Nostalgia concerning pre Cata vanilla zones.

[Mafic]

Objectively the older zones had better layouts for player exploration.

New zones feel like a rat maze.

[Deleted]

What I want the most is for Blizzard to fix Thousand Needles, Loch Modan, remove all the Twilight Hammer stuff (who are these guys anyway? Deathwing's pawns? Where did they come from?) and fix all the fires left after Deathwing. Oh, and fix the big hole in the ground in Westfall? The old world had so much mystery... it was very exciting! The Cata world is just... weird. If anything, they should implement the Blasted Lands solution and let us talk to an NPC to timewarp into the world as it was before Cata. Maybe make 0-60 play out in this timewarped world, and the NPC would give us the ability to go back there when we are above level 60.

None of this should be hard for them unless they are indie devs with limited resources. Something tells me they're the opposite...

[xChurch]

Even if they recovered, it would still not be anything like Vanilla. Time only goes forward not back, if Anything it would just be updated to which ever Xpac it came out in.

[Raetary]

i miss old stranglethorn, duskwood, westfall, tanaris, thousand needles and the barrens.
everyothing else turned better or i just dont care about it.

[Deleted]

Those are exactly the same zones, with exactly the same landmarks and all same quests. There is nothing to feel nostalgia for.

i dont think this is true... the zones changed as the quests did!

[Reiziger]

Not really. Really nothing special to miss about them imo, no rose colored glasses for me

Only thing I will agree on is the point about storylines just being all out of wack now. Especially leveling through outland and wotlk is really weird as you're effectively going back in time. It wouldn't be that hard to fix that with a few short questlines/ cutscenes though. Maybe make it a caverns of time thing so players know they're going back in time.

[DeltrusDisc]

I dont really know how to desribe it but some of the revamped zones feel ...overdone? Or just irrelevant now that DW isnt relevant?

Yes, this.

And frankly, a lot of the zones lost a certain ambiance they had in Vanilla... Ashenvale was especially ruined, IMHO... too much fire and while I get it, the Horde invading just proves how much the Horde usually sucks: wherever they go, lovely forestry and nature just gets absolutely ruined. Decimated. Look at Ashenvale pre and post and you'll know what I'm talking about - it's sad.

[Plutarch78]

I miss the old Westfall

[ComputerNerd]

I dont really know how to desribe it but some of the revamped zones feel ...overdone? Or just irrelevant now that DW isnt relevant?

That is the problem with any level cap content which then becomes irrelevant.
It just isn't feasible for a cataclysm level overhaul every expansion.
Though I think there could be something in-between full and nothing.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I don't miss pre-Cata 1-60, I would however like to see them go back and fix/change things to reflect the fact that the Cataclysm has been over for a long time. And with that, also updating A.L.L of the models and textures. Trees, rocks, mobs, critters...

They could do it one zone at a time, rather than as some huge Expansion feature.

[Flurryfang]

As one who may or may not have satisfied the craving for Vanilla WoW by using a private server, I have to say that while the questing is certainly better in shattered Azeroth, vanilla invokes far more adventure and mystery. I've played since launch and recently I had been attributing my appreciation of Vanilla to nothing more than mere nostalgia, but after experiencing it again there's a lot to really like about classic WoW zones, or more accurately, how one experiences them.

In classic WoW it doesn't take long to feel starved of quests and without a quest helper or good knowledge of the game, sometimes it can feel like you're missing out. This encourages exploration, not just of the zones but the towns within them. Visiting every room in an Inn and scouring every building often leads to much-needed quests. Adventuring outside of towns and towards quest objectives is rewarding in an of itself, but scattered about the zone are caves, towers, and other small areas that often yield quests. I find myself scanning the environment far more, and trying to reach higher ground to see if there's something in the distance worth checking out.

The world also presents far more danger in classic WoW. Murlocs became famous for a reason: they were a nightmare to a new player, aggroing in large packs and decimating full-health players in little time. Even in the starting zones, mobs present a real threat and will slaughter the average player who pulls more than 2. You learn very quickly to scout a new area with care and to use the environment to your advantage, pulling mobs one or two at a time to the nearest safe spot.

Overall this results in the world feeling far more massive and immersive. Even as one who experienced this at launch, revisiting it today I realize how much I have forgotten. Perhaps the Quest Helper add-on and eventual baseline integration happened far longer ago than I remember. Maybe I'm just getting old. Either way, it's a blast exploring the world of classic WoW and feels more like an adventure than not only modern WoW, but most other RPGs.

I do agree, that the old world invoked/pushed the player into a need for exploration. You had to go far and wide to find quests to do, often leading people to either be without good quests for days on end or just go on a site for the information. While it is great that we explore the world, there is a problem with it when it comes to WoW Vanilla: If you just knew or had seen a little bit of the world, you would always be disappointed when it came to exploring, because there was not really much to get on top of the mountain. There are so many areas within Vanilla WoW, which were hidden away, but which gave you nothing as a reward. Very few quests were hidden away, and the few who were, were often just a single-line quest. The good quests were gathered at the towns, and if you had already completed them, you could either start farming yellow lvl mobs or run around looking for quests, which might end in failure after some hours.

The problem with Vanilla WoW is that in some packs of lvls, you had nothing to do, because some zones were really shitty when it came to quests. You often had to go into every single zone approbiate for your lvl, which did get you to see many things, but which also made you consume the content extremly fast. Lvling was hard and only really fun when you came to areas like Tanaris, Western Plaquelands and Hillsbrad Foothills, since these areas had more then enough quests to keep you around, while others like Thousand needles, Desolace and Searing Gorge/Burning Steeps had next to no quests, which started in the zone.

I would love to be play through the old world once again, but as a guy who lvls 2-3 characters each 6 months, i would never trade the old world for the new. I really do believe, that once most nostalgia players got onto their 4th or 5th character lvl-up, they would begin to see how the wierd flow and the lack of quests, makes the lvling draining and a chore. Atleast most cata-zones have some quests, who are just enjoyable to complete, because they have some gimick, special tool or fun ally to fight with.

[solarfallz]

The Cata revamps are visually/aesthetically pretty cool. Many of the zones are great visually, but the overall experience was a huge downgrade because of combat/gameplay changes:

- Character power creep (and npc nerfs) made the world very non-threatening, the only new threat being flying-mounted max-level gankers (not fun to deal with at all).
- Linear, railroaded "story-based" questlines.
- Unrewarding in many aspects, virtually all azeroth crafting mats have been made obsolete due to profession changes (nerfs to old items, new ways to level it, and lack of incentive for profs to begin with), and gold creep has made the money negligible.

The gameplay is the core of the game and whether you realize it or not, the combat will have a large effect on how fondly you remember the experience.

[Deleted]

I loved the revamp during Cataclysm. Made me level a warrior and warlock to 85 completely from scratch, as well as leveling a paladin and shaman from 1-60. I also did the Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdom loremaster on my max level character during the Cata-pre patch, because I enjoyed it so much.

I also loved vanilla leveling. Did 1-60 twice in vanilla, 1-70 once in Tbc, and 1-80 once in Wotlk, as well as a bunch of other characters that never got to max level. However a lot of the quests were very boring/simple, and once you had done them a few times, you kind of stopped caring about it. That is not to say that I don't miss some of the old zones, for example Barrens, STV and Thousand Needles (still liked the new version).

I have never used any questing addons, despite leveling many characters in Classic, Tbc and Wotlk, so Cata leveling definitely made leveling easier, but I still don't find it preferable. There was a reason why I never used any questing addons, and it was because then it was all up to intuition and memory. Of course you could always 'cheat' by using Thottbot and Wowhead if you were completely stuck.

Despite not doing any leveling since Cata in 1-60 zones I can definitely agree that it does not make sense to have so much Deathwing focused stuff. Was cool back then though because of how Deathwing sometimes came flying by and killed everyone occasionally.

But it sucks that a lot of the nice memories from the old zones were killed because they got completely changed. I miss the old STV very much.

[Flurryfang]

Objectively, there's absolutely nothing in any way better about the "old" old zones. Whoever claims that is just talking out of their ass. They're just trying to be "that guy".

Also, I'm absolutely sure that at this point, hardly anyone of these people actually remembers the original zones. It's all just talk.

Finally, even after the revamp, the old zones are just hopelessly dated and very inferior to anything post-Cata. It's just a lot less fun and visually very underwhelming. Blizzard really needs to figure out how to apply this new scaling tech to all of the game. Leveling a new character would be so infinitely more enjoyable if you could just pick a bunch of MoP or WoD zones (and perhaps some Wrath for the nostalgia) and get your stuff done there.

Well you are talking out your ass obviously xD Sure some of the new zones are horrible, but for every horrible zone, there are 2 excellent, who was upgraded from nearly unplayable. I still to this day remember about 80% of horde quests from the old zones, so i do remember them very much, which is why i can say that people really did not get to see just how barren much of old WoW was.

When Wrath came out, i started doing the old zones just to see if i missed some content, when i was lvling up my main. I found some amazing quests, but i also found some really stupid onces aswell. The Tirion Fordring quest-line was great and the climax very rewarding, but that is pretty much the only quest, which would want back. The storyline in Eastern Plaquelands, Stonetalon Mountains and Silverpine Forrest are all complete masterpieces when it comes to WoW questmaking. Sure, some of the NPC-interactions are wierd, but the story in these zones are just supreme, and together with vehicle and boss fights, they just stand out so much more then their vanilla counterpart.

- - - Updated - - -

But to be on topic, i would love to see them do the same with the cata zones, as they have done with many of the instances, which is to update them to the current storyline. Cata was a long time ago, and would love to see a few quests talk about how Deathwing and cultists are gone, and maybe put in a few pandas here and there.

[MrExcelion]

In retrospect yeah I felt like the Cata revamp was a big waste of resources considering how things turned out, or at least allowing people to see the old zones as @Charge me Doctor suggested

[Pull My Finger]

Well you are talking out your ass obviously xD Sure some of the new zones are horrible, but for every horrible zone, there are 2 excellent, who was upgraded from nearly unplayable. I still to this day remember about 80% of horde quests from the old zones, so i do remember them very much, which is why i can say that people really did not get to see just how barren much of old WoW was.

When Wrath came out, i started doing the old zones just to see if i missed some content, when i was lvling up my main. I found some amazing quests, but i also found some really stupid onces aswell. The Tirion Fordring quest-line was great and the climax very rewarding, but that is pretty much the only quest, which would want back. The storyline in Eastern Plaquelands, Stonetalon Mountains and Silverpine Forrest are all complete masterpieces when it comes to WoW questmaking. Sure, some of the NPC-interactions are wierd, but the story in these zones are just supreme, and together with vehicle and boss fights, they just stand out so much more then their vanilla counterpart.

I'm not saying that the stuff is bad. Most of it is better than the original content and from that angle the revamp made sense. I was saying then even after the revamp, the old zones still just feel antiquated. It probably has a lot to do with visuals too - there's such a giant quality difference that's incredibly striking when you're running around in Jade Forest or Gorgrond and then go to Badlands or something. The questing did get a lot better with the revamp, but as the game moves forward and new expansions are released, it just becomes more and more painfully obvious that the oldest zones in this game have been made something like 13-14 years ago.

[Menzolies]

I miss the nostalgia but i prefer the eb and flow of the new zones. I hope they bring in the scaling of Legion through out the game though, that would be interesting.

[Paperfox]

I really miss the sense of danger. Some places you would never go alone, or if you ever did, it would be a friend you would correspond with. Danger was everywhere, NPC's used the same abilities players had, like blind, or fear. They could even spawn new enemies if the encounter took too long, all open world. They didn't just melee, no, they spoke of your doom.

Blizzard did much damage to their original fans.

Leveling was hard, earning money was difficult. It was hard and difficult for everyone though, so it was fair.

I liked the older maps, personally. There existed shortcuts through the mountains, and I thought that was cool.

This. So much so.

I also played a bit on Nost. and for the first time in years I felt like the world was dangerous - and I actually had to play. Choices were tough. Do I get a better piece of armor or learn a spell? At lvl 6 going up against a lvl 6 kobold was actually challenging. It has been a long time that I have been "in the flow" playing regular wow.

[Deleted]

Vanilla was horrible, grindy, long and most quests made no sense as to why or sometimes what you are even doing, youre all looking at vanilla through rose-tinted glasses. Leveling used to suck ass.

[Constraint]

For me it's nothing about nostalgia. I felt this way the very minute the Cata changes went through.

I for one LIKE the randomness of the old zones, and the lack of "on-rails" style questing. I find it horribly immersion-breaking to be forced to go along a set path with no options on where to quest, or where to explore etc. I don't see the problem with being sent from one part of the continent to the other either; not only is it not forced (as in, other quests will still open up, unlike now, where if you ignore a quest, the ones to follow will mysteriously not appear until you've done it), but it adds to immersion (for myself at least).

I don't understand Blizzard's new obsession with "Grab these 2 quests. Complete them. Return. 2 new quests will open up. Complete them. Return."

I loved being able to round up as many quests in an area as possible, pick and choose which to do, when to do them etc, and getting better and more efficient routes the more you did it. Not anymore. Just do exactly what the storyline says, nothing more, nothing less. How fucking tedious.