Has WoW's decline driven you back to some old favorites?

[khazmodan]

I've gone back to a certain unnamed private server playing Vanilla, can't name It cause moderators are silly. It's a great experience, 12 years ago I began Vanilla and I'm having equal If not more fun now that I can play Vanilla WoW exactly how It was back then, with all the quests, the people, the friendly groups, the dungeoning, the raiding and the PvPing as well... and we're not even half way through Vanilla specific patches.

So far I've had more fun In Vanilla WoW on that server than I had on wow for the last 6 ish years.

And that's not even because I'm bored of Legion, I am though as I have a secondary account to try It on - however main reason Is I was banned on WoW unfairly, a year and 10 months ago. I know you're thinking "Well duh, It's never fair" - Is it fair to have your account banned due to a hacker having stolen It, then you prove your ownership of the account and Blizz still refuses to give It back to you, a year and 10 months later? So while Blizzard are stubbornly refusing to be a good company that should've been protecting my account for 12 years, supposedly. I go to play the game In a state when I like It (Although there's no TBC servers, I'd have liked TBC most) and I'm enjoying It the old school way - the challanging way.

And another lesser reason is I've been getting bored of regular WoW and Vanilla wow on that server Is just grand and large and amazing, you're actually challanged, It's not a cake walk, you group with people, you do proffesions that actually do something and aren't generic 3 star upgrades.

that which cannot be named...VOLDEMORT?

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Wildstar is just another anti-social MMO. The devs who built Wildstar misunderstood the appeal of Vanilla WoW. They thought people liked vanilla WoW because it was more difficult than modern WoW. So they made a more difficult game but then added the antisocial elements like the automatic match making system. I took one look at Wildstar's design and ran away. I knew that was a failure from the start.

To make a successful MMO, it requires a strong in-game community. Wildstar doesn't have that. Its plug n play instead.

I STILL see people attack Vanilla WoW by listing the issues with class design,raid design, quest design, etc. They are TOTALLY missing the point. Those are problems to be sure. But the fact that vanilla Wow is actually SOCIAL completely overrides all of those issues.

THIS is the truth.

[Noxina]

Wildstar is just another anti-social MMO. The devs who built Wildstar misunderstood the appeal of Vanilla WoW. They thought people liked vanilla WoW because it was more difficult than modern WoW. So they made a more difficult game but then added the antisocial elements like the automatic match making system. I took one look at Wildstar's design and ran away. I knew that was a failure from the start.

To make a successful MMO, it requires a strong in-game community. Wildstar doesn't have that. Its plug n play instead.

I STILL see people attack Vanilla WoW by listing the issues with class design,raid design, quest design, etc. They are TOTALLY missing the point. Those are problems to be sure. But the fact that vanilla Wow is actually SOCIAL completely overrides all of those issues.

Never played Wildstar, so nothing to say about that.

But I do however agree with your point of view on Vanilla, a lot of people focus on the shitty class balance, the endless grinding and over game design, and that is also true, the game was rather shit. But as you're saying - it was very social, and that made up for all that, though the fact that it was new when it came out, a lot of people (me included) had never played an MMO before Vanilla, made the game very special.
I've played on several Vanilla wow servers, and it gives me some joy absolutely, but I burn out quickly.

What I would have enjoyed a lot is a game combined of todays game designs, remove ALL LFG tools, merge servers to make huge servers, and add free transferes, but with a cool down of perhaps a month or two. Force people to communicate to get groups (/LFG chat), get into social guilds or raiding guild and make friends! That is what I miss from Vanilla. I hate the fact that I can just log in, queue up for the Daily HC, not say a word to anyone (usually people don't even responds to my "hi"), and be done with it.
Also pugging in todays WoW is usually done without saying a single word. I've done multiple EN HC pugs, where the only words said is "do you need that?" and "kick [insert name/role here], he is a noob". It's sad.

[Winfernal]

The combination of the title and the thread opener is laughable. No agenda here at all, lol!

I've played vanilla servers, for a long time. They're great for nostalgia reasons, but the content is stale and it will never progress. I stopped completely and went to legion.

[Trumpcat]

WoW for me is better today than it has ever been. The only thing I am missing is the feeling of wonderment I had exploring the game in the beginning, but that can never be repeated.

[Varaben]

I always go back to old favorites from time to time, though they do tend to coincide with lulls in WoW's interest for me. I replay Final Fantasy Tactics once a year or so, and I typically try out an SWG or UO server every year also.

I had high hopes for The Division, but it was a pretty lackluster gear grind with a very quickly depleted storyline.

[ItachiZaku]

Yep, been a wheel. Here for a month, SWTOR, Rift, Ultima Online etc. It's all the same game really (cept UO is the ultimate #1, just really old), just different skins.

I never played EQ1, but did a bit in EQ2 and really liked it. I played a rat person death knight, was pretty sweet. I went back later and it wasn't my same account, so I had to start a new character and wasn't as much into it. Tried some other games but they were 100% shit after a bit, like Elder Scrolls Online, Archeage, Wildstar, Secret World. Some cool aspects, but not enough to keep me.

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UO server every year

Is Demise still the top UO free shard or... it's been a long, long while.

[Deleted]

WoW isn't on the decline for me, personally. Actually, I haven't enjoyed the game as much as I do right now in quite a while. So no, I have/had no reason to try out other MMOs.

[DarkAmbient]

I've always had breaks from WoW, but I always tend to just play whatever I feel like playing at the time. EVE Online has been a constant, and I'll play good games on my PS4 - Witcher 3, Skyrim, some of the smaller indie games like Journey or The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter.

[ItachiZaku]

Even titles with similar fan-followings have struggled with that: SWTOR, ESO, and even Final Fantasy barely made it, much less an entirely new IP like Wildstar.

I was in SWTOR beta, had a good group of people, things were going "well enough", there were launch issues, but every game and every expansion has something like that. Crowds slowly milled out to the point of server merging (Wow has even done server merging) but when SWTOR did it, your moved characters lost A LOT. As a day 1 prelaunch/early access person, losing your names and achievement stuff (I lost 10s of thousands of HKs for instance) was a big kick to the dick. With their legacy system (that they never expanded on), having your core group of characters, names and legacy name all aligned perfectly... all gone... really makes you not want to play. Similar with Rift - but I was less involved in Rift, or I should say less connected with my characters - really only had the one max level that I PVP and Raided on vs a solid 6-7 in SWTOR.

SWTOR has the added bonus of a massive lore base/property to pull from, yet still stumbled, when it should have thrived.

[Deleted]

Yep, I've tried playing on vanilla realms, it was a blast, but having to switch to old Windows all the time (I'm playing on iMac) to play is rather irritating, so eventually gave up. I wish there were official servers with updated clients.

Other games: nope. Before WoW the only game I played for a while was CS:S. Long before that about 2 decades ago when internet was not common, but lan was, it was Warcraft 2 and Starcraft 1 over local network. Before that....

[Avrantia]

Biased, pre-concluding titles are just the best.

[Alfakennyone]

Seems like you're the only one...

[avoidconfusion]

I am getting into FFXIV at the moment

[SirCowdog]

What I would have enjoyed a lot is a game combined of todays game designs, remove ALL LFG tools, merge servers to make huge servers, and add free transferes, but with a cool down of perhaps a month or two. Force people to communicate to get groups (/LFG chat), get into social guilds or raiding guild and make friends! That is what I miss from Vanilla. I hate the fact that I can just log in, queue up for the Daily HC, not say a word to anyone (usually people don't even responds to my "hi"), and be done with it.
Also pugging in todays WoW is usually done without saying a single word. I've done multiple EN HC pugs, where the only words said is "do you need that?" and "kick [insert name/role here], he is a noob". It's sad.

I think it's a horrible mistake to try to force community on a group of people who aren't interested in it. WoW has community, it's just migrated from the server-specific barriers that used to define it, and into guilds and forums.

Removing the utility of matchmaking tools would be also bad move. But I agree with the mega-server idea. It would take a little while for the community of such a massive pool to settle in and for people and groups to start building reputations, but it would slowly happen.

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SWTOR has the added bonus of a massive lore base/property to pull from, yet still stumbled, when it should have thrived.

It stumbled because it was a carbon copy of WoW at the time. The game mechanics were virtually identical.

Add to that the complete and utter sluggishness of the melee combat. Instead of the graceful, dynamic, amazing combat we saw advertised in the trailers, we got floaty, boring, repetitive scripted moves that lacked impact and any feeling of enjoyment. If that game had not had the Star Wars brand and lore to carry it, it would have very likely suffered even worse than Wildstar. Despite that, it probably still would have bombed completely if it wasn't for the absolutely AMAZING story and voice acting.

[RoKPaNda]

Seems like you're the only one...

Not really. It's objective fact that player activity is pretty low right now. I like legion, despite it's issues, but denying that WoW subs have fallen significantly since launch is like denying climate change.

[cerin616]

I think it's a horrible mistake to try to force community on a group of people who aren't interested in it. WoW has community, it's just migrated from the server-specific barriers that used to define it, and into guilds and forums.

Removing the utility of matchmaking tools would be also bad move. But I agree with the mega-server idea. It would take a little while for the community of such a massive pool to settle in and for people and groups to start building reputations, but it would slowly happen.

I agree with you, at least, halfway.

Consider making (similar to how we have RP servers) 'social servers'.

Servers that dont have LFG tools.

maybe merge everything into 6 servers

pve
pvp

RP
RPPVP

Social
SocialPVP

[Jujudrood]

Since WoW has been declining since the end of WotLK (according to a small minority), this is a pretty broad question, right??

But anywho, more on topic; Mount & Blade is still pretty fun to dick around with, then for non-open world, some single player games mixed in for change of pace, like Shining Force 1 + 2 (played through both front to back probably 30-40 times each in my lifetime, and probably will get dozens more before it's said and done) and other old SNES/Genesis games because back then, it was gameplay and fun factor over visuals and cinematics.

[Noxina]

I think it's a horrible mistake to try to force community on a group of people who aren't interested in it. WoW has community, it's just migrated from the server-specific barriers that used to define it, and into guilds and forums.

Removing the utility of matchmaking tools would be also bad move. But I agree with the mega-server idea. It would take a little while for the community of such a massive pool to settle in and for people and groups to start building reputations, but it would slowly happen.

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Yeah, it is too late to do the change I'd like them to, pretty sure it would have killed the game. Too many rely on how accesible the game have turned, how easy it is to do the daily stuff you want to do, and not spend an hour looking for groups every day.

The idea about new servers with this implemented wasn't too bad though, @cerin616 , perhaps that is something they could look into

[caervek]

Well, I've been to the cinema, ice skating, meals out and general socialising a lot more thanks to WoD/Legion lol.

As far as games go I spend quite a bit of time (and money) on HotS so Blizzard aren't exactly losing out on my custom due to WoD/Legion being so lame.

[Lilija]

WoW takes so much of my free time that I don't have any left for other games. I can hardly fit all the WoW activities into my daily schedule.