I started before WoW’s 1st anniversary and played continuously until the point in MoP when they announced that Flight would be dropped in WoD.
My experience in vanilla dungeons was very different than yours. I got my butt chewed by some psycho in my very first dungeon because I did not know that people (on my server) were all supposed to pass on any rolls, and then /roll 100 to determine who got the loot. Not knowing that, I rolled on a staff that absolutely no one in the group needed… it was vendor trash. The psycho continued to berate me in group chat for the entire run.
For the most part, I was rarely the target of hostilities in dungeons beyond that, but I saw a lot of crap being handed out to others… enough to kind of sour me on running them over the years. I did not notice this problem become significantly better or worse when LFD came out.
To be fair, that is how it should be (if you want the game to last).
There is a lot of psychology involved though, because it’s (understandably) hard to appeal to audiences with such a high variation of likes and dislikes.
Repetition is the pathway to mastery. By blocking anyone who is not super high geared from content, the “powers that be” assure a dearth of competent players.
Are you talking about Ever Quest or Ever Quest 2. Because yes you had to zone between maps in EQ1, but all the content in those areas was contested and everyone had to fight for camps. It wasn’t uncommon to be trained to death by people running by with a lot of NPCs following them. I played from Original (1999) to Omens of War (2004, 8th expansion). My favorite expansion was The Planes of Power (Favorite kill, Avatar of Fire - Only 3 people standing out of 72 when it died. Warrior {MT}, Priest {MH} and my Shaman {CL})
If you’re talking about EQ 2, then yes that was heavy instanced, and groups mostly fought the content (dungeons & raids) by themselves with no one else to bother them. No more where the days of being blocked by other guilds to advance your guild. Played from launch (2004) until The Shadow Odyssey (2009, 5th Expansion). Graphically I loved EQ2 but missed the ability to be all crafters on 1 character (Shaman Carpenter).
I do believe one game company is actually working to bring back that game design, not EQ but their version. One of the creators of EQ, Braid McQuaid (died 2019), started a game company called Visionary Realms and was making a game called Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.
OP is right about you, earlier today in my topic you made 2 non constructive posts about how I’m an alt account, then left without adding anything to the discussion
I remember getting a class to 60 after an absurdly long leveling process in vanilla. We had no idea what we were doing when we got to 60.
Leveling and end-game are entirely different skill sets. You learn less than nothing about how to do end-game content while leveling, regardless of leveling speed.
Well I found Vanilla’s “journey” to be among the best parts of WoW.
I don’t think WoW gets to subvert the basic video game formula of, the game is fun, then you ramp up to the final boss and put everything together.
Leveling, where all the content is, should be engaging and interesting, possibly even challenging.
I think it was the focus on end game parity and raiding in general though that made leveling speed fast, it was considered to be a chore by raiders and so they axed it, and in doing so, axed the core elements of fun and engaging fantasy rpg.
I agree with the ideas here, but would add that what is challenging for a Tank, Healer and DPS is vastly different.
So, why don’t we have any quest chains that match the ROLE that your toon plays? I mean, a chain where you are the tank for a group of NPCs or the healer, or the DPS?
Why don’t we have quest chains that help you understand your role and how to play it as you level?
Seems to me that devs could create such quests and that it would help people learn their class as they go.
I am sorry you had such an extreme experience, but surely this wasn’t your everyday dungeon run, was it? One bad experience doesn’t make the game terrible, there are psychos everywhere in every game.
