Why is it Just the Way I Like It, Anyway?

After my post last Thursday, when I said in so many words that I prefer the peace and quiet in my MMOs, I spent some time in reflection. Why, after all this time, do I prefer a quiet and empty world so much?

I enjoy group content, and I've often complained about how changes to games to make them more solo friendly* haven't led to an enjoyable time for me. I also enjoy --to a certain extent, I might add-- reading Gen/World chat in MMOs. Yes, often it reads like watching a train wreck in real time, but other times the flow of snarky and humorous conversation brightens up an otherwise dull day. 

Still, despite all of this, why do I prefer the solitude of empty zones while questing?

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Part of it is my history, I suppose.

When I first started playing WoW in 2009, Wrath of the Lich King was in full swing. What I didn't know at the time was that the vast majority of players were at max level in Northrend while I was toiling away in what is now standard MMO behavior: empty zones save for the occasional new player or leveling alt. To me, the world seemed so huge that I didn't run into too many people while leveling, particularly in the Old World or Outland. 

To be fair, when you cut your MMO teeth on a PvP server, the fewer people you encounter the better. I still get twitchy when I'm near Tarren Mill**, despite I've not been on a PvP server in well over a decade. Encountering anybody out in the field while on a PvP server is a cause for concern unless you know the person is on your faction, although that's not always a guarantee of safety as there are people who create "spy" toons to find lone targets to hunt. 

But regardless, the vast open expanse of the Barrens and other places in WoW are made even larger when there are so few people out and about. By nature, a game world can't approximate the real world because the size would become unplayable for those wishing to interact with others --not to mention the amount of storage and horsepower required to keep a fully realized world-equivalent running-- so the limited size of Azeroth is made larger by artificial means, such as the more modern layering systems.

When I finally arrived at Dalaran in Northrend***, I was both overwhelmed and stunned by the sheer number of toons roaming throughout the place. I now understood just how many people actually played WoW: enough people that when Dalaran was busy, the resulting lag would drop framerates down to the mid-teens or single digits. It took a short time before I grew used to the crowds, but it never quite felt home to me in the way some of the lesser populated cities, such as Silvermoon, were.****

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As much as I want other people to actively play in the MMOs I participate in, I'm also perfectly happy that they are all off somewhere else. I don't have to deal with random invites to either group up/join a guild, worry about my quest targets being overwhelmed by people rushing to level past me, or bots farming everything that isn't nailed down.

Being an introvert does mean that I'm perfectly happy doing my own thing and being social when I want to be, not when it's foisted on me. 

***

I can understand people who do not like lines.

From Icy Veins' Facebook page.

Me, I grew up attending Kings Island, the local amusement park and home of several iconic roller coasters, such as The Beast...

The ride on the world's longest wooden roller coaster is worth it, in my opinion, but some people are put off by the 1+ hour wait on the weekends.***** Me, I don't mind if I'm with friends; there's plenty of time to chat and dry off from getting splashed in some of the water rides. (And to be fair, there's plenty of women in bikini tops on a hot Summer day, so a lot of views as well.)

Still, I get where people have places to go and people to see when they're playing WoW, so waiting in line isn't for them. 

In WoW, waiting in line isn't for me for another reason. The last time I did that, in Classic WoW Era, the number of random whispers for guild invites was highly annoying. So, it wouldn't be so bad were it not for the crowd itself. 

From what I've observed, courtesy of social media and anecdotes, I'm perfectly happy to avoid all that in WoWF. Holding out until Christmas might seem a bit excessive, but it's not like I'm not doing anything at all. I've got toons to level on the Anniversary server, so there's that, and I have some other games to play as well.

*Such as the removal of 4-person Heroic events out in the world in SWTOR or the removal of group quests in a post-Cataclysm WoW. Or the removal of elite mobs entirely.

**For those not in the know, Tarren Mill and Southshore, the Horde and Alliance hubs in Hillsbrad Foothills, have been a traditional spot for PvP in WoW. The Horde players are typically about 5-10 levels lower than the Alliance players, so while there are far more Horde players in the area due to the proximity to The Undercity, they are also cannon fodder for the Alliance players. PvP fights also escalate quickly to where one side invades the other home base, often with max level toons, and wreaks havoc on the area. There were plenty of times when I'd login to WoW and a Horde toon in Tarren Mill, only to find myself almost instantly killed. I learned very quickly to avoid certain spots on the map, such as Tarren Mill and the entirety of Stranglethorn Vale.

***It bears a repeat explanation that I was always confused when I'd do a "/who" on a player and find them in Dalaran, when I knew where Dalaran was in the Old World map and saw a crater whenever I visited the place. It was only when I finally made it to Dalaran as the central hub in Northrend did I fully understand the meaning for the crater: the Mages of Dalaran had used the arcane to basically turn their city into a floating citadel.

****The irony is that Silvermoon is now the main hub (or it was, anyway) for Retail's Midnight expac. 

*****If you want to avoid the lines, go midweek during the Summer. Tuesday and Thursday work really well.