I started searching for addons VERY early. Definitely pre-level 20. Whenever I got a friend into the game, I told them to download a bunch of addons I thought were very handy. Yeah maybe day 1 you didn’t have addons, but it’s not like we played for months and months without ever learning about them.
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And that’s what I mean by “old school”. Before knowing anything about Addons or before finding any good ones, there’s a time and a place, when none of us had Addons.
I played in the original betas. Blizzard posted the addon API on the forums back then and many people were developing addons and asking for testers. By the time the game launched many people had addons.
Once the game launched new people heard about the addons on the forums, other websites, and from other players. Many guilds required certain addons to measure DPS and handle raid encounters.
Using addons is very old school.
Even then, there was a time and a place where you didn’t have addons, or addons wouldn’t be working properly, so you may not have used them. And Addons still “break” (figuratively, not literally) the traditional style of the way the game is “supposed” (figuratively, not literally) to be played. You wouldn’t need a Vendor Addon, if it was already part of the game. Therefore, using Addons doesn’t make you “Old School”, in the sense of playing the Game as it is. That’s why they’re called Addons.
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You’re really stretching here to force your point of view. I guess true old school would be not playing WoW at all since it wasn’t out for such a long time! I mean, there was a time without it, right?
For most of Vanilla a large amount of people used addons. That’s what defines “old-school WoW”, not the short amount of time before a person used addons.
Blizzard put the addon API into the game to be used. They intended people to have addons or they wouldn’t have made the API public. THAT’S how the game was intended to be played.
There’s a better word to use for what you mean. It’s “default”. You’re asking if people are playing with the default interface.
We’re distracted because I used the word “old school” instead of “default”. Somehow that takes away from my point and argumentative worthy. We don’t have to be picky about it, and I think you know what I mean, when I say “old school”. Before the times of “enhancement”.
I didn’t use addons back n Vanilla, largely out of ignorance. I am using a lot of addons this time around.
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Words have meaning and “old school” is a far different meaning than “default”. Your entire post is flawed because of it, hooking into the community’s sense of an old and proper way to play the game.
Besides, the addon API is the “default” too. Blizzard put it in the game to be used, we use it. That’s how the game works, that’s how very many people play it.
Someone using addons is playing just as correctly as someone who is not using addons. There is no need for some mistaken sense of a moral high ground either way. Play as you like and others will do the same.
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It’s not flawed, but you can take it that way, if you want to. I’m not going to be picky about it. Besides, if the Game was “supposed” to be played a certain way, they would’ve added those features in, like they did for Retail, with the Vendor Prices.
Also, not all Add-ons are acceptable, like Bot ones. So, Blizzard most certainly doesn’t accept all forms of Add-ons. And before you read too into this, this isn’t about banning Add-Ons. No, I fight against those people that try to push that.
But, I, also, fight against the notion of requiring players to have Addons, when it’s quite possible to play the game without them. And they shouldn’t be shamed for not using them.
Sure it’s possible but it’s not always optimal.
Kinda like playing whatever random spec and mish mash of talents you want. It’s certainly possible but it’s not optimal.
If you enjoy playing with the default UI I certainly have no issues with it. It only becomes an issue if you’re in a group with me and it effects the group (e.g. you keep ripping threat from the tank because you don’t have a threat meter in a raid).
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Again, I understand all of this:
I wasn’t using any addons, and then I broke down at added TitanBar just for the coordinate system, time to level, and heads up display on my bag space/current gold/current durability.
I’m using zero addons for that true vanilla experience.
j/k, I have like 12 or so that are mainly UI related.
I was going to.
I’m going pretty minimalistic right now.
Titanpanel, Details(Hidden, so that people who have Details! can see their threat compared to mine, should they so choose), and the autionator suite so I can just post stuff and it’s a p good price.
Edit:
If you’re going really old school, you’re not using any action bars.
When I started, you had to get an addon for those.
definitely disagree. Everyone seems to use questie and think you’re nuts if you don’t.
I don’t use it. A few reasons:
- the quest text tells you what you need to know, and it’s easy to scan it to see where to go. I don’t actually get the appeal of having a thing that tells you what to do when 90% of quest texts are structured such that the last sentence is the same thing the quest helper would tell you anyway.
- the quest text is never wrong. There was one quest, this turtle hunting quest in Hillsbrad foothills, where questie was telling everybody to hunt the turtles in the wrong spot (the river between Southshore and Tarren mill; you want to be up at the lake in Alterac Mountains; wowhead has the wrong spot on its map too). Everyone thought this quest was sooooo hard. If you went where the quest text told you to go, the quest was stupid easy. It was so easy that when I went to do it I picked up like 40 turtle meat instead of the 10 I needed, so I sold the other 30 meat and discovered I could sell it for 70s a stack (someone suggested I sell it for 1g a stack but the most I could barter someone for was 85s). There was this whole economy of people paying way too much money for turtle meat and I wound up grinding those turtles and selling the meat for like three play sessions. I must have made 15g off of this turtle meat because questie was sending players to the wrong spot.
- some of the quests involve searching for something. If that’s the quest I’d rather just search for it. Inevitably you have to grind. That’s just part of the game. Having something to search for makes the grind more interesting to me.
but like if you wanna use boatloads of addons whatever go ahead. There’s a billion ways to play this game.
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I was a no-add-ons player until recently.
I think that if you PvP at all, you need some kind of cast bars add-on.
Yeah. No add-ons here for me, either 
Strange perspective. Addons were a bit part of the Vanilla experience, right from the word go.
Having said that, I haven’t really bothered to do any yet in Classic!
Yes, because you insist, for an authentic experience we should all play for a few hours, or minutes without addons. I didn’t use them in classic for a few days, then said to myself “enough” and installed a few.