Have you actually played Vanilla?

[Mustardisbad]

I played almost a year before bc came out and I also played on a vanilla server. You didn't specify if those counted, so im assuming they do.

Also I was 12 back then.

[Tziva]

I started playing in classic, but not at launch. I think I started around the time of the Zul Gurub patch.

[Gungsunk]

I did play some vanilla when it was current. First on my older brothers account, then I got my own. I never reached max level though, so I never raided in vanilla. It wasn't my first MMO, I had played some GW before it. At first I thought the graphics were pretty shit compared to GW, but it grew on me and since it was a continuation of the WC storyline I felt really connected to the world. My experience was pretty amazing, it was a huge world that I knew some things about but had never explored so it felt incredible. I consider the current game to be better in many respects, but the memories of vanilla will always be dear to me.

[Deleted]

i started playing wow in february 2005. didnt have a clue what i was doing in the begining, until i joined a guild & then the game just took off for me. trying to download add ons before curse & the like, was an eye opener as it was not only my first mmo, but also my first pc. i ended up clearing pretty much all that wow had to offer with the exception of naxx, as tbc arrived before we got the chance.
happy days

[Vexiran]

i grew up playing warcraft 2 and 3, and played 1 eventually too though not for long, and joined vanilla when i was 12, a few months after launch, but only ever got to level 43.
didn't level cap until TBC

[CascadeAD]

My brother and I played The Realm for a bit. Later we jumped full tilt into Asheron's Call...and stayed with it a long time.
We played the Warcraft beta on a friend's test account and liked the graphics more than AC.
Kicked it off just after launch...it was fun, frustrating and then more fun. Repeat.

[Deleted]

As if it matters?

Dude was doing the statistics how old are people right now...By counting average player age was 16 if they played vanilla.Just saying.

[Kharli]

Yes, though I started playing like a month before release of buring crusade ;P even then it was on and off for a long while as I could not always afford to buy game time

[Deleted]

I started playing in classic, but not at launch. I think I started around the time of the Zul Gurub patch.

Those were good times, I loved ZG. Zandalari Hero Charm + Talisman of Ephemeral Power + AP + PoM + Pyro was the real meme before memes.

[Kellorion]

Yrs I think it was like early Oct to mid Nov before thx launch, didn't really get it, so i left. Then heard TBC was coming, belts and Draenei looked cool, tried it again, rolled a half pally, loved it.

[Morbownz]

Started on my brothers account in Nov '05, very quickly quit Counter-Strike:Source to level up, I then got my own account in Dec 05. I joined my first guild and started raiding from around March/April 2006.

[Draenox]

Briefly, at the very end before the launch of TBC

[Tanthoris]

I played like 2-3 hours of it way back then on my friends computer, went out and bought a copy the next day. Sadly my potato laptop at the time couldn't handle wow so I had to wait until after TBC launched when I could finally buy my a better potato.

[Cronovey]

Started playing in April of 2005, I recently turned 31. I was 18 when I started playing, so I've literally been playing WoW all of my adult life. Have three characters with original PvP titles, ZG gear sets, etc. I was one of the few people who also had a max level alt in vanilla, played a mage as my main and rogue as my alt for the guild's MC and BWL runs because my mage didn't need anything there.

[Solarnova]

Yeah. I was in a few various guilds in 2005, until joining the top raiding guild on Khadgar (US) in early 2006. Steamrolling through MC, BWL, 4 Emerald Dream Dragons, Azuregos, Lord Kazzak, Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, and finally Naxxramas 40-man until January 2007 was a pretty epic time. Horde players went running away when they found some of us in Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley, and Warsong Gulch wearing Tier 3 gear, a frequent occurance after PvE raiding nights.

Blizzard's switch from 40-man to 25-man raiding in TBC caused my guild to split in half, that was not pretty, but some of us regrouped and we were able to lead the server yet again in Black Temple and Battle for Mount Hyjal. Like King Robert reminisces about the good old days in Season 1 of Game of Thrones, so do I.

For gags and laughs I'd buy some of the Ice-threaded Arrows from the vendor in AV and bring them to Molten Core, when an arrow hit a Core Destroyer or Giant, the arrows would be pretty massive--as well as the Hunter's Mark that took up half the screen. Also that tiny crossbow you could buy from the AV vendor back in '05 was awesome.

[Polarthief]

I started very early, but not day 1. More like Month 4 or so. It was pre-BGs is all I know. I never hit max level and made a bunch of different toons, all of which were abandoned at ~Lv 30 or less. My Druid hit Lv 56 when BC came out, so I never hit max level even or got to raid.

Also for your edit: I'm 26 right now, so I was around 14-15 when I started.

[hrugner]

I played a little bit through a beta invite I got through PCgamer I think. My dad and I both bought it at launch and I played for 5 years, he still plays it. I was in my mid twenties, now I'm old.

MMO-C is a pretty old group of people for internet forums. That's just how it is.

[IdTheDemon]

Started my account in June 2005 and it was my first MMO. I actually didn't get to 60 until mid August as I switched characters at 30 and I was semi soloing. I was on Dunemaul because my IRL friend was on it and he occasionally played with me leveling. He actually invited me to the guild but I was having fun on my own so I declined.

I joined a random guild, met a lot of decent people and eventually when I hit 60 I did BRD for the first time with them. I never did anything like that before and it took 3+ hours to clear the dungeon. It was my first taste of raiding so I got hooked. Eventually we did UBRS and farmed gear there until we tried out Molten Core. Like any other noob guild we wiped on trash and wiped on Lucifron for days. But as we got more gear, we eventually got that clown down and it was the first raid boss kill for a lot of first time MMO people.

Eventually we are wiping Ragnaros and the true laziness of some raiders are shown. Some people farm for pots, elixirs and flasks while others are leechers. I get a PST from a mage from the second top horde guild on the server. There's a core mage spot open and they have BWL on clear so I take it without hesitation. The entire raiding team was fun and full functioning adults, not man babies or thirsty boys acting hard for the female raiders. We clear BWL in one night, I get 4 pieces of Netherwind and my mind is blown away. At the same time, I was a little angry that I didn't get to taste that first time Rag kill but after seeing BWL, I was pretty sure my old raiding guild would have never gotten past Razorgore. By the time my old guild finally killed Rag, I was 8/8 Netherwind and sadly they disbanded as more and more people went to better guilds on the servers.

I also started to PVP with the other top Horde players and slowly rose up the ranks to Rank 12 General, as I was in college and I couldn't physically play any more at the time due to finals. I missed hitting rank 13 by 5% and I decided to give up as it was impossible for me due to school. That's one thing I miss about the old days of Wow was when people on the server would congratulate the newest rank 14 in trade chat every Tuesday. Communities made the game back then, both the good and the bad.

AQ 40 hits and we're doing good as we get the first few down easily and have trouble with Huhurahn. We get the bad news that the GM is calling it quits due to work and other people decided it was time to quit. So we merged with the top horde guild and it went downhill from there. The GM of the top guild was a pain in the ass military style screamer who treated us like pawns. We get C'thun down, but by the time it happened we lost a good number of the guys from my guild who rerolled on other servers. And when Naxx 40 opened up, server transfers happened and a lot of people I knew went to high pop servers and places like Fusion, Death and Taxes, etc.

Naxx progress sucked for us. We had the first few on farm but once again half the guild is carrying the other half and people like myself are tired of farming herbs and black lotus for lazy officers who don't do anything. We wiped at Thaddius at 1% because a good 15 people didn't have elixirs or pots on them. I transfer to Blackrock and get into the 3rd best guild on the server who had Thaddius and Loatheb on farm. Walking around in Orgrimmar on Blackrock was a goddamn lagfest and I loved it. We eventually got 4HM and Saphiron down pre TBC patch, and we went back to kill Kel'Thuzad shortly before TBC came out. TBC itself is still the pinnacle of Wow and I am glad I got to experience it with my new guild as it was a fresh new start for me.

Overall, what made Vanilla good was the people you played with. No one wants to go back to the old farming mechanics and loot starvation of the old days. Not a single mage wants to make 5000 waters nor does a single lock want to farm 50 soul shards.

[Seramore]

According to the recent results, we have 628 people above or around 30y/o(assuming they were MAXIMUM 16(+/-1)y/o back then).

Jesus christ dude you edited your post with something even stupider than your first.

[Smokinya]

Yup been playing since Day 1 and haven't been unsubbed since.