WoW Midnight's Addon Changes are Testing the Limits of My OCD

At the time of writing, Season 1 of World of Warcraft: Midnight is about to begin. I should be hyped for what awaits, and yet, I'm incredibly anxious.

A World of Warcraft expansion launch is always the most exciting time to play the game. It's not necessarily just about the leveling process, but gearing up through everything the game has to offer. World quests, mythic dungeons, and the new Prey system give me so many ways to play through the game, acquire gear, and prepare for the start of Season 1.

However, I haven't been able to enjoy as much of that as I'd prefer, and it's all thanks to what has been a frustrating leveling experience that's become even worse at max level. Not because of the content, gameplay, and questing itself; they've been fantastic, and I've fallen in love with the zones of Midnight. I'm instead talking about what might be the biggest chance Midnight brings to World of Warcraft: how addons have changed.

You'll Feel the Impact of WoW's Addon Changes from the Very Beginning

Anyone knows that the most important thing you can do in World of Warcraft is set up your User Interface (UI). Everyone's will look different, from the minimalist approach, a gigantic mess that displays way too much information, or even an approach using the default Blizzard settings. To Blizzard's credit, they've made great strides in this regard as of late, but there's just something about the look of a Weak Aura-driven UI that makes me happy.

I didn't play too much during pre-patch for a variety of reasons, and to be honest, I'm glad I didn't. I suffer from mild obsessive-compulsive disorder. If there is something wrong with my UI, it drives me insane to the point of borderline panic and anxiety. I'm lucky my therapist didn't laugh me out of the room when I explained that all my characters need to follow a specific naming convention.

Why does this matter? The imperfections caused by the massive addon changes in World of Warcraft force me to stop everything I'm doing and try to fix them. Even when I think they're under control, there's something I notice that affects my gameplay. I'm unable to click on certain enemies because the nameplates aren't cooperating. My mini-map doesn't display relevant information properly. My quest tracker loves to not cooperate on occasion. It's incredibly frustrating.

Midnight's Addon Issues Sometimes Force Me to Stop Playing the Game

I already know what some of you are going to say: remove the addons. But this is my UI; this is something I have worked on, tweaked, and perfected for decades now. I understand the logic for some of Blizzard's changes, particularly when it comes to endgame content, but it feels like there wasn't a long-term goal here. It was a plan that took place because "it had to," and the result risks alienating a certain part of the playerbase.

My time in Midnight has been enjoyable thus far, but every now and then, a new issue pops up that breaks my immersion and makes me want to step away from the keyboard and play something else. All week long, I've tried to log in, and all week long, something happens that results in me suffering from an anxiety attack.

Again, this is something I tinkered with for decades. I get to play a version of the game that has everything displayed in a way that makes me happy. Now, the newest version of the game doesn't do that, and at times it just flat-out doesn't work. If the goal is to make addons optional for playing the game, then why doesn't the base UI operate intuitively? Why do I struggle to click on someone's (incredibly small) nameplate to target them in a dungeon? Why does important information for my rotation not display, no matter how many times I ask it to?

I want to spend time playing Midnight. Instead, I'm spending time making Midnight feel playable. At this point, why bother? There are plenty of other great games I can be spending time with.