Why Classic WoW Won't Be Like What You Remember

I have a “friend” who played Classic for the past 4 years.

Trust me, He’ll like it.

WoW Classic will not be Vanilla but at least its better than BFA

It won’t have unarmored epic mounts, I remember seeing people on those.

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Because I didn’t play it. :slight_smile:

If Classic is anything like private servers… then it’ll be pretty damn close to my experience from vanilla.

It will be better than you remember.

Hello there, if anything I expect my Classic experience in Azeroth to be MORE poignant and emotional than my original one. :slight_smile:

It will be different only because the mentality of the player-base is completely different.

From a PvP point of view (can’t speak much for raiding): Vanilla there were rival guilds that just wanted to kill each other for no other reason that for faction/guild pride and reputation, as well as rivalry from UO or SB. 18 hours of circling EPL just to kill the opposing faction, represent your guild and stomp people you have a vendetta against (whether it’s due to earlier ganking, previous games or forum s***-talking).

There were no rewards outside of that - it’s where the majority of the missing ‘emotional investment’ came from. We didn’t even know what we were getting with the honour system but many certainly didn’t want instanced battlegrounds. No-one fought for epics and no-one expected any kind of material reward.

If those kinds of players are gone or weeded out because how many acted in vanilla now = harassment, griefing or stream-sniping well then there’s less of an emotional investment, you aren’t fighting rivals you ‘hate’ (for lack of a better word in a video game) and you aren’t recognising anyone because of layering and XRBGs. You aren’t getting riled up and experiencing the positives and, more importantly, the negatives.

I had a blast with TM/SS and WS but for many it wore off quick. Many wanted the outlaw system, and most quit to try GW or EQ2, return to SB and some to try RYL because iirc they were hyping a 1 million dollar PvP prize-pool.

This time around I fear (but genuinely hope I’m wrong) it will just be a dungeon->raid rush for epics and gearing for instanced pre-mades when battlegrounds come out. Retail mentality but for a different type of expansion and a different type of player-base.

Don’t get me wrong I plan on having a blast and am 99% certain I will until about the time of battlegrounds because I love the world drama, rivalry and world PvP. I certainly don’t misremember anything though and don’t hold any unrealistic/idealized expectations of what majority of WoW players are like when it comes to an MMO. It’s a different breed to the people that tried WoW on release (but quit by BC) and gave it that original vanilla flavour.

Just feels like we’re missing certain core requirements from a good portion of the player-base that can’t be quantified easily and are hard to grasp if you only read about vanilla but were never knee-deep in that sort of gameplay in 04/05.

I’m sorry people don’t take the time to read posts like yours on forums anymore, and mostly end up commenting nonsense even when you clearly put together a well written and thought out post. Attention spans are short, and those who like to put out detailed quality posts like yours run into issues on a forum like this, even if it’s meant for all kinds of discussions.

That said, i’m kinda glad i’m unfamiliar with Vanilla, as i started playing in TBC. So for me, there will only be certain similarities that will give me the nostalgia trip, but there’s still plenty new things to discover, and some i’ll probably not ever get to experience (launch and it’s first weeks and months after) because they’re currently planning on changing that part of the game.

I’m very curious to see how my experience will be like, given those changes, and if i’ll find the same love i had for TBC in Classic. I definitely know what it was that made me appreciate this game so much, and i hope to get to experience it again once Classic comes out, even if it’s not entirely new to me.

But i think one thing that stays timeless in being awesome, is a good community. As you said, people have changed too since back then, but i’m going to choose to have faith that if Classic allows for proper socialization (which it does in it’s original form), things will work out really well and even transform people to become more socially adapt again. Let’s see how it all turns out :slightly_smiling_face:

half the people on these forums have been playing private servers for years, we know what we’re getting sweaty.

I just want dungeons back that are not chopped up into 10 minute runs and old talent trees

I read most of it - kind of skimmed.

I read enough to see that your memories and experiences of Vanilla weren’t the same as mine. I doubt that your story is the same as half the people here.

All of us who played in Vanilla remember different parts of it fondly and other parts with apprehension. No two people would have had identical experiences and no two people are looking for the exact same thing from Classic. There are bound to be some who end up disappointed and others who end up totally happy.

You were young with lots of extra time when you played Vanilla, unlike me who was around 40 with a good job. Now you are looking at less play time but I am looking at having more this time around.

Please don’t presume that we are all the same because we are not.

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I quit playing in wrath. I loved vanilla with a passion, I really enjoyed TBC.

I am ready for classic! I may be older, but I am still full of <3

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lies, no one enjoys retail they just suffer through it

Bumping just to say…

cough

I told you so.

I’m grateful there’s an option to play era/classuc/vanilla.

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Now some time have passed and I’d like to give you an answer.

I was not a child, nor even a young adult when WoW first launched, but a parent with children and a job, so if any change, I have now MORE time to play - and my memories of WoW are decidedly not fond childhood memories.

No - WoW Classic was not what I expected.
In some ways it was better, the immersion, the playstyle, the slow climb to 60 was in every way as good as I remembered. The feelings of accomplishment, the first usable blue item that I won still a huge triumph and so on.

In other ways it was worse, ant those ways were twofold. Player-made and Blizz-made.
To start with the easy Blizz-made: Subtle and not so subtle changes, LAYERS!, no GM’s, no follow up on anything (this was also a huge part of Vanilla onwards to at least Pandaria) and last, but not least, launching everything on the last patch instead of the progression I had expected.

Player-made: Everybody using addons, Questie as the most buggering example, and far too many treating Classic levelling and Dungeons as a job to be over and done with. Entitled persons - you were right here - and people just out to bugger everybody else. I play solely PvE and RP servers, so griefing and BG’s I can’t talk of, But people giving their characters’ names just to piss off others, speaking and acting in ways destined to piss off others were a good part of the things that spoiled the fun in early Classic.

And the big one - Blizz and Player-made at the same time.
The crowding! Back in Vanilla we did not all start playing on the same day. That is so to say an expansion feature, and even for the older expansions not everybody were at the exact same point. We were at Classic launch, and this hugely diminished the “Vanilla vibe”

Now HC has launched, and I must admit that playing there is the most Vanilla-like experience ever.
People are mostly nice, we are all at different levels, we help out, we know one another, we envy the max-level players, we know who is that bad tank, that inept Hunter starting over for the 14th time, that ninja-looting Rogue etc … I have (apart from a few Blizz-made idiocies) had my Vanilla back!

I did not play Pservers, only have a good memory and this - or rather its PvE equivalent - is what I loved !!! about Vanilla and one of the reasons I wanted it back! I do emphatically NOT want anything served on a silver platter. Attunements, Reputations etc. being requoirements for doing stuff, running while saving for mount at 40, The Wetlands run … all this is my home!

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I’ve been enjoying pvp on my paladin in vanilla since 2020 :slight_smile:

I run flags, give people freedoms, sac, bops, loh, flash of lights, and more. We have a good time killing horde and taking their resources.

Good to read this… I’m 45, and was also an adult with kids and a job. I still play retail (though largely a much more solitary experience, since what I value of the game/world is not the value structure of any communities I find.) I love PvP, don’t care much for PvE outside of occasionally wanting a dungeon crawl.

I have come late to the Classic world, and really liked HC - though I struggled a bit with time spent and deleting characters, especially in the 30s when mobs really cranked. Because everyone was focused on what I think created this amazing, addictive immersive world experience. Honestly a journey.

I love SoD in theory, but imo the implementation is wanting, and though I understand it’s crass and unpopular, IMO it’s the community that has been the issue. I want to play Era, Wrath, Cata, etc., and have been dipping toes in, but I don’t care at all about what it seems that community does.

I want to open world quest and PvP when Cata launches, but the bulk of toons will be levelling from 80-85 before I get off work (this always happens now) and will be trying to get in a position to corner a market, gear to be ahead of the curve, and set up the goalposts to keep out “bads” or casuals. Which doesn’t bother me too much, but is what births the toxicity of others in my position, ultimately birthing UMPTEEN other issues in the Culture.

When I think back to WoW back in the day, I keep coming back to memories of really kind “elite” players who made a serious attempt to encourage/help me and other bad newbs. On my original main I still have their names in my social, (but they’re named like Jac0245786) That’s what the people who crush the content ought to be, but just like in the world, the self is the all important God.

I love this game, so much, I wish more would love and enjoy it. But I love and enjoy the people who DO, so I enjoyed reading this all. End rant.

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Told me what? Classic Era is pretty much exactly what I expected. And I’m still playing.

I thought I did and I did.

What a silly thing to bump after 5 years.

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