What made classic wow better than current?

[Dormie]

Know what makes me remember how WoW used to feel?
Listening through old zone music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...nLKXqHv3hWe58M

Some of those songs I hear and I just remember what WoW used to be that it isn't anymore. It's a little bit of nostalgia, but it reminds me of the slower pace WoW had.

[Coffeexbean]

-No Flying Mounts
-No Whistle
-Balance was not based around arena
-WPVP
-A big world with real-time travel time
-a majority playerbase that cared about the adventure/exploration/social part of the game ( nowdays it feel very split, there are pro flyer, pro efficiency, pro menu/instance anti social playstyles)

[Rojii]

Chuck Norris jokes on general chat while doing barrens quest lines.

World Pvp - Alliance raiding Tauren Mill.

Stormwind or Orgrimmar raids that lasted a couple of hours. So much fun. When I came back in Cata no one did that kind of stuff anymore and there was no more world general chat. It changed to trade chat.

[Heathy]

I decided to get around to prying the harddrives out of my old pc, I had a couple of videos from my first few raids I thought some of you might like them.

ofc for those who didn't get to see it at the time, there are quite a few videos floating around, my pc couldn't handle recording that well so i didn't bother most of the time. like most ppl i just took screenshots of dead bosses. like this one

but heres a little taste anyway. i think its a good representation of the pace of combat, among other things.



the first 2 are from may 2006, not long after i started raiding, still in full devout, the last video is about november same year.

i love that i have like zero binds, and i'm using benecast. bit of everything in there, slow combat, standing around doing nothing to conserve mana, terrible addons, lagspikes. clicking, keyboard turning, back peddling. random cc breaking.

I don't think the game can ever go back to that speed and simplicity. just thinking about trying to heal a raid today without any keybinds is enough to give you an aneurysm. we've moved way past being able to stand there as a healer for 30 seconds without doing anything at all and not have ppl die.

I can't say i'd like to go back to those days, it was fun at the time but the game has progressed so much since then, player skill on average is way way way higher. the pace of combat has progressed along side the increase in player intuitiveness. none of this would be a challenge today.

compare that to a recording i did of Tichondrius in 7.1.5, I did speed it up but still, the difference between then and now from my perspective is phenomenal.



its gone from, standing there and occasionally pressing buttons to, having to constantly press buttons and move.

[Deleted]

You called people sad for liking something you don't. You hate those people for liking something you dislike.

I didn't call anyone sad. I said I AM sad for you playing a shit game. How is that hating on anyone?

[FelPlague]

-No Flying Mounts
-No Whistle
-Balance was not based around arena
-WPVP
-A big world with real-time travel time
-a majority playerbase that cared about the adventure/exploration/social part of the game ( nowdays it feel very split, there are pro flyer, pro efficiency, pro menu/instance anti social playstyles)

there was no such thing as WPVP once bgs were added, people only did WPVP because there was nothing else
no flying mounts is not a negative or a plus for gamers
no whislte? lolol what?
balance in vanilla!? LOLOLOLOLOL yeah... yeah sure bud...
big world,yes, with real time travel time? not really, not true at all, to get across the world takesl ike an hour. in wow, not like the real world hundreds it would take to ewalk
lol no they really... really dident overall, it was because thats all they had

[Vyse]

I think the game went from role playing (classic) to more of an action RPG (legion).

So many role playing elements are gone, like attunement quests, needing coal and wood to make a fire, needing arrows as a hunter, etc.

Those are small things, yes, but that whats role playing to me.

I mean, you dont even need a fishing pole to fish, so yeah.

[Skillslam]

Preferring live over vanilla just means you have terrible taste and wrong opinions. Sorry if the truth is triggering but there ya go

[Felarion]

The best thing about vanilla is how rewarding character and gear progression feels. Everything feels disposable in the post cata version of the game, gear and even characters just don't matter as it is all replaceable within days or even hours. It's difficult to take pride in anything you do or get any sense of attachment to your character in such a world.

This i agree 100%.

[Lodreh]

What made classic wow better than current?

I'm doing some research and I'd like to hear your opinions guys and gals

Classic was fresh and new. There was little to no data mining... there were no addons to keep you from standing in the fire. There was the expectation that if you asked a question in general you'd get 4-5 useful answers... not one "google it" or anal joke. Barrens chat was rampant with Chuck Norris jokes but it was cool... people were just having fun playing the game.

That's the main difference from classic to now... the community got salty and would rather use outside sources or addons than help each other.

[Deleted]

The best thing about vanilla is how rewarding character and gear progression feels. Everything feels disposable in the post cata version of the game, gear and even characters just don't matter as it is all replaceable within days or even hours. It's difficult to take pride in anything you do or get any sense of attachment to your character in such a world.

Well said!

[Deleted]

In my opinion it was the fact that there was a sense of community back in those days, you knew about those famous people on your server who were the top in PvE, PvP or just being a dick in general to your faction, it still somewhat applies today but less so with LFR, LFG etc. with legion invasions and world quests it has improved because you sometimes see the usual players doing the same thing.

[Deleted]

There was little to no data mining... there were no addons to keep you from standing in the fire. There was the expectation that if you asked a question in general you'd get 4-5 useful answers... not one "google it" or anal joke.

C'mon, it wasn't the dark ages. There was data mining and addons (including boss mods) in vanilla, and people were told to go on thottbot.

[Lodreh]

C'mon, it wasn't the dark ages. There was data mining and addons (including boss mods) in vanilla, and people were told to go on thottbot.

I did say little to no data mining... it was certainly not to the level it is now. Thottbot was a thing (as was Alla'khazam) but people took the time to just tell you (or grouped with you to show you) instead of saying look it up. For the record WoW released in November 2004 and Deadly Boss Mods released in April of 2008.

[Demithio]

After playing off and on on a Vanilla server for the past couple weeks I've come to the conclusion that the truth of this conflict probably lies somewhere in the center. There is *some* merit to the argument that during original release the fact that it was new and exciting made it feel like less of a grind. However, people's wanting for a more in depth and meaningful game play experience and less gimmick isn't fully due to "rose colored goggles" as some here would explain it, its really a product of Blizzard's failure to develop the game in such a way that makes sense for the overall player base. They simply failed to maintain a game play balance between difficulty and efficiency and went full overboard with the ease of access and other things that feel far less like substance and more like filler fluff. Its really just a product of poor and uninspired game design at this point, they are turning out content that doesn't seem very well thought out in terms of how it will be received by the overall player base. While there have been very good and noticeable improvements in some areas of the game, other areas have suffered greatly, and these areas are some of the game play mechanics that count the most.

Do I really want WoW to be blasted back to 2004? No, I do not, at least not in a total sense, although some of the original vanilla mechanisms should have been retained. Do I want a more in depth and involved experience without silly gimmicks, mind numbing ease of accomplishment, and epic / legendary items falling from the sky? Absolutely.

- - - Updated - - -

I would love an xpac where I could spend 6-12 months leveling and 6-12 months doing end game dungeons (vanilla lvl 60 style dungeons). That's what "casual" content is, not this dumbed down zerging that the whole game had devolved into.

But unfortunately this is yet another aspect of game design where Blizzard put money ahead of good design. It is very hard to justify trying to sell a new xpac if most of the playerbase are still nowhere near through all the content in the existing one. So they had to change the model so that they obsolete old stuff in every patch and force everyone to do the same content at the same time, so that they can sell new xpacs on schedule.

Unfortunately the current state of WoW is much more about profit margin and much less about quality content. I also agree that dungeons should be much more entertaining and involved than the zergfests we have now. They have been reduced to 15 minute facerolls where a prize pops out at the end. Dungeons should really be the mainstay content of WoW, along with a solid leveling experience. Spending 1-2 hours crawling through a dungeon seems reasonable to me and would keep people entertained for much longer. They knew this during vanilla and TBC, and this is why we had those sort of epic and memorable experiences with dungeons. As you said, this is the main content for casuals and what makes people stick to the game.

[Deleted]

There is no right answer to this. Classic WoW in many ways was both good and bad compared to now. People prefer it in a way, including myself, while also hate it in a way. Let me list some examples and go in depth

The good
First off, back when WoW was released, the MMO genre was rather new. There wasnt a huge competition or a huge market, developers had no idea what they were doing and what would work and what wouldn't. Most MMOs including WoW at the time based their model off the Everquest genre. This is apparent in many ways in early WoW.

Combat - One of the biggest flaws of vanilla combat IMO is the combat and the class balance. Combat was slow, tedious and mobs were stronger. Pulling more than one usually meant death if you were alone. This encouraged grouping however. Elites were truly dangerous. Some people liked this, i didn't. Combat for me was one of the worst things in Vanilla. You kept missing, and barely doing any damage, and there weren't a lot of useful skills. A whole bunch of skils you had were either outright useless or only useful in certain situations, so you relied on your auto attack.
Some classes were also extremely hard or just outright frustrating to play, such as paladins, especially retribution paladins. You pretty much needed someone to play with because you had a hard time soloing. Again, this was frustrating. Some people found it fun and challenging. Well i didn't.

What was fun for me however was the sense of adventure. Vanilla WoW focused on the adventure, and immersion in the game world. The leveling, the journey and the means to the end game, rather than the end game itself like it does now. Everything in WoW nowadays relies on the end game itself. This was not the case in Vanilla. There were no raids, and they were added pretty late to the game and they were extremely barebones compared to today. But again, they focused on the adventure, the journey, the immersion, the experience and the socialization troughout those raids, rather than the loot and treating them as a second job that you needed to do. 40 man raids, lack of loot was evident. It required players to band together and work towards a common goal, then decide who would get awarded. As everyone knows, this made epic gear extremely rare. But it was good. You didn't need that gear to enjoy the game, and if you did then you had to work for it. Rare gear was also the same, and legendaries truly felt like legendaries.

The adventure

Well as i said the game focused on immersion, the sense of adventure, accomplishment and so on. There was no real storyline, the zones were loosely connected together with each having their own storyline, while some not at all. There were some main and long quest series but they were never really focused on telling this grand story that the game is telling us now.
The sense of adventure and journey is pretty much gone. Travelling between the two continents really felt like travelling to a whole different world. Remember running from Menethil to Elwynn forest as a night elf? Yeah i do. The world felt distant, and mysterious, ready to be explored. The fact that there was no flying, the first mount costed 100g (which equals to like 100k+ today) and was only available at lvl 40, and was 60%, only added to this.
This is gone now. The only time i felt like this apart from Vanilla when i stepped trough the dark portal into Hellfire Penninsula, going to Northrend maybe during the beginning of MoP but even that quickly evaporated by the time i got to around 97-98.

In my opinion, some of the vanilla nostalgia could be brought back by:

Adding 3 fresh realms to each region. One RP, one PvP and one PvE. Same content as now but with different mechanics:

No DKs or Demon Hunters until you have a character at their respective level
No character boosts
No paid race, gender etc... changes
No crossrealms, or any of that bullcrap that we have now
Completely disable group finder, LFR, guild finder, dungeon finder and premade groups
Local auction houses, and no faction wide auction houses
If on a PvP server, you shouldn't be allowed to have both horde and alliance characters
Que for BGs should only be possible by going to their respective portals like in vanilla
Completely disabling guild perks
No heirlooms or any XP boosts/Potions
No RAF or anything like that
Increasing experience needed for each level
Removing quest finder so that you won't be able to see where you need to go on the map
Disable all character wide mounts, titles, toys, achievements, anything character wide for characters made on the realm.
Add ground mounts only at lvl 40 and 60 and increase their price. Seperate mounts depending on their speed. I remember back then each mount had it's own speed, meaning you had to buy a different mount if you wanted to go 100%
Flying mounts should be made more expensive as well.
Disable flying mounts in EK and Kalimdor
Reduce the amount of money gained from quests by 50-75%
Increase all hearthstone cooldowns back to 1hour

[Naytham]

old wow was good. new wow is has braindead classes, systems. new wow you're stuck in a small little place called the broken isles, leveling is a joke, the community is a joke, the devs have no passion and don't play their own game. game can't even be compared to old wow. old wow was fucking addicting, new wow gets boring after a few months for obvious reasons.

i've placed since late BC. it's fucking crazy to me how many people can't even begin to compare the two. anyone claiming is nostalgia or that the game is better hasn't played old wow or just a straight brainwashed casual.

[gallamann]

OP.... NOTHING

People who played Vanilla and currently play tend to look back with Rose Colored Glasses. Have played this game since Launch, Vanilla sucked compared to current game.

[Demithio]

OP.... NOTHING

People who played Vanilla and currently play tend to look back with Rose Colored Glasses. Have played this game since Launch, Vanilla sucked compared to current game.

Sorry, but your line of reasoning is as clueless as the people who scream WoW should be fully blasted back to 2004. No balance, no compromise, no moderation, and unrealistic.

Given the empirical data we see with the current installment of the game I would say Blizzard agrees with you. Which doesn't speak too highly about Blizzard's reasoning. However, it comes at a cost, in lost subscriptions and no access to a sizable market share.

[McNeil]

I think people underestimate how important a good community is for a MMORPG, this was really the driving factor that vanilla had. If you have a good community its easier to see past a games flaw and just have fun together, and vanilla heavily encouraged you to meet other people and journey together. Doing quests in 5-man groups was actually very normal, even the grindier quests can be fun to do if your just having some dumb fun with the guys. The current game doesn't encourage this kind of play at all. Its to easy to just drop in and out of a group without even saying a word, other than having your bot saying ''World Quest **** is done '' and instantly leave. Your basically just stuck interacting in your own guild while the rest of the game doesn't give 2 shits about others. Back in vanilla you also had a lot of events that your own server created, its not just Blizzard that had to chew out their own mini events. What I found a lot of fun to do was to form a 40 man raid (sometimes even 2 full raids) just to raid an enemy capital and kill their king. They didn't reward anything but you just had a lot of fun to do so, nowadays people just want to be rewarded for everything. People even had their wedding in the game, something I never see these days.

Basically the game felt alive with a thriving community that were able to make their own fun, and not having Blizzard hold their hands to lead them to the content they want to have them do it. Its not the best version of WoW but its still a lot of fun to play. I would like to see something like a HD remake of vanilla that keeps the game as it is, but improve it with todays technology.