Classic Era is sitting right there for Vanilla lovers. I’ve been playing it and it’s great.
But Wrath should be Wrath.
Besides, what it his mythical playerbase they’re going for? The Wrath playerbase is the most toxic I’ve ever seen. It’s even worse than Retail because it brings that same mindset and philosophy into a version of the game where that wasn’t the predominant playstyle. And Blizz has done everything to encourage that toxicity. They removed a system that was about accessibility and allowing players to group up and experience content, and introduced a buggy, broken system that’s full of gatekeeping nonsense alongside Mythic dungeons that encourages said gatekeeping.
It’s much, much more similar to the Retail dungeon experience than the original Wrath experience. And that’s a failure on every level. I want to play Wrath to experience Wrath. Not 2023 Blizzard’s interpretation.
To a point. There’s something fundamentally flawed with everything pass Classic as it still somehow remains the most playable.
Truth be told, it’s just because Classic is a complete game, from start to finish. Every expansion after is a banana fodder to max level for “high-end” content. But things like RDF have a sour place even in a complete game, imo.
The only real gatekeeping that occurs for 5 man content is laziness.
Plus I learned today that when original RDF was introduced the Emblem quest was removed and integrated into RDF. Players were gatekept into RDF.
Then Blizzard should have taken Vanilla Classic and designed from there. Add raids, dungeons, whatever. If they want to maintain the spirit of Vanilla, then do that. But to try to force Vanilla design into expansions is mixing oil and water. Especially since Classic Era servers still exist.
Put it like this…people who wanted Wrath just get the shaft? As far as RDF, I really don’t understand the animosity. From a purely theoretical perspective…maybe. And if you asked me about the topic a few years ago my answer would have been very different. But reality has a way of shattering theoretical expectations. And the reality is that the dungeon experience in Wrath is a mess without it. There’s nothing gained from spamming the LFG channel or flying afk to an instance portal (or more likely being summoned). It’s just a waste of time.
I don’t play Wrath Classic for the same reason I quit original Wrath a little ways into the expansion: it doesn’t offer me anything. I wasn’t a raider then, and I’m not now. 2009 Blizzard then added a tool that gave me something to do. If I wanted to spend an afternoon running Heroic after Heroic I could. 2023 Blizzard has removed that option from the game. So what is left for me? I’m never going to be a raid logger, no matter how much Blizz tries to force that playstyle on me. And they can shove their Mythic dungeons. If I wanted to do 1 dungeon a day and move on, I’d play Retail. I want to relax, chill out and enjoy dungeons for hours. Is that too much to ask in a video game?
Also, the Emblems have nothing to do with how you form your group. It’s purely a queueing bonus. The only difference is teleporting to an instance instead of being summoned there. It’s just one of Red’s herrings.
I’ll give you points for a well thought out post, but this is their testing grounds.
Even a pure WotLK just doesn’t compete with Vanilla in terms of sustained playing. They have to think ahead, while it would be nice to get museum pieces it was never truly in the scope of their play.
It’s understandable why. Look at all the people who believe it. I’m convinced the real reason RDF isn’t in Wrath is because Activision pressured them to release Wrath before it was ready (which Brian Birmingham confirmed in a tweet). It’s the same reason the quest helper still isn’t in Wrath. At least they were honest and admitted that. But RDF they’ve dug too deep a hole to do likewise.
You could have ignored me and moved on as well. plenty of asinine one off comments in here you’ve ignored already, why does mine stick out? It’s just my own belligerent whining about this never ending “debate”.