Let me start by saying that for all the Alliance hate I’ve accumulated over the years, the Worgen starting zone was awesome. Yes, there were plenty of inane quests, so much so that if I weren’t an avid quest-text reader I would’ve been borderline annoyed. Having played (on and off) since Vanilla, I can also say the updated lore had a nice richness to it. The phasing mechanics were definitely a plus, leaving me with a sense of accomplishment as I saw the world around me permanently changing due to my actions.
As enjoyable as the starting zone was, the fact that I got through it in only two sittings was pretty crappy. While I understand the idea of not wanting new players to feel stuck, this should have given me an inkling of how the remainder of my leveling experience would go.
I can sum up my opinion of the rest of the way to 85 as an overall diminished sense of accomplishment.
Achievements are nice, but I don’t need a new one every time I fart. Yay, I’m level 10! Yay, I learned a profession! Yay, I’m level 20! Yay, I have a mount! Yay, I killed a player in PVP combat! Yay, I did something completely expected in the normal course of leveling! By the time I gained real achievements, such as finishing a certain number of quests in a zone (which is a “real” achievement, considering how much faster leveling is now), it felt like… nothing. Maybe I’m an old stick-in-the-mud, but you don’t need a gold star every time you wipe your ass properly.
A large part of the reason I played WoW for so long (I started just before the patch that introduced Naxx in EPL, when Druids had to spec for Innervate) was that I found enough aspects of the game challenging. It took me a long time to level, it wasn’t easy, and I felt like such a badass when I finally got honored with Timbermaw Hold for the 1-H 15 Agi enchant recipe.
For some perspective, it took me several weeks to get revered as an Undead Warlock pre-BC, and the only Achievement was the gratitude of my guildmates for enchanting their shit for free due to the massive amounts of gold I got selling the enchants in trade. It took me 3 hours for exalted as a Worgen Druid, and I got a cute little pop-up letting me know I’d Achieved something. Because, honestly, if not for that pop-up I would’ve had no idea that I’d done anything special.
When the Achievement system was implemented, the majority actually required some sort of effort. Sure, there were plenty of dinky ones that would have been more aptly named Milestones, and for the most part they gave even the most casual player something to feel accomplished about. Finishing RFC: Milestone? Yes. Achievement? No (unless you’re Alliance and did this before the dungeon queue system). Getting my Champion of the Naaru title actually meant something, and entering SSC for the first time felt truly epic.
For me, and many others, the effort expended to accomplish something is directly related to the sense of accomplishment gained. Think acing a second grade spelling test versus acing the verbal portion of the GRE. The former is expected, and the latter is something to really be proud of.
It took me as much time /played to level 1-80 as it did 81-85, and when I was done I also had about 20k gold to my name. While some folks may find that awesome, I find it incredibly disappointing. I wanted a challenge, and it felt like I was just handed a max level character with a full purse, with nothing left to do but grind rep for gear to get my ilvl up to run instances that should require skill as well as gear to complete.
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