I know classic has been out for a while and people ask is it too late to start and the answer is a resounding no.
I’m leveling a 17 or so priest and was on a quest where I knew I’d be running back to my body on a regular basis if I did it on my own when 5 other priests show up randomly and we group up and kick butt. Coming from retail this experience was so damn pleasant I could weep.
This type of thing doesn’t happen in retail or at least I never experienced it there.
Thanks for your time.
I remember experiencing this kind of thing during Phase 1-4.
After Phase 5, however, everyone started boosting. Now it’s like nobody even knows what questing is anymore.
That’s one of the things I love about Classic too, just randomly meeting people while questing.
There are a lot of people leveling right now on most servers traditionally due to TBC coming out.
I’ve been playing them both lately … but I have to say that Classic has a lot more going for it. If you want more convenience then Retail is probably the place to go, but if you want that old-school MMORPG feeling then Classic is the way to go for sure.
And I really dislike the way they dumbed down stats/gearing in Retail starting with Warlords of Draenor; it’s much less interesting to me than the old system you still have in Classic.
retail is an actual rpg. classic isn’t. the rpg experience is about story which retail has multi expansion arcs going on. classic? no real story to speak of. if you want to compare classic vs retail as an rpg and have any hopes of winning, it starts in tbc or wrath. you can say classic is a better MMO but NOT a better mmoRPG. cuz it’s not.
I’ll concede that retail has a more in your face story but that’s only part of what is meant by RPG. Here’s a fun read on the topic.
://sinisterdesign.net/what-makes-an-rpg-an-rpg-a-universal-definition/
(You’ll need to insert http yourself I’m afraid.)
Just a heads up, you can use the tool </> (or ` before and after the line) to insert links 
sinisterdesign.net/what-makes-an-rpg-an-rpg-a-universal-definition/
“A game is a computer RPG if it features player-driven development of a persistent character or characters via the making of consequential choices.”
that’s the last thing. i’ve made more choices playing AFK ARENA than i ever have in classic. google that f2p game. if that’s the criteria we’re going by then classic is literally trash compared to even f2p throw away games on your phone.
consequential being the operative word. you can get to 60 in whites without choosing any talents at all. and once you reach cap you are pigeon holed into very specific things. if you’re x class you must be y spec and use z gear and talents. classic is NOT vanilla. it’s a different thing entirely. and my arguments are about how classic is now, not what vanilla used to be.
The link is a beginning to a discussion, not any final word. And I certainly dont agree with all his conclusions. He claims for example that a character who regresses in power would somehow not serve as a basis for RPG gameplay. That seems obviously false.
There are other absurdities. For example every Final Fantasy game up to seven would not be classified as an RPG because there are no choices to make. The story is fully linear.
One criteria I would add, which I’m not sure if he did, is the amount of action involved. The degree to which the gameplay relies on your Precision, reaction, memory, and skill, as opposed to your character’s, is the degree to which RPG gameplay is reduced.
I agree with your assertion that choices need to be consequential, and would add that the arena in which they matter matters. Warcraft has plenty of choices to make in the arena of gameplay. Talents,Gear, class.it even has some choices in the arena of story, at least in later expansions with phasing.but none of the early final fantasiesHave either.My point is that we wont define RPG in this thread.
that would mean zelda games aren’t rpgs either, which is obviously nonsense. XD for me i focus the most on the story as that’s what all the good older rpgs have in common. head to GOG and sort for rpgs and you’ll see what i’m talking about. even arpgs focus on story despite having a different combat focus, for instance. game play related things have changed over the years but the focus on story has stayed consistent. that’s my thoughts on it, anyway.
Heh, I just had this discussion with a fellow fan of the Zelda games. I cant consider them RPGs at all. They’re phenomenal action games ofc. The Gold Standard basically.
I I think of it like this. What’s the real difference between Final Fantasy 4, say, and Zelda 3, A Link to the Past?
Both have linear but world class stories, mind-blowing music, Graphics, and gameplay.
The difference is the amount of player versus character skill/speed/focus/precision. The method of interaction basically.
Forgive me, I’m just a fleshing out a previously arrived at conclusion.
Classic is an actual RPG. You play as a character and there is a story. What a weird comment.
It’s like you saying tabletop Dungeons and Dragons isn’t an RPG when a lot of these games are based on it.
Gave it a try, it keeps telling me I cant insert links. Thanks, though!
I play Megaman as Megaman and it has a story. With cutscenes, even.
“actual” rpg to YOU. i, and most people i know, prefer STORY in our rpgs which classic is ultimately lacking. people who think classic is a better rpg also tend to think classic is a sandbox when it’s just as much of a theme park as retail is. if you’re one of those… we can just agree to disagree.
“role playing” is listed on the mega man wiki as one of it’s things. it being an action game doesn’t make it NOT an rpg. i find it highly annoying people don’t understand that an arpg is an rpg. that’s just my own thing though.
edit: wasn’t directed at you. retail GD ptsd about rpgness. lol
Indeed it is, by definition. But I would point out that such hybrids are also, by definition, combinations of two different things. You can make a hybrid car-truck but a hybrid car-car is just a car 
That’s not true at all.
I’m going by the definition of RPG, isn’t that what you were doing?
You specifically said an RPG game isn’t an RPG game. As I said it’s a weird comment because WoW Classic is an RPG game. You can have your preferences in what you like in a game. That part is fine. It doesn’t mean you need to make up that something is mislabeled.
Ok so let’s put it this way WHAT type of game is WoW Classic other than MMO if not an RPG?
diablo games, elder scrolls games, ultima games, and newer things like grim dawn and torchlight and witcher games are all arpgs. they’re still rpgs though, imo. 