18 hours. Level 29.
This is the longest I've spent on one character in World of Warcraft since... I want to say Mists of Pandaria but I'm not sure it wasn't actually the tail end of Cataclysm. Of course in MMOs /played time is often measured in days or longer, and 18 hours pales by comparison.
Still, for me, for this game in recent years, it's a long time.
Am I being unfair? The thought has occured to me that perhaps the changes made in Legion and Battle for Azeroth might only come into their own in the content that came with those expansions.
It's possible. Personally I think it's unlikely, but it's possible.
If it is the case though it highlights one of the problems that MMOs seem to struggle with – the ever increasing pile up of content that comes before the 'real' game begins.
This shouldn't be an issue. For me the fact that there are long journeys ahead of me and huge worlds to explore is part of the appeal of MMOs. It's one of the things that makes them distinct from single player games. There's always something new to see, and if you level slowly enough there always will be.
Yet so often this is regarded as a bad thing, with the older content regarded as at best disposable and at worst as an actual obstacle to be overcome – by power levelling or just straight up buying a higher level character – so you can reach the endgame faster. This has been a prevalent mindset in WoW in particular for a long time.
It's not a mindset I'll ever share, and that's why I won't give World of Warcraft a pass for the current state of the low level game. The low level game still matters, or at least it should.
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