Lets say we took someone whos only experience of World of Warcraft was the original game, they had never played any other expansion and take them and toss them into current War Within. How do you think they would react to modern WoW when all they know is Vanilla.
Shock and awe…
… and maybe some disgust.
It depends on if they like the QoL changes.
There are people playing Era who have never bought any expansions, mostly jumped from private server to private server prior to classic.
It’s a different game and really has been since Cata. Vanilla was unique in that the game of leveling was the game. Players seem to view expansion levels as solely a means to an end.
I prefer Vanilla and actually left retail after WoD for the next ten years. I am enjoying the old expacs I never played because my days of chasing end-game gear are long over.
I would recommend to new players who have only played Vanilla, that if they’re interested in checking retail out, timewalking is a great way to experience the story from TBC onward.
I think going directly from Vanilla to TWW would be a bit of game-shock. Mechanics, classes, talents, abilities, re-agents, etc. all very different.
So for what it’s worth I played a game that was essentially an anime reskin of vanilla WoW. They never made it super big so I imagine that’s how they got away with basically calling 3 maps the exact same name with very similar mobs.
A few years ago me and my friend decided it was dying out and we initially tried FF but then came to WoW and now it’s my home.
My reaction to WoW:
- We can flying now??? I’d say it took about 5 months to get over the joys that suddenly being able to vertically travel.
- Talents seem very simple ( was SL at the time). I didn’t mind it or what we have now.
- Core gameplay wasn’t super hard to adapt to.
- Visuals are some of the best
- Combat is probably the biggest seller and remains the biggest joy of this game for me in this game.
- Talent flexibility and Hero talents really add a huge amount of flavour to a spec (even if what you choose to build isn’t necessarily high end competitive).
Overall pretty positively received with the main critique being that community aspect built ingame is missing but is replaced by discord guild and community groups.
They’d be like the Marine Corps…
They’d adapt, improvise, and overcome.
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You actually see them sometimes in the newcomer chat. Some are obnoxious donkeyhats who act like they are a “vanilla vet” who “just took a couple decade break” and whose knowledge/perspective is still relevant.
But most are like little freshies who haven’t got a clue about anything but tend to chime in “well that’s different than what I remember”…like brah NOTHING works like you remember.
well There choice go back to rocking chair now so go find OG vanilla player and ask that… you won’t find nay where.
We don’t give enough credit to the QOL changes that retail has undergone.
I played the MoP beta the other day. I have fond memories of MoP, I loved the class design.
Fire Mage is practically unplayable with the default UI. The notion that I’ll have to set up a bunch of addons just to feel comfortable playing MoP has already turned me off playing it.
The biggest hurdle would be the lack of socialness. I think OG classic players would feel alone, before feeling bored, driving them to quit.
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I cannot lie…after a few days of anniv leveling when in the mood it takes me a few seconds to realize in retail or cata that
SW is different
and I can fly in SW.
I will say cata sw is the best SW. the dragon damage I find nice. gives it character.
Probably be impressed by the visuals but overwhelmed by systems and feature bloat.
Retail added a lot of stuff that wasn’t necessary.
They’d probably be right at home with the modern community. Some things never change.
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They’d probably unsub.
Shock, befuddlement, eventual resolution positive, negative or ambivalent.
Going to assume that the returning player is not a rock and wants to get back to a more in depth game than what they are playing if they are playing anything at all.
An old school returning player would be more than willing to learn the current state of the game and not sit there in shock stating “back when I started…”. Nor would they come here and instantly latch onto time gating memes because they know it’s just a game and it has to be something…just not everything to everyone all the time.