So how many are still fairly active and having fun?

Me. after a forced 7 week break (having your PC melt on ya can do that) i'm back and running again and having more fun than ever.
I recently got my 0/40/11 Enhancement Shaman to 60 and i'm having a blast in hellfire (damn every item is a significant upgrade at this point) that and i've been doing a lot of AV. that 2H I have with +7 damage enchant and windfury 4 = some OMGWTFPOWNED hits.
So am I alone in still having a ton of in this game?

Nope you're not alone. I'm still having a blast got my main (hunter) up to 65 and a ton of other characters are in their 30s, 40s. My guild is active and we're having a blast in the Outlands. This is a great game!

The game is great, but the endgame sucks. When you hit 70 if you don't raid there really isn't anything to do which is disappointing. Can only raid when you have 25 people on, so outside of the 7:00 - 11:00 evening time (which with my work schedule I can't reliably make every night) there isn't any reason to play for me. And then when we do raid we're raiding only 1 or 2 zones every night that week (Gruul's Lair or Serpentshrine and thats it with maybe 1 day per week in Karazhan :()

You make it sound like you should level slowly or else you are going to run of things to do...lol

Absolutely. Hitting level 70 was the worst thing that happened to me in the game. :) In Everquest you could raid with 30 or 40 or 25 people, and often people would brag about doing things with lower numbers ... but in Warcraft you MUST have a full 10 or a full 25 or you can't do shit. Just the other night we had 25 people in Gruul's Lair and had a thunder storm knock out one of our healer's power and sent the other 24 folks home.

LOL, i agree with Starla there. I leveled slowly with no real desire for the end game.
I'ts also one of the reasons i'm on a PVP server. you can spend hours on a week night defending X-roads, splinter tree, Tarren mill etc

I thought there were 3 and 5 man instances in the game? And what about faction? Even if you're level 70 with nothing to do you could grind out faction I know there's a few things I want that I'm working on :D I don't raid and I don't have any issues finding things to do. And there is always PvP!

Yes, you can do the 5 man instances for the 50th time. You can also do them another 200 times to get Exalted faction to get items worse than the ones you are currently wearing.

Still playing here too, enjoying my 70 shadow priest even if I don't play her alot (gf can do that).
My guild is currently trying to gather enough to finish Gruul, and visit SSC and KT soon!!

Still active with my 70 mage, 70 rogue, 60 Shadow Priest.

Guild is farming Karazan, Gruul starting SSC.

Still active(ish).
A recent guildsplit killed the guild I'd created and "led" for three years. Disheartened I've taken too just chilling wit da homes and doing some 5 man content. However, just did my first 3on3 arena in the new season, and it was funsies, so I'm looking at coming back. Levling a shaman off to the side. Been waiting 3 years to be able to play one proper (switching horde was never an option) and I'm having a great time. It's truly a class that fits me like a glove.

About half of the Foresworn crew is currently active; the other half has found that RL demands have taken priority. Because of our casual and rotating cast of active characters (all the same folks, but drift in and out of the game periodically), we still have plenty to do at 70 and are finishing Kara keying three folks this week and just starting to do Heroic instances. We raid Kara weekly with our friends the Powerlamers (who hold semi-closed signups within a few friendly guilds) and have just started Gruul's Lair.

Faervas has three 70s and a 68 warrior; Taruto (you'd know him as Fhylden from EQ) has five characters above 60, currently running a BE prot paladin main); I have Nydia (70 mage), a 64 priest, a 60 shaman, and several of our other folks are similarly alt-tastic (although not all).

All in all, I'm still enjoying the game, although real life is also starting to make more demands on my time as well. I would agree that semi-casual is where the 'fun zone' is for WoW and even though I've been 70 since about a month after BC came out, I still find myself with plenty to do as well as plenty to look forward to.

Regards,
Nydia

And what about faction? Even if you're level 70 with nothing to do you could grind out faction

I know if you bring up that word "faction" in EQ it can be considered a dirty word that makes some cringe...LOL Funny to find it popular in WoW...lol

Grinding Reputation (think Faction) in WoW used to yield great rewards. In fact, they used to be the single most wished for achievements outside of the raiding game (for those without the time to grind Grand Marshal in the PvP system). Now, they don't. You still get reputation while doing your quests and your dungeon runs, you just can't really buy anything worth the time with it. So it's like... redundant income. Like being paid in rubles outside your regular salary.

And yes, funny that, the "faction" expression stayed. Most except the really newbish recognize the expression as a synonym to Reputation, yet almost none know where it came from.

Then again, I tried to tell someone where "Ninja" originated, and no one believed me.

Yeah they call it reputation in WoW; I call it faction b/c old habits die hard I guess :D

I like many of the rewards offered by the various areas; I freely admit I am finding ways to make money off of those rewards by selling some via the AH. I need to fund my epic flyer some how!

Ughh flying mount =( , i still need to grind the gold for my epic riding skill and mount.
Speaking of rep, any advice on what Shatt rep is best for rewards/gear for an enchy shaman?
Sadly looks like i'll be going it alone again as the guild i started nosedived after my PC melted down and even my RL friends are looking like they are burning out me. but oh well i'm still having a blast and will keep at it.

If you're thinking Aldor or Scryer, Aldor has rewards centered more toward healing and Scryer is more toward spell damage.

But for the rest of the factions then it pretty much a hit and miss as enhancement shaman are all about gear I would suggest you do PVP as the rewards there are much better.

I'm still playing, although not nearly as often as I was. RL demands have taken over, so I log a couple of hours here and there.

Funny about the faction/rep discussion though. I'm finding myself staring to use rep instead of faction however. Just because it seems to be the more commonly used phrase around the peeps in my guild.

Kivorn I'm noticing your talk of your guild splitting. WoW raiding guilds are so fucking volatile and I can't figure out why. My server is 1 and a half years old and my guild is the ONLY one out of like 40 that still exists from the release of that server. I guess because you don't have the long grinds you never really establish the extra-game relationships you did in Everquest and the ties aren't nearly as strong - though that is merely a guess.

Yeah I've been playing. I'm on many nights because I can log in and do something, if that be questing/rep grinding/PvP or ganking alliance. Instances are fun, but can become a pain depending on the PUG. Got a 70 Pali and 70 Shadow Priest. Shelved my Hunter though. Having too much fun tanking with the Pali and having groups give a collective "I didnt' know paladins could tank".

Course it doesn't hurt that I started a guild with some RL friends and molded it after the fun times I had in SA. People leave the guild, but keep wanting to come back because of the atmosphere. :)

Well Kel. We lasted from closed EU beta to a month ago. Just over 3 years. It's not a bad run. In the end we split because we were primarilly a raiding guild but had picked up too many "non-providing" elements. People who simply were in it more for the social aspect than anything else.
It boiled down to our raid (and de facto guild) leading officer demanding the guild leader tag for some drastical changes, when I demanded he provided advance information on the planned changes he left the guild and created another one. All the raiders left and joined him, which I dont blame.

So I wouldnt say you're right. 3 years, 4 real life meetings (Holland<->Sweden) with another one coming, my current love interest being part of the whole scene, and several close friendships later I'd say WoW has welded me stuck to people in a way EQ never did.

It's all in how you do it.

heh, Kivorn said "Do it!"

<3

Ive actually found a pretty cool guild on Medivh(Horde) and there is just something about wow(after taking a 2 month break) that just keeps bringing me back. There is alot to do, pvp/instance/faction I still enjoy this game.

But then again im still waiting on my xbox 360 to get back from microsoft!(damn red light of death!)

ok, done with my drunk ramblings, G4P2K8!

Kivorn I'm noticing your talk of your guild splitting. WoW raiding guilds are so fucking volatile and I can't figure out why.

This portion was in a writeup a while back about WoW

"
The endgame

The advanced challenges of "World of Warcraft," often called the endgame, typically require coordinating 20 to 40 players in order to defeat the most difficult enemies.

Advanced players usually download voice-over-IP software that lets them talk to each other instead of typing text messages through the game itself - it's a lot faster to say "look out behind you" as opposed to typing it out.

The expansion adds endgame goals that can be reached with five and 10 players, an addition Elliott and her friends welcome because now "sometimes you have to group with people you really don't like" otherwise.

Gee, the UW games scholar, said that because endgame goals require coordinating so many people, large, powerful online player associations have formed. These massive player groups, which are often called "guilds," can have hundreds of members and wield tremendous influence over the game worlds.

"Some guilds were becoming very authoritarian and very powerful, and I think Blizzard wanted to change that," Gee said, noting that some guilds have strict requirements, including how often their members play and how their members can design their characters."
__________________________________________________

I think maybe...the ability to see endgame goals with just a dozen people and are easily replaceable if one drops for endgame goals. This might make the bonds weak and thus guilds can hold less power. Just making a guess here.....

To even level all the way to max level in EQ you really do need a group (IE get to know some folks)...it is next to impossible to level the higher levels solo. Can you solo all the way up to max level in WoW?

QUOTE: "So I wouldnt say you're right. 3 years, 4 real life meetings (Holland<->Sweden) with another one coming, my current love interest being part of the whole scene, and several close friendships later I'd say WoW has welded me stuck to people in a way EQ never did."

Love interests in the game scene I believe can always make you welded to a game. It is all in how you do it. :)


BTW...that is from this write up on WoW
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=553008

The current endgame encounters require 25 people of certain classes, which vary based on boss. This means that you still need a guild of minimum 50 players even if you're under strict attendance policies.

And of course you're right, Starrla, but it's new - very new - and it's not what's keeping me in the game.