I know there is a community civil war of sorts going on in the forums and within the WoW community such with statements like “Classic is just nostalgia driven fad, it will fail after a few months” and “Retail is garbage and lost all RPG elements, Classic will outperform retail” ect ect. After the stress test today however (Which I didn’t get to start until 4 hours after the end of the focused testing times) I have to say that I am surprisingly extremely hyped for Classic.
I know that the word “nostalgia” gets thrown around as a bit of a deplatformer/invalidator type buzzword but I legit felt something I have not felt in ages and it was something I didn’t even realize I was nostalgic for. I was genuinely just having a great time, I honestly just felt… well… good, while playing and in a way that I have not felt with modern WoW in a long time. It just honestly felt right.
It certainly was not the class design as most my time was spent auto attacking. It certainly was not difficulty as everything was mindlessly easy. It certainly was not that the game required more effort to do anything such as dealing with quest objectives, looting, ect. None of that really did it for me…
The community and social aspects however… Like… Holy cow. I have been in several beta tests, ptrs, ect over the years but they are all the same. No one talking aside from the average “How do I do X” and then either silence or insults, bickering, or trolling. The Stress Test experience for me on the other hand just felt good. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits, jovial, and just having fun.
Hanging out near an enemy spawn point with other people, randomly grouping up and helping each other, people striking up random conversations and talking about their experiences with wow… surprisingly above all else just how civil the conversations were for the most part in the stress test when I was playing. Everyone was friendly and helpful and everything just felt really active. Everyone seemed to just be having a great time and honestly I was too.
I will say, the feeling of journey certainly was there as well and I legitimately can not explain what exactly is different. It just felt good running around, waiting for the low spawn rate enemies, watching people duel and joke, waving to each other and randomly grouping up. They are the same tried and true quests and locations and yet it just felt better. It legitimately wracks my mind as to why its so much different.
Sure, it could just be this one limited test in this confined space and that when Classic comes out or if I get into the full beta test then things may be different but at the time being I am far more interested in Classic than I have been.
After getting off the stress test and trying to play the 8.2 PTR I just felt absolutely empty. The zones are barren, chats are void and lifeless, heck I only saw one other player in Nazjatar when I hopped on. After doing some quests and running around a bit I logged off with a feeling of just not being satisfied and I just don’t quite get it. After playing around on the stress test I just can’t seem to find motivation to play on live right now.
I don’t know what it is because I certainly did not get this feeling with the Blizzcon demo, however I do know that all I can really think about now is Classic and how I really want to get into the actual beta that much more now.
There is just something enjoyable here and I can not fully explain what it is past what I have stated. It just feels good.
EDIT: So, just real fast, making an edit here before my upcoming rant to mention that the Layering issue is known and not intended because I get pretty ranty on it. So everything past this was posted before I had known about a statement existing.
OH! But what sure as heck DOES NOT feel good is the stupid phasing, er… “layering”… During my initial playing of the stress test from 1-5 I PHASED a total of 5 times and each time it was while fighting quest mobs I need. Literally watching as they fade out of existence in front of me as if Thanos had just snapped them away. Seriously… Every… single… time… Since then I have hopped back on the stress test and am just hanging out in Razer Hill and have watched it happen 2 more times. Watching the mailbox and npc’s vanish then re-appear a moment later.
Layering in its current iteration is hot garbage, extremely jarring, and by far the WORST part of the Stress Test currently. Its seriously bad Blizzard… I really hope it get attention and get majorly fixed because its been nothing but a hindrance so far and every time it happened it was extremely immersion breaking (I know, overused, but it seriously snapped me out of the moment and legit just filled me with frustration)
/shrug
Anyway, forgive my long ramble, I really just wanted to gush a bit and express my feelings on Classic so far. While I always supported the idea of people who wanted a legit vanilla experience and hoped they would get it, I never thought I would find myself as hyped as I am after playing around on a stress test like this. I honestly feel like I am looking forward to Classic far more than 8.2 right now XD