What made classic wow better than current?

[Aleks0410]

Don't tell me the levelling experience was fun.

It may not have been for you. It was and is for me.

[Lollis]

It may not have been for you. It was and is for me.

Congrats then?

You, like many in this thread have rose tint, and no private server matches the vanilla experience. Not even the Nostalrius that you worship.

Levelling of today shits all over the levelling of ACTUAL vanilla content. TBC levelling alone was better than vanilla, and tbc levelling now, with classic zones being updated, is the worst of the lot.

[Wramp]

this is my personal opinion as a 12+ yr player of WoW, and still on my original realm. I just have to say that Blizzard: Grew in-game revenues by over 25% Y/Y, driven by Overwatch and World of Warcraft - Straight from the Quarterly Stockholders report, which, by law, must be accurate and truthful. So, as i see it, WoW is doing just fine. now, as far as legacy servers go, they will happen, and will be announced when one of these things happens:
1.) Blizzard totally screws up an expansion so badly that they drop subs like a waterfall and have to scramble for a profit from this IP
2.) When they announce WoW 2 or the next huge franchise IP that will allow them to make enough money to do so.
3.) Studies, reports and Polls make it clear to them that the move would be financially sound and not damage ANY of their existing IP's intake of cash.
4.) every last person that ever worked on WoW has left Blizzard and Activision takes over development totally.

now, as far as the Vanilla "experience" goes - i remember HATING having to run around the world until level 40 to get my mount, and iirc getting epic riding was gated by a HUGE expense (5K gold right originally?) which was by no means easy to get back then and having to get to max-level as well (60). i also remember that many ppl were just simply bad at the game still and getting a good group together w both hard and time-consuming due to no group finder and when you actually found good people to run with you either joined their guild or stuck to them like glue on your friends list. I also remember that raiding was both exasperating and enjoyable in that getting 40 ppl together and making them all do the job on each boss was like making snowcones out of sand....but the reward and feeling for killing that boss was...OMG HUGE!! and getting that piece of loot for either yourself OR your friend/guildmate felt very rewarding..

I guess my point is that we all have different memories of Vanilla, and that is part of what makes up Nostalgia, but please lets be honest and remember that for all the good feeling/memories, it was still not a complete game or the best version of WoW we would/will get.

[Kuntantee]

This. Taking 2-3 months to ding 110 would be insane. Would kill any desire to level alts as well. There is a reason very few MMOs do that with levelling nowadays.

I actually meant for new expansions, but it could also apply to entire leveling process as well.

[Holovik]

this is my personal opinion as a 12+ yr player of WoW, and still on my original realm. I just have to say that Blizzard: Grew in-game revenues by over 25% Y/Y, driven by Overwatch and World of Warcraft - Straight from the Quarterly Stockholders report, which, by law, must be accurate and truthful. So, as i see it, WoW is doing just fine. now, as far as legacy servers go, they will happen, and will be announced when one of these things happens:
1.) Blizzard totally screws up an expansion so badly that they drop subs like a waterfall and have to scramble for a profit from this IP
2.) When they announce WoW 2 or the next huge franchise IP that will allow them to make enough money to do so.
3.) Studies, reports and Polls make it clear to them that the move would be financially sound and not damage ANY of their existing IP's intake of cash.
4.) every last person that ever worked on WoW has left Blizzard and Activision takes over development totally.

now, as far as the Vanilla "experience" goes - i remember HATING having to run around the world until level 40 to get my mount, and iirc getting epic riding was gated by a HUGE expense (5K gold right originally?) which was by no means easy to get back then and having to get to max-level as well (60). i also remember that many ppl were just simply bad at the game still and getting a good group together w both hard and time-consuming due to no group finder and when you actually found good people to run with you either joined their guild or stuck to them like glue on your friends list. I also remember that raiding was both exasperating and enjoyable in that getting 40 ppl together and making them all do the job on each boss was like making snowcones out of sand....but the reward and feeling for killing that boss was...OMG HUGE!! and getting that piece of loot for either yourself OR your friend/guildmate felt very rewarding..

I guess my point is that we all have different memories of Vanilla, and that is part of what makes up Nostalgia, but please lets be honest and remember that for all the good feeling/memories, it was still not a complete game or the best version of WoW we would/will get.

The original Epic mounts were 1000g, 900 something if you were exalted with your race. I think the 60% mount was 45g or something. Back then there was no riding "skill" just the speed of the mount you purchased. Then they made all of the mounts pretty cheap and added the actual skills for different speeds of riding which you had to train and i believe the 100% ground speed was 5k gold. The "pre riding skill" time was also when the Ivory Raptor was around but 1000g was so prohibitively expensive that very few people had it before they took it out of the game and made the armored epic riding mounts.

[Klingers]

Not if you wanted to be in a raiding guild you couldn't.

That's just another choice you'd have to make for yourself. Like always.

[Setheria]

Congrats then?

You, like many in this thread have rose tint, and no private server matches the vanilla experience. Not even the Nostalrius that you worship.

Levelling of today shits all over the levelling of ACTUAL vanilla content. TBC levelling alone was better than vanilla, and tbc levelling now, with classic zones being updated, is the worst of the lot.

You kind of proved my point about taking your own personal experience and assuming that it applies to everyone.

I played actual Vanilla, I play it still. I played retail until reasonably recently. Individual preference is exactly that - individual.

We get it, YOU didn't like that experience. Others do.

I mean, I could go into detail about what I prefer from Vanilla and what I prefer from retail. For me personally, it's a mix. I love heaps of 'modern' wow, but I think that convenience came at the expense of community. And at the end of the day, the latter matters more for me. And I'm ok with you and others having a different appreciation for different things. That's fine. But it's nonsense for you to say 'Don't tell me the levelling experience was fun'. Guess what - for me, it was and is. And quite clearly I'm not alone in that opinion.

So when the OP asks 'what made classic wow better?' there's probably a fair bit of agreement we could have about how (in many ways) we might think it was demonstrably worse. But there are also numerous ways that many people think it was better.

[Deleted]

Legacy servers-advocates tend to go on about the levelling experience and immersion.

I enjoyed dipping my toe in elysium and reliving the much slower pace.

However, I don't really enjoy 2004 graphics and gameplay. I'm not sure any one does. Unlike the structure of the game, this isn't really up for debate. Todays's game is just better when it comes to those things.

Which makes me wonder why no one has ever developed an MMO with the same slower as vanilla but a modern game engine. Is it really just about nostalgia?

[Lollis]

I played actual Vanilla, I play it still.

No, you don't. Private servers are not the same as real vanilla servers. You can keep telling yourself that all you want, it doesn't make it true.

- - - Updated - - -

The original Epic mounts were 1000g, 900 something if you were exalted with your race. I think the 60% mount was 45g or something. Back then there was no riding "skill" just the speed of the mount you purchased. Then they made all of the mounts pretty cheap and added the actual skills for different speeds of riding which you had to train and i believe the 100% ground speed was 5k gold. The "pre riding skill" time was also when the Ivory Raptor was around but 1000g was so prohibitively expensive that very few people had it before they took it out of the game and made the armored epic riding mounts.

You had to get the skill for a specific race to be able to get them.

[voidillusion]

No, you don't. Private servers are not the same as real vanilla servers. You can keep telling yourself that all you want, it doesn't make it true.

No they aren't, on many levels. Still, some of them offer a really close experience to that vanilla servers offered.

[Holovik]

You had to get the skill for a specific race to be able to get them.

I'm not 100% sure but I think you just had to be exalted with that particular race to be able to purchase them. The hard part was without the starting zone quests for that specific race you wouldn't get exalted until they added in the ability to turn in cloth for rep.

[Hyral]

Actual class fantasy.

Even though half of it was barely functional, it still felt somewhat unique.

[Demithio]

Actual class fantasy.

Even though half of it was barely functional, it still felt somewhat unique.

More or less this, yes. Even though the classes weren't perfectly efficient or in some cases lacking, they had a certain appeal to them that isn't present in the game today. Far less worrying about efficiency and far more about being involved in the world and shortcomings of the classes were seen as part of the fantasy.

- - - Updated - - -

Far more diversified back in the day. You could go from undead scourge wastelands to desert bugs to tranquil forest themes all in the same game. The mood of the game could shift from one to the next depending on what theme you wanted to take on that day.

[anon5123]

-Unique classes, no homogenization bullshit
-Leveling/questing actually being difficult and there being a risk of dying
-Actually having to travel places instead of just teleporting/flight point'ing around everywhere
-Actually being able to get excited for green item upgrades from quests
-"Flavor" things, like having to do a quest to get a spell, or special class quests that reward a unique item; "class" quests these days just don't feel the same
-Feeling weak as a player. Back in vanilla, you could really only fight 1, maybe 2 mobs at a time on most classes, or you'd get wrecked. These days, every class can just pull tons of shit willy-nilly and mindlessly AoE it all down, no risk at all. The world in vanilla actually felt threatening and dangerous.
-Taking such a long time to get to 60 got you really invested in your character; let you slow down and watch your character steadily grow more powerful with new talents/spells, little gear upgrades adding up over time, etc.

I could go on and on and on, these are just a few short points. Yes, vanilla is flawed as fuck....but I'm still able to enjoy it very much despite its flaws.

[Lollis]

I'm not 100% sure but I think you just had to be exalted with that particular race to be able to purchase them. The hard part was without the starting zone quests for that specific race you wouldn't get exalted until they added in the ability to turn in cloth for rep.

Yes, there used to be Ram Riding / Mechanostrider Piloting / etc. which needed exalted to buy if you were not that race. If you managed to grind the rep and find the gold for another race's mounts, you were pretty damn crazy at farming.

[DingDongKing]

Nothing made Vanilla WoW better as a game. At best, the community was more vibrant then, within the confines of the game. But if you look outside the game, there's still an extremely vibrant community, it's just more visible on Discords etc.

[Deleted]

Yes, there used to be Ram Riding / Mechanostrider Piloting / etc. which needed exalted to buy if you were not that race. If you managed to grind the rep and find the gold for another race's mounts, you were pretty damn crazy at farming.

Ahh and then later on the cloth turnins. Good ol' Runecloth farm runs through Dire Maul & Scholo

[Vineri]

Things that were lost are now being found. Times change.

Is there redemption for the the MMORPG abortion that is retail WoW? Maybe.

Blizzard is yet to even address concerns of Legacy players. Blizzard continues to spiral towards more money, whatever the end-cost. $1 today is > $2 tomorrow philosophy. There is no reasoning regarding brand recognition or future purchases by those not on their charts.

If Blizzard acknowledged the shortcomings of their recent expansions, perhaps dialog could be established. That is, unless, they would like to make legacy servers for fans interested in the franchise, yet uninterested in the latest and greatest retail poop.

In defense of Blizzard there is an actual Legacy sticky thread on their official forums. Perhaps they value it, who the hell knows; it's dated last Fall 2016.

[Kyanion]

Blizzard is yet to even address concerns of Legacy players. Blizzard continues to spiral towards more money

You mean those people that piss and moan about what they want and then rush off to play the game on private servers? Yes I'm sure Blizz is really concerned about the small amount of money they are missing out on. But wait... You said Blizz continues to spiral towards more money. You've gone on to say many times in the past that Legacy servers are basically free money for Blizz. Which is it? Do they want your money or not? MAYBE that kind of tells you something...that Blizz doesn't think it is worth the money.

[Eleccybubb]

Things that were lost are now being found. Times change.

Is there redemption for the the MMORPG abortion that is retail WoW? Maybe.

Blizzard is yet to even address concerns of Legacy players. Blizzard continues to spiral towards more money, whatever the end-cost. $1 today is > $2 tomorrow philosophy. There is no reasoning regarding brand recognition or future purchases by those not on their charts.

If Blizzard acknowledged the shortcomings of their recent expansions, perhaps dialog could be established. That is, unless, they would like to make legacy servers for fans interested in the franchise, yet uninterested in the latest and greatest retail poop.

In defense of Blizzard there is an actual Legacy sticky thread on their official forums. Perhaps they value it, who the hell knows; it's dated last Fall 2016.

Because Vanilla, TBC and Wrath never had any shortcomings either right?