What was it like back then? What made it so good?

Community General Discussion
1

Hey.

So, I wasn’t there. I don’t know myself.

Like many of us here, I log in, fill in my daily cuota of the same everyday stuff, end my shift (rather quickly) and that’s it. Wait for next reset.

I see all those posts about WQs and dailys and the overall situation of the game, and how it was better back in the day.

My question is , what made it better?

In BC, and Wrath…and maybe MoP? not sure…anyway, what kind of activities did players have that , unlike now, kept them logged and entertained on a daily basis?

2

There was more of a community back then. For a lot of us, it was just a better time in our lives. Or it’s when our friends still played.

36 Likes
3

The overall experience of playing the game was so much better. I am not talking about leveling experience, I am talking the playing experience.

Everything just felt so rewarding, engaging and fun. Only downside was back in TBC, the rep grind was real. And it was worse than the rep grind today. But I would love to go back and play TBC again.

9 Likes
4

That’s it for me. Most of the people I used to play with have moved on to other things.

3 Likes
5

The gear you got from reps was actually relevant which is the biggest difference. WoD was when it got to where there was 100% chance those rep rewards were already useless by the time people got exalted to even purchase them. Any gear that you could buy this expansion from rep vendors was already useless on day 1.

6 Likes
6

Everything you acquired took effort. So what you acquired had value to you. It was fun.

The nice thing is, in less than a month you can see for yourself. It was a very different game. Maybe you will like it, maybe you won’t.

5 Likes
7

It was a combination of things for me:

  1. I started a guild that eventually clawed its way up to top 50 US.
  2. I was a starry-eyed young lad, full of vim and vigor, and the game was still new-ish.
  3. I was dealing with some personal issues and WoW was my method of escaping them.

This triple threat made WoW very enticing to me, and I can’t help but associate good memories to it even though, objectively speaking, I was worse off for it. That’s why I’m so curious about how well Classic will do; all of those events happened 13 years ago and don’t apply to me now, so I want to see how well the nostalgia holds up.

4 Likes
8

For me, it was the community and a sense of accomplishment when you progressed through the game.

About the community. It was certainly more a community back then. You would get to know people. Often times, if you needed help, others were more likely to help. We actually talked to other players. I’m not saying LFR is bad, because it’s not. But in I wanted to run a dungeon, we would put together a team. Someone would say “Hey, I know this tank” or “I can swap to my healer.” You got to know peoples names, at least their toon names. You made friends. In LFR now, it’s a quick group, kill stuff, leave. No one typically talks.

Our guild would get on Vent, and we would raid Molten Core, or whatever. Someone would be blasting music in the background. But it wasn’t loud enough to overpower anyone speaking.

As for Accomplishments, When you got your mount at level 40, it was great. I remember being in Desolace without a mount. And back then, Desolace was just that. Desolate. It was nothing more than just a grey area with mobs.

Then, when you went to Sunken Temple. and did your class quest. That was a great feeling. As a Warlock, mine was the Soul Harvester, which at the time was the only scythe in the game.

Then, doing the Walock Dreadstead quest. That one was a pain, because no one wanted to do that side of Dire Maul. And the quest itself once you killed Immolthar, and started the actual quest. All those mobs that spawned. Having to restart the ritual items. It truly was epic.

I remember, after getting my Dreadstead, sitting on top of the bank in Orgrimmar, just taking in the view. Taking screen shots. Showing off my new ride.

8 Likes
9

Greater ability to do what you wanted when you wanted to (or even if you wanted to). It felt more like an adventure than a chore list to check off.

17 Likes
10

Community
Novelty
Youth
Fewer outside responsibilities
Nostalgia

11

Nostalgia should be number 1

3 Likes
12

It was new

2 Likes
13

There was a sense of accomplishment in the open world that’s totally devoid in BfA, other than maybe in Mythic raiding. All the complaining people do about BfA being like a job and a chore isn’t really present. It’s an RPG as opposed to an action game like BfA.

1 Like
14

IMO, it was a longer and to some extent more thankless grind, but there were interim rewards that made it worthwhile.

As a new 70, you had a couple different directions to go in. You could start farming BG’s for your arena set, which wouldn’t be ideal for PvE (PvP gear back then had resilience, which made you tankier, and extra stamina sometimes), but it would be epic upgrades over what were greens and blues. You could do the flying dailies, or after 2.4 the Sunwell dailies, and collect some gold and reputation rewards. You could farm your Outland reps and work towards getting heroic keys (Lower City can still faack right off). You could try to get pugs together for dungeons, and try to get your Kara key. Or you could try to level an alt. And there were enough people doing all of these things that you could actually socialize in guild chat.

There’s a lot of things about the older game that I wouldn’t want back, but everything now just seems so compressed. I have characters that have reached 120 within the past week that have no upgrades in heroic dungeons, and very few upgrades in LFR. And some of them I haven’t run a single dungeon with, so trying to pug a normal raid or mythic 5-man would turn into an epic trainwreck.

2 Likes
15

Things were new.

You were ignorant of playing optimally.

Things were easy enough you did not have to play optimally.

Things were more based about being logged in, rather than doing something challenging.

Community was spoonfed to you, rather than having to seek it out.

1 Like
16

No cross realm meant many of us “knew” each other on our server, even opposite faction. This created real rivalries.

There was no wowhead or thottbot (is that even around?). And quests didn’t lead you the way they do now. You’d have to read the quest and ask around when you’re lost. This would lead to actually making new friends, organically.

40m raids were new and amazing to group with that many players. The spectacle of it was unmatched. But the new factor plays into every aspect of play in old WoW… it was so much better than anything out there.

PvP, especially untimed AV, was incredible. And your ranking was a strange formula of how many matches you played and won relative to everyone else. I believe your ranking would update after the results were calculated weekly. It created a very unhealthy but competitive atmosphere. I lost a job and gf but hey!.. I got Field Marshal!

Gear sets rewarded had amazing, unique effects, special to the content. PvP set was much different than a Molten Core set. And IIRC, AQ set was different too.

And world pvp was different. It wasn’t like the skirmishes we have now. Word would quickly spread that a fight is happening at the X-roads (Barrens) or at Hammerfall (Arathi Highlands)… next thing people are bringing guilds.

Just a few fond memories…

5 Likes
17

It is my firm belief that two things triggered WoW’s decline. First, LFD and later LFR. It offered us all convenience and accessability, but it destroyed the community.

Second, it’s the streamlining of talents and pruning of class abilities. There is no depth.

9 Likes
18

I was here since Vanilla.

In Vanilla or Classic, the adventure starts on level 1. The fun part is the journey from level 1 to max level. At max level, there isnt much on Vanilla other than raiding/PvP Battlegrounds. On BFA, the adventure starts at level 110. The fun parts are really on max level. There’s a ton of stuffs to do at max level. But leveling from level 1 to max level is a snoozefest if you are a veteran player. That’s why there are level boosts on new expansions to skip the snoozefest leveling.

In Classic, you start at zero gold. Everything is expensive for you. You have to decide where your small gold would go… spend it for weapon or gear upgrade, spend it on profession, spend it on new acquired skills, or spend it on mount, etc.
Your toon in Classic is undergeared for its content. With this, you would come up with strategies like crowd control to overcome dungeon difficulties at early levels. You tend to talk to your team mates at start to overcome difficulties.

In BFA, veteran players are all wealthy with tons of gold… you would have everything… gear, heirlooms, profession stuffs like overpowered flasks, potions, new skills acquired are free, tons of mounts, etc. In BFA, your toon is overgeared for the starting content… challenges at start is easy. Everything seems easy at start. You dont need a group to overcome difficulties coz it’s really easy at start. You would find real challenges at end game. You start talking to your team mates at end game content.

In summary, Classic fun adventures are on leveling. Modern WoW fun adventures are on end game.

Both Classic and modern WoW games require tons of grinding. But modern WoW is more casual friendly becoz they have Dungeon Finder and WoW token.

1 Like
19

I didn’t have a decades worth of experience playing the game, I feel is the biggest thing seperating me from my current self and myself that was excited simply to log in and do dailies in Wrath and BC.

Someone who’d killed a boss I hadn’t killed, or even god forbid, did hardmodes, was super impressive. I pugged back then, so I was used to seeing the entrance and first few bosses of a raid, but not a whole lot else.

Now? I expect to clear the raid (on heroic/norm at least) week 1 and I’m disappointed if I can’t do that.

Maybe if I was 10 years younger and just starting WoW I’d feel the same about raids and content in general back then, but now I’m just jaded because I feel like I’ve seen it all. I still enjoy the game, but nothing in it surprises me or fills me with a sense of wonder like the first time I entered Karazhan did.

It’s partly a reason of why I’m interested in classic. I want to see if my modern self can relive some of the nostalgia that made early WoW so interesting to me, or if the almost strictly inferior gameplay is a turn-off and prevents me from soaking too much time into the game.

1 Like
20

As a Vanilla Player, I feel like MoP is where things changed for the worst. Personally, Warcraft felt like a regular old game that I loved, until MoP.

But MoP is where the gimmicks really kicked in. Scenarios, Challenge modes, pet battles, the Faction War being so one sided for the Alliance while the Horde was the direct evil…

Then WoD had the Garrisons that somehow got everything wrong. Pathfinder. Selfie Patch.

And it has gotten worse in BfA. The entire Azerite/essence system needs to be tossed into the rubbish bin. They are just foolish gimmicks that detract from Gameplay instead of enhance it.

I just wish Blizz would stop with Gimmicks and get back to the basics.

8 Likes