I keep every now and then feeling the urge to return and I think it’s more because the grind in WoW, especially now that I’ve realized rogue is the perfect class for me, is a great way to switch off my brain and just play and grind.

When I first played WoW for years, I played with a warlock that I liked thematically but was actually terrible at; I played warlock, warrior and druid, and I was terrible/mediocre at all three, but when I got WoW classic back when it first launched, I played rogue and was blown away by how easy it was to be good at being a rogue, but also how capable they were in solo play as well (which I thought they wouldn’t be).

What killed the game for me though was when ‘the realization’ hit; that realization being the core goal: You farm the current raids over and over and over, so that you can be well geared for when the next raid drops and then you farm that raid over and over and over again, so that you can be well geared for when the next raid drops and then you farm that raid over and over and over again, ad infinitum.

Basically: You farm, so you can farm, so you can farm, so you can farm, etc. infinitely.

I recall when I first did Molten core, my guild and I were terrible and couldn’t beat ragnaros the first time, then we went next week and through much struggle managed to kill him, and then I was dismayed because I realized I was going to be back there again next week, and the next, and the next, forever until we were all geared up, so that when the next raid dropped, we could farm that one over and over and over again infinitely, etc. That realization killed the game for me immediately and as far as my guild was concerned, I just dropped off the face of the earth cause I logged out and never wanted to go back in again. What an utterly stupid and awful concept, gameplay intended to make you farm for the rest of your life and to keep giving you reasons to keep logging in forever rather than play something else.

Now however I’m in the mood for something I can do absentmindedly, and the gameplay and artstyle of World of Warcraft are both great for me (world of warcraft classic mind you; I don’t think I want to play WoW retail ever again. I stopped playing WoW retail back during wrath of the lich king (2nd expansion pack) and only briefly touched the game during cataclysm. I tested my warlock super briefly during one of the recent expansion packs and was immediately turned off by the bizarre new powers he got and the unintelligible new talent screen). I tried playing guild wars 2, and I have an immense respect for what they accomplished with it, but the way your abilities work is not as fun as WoW and the cartoony artstyle of WoW is more appealing to me.

I’m super tempted to go back, and the rogue’s gameplay fits me like a glove. I don’t know though if I should go back; when I first played WoW, I was so trash at the game and I never joined a guild, so I missed almost every single raid experience, and I missed the many, many dungeons in Wrath of the lich king and beyond.

I recently decided to download a host of free to play MMOs to try and chase that absentminded grind gameplay, but I already recognize the world of Azeroth and most of the important NPCs and storylines, these other games I know very little or nothing about. Before I get a subscription to WoW again though, I might try Neverwinter at least to see if it scratches that itch (at least Forgotten Realms is somewhat familiar to me).