When was it “game over” for you in the World of Warcraft?

There is an ancient poem that says: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: to everything there is a season turn, and a time to every purpose under Heaven.”

For players of the World of Warcraft, many will eventually come to the end of their playing season. The reasons for this are as varied as the players themselves, but common causes cited are a change the developers made to the game or a change in the player’s life season.

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft since late Vanilla. I’ve seen many changes to the game, to my favorite role, tanking, and to my favorite class, Paladin.  Tankadins changed from wanting a spell damage weapon for threat to wanting STR plate. There was the introduction of Active Mitigation. I’ve seen Holy Power added, removed and come back again. They buffed my class. They nerfed my class. TO THE GROUND! None of those changes was enough to make me quit.

My end of days came from a change in my life season. The height of my raiding career was Burning Crusade through Wrath of the Lich King. As I matured — yes, that’s the word for it — both my situational awareness and reaction times worsened. I knew what I was supposed to do, but either my situational awareness failed or I was too slow with my reaction time. It felt like I was holding back my raid’s progression, or making my team fail M+ keys. You simply can’t cover for a tank’s mistakes as easily as a DPS or healer. I tried changing roles, but I didn’t enjoy it as much, and the mistakes still cost keys and progression.

I also had a new passion vying for my attention. Like most writers, I was an aspiring novelist. But writing a novel is an enormous time commitment, and I was splitting the few hours a day where I wasn’t working, eating, or sleeping between writing and playing World of Warcraft. Neither was getting the time it needed. Writer friends finished their books while I was still writing mine, plus I wasn’t doing all the little things you need to between raid nights to keep your gear up to date, like farming or dailies for rep and whatever AP stood for in that expansion.

I had tried spinning both plates, but they both wobbled and threatened to fall. The only path forward was to make a choice. Gaming or writing? I chose to cancel my World of Warcraft subscription and pursue writing. With this singular focus, I finished my novel, and released it in June 2023.

But that’s my story. When did your playing season end (if it did)? Was it more related to a change the developers made, or a way it something in your own life season? Do you think you’ll ever come back?