Achievements, account wide mounts, dungeon finder, boss mechanics, and transmog basically makes this Retail. I don’t think any of this stuff should be in Classic. The grind still has a “classic” feel to it, but that’s about it.
I say this because I’m trying to make sense of this logically. Why wouldn’t I just play retail at this point? It seems like they’re just going to keep re-releasing expansions which isn’t what I’m looking for. I don’t care to replay World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Classic once it inevitably re-releases.
Ideally, I would like something like Classic+ and Retail so that I have 2 completely different versions of the game to jump between.
Edit
It’s kind of wild how the first person to comment assumes I don’t like dungeon mechanics. I actually LOVE dungeon mechanics and it’s the sole reason why I prefer Retail PvE over Classic.
Just because I made a list of things comparing the two doesn’t mean I don’t like something. It blows my mind how illogical people are.
Edit Edit
I suppose I could see how some people think I don’t want Cataclysm to exist from my OP. That’s not true. I think Classic+, Classic Expansion Servers, and Retail should all exist.
All I’m saying in my subjective opinion is that I don’t see the point in grinding out old expansions that they’re going to keep re-releasing, that will inevitably and objectively turn into Retail WoW at some point.
That’s it. I refuse to play something that will progress into Retail. Literally all I’m saying. If you do, then go for it. I don’t. Cataclysm is the start of the modernization of WoW and I feel like Retail is a way better version of that. I’ll probably just skip the re-releases from here on out.
I do get the sentiment of doing stuff fresh with people though or being able to enjoy playing an expansion that you might have missed out on.
Retail has awful animations, graphics, character models, sound effects, and UI. The pvp feels spongy and unsatisfying, everyone has so much self healing and defensives. The dragon riding is pure hell and saps any enjoyment from the game.
I agreed with everyone else in your post except for this. The content being generally harder is one of the very few redeeming values post-cata WoW has.
retail sucks because it stripped out all the MMO and RPG elements you listed. It doesn’t suck because it’s “harder”, in fact there is no shortage of brain dead easy content for hyper-casuals to enjoy in retail. Classic WoW would benefit from more SoM and prenerf ssc/tk + sunwell style mechanics, assuming actual good timing for release unlike SoM.
It’s not even close to classic WoW for all the reasons he listed. It might be a different game from dragonflight, but it is absolutely nowhere close to classic, it’s not even the same genre of video game anymore.
It is factually closer to Wrath and what came before than pretty much anything after. You are the outlier here. It is a Classic WoW title by pretty much every real definition and it is closer to Era than Dragonflight in terms of Classic game design. Just because you don’t like that doesn’t make it not true.
Burying your head in the sand is a choice you made apparently. Continue being wrong.
New Shiny. Plus I’m doing the things I didn’t do back then and enjoying it. But it’s not the same. I’ll probably stop once they get to BFA. But’s that’s a lie I probably wont. I love me some wow crack. Especially now that I have options.
But I won’t lick the screen. Papa Soda just took it too far and got a ban from twitch.
You are going to need supporting arguments for this which you have repeatedly refused to provide.
By who’s definition? What is this definition?
List of factors that make this not classic (many of which cited by the OP):
Old world razed and destroyed. Replaced with a radically different quest model. Everything is phased and linear, there is no cohesive shared open world.
Talent tree’s neuter and forced into 1 tree until it’s finished. Spells from other tree’s are generally awful due to mastery scaling. Beginning of “play the spec, no the class”.
Classes beginning to be very homogenized and samey. Not as awful as it gets in MoP, but close.
Homogenized stats
LFD and soon to be LFR.
Entire leveling process is a brain dead, drawn out tutorial joke that is only designed to waste your time.
Class quests and class flavor abilities pruned.
Transmog
Account-wide mounts, pets, achievements. No more character specific progression.
I could go on forever here. You can’t say with a straight face a version of the game that stripped out most MMO and RPG elements out is the same genre as vanilla WoW. It’s not even close to anything classic.
You are the extreme outlier here buddy. Classic died with the lich king. Nobody considers this classic, this is the beginning of WoW 2. Look at the miserable numbers cata has compared to every other “classic”, and pay attention to the big increase in retail players if you actually play this game. Most classic players were done after WotLK… because cata is no longer classic.
Ill answer you as a retail player right now that also play classic .
In my opinion i like the way the stuff are going and i would like to classic have even more features that retail has , to me playing those classic expansion are just a way to relive the old content that i didn’t play as much as i could and want to come back too but i also don’t want to just to ignore all the development that we have on retail .
I believe that having a mix of the two the best option since you can enjoy what you liked in those old exp or if u didn’t played have the ‘’ new experience ‘’ while you also enjoy the improvements that the game already have .
Also not only the game improved but the player base also did , so having stuff like constant adjustments on classes that we know are overturned or bugged and those changes to underdogs ones to even out everything the ideal ground of the game , since meta is a thing that wasn’t at the time as much , and leaving out specs that we know that have problems just bcuz ''that’s the way it was ‘’ is not what should be done in my view .
Now this I agree. IF there is one thing they could change to keep it more classic like this would be it. It was a mistake to dumb it down and make every class umm what’s the word I’m looking for? Dulled. But it got way worse when they went with the MOP model of talents. ugg disgusting.
Buddy you are the one here who got upset when someone dared criticize this version of the game. And when you are called out for not providing any supporting arguments for you claim you get more upset and just deflect as you just did.
Actually what makes retail, well um, “retail” is the current available content, loot mechanics, raiding lockout method, class design, and class functionality. The actual DESIGN of the game, you know the thing you are playing, is what makes retail, and any other version of the game different.
achievements, account wide mounts, dungeon finder, and transmog are all functions that have existed across several versions of the game but the specific design of the classes, loot, and content is something that’s relatively unique to every version of the game.
As someone that started playing in vanilla in 2005, I find this superficial analysis a little silly. Most of the things you listed as very small parts of the overall experience. When I play wow, I play it because I like the gameplay and my class. I don’t play it based on whether or not some achievement mechanic I can completely ignore is or is not in the game, or how accessible it is for other players. I play it because I like the gameplay. And rarely do I see these posts complaining about “retail” ruining the game actually talk about the classes and the content. It’s always the very small things that people can literally ignore if they choose to.
Brother if you have to post about how you’re having so much fun, it’s all ready over. Everyone knows you’re coping, time to take up a new hobby. Sailors knots, fishermens knots, maybe just knot tying in general.