What makes classic better than retail?
I’m leveling through classic (in preparation for TBC) and I can’t figure out why it’s better. There’s no single thing I can name that makes it superior, it just feels better to play 
Is it the original devs magic or something? Why does the original game feel better than retail?
Well this is late stage classic, and the community isn’t as good as it was at the start of classic, but still, the communal aspect could be part of it.
Also, classic has better quest scaling than retail. You might have notice, each quests in a chain is more difficult than the last, and you might have to wait a while to complete a quest because it’s red, or too challanging at your level.
Smaller choices in classic feel more meaningful, because there is so much time in between them, and you have a larger time investment in it.
Every talent point you get makes you more powerful, every ranked up spell you get makes you more powerful, and getting those spells feels more meaningful because you actually invested money in them, instead of getting them for free like in retail.
Every time you level up feels more meaningful, expecially at later levels, because gaining a level is such a massive hurdle.
And finally, getting to level 60 feels more meaningful, because you’ve invested such a large amount of time and money into your character.
And that’s just leveling.
When not EVERY SINGLE GDKP IN EXISTENCE forces you to have world buffs and make you lose 70% of your gold with a gold penalty for not having the buffs.
Time for an option to remove world buffs in classic raids. And without removing them from the game so you still have the normal option of having world buffs too in classic raids.
Naxxrammas (option buffs)
Naxxrammas (option non buffs)
You go out an do a quest an have to deal with actual game mechanics like leaving a cave without aggroing the entire thing.
You see far more world building and lore and general variety. Think about how much more effing content there is in classic compared to retail expac.
If i’m deep in a cave i usually hearth out if my hearthstone isn’t on cooldown.
And you’re right about the world building.
Warcraft 3 did a lot of it, but it was still pretty bare bones.
With World of Warcraft, they had to build an entirly new world, built partly from scratch, and partly from cobbled together new and old lore.
Are you still on about this?
The loot progression feels much better. Visual progression exists because there is no transmog. Gear feels more meaningful because there are fewer avenues to obtain good gear and less of it drops, so it takes longer to obtain. Final bosses having loot that is a tier higher makes farming old raids meaningful. There’s still items people can use from MC and BWL for a lot of guilds in Naxx.
I did notice this when I went to orgrimmar. I saw a warlock in full Plagueheart set and was kind of in awe for a second. I love that set and have always wanted it, so it really made me notice when I saw someone wearing it
In retail I tend to only notice someone’s gear if it’s a current tier mythic set, but with most people wearing xmog you can’t tell
This is pretty much it for me. Also the fact gear isn’t pretty much the same thing on every piece with only its secondary stats slightly changed, makes it feel so much more interesting. You have more things to take into account rather than, “durr does dis have a higher item levul? Does dis have the secondary stats me want? ZUG ZUG!” feels great.
In other avenues, not having the entire world revolve around me is fantastic. I like the feeling of being a part of another world. I can’t stand this “chosen one” nonsense anymore that retail has.
Speaking of being a part of another world, community. It feels good when you’re known for being a rad dude who helps people. Its great that you can’t get away with being a jerk most times because you will be called out for it.
Retail lacks all of that. Retail is a theme park on rails that rains uninteresting gear and has created a terrible player interaction due to all the cross realm zoning and grouping.
For me personally it’s the gear progression, unique classes and slower gameplay that I prefer.
Wow just feels better when it’s slowed down alittle bit. On retail I have to go full speed ahead all the time or else I’m just going to fall behind. I’ve already given up on trying to keep up. Disappointing going into arena just to see players with 10-15k more hp then me.
Classic has many more social pressures and systems in places to motivate you to be a better player whereas retail spoils you to the point that there’s no reason to play better.
Regardless of social pressures:
Retail writing is just bad. Cutscenes are cheesy. Somehow they ruined the character models.
Too many queues that make the game feel like a lobby multiplayer game. Phasing, layering.
Armor and transmog sets take you out of the game. Makes everything look like a mobile game. Caters to people playing dress up over people looking for a cohesive rpg Experience where gear fits the lore.
Constant gamey Stat squishing. Over the top animations that try but fail to make the game an action game. Play the UI not the game world.
Small amount of locations of actual relevance. Rushed patches to please shareholders over playing customers. In fact you aren’t the customer in retail. Again the customers are the shareholders and the players are addicts who will buy every expac without even seeing reviews. They could add nothing to the next expac and people would buy it.
It’s not better. It’s different.
Pretty sure a world buff GDKP evicted his family from their ancestral home.
Because its an actual MMO RPG where anything you accomplish feels earned and therefore rewarding.
There isn’t a million things being thrown at you in convoluted ways. The game starts off simple and only minorly ramps up without ever overwhelming the player.
There is a distinct simplicity and lack of clutter that makes retail just… unfun.
If you are an independent sort, there are many ways you can play the game and enjoy yourself. In later expansions leading to current retail, the game presses you to play with end-game raiding as the only rewarding destination.
In classic, you can choose to focus on whatever you wish, and there are rewards there that require time and effort to achieve - even the lesser professions like fishing require work and you can make a decent amount of gold doing it.
If you are bullied by your guild into a specific spec/professions/class, I suppose you would find little difference between Classic and Retail other than the Classic raids being a bit too easy. But the Classic world is a much wider and interesting place overall.
I personally liked the Pre-Cataclysm Azeroth. While time consuming and sometimes annoying, the running back and forth between zones made the world feel connected. The chain quests like The Defias Brotherhood, Missing Diplomat, Legend of Stalvan, etc are all quite immersive and well-told stories. Cataclysm got rid of all that. The leveling process was indeed streamlined then, but it was hopping from one hub to the next.
for me it just feels like a traditional MMORPG should feel. i love mmorpg’s grew up playing them and classic stays true to it. none of that bs fast paced leveling to hit end game, buying character boosts ( for now ), etc… i mean you can buy boosts with gold if you want but i mean via cash shop.
for me i think retail is more catered towards people who just want to hit end game content. i mean when you look at retail everything deals with endgame. raiding, pvp, m+, professions, xmoging to a lesser extent due to old content scaling, mount farming.
to me none of that feels rewarding when you literally breeze through the content. the only thing that makes it rewarding is say farming a mount and knowing you dont have to run that damn raid/dungeon ever again for that purpose.
SOME people might enjoy that which is fine. me personally idc for that kind of play style. i prefer classic play style BUT with a progressing story as well. kinda like OSRS with added content.
Immersion, that requires you to work with others. While retail is like a single player game, everything is automated, and people don’t even talk. not to mention so many expansions made most game irrelevant and confusing. I still remember in Retail auto joining a dungeon, no one says a word, everyone just zugs or whatever, then loot gets auto distributed, and everyone leaves… that made me quit retail for good.
Part of the community aspect plays a big part. I was hanging out on my warlock leveling in classic, and spent two hours talking about random stuff. My main intention was log on for an hour, but went longer due to a bunch of us talking.
Now if I go on retail, no one barely talks, and of they do, it’s usually "shut up noob“, or if you ask about something "look it up.“ Plus with the rush of everything, and people concerned about leet groups for leet players, it blocks access for many players.
Overall, classic has a cycle of needing other players for doing stuff, where retail doesnt need other players, especially long term.