I've mentioned it before, but I was once a “World of Warcraft” player not so long ago. More on that later for those not already familiar with the tale, but having been in and left the game, I understand something about why players might leave the game themselves. And one thing is becoming increasingly clear: players are leaving the game in fairly substantial numbers.

The reports are unpleasant to say the least: 2010 was the high-water mark for “World of Warcraft,” with 12 million players in total involved in the game. Now, that number is down to just over half that count, with reports putting the inhabitants of Azeroth down to just 6.8 million. That's bad enough, but it's also clear that the decline isn't leveling off. Just last quarter, the player count was 7.6 million, representing a loss of 800,000 players, roughly. Worse, 6.8 million represents Azeroth's lowest numbers in nearly a decade, since around 2006.

Of course, the MMO that beat all other MMOs probably should be losing some ground by now. It's a 10 year old game, at last report, and there are a growing abundance of free-to-play games out there, so “World of Warcraft”'s subscription model probably doesn't look so great to a lot of players, particularly those who may have recently lost jobs. Still, there's word of the new expansion pack “Warlords of Draenor” set to emerge in the next few months, so that may keep some players around, and potentially even bring a few back.

Potentially.

Why am I so skeptical? I'm skeptical because I've played this game before and I know how it works. I was a dwarf hunter, level 42 at my time of departure—back in the days when the level cap was 60, and a level 42 dwarf hunter actually meant something—that went by the somewhat dwarvish name of Glongg. I had a pet bear who went by Grylls—no one ever called me on that joke, oddly—and I did my share of raiding and soloing throughout Azeroth's then two-continent system, rifle in one hand, axe in the other. And I went on like that until I got one thought that I could never shake: this game is like a part-time job that no one pays me to do. Go here, get that, come back, go there, kill these, come back, repeat until you want to scream.

Now, maybe things have changed since then. But I grew to discover that I preferred my games to have a plotline, and played accordingly. While it wasn't too rough to game on a PC with “World of Warcraft,” I was looking for something a little heavier on the story. Sure, group raids were fun, but there was only so much grouping that could be done unless schedules were made, and few wanted to take it quite that far. I was happy to leave and take on other games, and MMOs were largely out of the picture for me. I'm looking forward to trying some console MMOs, to see what “Elder Scrolls Online” does, for example, as well as “Neverwinter”. But I'm also looking for a story out of those games. If I can get the story, so much the better. If not, well, it'll be a quick trip to the door and a slap of the cancel button for me. I can't help but wonder if at least one reason for the departures is that other people are starting to clue into the repetitive nature of things in Azeroth, and are responding accordingly. Still, though, it'll be interesting to see if the dropoff continues, or if the new expansion can keep the gamers playing for some time to come.