Time played metrics didn’t even exists back then. It was designed by ear by people wanting to make an immersive world, and yes that involves inconveniences as that’s part of life as well.
Its a weird dichotomy that people don’t seem to quite grasp.
And it did. I wish i could explain how it differs but i don’t think i quite grasp the subject enough to do so.
All i can tell you is that the current “instant gratification” model doesn’t entertain me nearly as much as the game did back then. Ease of access comes with downsides as well.
I still remember the nights just hanging in Xroads talking to people between handing quests over a decade later.
Do you think i’ll remember the 6 callings i mindlessly did earlier today just as well? Doubtful.
My point isn’t it was better. In term of pure product quality it was worse in every possible way, no argument there.
And honestly its arguable weather Vanilla’s ambiance had anything to do with the game’s design as Classic didn’t work out nearly as well for me as the game did back then.
Its just the mindset of people playing these game’s that’s different. Back then it was all about exploring and socializing. Now its about filling spreadsheets, “finishing” the game as quickly as possible and bending it over for Twitch clout points.
You have to remember, back then it had less to do with ‘time played’ and just a novice project by a group of devs that really never did an MMO. Creating constant content is impossible for that scale so them pushing these philosophies in design for vanilla especially was their idea of what they saw as RPG, immersive, and also how they envisioned the game they were designing would look and function.
You can honestly email Kevin Jordan probably who was one of the original devs and I’m sure he’d respond I think. He seems like an open book of insight, of the faults he learned during then but he would have a more accurate response to your conundrum.
That’s just classic RPG design from back then. Been replaying Final Fantasy Tactics, if you want to experience frustrating RNG, that’s your game. The benefits from this is that when its on your favor it feels insanely good. But yeah its also super frustrating at times. Deeper lows and higher highs, quality over quantity of the dopamine shots.
Something that still can be done in any game today.
Something that was done to any game before today.
I mean really, there’s always going to be somebody exploring and socializing, and there’s always going to be somebody who is “finishing” the game as quickly as possible and using it to get famous for 15 seconds, regardless if it’s now or back in the 80’s with the Atari. It just takes on a different name.
Off-Topic, what were you implying by putting ‘finishing’ in quotes? are you talking about speedrunning?
People were much more likely to be happy playing games for their playing’s sake back then, which is why vanilla has so much of what people would now consider “filler”. Most of us didn’t need shiny carrots to chase, even just running around and bumping into other players was enjoyable.
True, but that was back during a time when getting your first mount felt like and was a BIG deal, and the game was much more about the journey to 60 as opposed to the game beginning once you hit level cap like it sort of is now.
Wouldn’t that kind of make sense? Seems like it wouldn’t be much of a quest if ~all the answers to ~all the problems within a zone or zones were in the zones themselves. It also gave you a bit of a change of pace from questing in one zone. It also allowed for multiple routes to level up, as some zones you maybe wouldnt see or go to the first time around.
Ah but sometimes you’d get there just in time and not have to wait at all!
Again, I thought this was kind of a good thing, that every zone had areas that would become increasingly more dangerous as you ventured toward/into them, as well as some areas where venturing in alone would be ~certain death (i.e. elite areas). This in turn helped to facilitate and encourage the social aspect of the game.
Some zones were pretty rough in that regard, I’ll give you that
But is less likely to happen if the path of least resistance is elsewhere.
Only difference is that people worrying about that were the exception instead of the norm.
I mean in terms of WoW it can be anything, but yeah as far as Classic is concerned its basically speedrunning as the raids themselves were already figured anyway.
Called it quit on Classic when my guild required me to farm for 4 hours to clear a raid that we were already bending in half an hour (BWL) slightly faster.
You’re delusional, this game no longer rewards exploration and adventure. You’re one of those people that will claim a wrench is no different than a hammer because they can both hit nails into wood.
Or people were just clueless about online economies. Stuff in Naxx GDKP runs were selling for multiple time what Epic Flying in TBC costs by the end of Classic.
