With the arrival of the automatic 'Looking for Group/raid' tool, all a player had to do in order to achieve better gear, achievements, levels and such was to click a button. Back in the day you would have to interact personally with each player to find what you were searching for in order to set up a successful group. Due to the 'enclosed' community of your server, you would automatically start befriending people you crossed paths with, whether it was through PVE or PVP. In the picture you get a feeling of how the game has changed from a place of group effort and friendship to a community that is more focused on the individual user.' - WoWSubReddit.

Taken from Reddit because I couldn't say it better myself.

Vaneras

Community

#43 - Jan. 29, 2013, 3:01 p.m.

29/01/2013 11:57Posted by Coriandra
So in summary, the communities are still there, it's just that by default you don't have to belong to them any more, you need to actively want to participate in them. Seems to me that this caters to everybody better than being excluded from a large amount of content just because you couldn't find a group.

I personally think this is quite true.

The picture linked by the OP is one that I think speaks to a lot of us who have been playing this game for years, it certainly speaks to the nostalgic old-timer in me, and it made me think back on some of those early guilds I was in and the good times I had back then... I think most of us will never forget that great first guild we were in where great bonds of friendship were established while learning the game and playing together.

Not all guilds stand the test of time, just like not all real life friendships stand the test of time. People grow apart, and so does guilds. In real life I sometimes wonder how old friends of mine I haven't seen in years are doing, or what happened to my old class mates that I used to have such a good time with, but since those days I have made new friends and formed new great friendships and those are the ones that matter today.

I have friends on my friends lists in-game who I do not see log in any more for various reasons. Some have re-rolled, some are playing on their alts, some have moved to another realm, some have quit, etc. But while many old friends on my friend are no longer active, I should never forget that I have many other friends on my friends list who are still playing, and some of those friends I didn't have before when my old friends were active. In fact my friends list has grown ever since it became possible to add RealID and BattleTag friends, and I am still having just as much fun playing with friends today as I did back in the old days, even if those friends I play with are not the same as the old ones.