Nostalgia is a powerful drug.
I’m playing older games more than newer ones, because new games just want me to spend money on cosmetics and other lame crap.
It’s less about the gameplay itself these days.
Fun fact: More Steam users are playing older games, than ones that came out in 2024.
And there’s no need to apologize to me, for wanting to play an older game, lol.
If anything, I kinda feel bad that you can’t enjoy older stuff.
I see posts about this topic now and then, lots of reminiscing and thinking back on the good old days and the old term “rose coloured glasses” tends to spring to mind.
First off OP, if you enjoy Classic and like how it is to play in its various ways, that’s great. The fact that it is there for you is good, its an option to relive the things you enjoy.
For me, I didn’t get that feeling, and that’s mostly because I have moved on from a simpler time when what the early game provided was all there was and you had nothing to compare it to. The (to me) excruciating speed of levelling was just how it was; nowadays I don’t find slow levelling = fun. Taking longer to do something doesn’t make that task more enjoyable, it uses up time that I frankly don’t have ‘time’ to spend that way anymore. Sure, if something has a challenge, is complex or interesting then it is worth my investment. But taking ages to get from A to B to do something that is as slow as old fashioned paint drying…it’s just not entertaining. And for me, gaming is all about entertainment.
As far as the old social thing is concerned, what many dont consider is that, as well as the game moving, people have moved on to. We aren’t the people we were back then, and new players aren’t the type of player they were back then, when there weren’t many other games to try and few things to compare it to, or ways of interacting with others online.
There is no way. You can’t go back again, there is no timey-whimey machine to reverse 20 years of change in the world. The game can certainly be improved, and needs improving, but there is no way to create the social environment of 2006 in 2025.
As long as you’re ok with getting semi-good armor, Retail can be a solo game. There is no need to be in a guild or have friends helping you. It’s lost the social aspect of an MMORPG.
In Classic, it is necessary to have help completing many quests, especially the attunement ones. This forces people out of their solo shell.
I just did a replay of BG1-2 because I do that surprisingly often, and as always the thought that never leaves me with the first game isn’t “I enjoyed the journey so much” even if yes I do a bit, it’s that the parts before reaching Baldur’s Gate are horrendously paced, 4 whole chapters of nonsense before you can get into the city. That has always been a criticism of it too - one Bioware took to heart because they started you off IN the main hub city the second time around.
I just think there is a load of unearned nostalgia even for my favorite games.
I miss attunements soooo much, that was the adventure of TBC basically lol.
https://imgur.com/sHjrAPm
For me, there’s a lot I “didn’t get to do” back in actual Vanilla, because I was a kid at the time. I never really got to do all the raids, for example, just UBRS and a bit of MC.
Most of what I did was PvP, and that largely hasn’t changed in Retail.
TBC came out and that was the new hot thing, and folks weren’t doing old stuff anymore.
It’s just another chance for me to do this stuff while it’s ‘current’, and actually finish the game to some degree.
Idk i find retail far more enjoyable there is way more to do, the world feels more alive. Classic is pretty much dead for 99% of the game. I loved season of discovery but its pretty dead now too. I think the main feeling of classic is the actual feel of getting stronger while leveling did a lot. The trade off is no leveling scaling tho. SO id much rather have level scaling.
They did “change back to this” - by giving all the leveling andies Classic. Turning Retail into more Classic is unnecessary.
If you where 7 in 2006, i started playing in 2006 when i was like 23 or 22 lol
I’m too old to “sweat” like that. LOL
I think many people who still play are the same. While there are no doubt new young players but I think WoW will have its work cut out for it against the newer “it” games.
The social conditions were different back then. Players were different back then. Everything was new and novel back in 2004. Talking to real live people in a video game while playing together with them was new.
Today stuff like that is the norm.
Expectations have changed. Back in vanilla most players didn’t understand their own classes’ mechanics. [1] As long as you didn’t ninja loot or pull adds, few gave you a hard time in dungeons. [2]
[1] The innovations of yesteryear’s gameplay are routine today - you can kind of see that in old PVP and “tricks” videos; a lot of stuff pioneered by those players is routine now.
[2] I guess it was harder to find people back then so you rolled with what people you could find as long as they don’t ruin the dungeon run. On a side note, dungeons loot was also more valuable back then if I recall right.
We still kind of have that. It isn’t 2004 anymore though. 3D worlds where you can meet longer live players are not considered as amazing as they used to nor is it your first time in such a world.
In many ways vanilla was a product of its time. Frankly I don’t think we will ever be able to replicate that lightning in a bottle. Nostalgia is all we can manage.
Frankly retail isn’t that bad. The world feels more alive that it used to - kind of like in vanilla; there was a reason to be out in the world (back then it was leveling and farming mats, today it’s world quests and rares).
I don’t understand people who develop emotional attachments to video games.
They don’t. But they do remember the fun times they had when they played the video game 20 years ago.
Um, any criticism, complaints, or suggestions for retail is viewed as “bashing” to you.
I’ve watched you flame people for 10 years over even the smallest suggestions to bring back things that were designed out of the game, gaslighting posters like they’re some kind of crazy person because they enjoyed aspects of the older versions.
Akston, you got your head in the sand on this one, modern WoW has been trending in a funky direction now for years. Classic WoW would have never been a thing if it wasn’t for Blizzard morphing retail WoW into some weird amalgamation of Diablo style ARPG and WoW mixed together.
There is a huge portion of WoW players that are not being served by the modern game in 2025, and that has to be a huge pain point for Blizzard. Spinning up old versions of the game to accommodate this cohort is a bandaid fix in my opinion.
I love WoW, and there are parts of retail I like for sure, but there is a lot I don’t like, and I think it is fine for the developers to hear from the community. This is how games get better, and don’t die off like Destiny 2 did this last past year, or Apex Legends because their developers just kept ignoring a huge segment of players.
For some reason, you and a handful of other posters have taken it upon yourselves to be the pseudo voice of the developers, just lashing out at anyone that doesn’t align with your vision for the game.
You have every right to post here. One has to ask though, are you really enjoying the game when it seems like you are spending more time posting about it than actually playing it?
If these posts are triggering that much, just don’t read them, don’t engage. I’ve been telling you this for years, but you always find your way into these threads. Which begs the question, are you here to actually engage in a meaningful discussion, or are you here to just flame people that don’t align with your views? The latter seems to be the case based on your history.
I know you might think I’m picking on you, but you are one of the most prolific posters on these forums that always takes the side of the company.
Many steps to attract players have done it. The introduction of achievements was the start. Feats of strength was just something to cover achievements no longer available at the time they implemented the system. Implementation of feats of strength achievements beyond that every 6th months just made it worse. It turned the game into a rat race.
Only 34% have Keystone explorer. That number is abysmal.
Ugh, I hate these replies. Classic is like Chess, it is timeless. No one is trying to recapture their past. We just enjoy well made games. I still play a lot of games I played in my 20s, because they’re still great games today.
Retail WoW has its merits, but it is a very mediocre game the way it is designed these days. It really only appeals to a certain demographic of gamer.
So much doom and gloom, retail has more player retention then all of the classics combined.
I’ll never play classic again, been there done that. I rather have all the QOL improvements and currect tech retail offers, which has made WoW a better game. I have a feeling with player housing, we will see an improvement towards making WoW feel more lived-in and player engagement with the world as an overall will feel more prevalent (hopefully).
No matter what iteration of classic they come up with, it wont be more successful then retail. Classic+/SOD/classic era expansions have a finite life span of revelance and player retention.
I’d love to see your data on this.
Do the research yourself you’ll see I’m not wrong.
Where does one find player sub counts published by Blizzard?
As of right now total player count (subscriptions) is currently at 7.25 million.