The legendary World of Warcraft guild APES is quitting World of Warcraft raiding, with their leader Maitoz citing the fact that Classic WoW The Burning Crusade (TBC) is boring now, that he is burnt out on the game after 15 years, and that bots and boosters are ruining the in-game economy. They are the latest WoW influencers to depart the game in search of a better, fresher MMORPG experience.

APES became one of the biggest names in the Classic WoW community by achieving the first Ragnorak kill in Classic WoW in 2019. At the time they completed the kill, many players, even serious players, weren't anywhere near max level.

"This will be my last boss stream I guess," Maitoz, said on Wednesday as he wound down his final WoW stream. "I just wanted to say, I quit. APES won't function as a guild anymore. That is the end. Reasons? I have been thinking about quitting for a long time now. The game just hasn't really been what I and most of my guild have been looking for."

Maitoz continued, "You keep playing out of a sense of loyalty, friendship, but that only strikes you so far. I have been playing this game for 15 years now, so my entire adult life now, and enough is enough."

During his comments about quitting, Maitoz called Classic TBC boring and argued that Blizzard is mishandling the title, pointing to the large mass of other people who have been quitting the game in recent months as the game has become overrun with bots which are having a negative impact on player experience and the macroeconomy overall.

"In hindsight, I should have quit in Classic," he said. "Classic started dying after Blackwing Lair. . . it turned into this money factory for boosters. . . and this complete bot meta too. There is no real PvP anymore, the magic of WoW kind of died, it became industrialized at a bad scale."

Maitoz said that he will continue to stream, but that he won't be playing World of Warcraft anymore.

APES joins other influencers like Esfand and Asmogold in their departure from the WoW ecosystem. Asmongold and Esfand have both been exploring other MMORPGs like Final Fantasy 14, a game that has exploded in popularity as interest in WoW has declined over the past several months in the wake of both the botting issues and the gender discrimination lawsuit against Activision Blizzard that has prompted many to seek new games.