by Drain » Sat May 07, 2016 7:50 am
This is a very good topic for MMOs... Maybe my Nost backstory can provide some insight into it.
When I quit 2 months before the server was canned, my guild was actually offering to pay me back the 1kg that was hacked off my account just to keep me around. I wasn't disposable at all, and was begged to stay. Probably not common. You could say that part of it was because I reliably filled a role the guild struggled with since it started, and no doubt struggled more with after I quit. I was in every raid since the guild started, being 1 of only 2 Hunters to do so, with none others having stayed to date or been as reliable. But in practice, they wouldn't have preferred anyone else. A faceless replacement Hunter doing X dps in Y gear just wouldn't do. It was a decent guild and I got along with folks in it. I wasn't just damage numbers. I was known. Many of us spent time outside of raids doing other things together, mainly dungeons or BGs, sometimes even farming. But my favorite was Inferno bombing Redridge, which the Alliance probably hated House Undying for(Pay back for all the TM and Kargath ganks, I say). I had a Warlock alt I brought for this. Having Redridge locked down with 5 infernos for close to an hour(almost long enough to drop a whole new set), was the most fun I had in the guild.
My guild was no where near top raid progression on Nost, and I wouldn't have joined any higher guild over it as I easily could have done in my final months. Some even asked me to jumpship over to theirs. Better guilds also needed my class(Hunter), which turned out to be underplayed on Horde, with me being better geared or higher dps on realmstats than folks you could generally find. Countless other players of every class ditched us for a more progressed guild after milking us in MC. I however stayed until the end to the one that helped me most, which had the players I knew most. They were not a stepping stone to me as they were to others that quit, and they knew. When it was made public what happened to my account and that I was quitting, not many cared externally, but internally, I was nearly spammed in messages about it anytime I logged on. I couldn't log on any of my 5 60s without being spotted. Load screen, addon load text, and there it is, the message from Necro, Reilly, Shamiboy, Thule, Masa, etc. It was like that for a good 2 weeks. When others left after a while of being with us, it was typically asked why, and much concern went into that.
Point is maybe you should run with better people, get along with those people, and do things with those people. That's how a MMO is supposed to be played. I'd never have stayed with an elitist guild of jerks over friendly players I enjoy being with, regardless of how much further ahead they are in content. I don't regret my lack of progression. In retail, I never got past the egg room in 2 years before BC patched. On Nost, in 11 months of time, I did not get past Vael. It's a lifelong goal you see. Maybe next time, I'll get more into T2. Until my hair turns gray or starts falling out, I don't see the need to rush.
If people don't care that you're leaving something, then you simply weren't important to them, or they probably just don't care about you, in their eyes, you do not matter or affect them. You could be the entire blame for that, but so could they. Usually, I see arrogant childish behavior, which does nothing to help, and often just creates more problems or more people leaving.