| To expand a little, here is a hypothetical scenario:
Meet Bob. Bob works a job with sporadic hours. He can maintain around 25 hours of play time a week but it's not always the same hours. For this reason he is unable to join a serious raiding guild.
It's 1999 and Bob starts playing Everquest. Bob spends about 9 months getting his character to level 50. The Kunark expansion is due out soon so he spends the next few months camping rare spawns while waiting for the expansion.
Kunark hits and he spends another 9 months leveling his character up to 60. Velious is due out soon so he sticks around farming Fungi Tunics in Sebilis until the expansion.
Velious hits and he spends a few months killing dwarves or giants for quest armor and working on various quests like Stormfeather, etc. He then realizes that to progress his character further he'll have to raid. Instead he decides to try out an iksar monk. His twink monk hits 50 in a month and 60 3 months later. He farms the quest armor for his monk too. By this point Luclin is due out soon so he sticks around.
Luclin hits and implements AAs. He spends time in various zones and dungeons getting AAs for his 2 characters. Planes of Power adds 5 more levels and more AAs. He keeps at it. Eventually World of Warcraft is released and many of his friends quit EQ for WoW. He decides to move on to WoW.
End Result: Bob stayed subscribed to Everquest for 5 years without having to raid.
Three months into World of Warcraft Bob is level 60. He spends a month doing strath/spires/scholo runs and his character is decked out in all the best blues. PvP is still pointless at this time. To improve his character he'll have to start raiding. Instead he creates a second character but this time on a PvP server for a change of pace.
Another 3 months go by and he is level 60 again. He spends another month doing instance runs for blues before starting to seriously PvP. He spends a few months getting max faction in the battlegrounds for purples. He realizes he doesn't play enough to ever get Grand Marshall. To improve his character he'll have to start raiding. The expansion is still over a year away at this point. He cancels his account to wait for the expansion.
End Result: Bob stayed subscribed to World of Warcraft for a little less than a year and canceled, waiting for the expansion on the far horizon.
Blizzard, give Bob a reason to resubscribe. He's tired of bouncing around between EQ2, CoV, DDO and Guildwars. |