I think classic actually plays far better and more easily than vanilla wow did. Great.
But people wanted the “community.” Endless yammering about the “community.”
I was there. There was no community back in 2004. you had an initial leveling herd you either kept with or played a very inconvenient singleplayer game. Day 2 of classic and people are already as closed off as they always were; they figure grouping will slow them down. Everyone corralled into cliques and hiveminds or monomaniacal solo leveling rushers.
If I wanted a flash in the pan subsisted by emotionalism where any and all criticism is met by cult-like personal attacks I would go back to final fantasy 14. Where is the “classic wow” so many people promised? Where is the community I have heard so much about that never actually existed back in real vanilla?
Ehh…on the servers I’ve played on this evening the highest level players in the game are like level 30 at best. I think you are probably rushing to judgement a little too quickly. 99% of the population is still getting their sea-legs and/or fighting the login-boss. Most don’t even have guilds yet.
If you were not a part of a very specific group, vanilla wow was lonely.
Admittedly, people were more open and social back then, but that just usually meant you would have more people just bullying you in chat. Rarely was the community aspect ever in a newcomer’s favor.
First of all, community doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is holding hands and riding off into the sunset together in a ring of happiness. Community means a sense of actually belonging to a place(ie. your server), which is totally lost with cross realm etc.
Second of all, who is bullying in chat? I’ve almost never seen that. And who is joining cliques in the first leveling zones? Do you mean guilds? This is such a weird complaint.
This isn’t my experience in classic so far at all. I see a lot of people putting their best feet forward, both in guild and out in the world. Maybe our different perspectives is a reflection of what we want to see right now.
Even if you were, you had to fight the guild clique boss every day. You can be in the right group but never run content if the same 5 rl friends all log in at the same time and only do content with each other.
I think the discovery of that community is what made and still can make WoW feel special. In a slower paced more thought driven environment, this aspect of a community feels more natural and open ended. It’s not lonely unless you want it to be.
This point is true in all aspects of society. Not just in a video game. If you feel that you are on the outside looking in on a certain group or “clique” then maybe formulating new friendships and making your own circle is best.
It’s basically what Thebruce said. Community doesn’t necessarily mean everyone you meet is going to be a ray of sunshine. There were trolls and jerks back in vanilla too. The biggest aspect of a vanilla community is some type of accountability for what you say and do. The nice people will gravitate towards each other and reject the jerks. Put the unbearable people on ignore or simply remember their names and refuse to invite them to your groups. If enough people refuse to socialize with them then down the road they’ll either have to name change or server change to avoid their bad reputation.
I have had literally had 7 different groups, 4 of which I was invited to and 3 I made.
First group at the beginning I did boars, scorpions and imps together. Second group I did Sarkoth, medallion, and waiting in line for the pick.
Third group was the Benedict, 4th group was the quilboars outside of Razor hill, 5th group was the Senjin Islands, 6th group was the bags and harpies in the canyon. The 7th group was literally me and 3 other hunters farming for an hour so.
I have people tossing random buffs on me as they run by, asking for help or offering their help. I have grouped up more in the 10-12 hours I have played than all of retail since Cata combined.
There was even a guy who had an extra bag cause he got lucky with bag drops and instead of selling it gave his coordinates in chat and gave it to the first person who got to him.
Maybe it all dies down over time but Ive never experienced a social and active community like this except for when Hunts first became a thing back in ARR for FF14.
I wouldn’t use those as a good example of communities. hunt guilds are BLOODTHIRSTY backstabbers.
I can do you one worse. I invited a real friend to play wow in 2005, because I had no one to play with. They ended up becoming a part of a raiding clique and ignored me in game and out. They got so addicted they had to drop out of class.
For gathering/drop quests, it does slow one down. Getting, say, 8 gnoll paws turns into 40. If you’re in a group with someone else, you have to be going twice as fast to make up for the experience split. With 5 people, 5 times as fast, which really is not practical outside of multiboxing.
What I really hate are the random invites with no context. At least say something before inviting about what you’re doing. I don’t know what stage of the quest you’re on, how many you need, or what have you. If you invite without saying anything, chances are I’m going to decline.
They are now but back when they were first introduced in ARR, the Linkshells were awesome, people waited, and those that pulled were blacklisted. Everybody was giving directions and talking about mechanics, helping people clear their hunt log if in the right area. It was a good time at least imo, but 14 has gone the same way as WOW