Nope. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Absolutely not. While I have good memories of those days, the game has gotten so much better.
There were so many things in vanilla that sucked but at the time we didn’t really know any better.
And listening to people wax poetic about vanilla really reminds me of the whole ruby colored glasses thing.
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I played Vanilla and had a blast. Still remember the thrill of getting my first character to 60 back in the day.
I tried Classic when it launched in 2019 and made it to about level 45 before I stopped. I was just forcing myself to grind and it just wasnt fun. The QoL improvements I’ve gotten use to and I cant go back to the days of fighting a mob and having to melee after I run out of mana or running away to bandage mid fight.
I enjoyed it at the time but it shows its age 20 years later. Mostly there’s no challenge in it. Grinding does not equal a challenge and any type of raiding content can be cleared the 1st night usually.
The thing about Classic is that Blizzard can recreate vanilla exactly, but they can’t recreate the awesome people I spent time with there, some of whom I still keep in touch with via social media. They can’t recreate the social environment of the time which, on the majority of levels, didn’t live and die on the holy altar of meters. (Meters were in their infancy and barely existed at the time.) For many more people, the game was more than numbers on an overcrowded UI then.
They also can’t recreate the person I was at the time. The player who had never played an MMO before, for whom literally everything was so brand new and shiny. 
The player who spent at LEAST two to three weeks not understanding there were two different factions. The player who went from my big achievement being able to jump over the fallen tree in the night elf starter zone to being the main puller for my guild’s raid as we went from MC all the way through every raid to Naxx 40.
So, yes, I played the hell out of original vanilla alongside an amazing group of people. Do I play Classic? No. I played it just enough to level up to the point I could run original Blackfathom Deeps again, which was the dungeon that was my first true love. 
Then I walked away, not because the game was different, but because the other players were different and that changed the whole feel of the game. I fell into the most perfect situation I could have with the best group of people I possibly could have in vanilla. I don’t want my precious memories of that time tarnished by how Classic feels now.
I actually did not want to start playing original Classic here as it had so many changes so I refused to play it until way later into it. And I played TBC a little, then in Wrath it had so many changes that I quit Wrath 100% and I am not ever going to play Cata so I am done with Classic now. Only do SOD and HC. Then probably done with WoW for good after that. Seeing how Dragonflight was…not going to continue on like that in retail WoW. It is no longer Blizzard running the show here, this is not a Blizzard game…its Activision. And Microsoft hasn’t taken full control yet.
Before Dragonflight I played some classic. Since Dragonflight I have zero interest. Dragonflight is so beyond classic in every way. Leveling, gameplay, exploring, story, it’s all way better in retail. I got to level 6 yesterday after 2 hours at launch yesterday in classic. It’s so slow, so boring, so much downtime. They need more overhauls. Mounts earlier, more abilities, but then why not just play retail then. It’s a dated game at this point.
Played Vanilla, can’t stand Classic.
Nope…played it then and damn glad for all the QoL changes since. Haven’t played any of the classic versions and won’t start now. 
No.
/10chars
I didn’t play Vanilla WoW, but I did play OG D2 so I can relate in the similar sentiments here.
When they remade it and I got up to Act5…suddenly realized I don’t have 16 hours a day to grind bosses.
My friends are all long gone. Life isn’t the same and I have very little time to play especially content like mythic plus, raids, rifts, and such. I question all the time why I don’t go back to SP games, but I’m sitting on a BoTW save state I haven’t touched in 3 weeks
Doesn’t mean I don’t play it, but even a D2+ wouldn’t be exciting for me past launch. Those memories are enshrined in my youth.
Also, my back hurts after I tried to carry a 500 lb stretcher/person up 5 steps. Haven’t been the same since
No, the current version isn’t remotely the same.
I did, and I don’t need the rerun. If they understood how to make a game fun, they wouldn’t need classic.
I tried to do hardcore as a Ret Paladin because it was my first character in BC.
I spent 6 levels wondering how I managed to get my Paladin to max level the first time around and logged off.
Yep. I started playing in 2004 and have not taken a break longer than 3 months (during which time I was sorting out a cross-country move).
I did pretty much everything I wanted to do when it was current… in vanilla some PvE up to AQ and did the PvP rank grind to the best of my ability (made some great friends at a time when meeting people online was still sort of a novelty), in TBC again split my time between PvP and PvE - we got into Funwell before the guild broke up. Raided in Wrath and did HM Lich King - then that guild broke up.
After that my life got busy I mostly did some premade PvP of various kinds - casual/rated BG/arena. Stuck with that for the camaraderie. When not doing that I collected achieves and mounts.
When Classic came out I almost completely dropped out of the modern game except for leveling to see the storyline in a few expacs. In Classic my guild got to the end of AQ40 and we were half way through Naxx when I was replaced on the raid roster (just not as good as other candidates).
I came back to “retail” then and started doing PvP till Hardcore Classic popped - and I went 100% back there again.
So far I have not made a toon in SoD (but I might)
I still play it because the classes are just plain better imo, the mechanics lost me along the way. I can’t stand what they did with the reworks from WoD onwards, feels like a completely different game than I grew up with.
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I do not. For me it was a been there done that type of thing. I’d rather continue with the character I made all those years ago and keep looking forward and enjoying how WoW is now.
I also just think it’s not what it was in terms of culture and how things are now in life. I know it’s the same game, but the times are different if that makes sense.
And I also don’t have as much time as I did back then, with starting a family and all.
But I’m glad people can enjoy it.
I did a little hardcore, and im trying SoD. But not regular classic.
I agree… have thought it so for a long while.
In my view Blizz reinvents/reimagines Warcraft every expac - with wild swings in the storyline, new races, changing up talents and systems, replacing currencies - a madhouse with cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria, etc.
I understand that whatever they have been doing is successful and some people like that sort of thing. But I’m honestly not that into relearning the game every few years. I do it - but I’m not wild about it.
And while again I know some people like that (or they wouldn’t be here today) all but one person I knew here from 2004 to around 2011 is gone. I’ve been the last person left playing in half a dozen 500+ player guilds (I use their banks for storage now)
So when Classic became a thing I was thrilled to go back to something I felt comfortable with… the way you might feel about your 1st car or a worn old pair of jeans.
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I have played since Vanilla and continue to play Retail. I dipped my toe in Classic when it first cam out but it just wasn’t the way I remembered things plus it seemed to draw out all of toxic folks (at least where I was). Mostly walking away from over a decade of work on multiple toons was not an option. I can usually find things to keep me occupied during the downtime anyway.
No, just no.
i was a bit excited about it when they first announced it. However, when i dove into it…i quickly disliked it. I managed to get a mage to its late 30’s or 40’s. I honestly dont recall atm.
It brought along past ugly memories. Ive never logged into it again.