That pretty much mirrors my experience. When AV released, a ton of us were still leveling through the 50s, not necessarily because we leveled slow, but perhaps like myself were still not sure what our “main” would be until then.
Many were woefully geared when stepping into AV. Many did not yet know the ins and outs of the BG.
My first AV I remember quite clearly, as I zoned in mid battle. I had no idea even which direction to go in. As it was before auto-join to raid I could not even find people on the map until I was manually invited. It was confusing, but it was an adrenaline rush. As I got a few AVs under my belt my appreciation for the BG grew, and I enjoyed accomplishing objectives, killing rams for saddles, taming wolves, escorting wing riders, turning in blood, helping to capture towers, graveyards and mines. And all the while fighting tooth and nail with the opposing team who were after the same objectives. I found that the NPCs were basically weapons to be used, and could be buffed to help the war effort. It was insanely immersive. While doing all this I was accumulating tons of honor and tons of rep.
The OG BG was a brilliant design, but as parts were stripped away, there was less pvp created by the objectives, as the objectives became irrelevant, and less time to do them even if you tried.
And it’s equally fair to say that even in AV 1.5 there were plenty of people who just there for the rewards not because they enjoyed the BG. Which is why the implication that AV1.5 was beloved by the majority of people playing it but 1.11+ was only seen as a grind for rewards is so utterly silly.
There were plenty of posts early on explaining why they dropped early AV like a wet blanket as soon as they got what they wanted, and a lot of those reasons had to do with yes it being too pve centric.
/shrug I’m still waiting for someone to back up why AV 1.5 was actually better besides, “I personally liked it more”. Given that 1.11+ AV was certainly more played.
I thought all Tauren smelled that way?
As to the AV issue, I don’t really think what we want matters one bit if they don’t have any real data for pre 1.12 AV. In a perfect world I would like them to recreate 1.5 AV to run on special weekends so people can experience a day long AV at least once.
I fully understand that different people enjoyed different versions of AV(unlike people claiming that the only reason people played 1.11+ AV was for rewards) I would be totally fine with them just offering 1.5 and 1.12 AV, that should be simple since we’re getting battle masters.
The only quote I could find that was close to quote you’ve posted is from a J Allen Brack interview with PC Gamer. In that particular interview, he does not use the word “enjoy”.
In fact, taken from the PC Gamer interview, the quote goes:
“I think there will be a lot of tourists,” he adds. “But it doesn’t matter what I think because once we’re committed to doing this at a Blizzard level, which we are, whatever happens is going to happen. If millions of people show up and play for years, that’s awesome. And if just tens of people show up and play for years, we’re fine either way…”
If there’s another quote where enjoyment is mentioned, I’d be happy to see it.
Odd, I cannot recall the last time (have I ever?) stated that 1.5 is my personal preference. In fact I even recently went as far as to state quite clearly that it was not the version number, but rather the content that was important. Not at all shocked that you would yet again ignore what people post.
They really should pick some things from old AV, like korak the bloodrager, but old AV in it’s complete form is such a snooze fest. It’s really fun for like the first few days, but then everyone just wants to grind the rep as fast as possible and be done with the damn thing.
One thing I wouldn’t mind is an event to experience old AV, it would satisfy a lot of peoples urges, but it’d show them why they probably wouldn’t like it to be a permanent thing.
How is this any different than a typical raid?
(all but the “everyone” part)
At least with early AV, there were different strategies used both offensive and defensive, rather than a scripted raid.
In the absence of any official announcements on Classic, my mind is tending back towards this topic - the only, for me, negative that currently surrounds Classic.
Even if you remove all the troll posts, and the subsequent arguments that these have caused, this topic is still one of the most active from all the Blue announcements. I’m still hoping for a word from someone about it, still hoping good judgement can prevail over expediency.
But in the end, I would rather hear an announcement on the release date.
1.12 is No Changes. It is what Vanilla was. At the same time, if you’re saying its not, then you get 1.1 and nothing else. BWL - Change. AQ - Change. Naxx - Change.
![:poop:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/poop.png?v=6" ":poop:")
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