I think you get exactly what I am saying and I think a lot of “retail” players would be better off for a “retail + immersion” experience. I have a handful of “retail” characters (a few of which are at level cap) and one that I’m leveling right now (76 arcane mage) and I can tell you that in the process of leveling the mage, retail WoW feels like a single player game. I love the graphics, the zones, the class systems, and some of the common sense QoL features. However, the overall experience has been gutted. I have made no new friends or acquiantances and though queueing for dungeons is easy and a rapid means of level gain, they are empty experiences. No one really talks. It’s obvious everything there is just there to zoom and get it done. The only reason I am leveling her is because I always wanted a Nightborne mage w/ the heritage armor. All my at cap toons are collecting dust because retail endgame feels very inconsequential. Mythic + rinse and repeat, LFR, and so on… it just doesn’t seem to matter and has no context. I literally cannot name one guild other than my own on retail. Heck, I can’t name one other player I’ve met either other than through my guild, which is now on the skids, no one in the guild logs in anymore.
This is very different than my Classic experience, where in just a very short period of time I am part of a lively guild, feel like the world is a shared experience, and there is a context to what I’m doing because I can recognize other players and other guilds as they are showing up in different parts of the world. I feel like I am part of something bigger than my own leveling/loot chase.
There are defintely some things better in retail WoW and definitely some things better in Classic. These things are not mutually exclusive. Why not combine both?
As for the “why fracture the player base?” argument my thought is this: It’s NOT a zero sum game. Classic has brought back a lot of people back to the fold. So rather than fracturing the WoW player base, it’s restored it. I know of myself, my GF, and my son who re-subbed because of Classic WoW, not despite it. I know of many other resubs as well.
This is a good thread and also speaks to what I’m talking about:
It’s about coherency of the world and why that matters.
To me, it’s about social context. Without that, WoW isn’t that great of a game, the graphics are outdated, the engine is outdated, the combat system is dated, and so on. There are a lot of better single player RPG’s out there that are just more sophisticated. Why play WoW if it becomes a single player experience in essence? Why not just play Witcher 3 or some other highly rated RPG that is better in every other way?
If the answer to all this is just “get into a good retail guild” I would say there’s a bit of a point there but at the same time I have been. I’ve built good retail guilds. But at the end of the day, something is missing from retail WoW. It’s obvious. Why else would classic be so successful even though in so many ways it’s even more dated and painful. It’s not just nostalgia. It’s the notion of immersion, world cohesion, and social context/experience.