A Reflection on the Journey vs. Having It All

Community General Discussion
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Lately, I’ve been reflecting on something profound that the game has taught me.

In vanilla WoW, every little thing mattered. I fought for every copper, every silver, and eventually every gold. Every upgrade, no matter how small, felt like a triumph. I cherished every new piece of gear, every achievement, and every milestone because I had to work hard for them.

Now, I log into the game with everything I could possibly want. My bags are full of gold, my characters are geared, and I have lost count of how many mounts I own. But somehow, it feels empty. I find myself logging in, not to pursue something meaningful, but just to add one more “thing” to my collection.

And then it hit me. This must be what it feels like to be superrich in real life to have everything but feel like something is missing. It’s not the abundance that brings joy, but the struggle and the small victories along the way.

When we have to fight for something, we appreciate it so much more. When we have everything, the magic seems to fade, and what’s left feels hollow.

This realization has given me a new perspective, not just on the game but on life. The value of the journey far outweighs the satisfaction of the destination. It’s the hardships, the challenges, and the small wins that make it all worthwhile.

Perhaps the true reward isn’t what we acquire, but how we grow and what we learn as we strive to achieve it.

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There is plenty to work for in retail.

Not saying this is you, but I often find people say there isn’t anything to work for in retail while actively avoiding the content they wish existed.

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I mean, take whatever life lessons you need to from it. But also consider that nostalgia gives everything rose-coloured glasses. And that the current game still has plenty of challenges and things you can work to accomplish - many arguably much harder than anything back in the day.

Mining thorium all day so you can buy a horse to go 40% faster might have felt good, but there are other things you could work toward now if you wanted to.

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I think you’re missing what I’m trying to say. It’s not about how hard the challenges are now it’s about the feeling of starting with almost nothing and slowly working your way up.

In vanilla, every copper and silver mattered. Getting a mount or a small gear upgrade felt huge, not just because it was tough, but because I started with so little. That made every win feel meaningful.

Now, I log in with more gold than I’ll ever need, tons of mounts I’ll probably never ride, and fully geared characters. It’s not that there’s no challenge it’s that when you already have so much, new things don’t feel as special anymore.

I wasn’t trying to critique the game, just reflecting on how having everything changes how we value things. For me, the journey and the struggle were what made it all feel magical.

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Open a new Bnet account or a license in a different region, you can experience that all over again.

Not sure I like starting with nothing. I worked my way to where I am and I’m enjoying it.

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You can go on classic fresh and start from scratch again.

I play both, and sometimes it’s relaxing and nostalgic to chill and do those old slow quests in classic.

But more times than not I prefer retail because it’s far more respectful of my time and more mechanically engaging.

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I get the real world connection you’re making. The difference for me is that no, I did not enjoy struggling for years to finally get to my current Station in life. I will say that yes, I do appreciate what I have more though because of that struggle. But the struggle itself was not enjoyable. These are two different sentiments.

In wow, I’m quite happy that I don’t have to scrounge to get what I want. It’s easy but not braindead easy for the goals I want to accomplish.

I distinctly remember how hard it was to make a lionheart executioner in TBC. Took forever. But that’s only because there weren’t many other options. Unless you raided or did high level pvp, there was nothing else to work for. Now whoever, there is. I am quite satisfied Everytime I finish a key level higher than my previous best, for example.

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Actually I play fresh

I think my post is easy to misunderstand. It’s not about classic vs. retail it’s about the feeling of achieving something and how much you appreciate it when it’s rare.

For example, when I got my first electric guitar in real life, it meant everything to me. I polished it every day and even kept it next to my bed. Now that I have 50+ guitars, it’s not the same feeling anymore. You gain things, but at the same time, you lose something the magic of truly treasuring what you’ve worked so hard for. It keeps getting harder to find motivation, but if you do. It will still be rewarding. Both in Wow and real life. Oh btw. I play classic and on a different region. And soon will do MC for the third time ( was there in 2006 too ). :slight_smile:

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Yeah but you have to go find it.

I spent this week in Classic trying to kill some wolves and bears in Silverpine while worgen ate my face.

Everything is hard in classic. The walk back to the inn sucks. The graphics are hard to look at. Money is tight. The people. Its all hard.

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I guess what I mean with the retail vs classic thing is that theres still challenges like that, they’re just different.

Getting KSH, or a pieces of myth gear still feels special. More special than when I get loot out of a raid on classic IMO.

But yeah, theres no feeling of achievement or anything for leveling or completing a quest chain. It’s just a really different game now.

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yup you start at being a no one in retaill you fight your way into doing higher keys harder raids etc.
You finally get that BiS gear after so many runs of a dungeon you get AoTC KSM CE etc and your happy. like its awesome that you get that from classic but many get it from retail in other forms. and the fact your trying to do a classic “retail bad classic good” post and refuse to even have a basic understand of the two differences shows you you are dishonest or so full of nostalgia you cant fathom anything else

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That’s not entirely accurate in my experience.

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All I heard …

And something about a toilet seat :upside_down_face:

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Retail has plenty of hard content if one wants difficulty.

I don’t consider the content of classic hard.

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This exists in retail, it just requires mechanical skill. You don’t really need that in Classic.

You learn and grow as a player as you play through the raids and dungeons in retail, but it requires effort and not just time.

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I think you’re using ‘hard’ when the more applicable word might be ‘miserable’.

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I have a great response to this but id 100% get banned

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okay

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Sort of.

You’re forgetting the need to guard your wealth, monitor it, keep it going because like all things in life, money just visits us so in order to have a lot of it, you need the velocity of money to keep it coming and with that comes all kinds of hungry predators.

So in a way it’s akin to being a lion in the Serengeti. In a way.

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I think that’s what we get to take with us when we leave this place.
So that’d be the true wealth right there.