Why don’t you walk away?
No buildings will fall down
Why don’t you walk away?
No quake will split the ground
Why don’t you walk away?
The sun won’t swallow the sky
Why don’t you walk away?
Statues will not cry
Franz Ferdinand – Walk away
“I’m strong now I know that I’m a leaver”
It took me a little while to realise that moving on firstly isn’t so hard, it gets easier with practise, and secondly unlike the Cranberries most people won’t “Miss you when your gone” ( Yes its Lyrical Wednesday).
Though the person who just disappears – stops logging in are thought about more kindly than the person who gives notice – waits the drawn out period of their notice – and has a long protracted goodbye. It’s like waiting for a date to call you again. When no reason is given why – it’s easier to make up something – and because you’ve actually never said “this is not going anywhere” it also leaves the door open for a convincing excuse if you change your mind.
A Gm or Rl would like to know ahead of time if your leaving, they need to plan. If you lose your maintank. Well that could be a hiccup. But the reason for leaving better be a good one like military service – because “I’ve burnt out” isn’t a good reason and it’s not likely your friendships will last through an extra week or two of you not wanting to be there, and the rest of the guild being resentful at you wanting to leave.
The person who just disappears, or walks away from the game is a mystery – did they die? / get hacked / lose internet / get sick / they are my first thoughts when I hear of someone doing a disappearing act. Unless I had prior warning one of the last things I consider is ” they woke up one morning and didn’t want to play anymore” It’s a more ‘romantic’ notion to think of something tragic happening then – that your friendship/company/hours of raiding/guild chats meant so little to them that they couldn’t say goodbye can cause you to question your self worth, Leave me! Never…
Not being around to provide a explanation for your disappearance increases the likelyhood of being welcomed back should you change your mind in a guild too. I used to call these Phoenix raiders. People who would app and said ” I used to raid with you – I lost everything when my harddrive failed and now only coming back. 6 months later
lies!
Just walking away is less stressful on you – you don’t have to explain to anyone, We know the more time spent out of game = the less important it, and the people in it become so Tom Dick and Harry in your guild become irrelevant within a week or less if your not there, and if you did chose to come back – you can concoct a good excuse for your absence.
So I can understand why people just want to disappear.
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
“I’ve burnt out” seems like a valid reason to me. If a game isn’t fun, why play it? While there is some argument for social obligation, the fact is that we are mostly our characters, and those are very replaceable, making any disappearance a mere setback.
I’ve just walked away before, and for me, it was a combination of being sick of certain people and not wanting to make an issue of it, and actually being physically sick and not wanting to share that information. I did feel like there were people who deserved an explanation, but that overall it would be easier (and not just for me, for everyone) for me to just disappear.
I agree with Klepsacovic. People forget the main goal of playing sometimes- fun. Most of the time I tell my friends if I am burnt out and need a break. There have been a few games I just sort of stopped logging into as much and my account expired, not leaving a chance to say anything to friends. That always made me feel bad heh.