WHY is this so much fun?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
1

Anybody know?

Here’s my theory.

Even Blizzard didn’t/doesn’t know why WoW was such a hit. They were caught completely off-guard with the game’s growth and popularity when it released. We are never going to totally figure it out.

For me, it’s the immersion and THAT is the magic. Can’t be explained except to say that WoW created not only a virtual world, but a synthetic world that is convincing enough that it draws you in.

Death has consequences, professions are fun and a good way to clothe a character without being completely outleveled. The sense of community, even at these early stages cannot be denied as a major draw.

Classic WoW has achieved something that MMORPGs have been trying to accomplish for years with mixed success. How do you get players to group and cooperate? It just happens organically in Classic now that everyone understands the benefits of grouping and cooperating. Buffs are handed out like candy because it makes a big difference in leveling and makes you feel good to have contributed to someone’ else’s fun.

I am currently wandering around in a rich, vibrant, almost real world where people wave at me and buff me and if they see me in trouble, they’ll help out. It is my MMORPG dream come true.

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2

Indeed I share with you the same feeling.

I remember playing this back in 2004. I even did hardcore raiding and went onto almost downing the 3 horsemen in naxx.

Its such a nostalgic feeling especially when it was first of its kind.

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It’s got everything and I think you put it best. Crazy thing is Classic feels bigger.

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4

I hop on at 8:30 and all of the sudden it’s midnight and I have to get 6 hours of sleep. I can’t even stay logged on to BfA for more than 5 minutes.

It was like that 15 years ago too. I thought I was just getting old and losing interest in games. Turns out BfA just actually sucks.

Do I like the new animations and player models? Yes! Is transmog my fav thing ever? You’re damn right. Would I trade the playing experience of classic for that? No I wouldn’t.

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5

I’m not sure what it is for me. I think that retail is a better game. I like the conveniences of retail. However, since classic released, I haven’t touched retail. There is something there that I really like I just can’t put my finger on it.

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For me it was Warcraft 3 ROC/FT in the big screen.

I was blown away looking at a moonwell up close with my friends and cousins back in the days.

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It’s hard to nail down, exactly. It’s just the perfect storm. The aesthetic was perfect. The music was perfect. The game and world design were just what they needed to be.

Personally, I like how you can feel a lot of the WC3 vibe in vanilla WoW whereas you can’t as much in later expansions.

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I’m actually selling the gear/potions I make again. Professions are FUN again!

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A HUGE piece of the puzzle with regards to why Classic specifically is more fun is because of the shared experience at launch.

Not to say that it’ll stop being fun later, but there’s something exciting about being part of a huge group of players just starting their (classic) journey. The game feels more ALIVE than it has in a long time. It paradoxically feels fresh, despite being a 15 year old game… and that’s because the people playing and the sense of community is fundamentally different than it was 15 years ago.

Also, all of the lowbie zones up to level 40 or so are well occupied. All of the dungeons have groups constantly running through them. There’s no part of the world that feels abandoned.

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It’s the most fun when I’m with people who are benefiting from my healing.

When I’m questing alone, in my awkward haphazard holy spec, it’s not fun.

I guess it’s all about the people.

I… I love you guys.

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I completely agree. I don’t think Blizzard necessarily fully appreciated or understood what about the design and mechanics of the original game really gave it the heart and legs that were able to carry it on for so long. Even Jeff was worried about the game’s longevity back in 2008 and that was a mere 4 years after launch. It shows that they didn’t necessarily fully get it.

My biggest hope for classic is that they learn from the overall experience and resist the pressure from the loud minority to add-in conveniences again. The whole thing is supposed to be struggle, require real investment, and be immersive. The world should always feel massive. Going on to the next level should always feel difficult, and the payoffs for doing so shouldn’t always be large but they should always feel like a step forward.

My opinion is that things started to go off the rails in WOTLK. It wasn’t full off, but the art style changed. The mechanics started to shift into very quick wins and easy progression and catch-up type features were added. By CATA, they had undermined everything they had built and - honestly, wrecked a lot of the Lore to go with it. They destroyed a beautiful game world for half-baked and broken content like Gilneas. They had impacted scaling by transforming what should’ve conceptually been massive landscapes that were represented as 8 zones into something that could be entirely traversed in a few minutes, especially by mount. The same distances in Vanilla (and now Classic) took 20 minutes by mount and an hour walking.

But it was the journey. It was the seeing other people and being forced to find and work with others to get things done and move forward that made everything better. And I hope we keep that.

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You all love leveling. Leveling is the only part in the game that you can set proper goals for, that dont feel like chores. Leveling you can overcome hurdles without a gear treadmill.

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Lots of things but to me the big one is that Classic is a MMORPG.

Retail is a MMO but the RPG elements have degraded over the years.

Also Classic has a sense of community. I only started playing on Sunday and in two days and only a few hours /played I have had more social experiences than I have in the last year of BfA. No joke.

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I think its because everything requires work and every little thing matters. Even the combat - managing resources is so important. The currency in the game can’t be bought and if you do you get banned. Also, I think people are nicer to each other for many reasons but one major reason is that you belong to a server. Establishing a good report and reputation with your fellow server mates is also very important.

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IMO its the class balance. Every class has something unique and amazing they do that nobody else can. And with that, every class can do something that defies the logic of WoW during the leveling process.

Druid: Feral has like no downtime, and insane mobility!

Hunter: No downtime, and a pet that can tank really well, allowing them to solo elites and multiple mobs!

Mage: AOE farming need I say more…

Paladin: 5 bajillion survivability cooldowns, and they never go OOM while healing!

Priest: Amazing healers, and no downtime with the crazy Wand Spec + Spirit Tap

Rogue: Stealthing to pick your fights, picking locks, brewing poisons, and amazing DPS!

Shaman: Totems totems totems! Especially Windfury!

Warlock: Goof variety of unique pets, no downtime with drain life, amazing tier sets, decent DPS, and SUMMONS!

Warrior: Ridiculous tanks, and amazing DPS with gear, and I mean cmon their gear just looks amazing all around!

But when you really look at it, the specs all form this amazing mixture of balance. Taking any one of them out of your raid mixture is disastrous!

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I was on the fence about coming back, I literally feel like I’m back in grade 10, the game is just awesome fun and I can tell a lot of players are enjoying their stay.

Doesn’t feel dated or old, it’s just fun!

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I’d wage a guess that it has something to do with the “World” actually feeling like a World. It’s huge and immersive. I was actually running around Stonetalon Mountains last night and I thought to myself “wow, this really feels like a real world,” as I ran through the mountains on the pathway from Malaka’jin to Red Rocks. The environment really is incredible.

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This is a huge part of it, and im curious how it will change in 1 month, 6 months, etc.

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Short answer: Its not single player (looks at bfa), and its a real rpg.

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After not touching retail for a week now, I agree with a lot of what’s been said. Retail has lost the RPG portion of the game. Starting out as the lowboy nobody slowly gaining power instead of the hero of the game immerses you in the world more.

I also appreciate the uniqueness of classes. As a rogue, I am much different than a hunter, lock, or mage. In retail I would just be melee DPS.

I think I’ll stick with classic for now.

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