Objection your honor. Speculation.
I agree, you are speculating.
Because if we look at the actual numbers as opposed to feelings or vague platitudes about popularity then we can see that vanilla’s sub count was beaten by TBC which was in turn Trumped by Wrath before it began to decline during Cata.
3 Likes
Did you consider that this -might- be because that was literally the start of WoW and it was growing in popularity continuously?
Some of y’all forget you are old and that video games highest player base is like 12-25. They are not writing the story for 30+ year olds
The communities in classic games, in HC, on private servers. streamers, youtube videos, forum threads and a ridiculous amount of recorded data on the interwebs says otherwise. That’s not speculation.
Lmao for that to work, WoW would need to actually get new players
2 Likes
I mean, the source argument that got this line of discourse started was that the game was most popular/best in vanilla which I’ve argued isn’t the case, as evidenced by publicly available information.
I understand that there are a bunch of classic stans in the audience but as someone who was around and poked at it back then it honestly was… better then it’s competitors at the time but that’s not exactly a high bar given what EQ, Conan, DAOC and Asheron’s call were doing at the time.
I agree amongst people who like the thing it is very popular.
I will also note that Classic’s population cratered after the first 4 months as people realized what vanilla actually was.
1 Like
Well that makes sense that they are writing for the player base that they want. I’m guessing they are not betting on most of you gramps to be playing at 50+
So they have to write to attract new people .
Not the choice I would make but I understand it
Yes, up to classic (some say wotlk), as it has completed the world-building process.
Everything that came after didn’t create the core, but built on it. Same tone and stuff. But up until BFA, you can say that it was made for the original audience. At least they were still trying.
See, this is where you fail because you likely never actually played the early warcraft games; WC1 presented a kingdom called azeroth that was pretty much the most generic fantasy kingdom of humans being attacked by the most generic orcs possible. WC2 wildly changed this by having addtional fantasy races added as well as flying and naval vessels. WC3 made it so azeroth was now the name of the planet, invented a whole new race and added 2 continents. WoW added basically everything with Troll culture, Titans, Old gods, Elementals, stranglethorn vale, feralas, and on and on and on.
Warcraft has changed and evolved and mutated for 30 and is a far cry from where it started.
2 Likes
I called this the process of worldbuilding for a reason.
But you don’t seem to understand my point. It’s about the tone, the style, the atmosphere, the immersion. It was always the same during that period.
1 Like
The game is in a different era of devs telling a story for a different target demographic.
1 Like
That’s my point, yes.
1 Like
Except it wasn’t; The orcs went from being generic dumb bad guys to a more nuanced society, Azeroth went from a kingdom to a planet, the Draenei went from being a pathetic race barely mentioned in passing to whatever the hell they’re supposed to be now, Night elves went from being territorial Xenophobes to proud members of the alliance, illidan went from being a sniveling dumbass to some grand machiavellian schemer…
These are contradictory positions and any one of them could be described as “not being in the spirit of the game” though I suspect you’ll argue othewise because these were changes that you liked as opposed to ones that you didn’t.
Which actually brings us back around to DF which to me, as someone who’s played WC since 1997 when I got the battlechest for christmas, feels very much like a return to an older era of the game where it wasn’t about saving the world from another BBEG so much as engaging in the simple joy of discovery and exploation.
1 Like
Many people including me continue to enjoy classic wow. Its a better mmo than retail.
2 Likes
That’s nice.
2 Likes
I don’t think they are writing to attract new people. They are writing to follow what are essentially religious beliefs. It isn’t popular but they are compelled to do it by a minority. Retail wow is a horrible experience for new players and thematically its even worse. Exile’s reach is such a bad remake its unbelievable.
1 Like
I’m sorry that it doesn’t cater hard enough to the alt right for you.
1 Like
I honestly don’t see what that has to do with the tone. Do you even know what I mean with that?
This is not warcraft.
But this is warcraft.
Use your eyes pls.
But that’s it. The story, dialogue and style, on the other hand, are completely different.
2 Likes
Do you?
How is it not?
So it’s only warcraft if it looks like something a bored highschooler dealing with the hormonal imbalance brought on by puberty would doodle in their notebook during class?
Kid, every expansion has had a different style, tone, story and dialogue.
2 Likes