Do you feel bad for those who didn't play Vanilla/BC?

[swagster]

They really missed out on some of the greatest times in WoW history. Not rose colored glasses or anything, remember it is the game that attracted a climbing subscriber base.

[pld]

I will always love the experiences from Classic and TBC, but had that game come out now, I wouldn't be able to enjoy it in the way I did back then. Despite being released as an MMO for casual players, it required much more time than I can spare now.

The game itself wasn't very efficient and I felt it had more time sinks than actual content. I suppose I feel bad that people didn't get to experience being the first generation and the new-ness that the game had, but I think in the end...there are way more perks of playing now than we had back then.

It's essentially like looking back at my freshman year of college and lamenting how boring my life is now. I could think back on all the fun I had, but I would be neglecting all the late nights studying, the stress, the lack of a job, the lack of money, in addition to a ton of other things. In other words - Vanilla/TBC had great qualities that we can't reproduce today, but it also laid the foundation for what turned out to be a pretty amazing game 9 years later.

[mistahwilshire]

Not really. Objectively, there was a lot wrong with both of them from a gameplay perspective and a lot of things have become a lot better since. It was a fun time but for different reasons. It wouldn't even be the same if it was released identically today. The information era has had a bigger effect on our WoW experience than most people realize.

[Nadev]

As someone who played, no, certainly not Classic. TBC had decent raids, but other than that the expansion was an ugly, unbalanced mess.

[Skizzit]

Not really. What made vanilla great was the newness of it and the sense of discovery. Even people who did not start playing until Wrath or later still have that because it would be new to them and many of the improvements to the game since release really are for the better. There was a lot in the game at the start that was a headache or just plain did not work.

[Deleted]

Yes and no. They missed out some of the finest content of this game. They also missed some of the longest grinds and imbalance issues.

[DeadmanWalking]

How self-involved do you have to be to feel sorry for someone who didn't play 8-5 years ago?

[Pull My Finger]

I feel bad for people who glorify Vanilla/BC. I can't even imagine how it feels to be one of those guys. This coming from a Vanilla player, by the way.

If I spent years and years QQing on forums, being constantly miserable, lamenting the good old days, getting angry at people because they do LFR, missing out on everything positive the game has to offer today, living this completely distorted image of the past that's so deeply ingrained in their minds ... but still being around in one way or another ... I would seriously have to question my personality, perhaps even sanity.

I can't imagine making that clown out of myself. Often when read all these QQ threads here on MMO-Champ, I ask myself: God, why don't they just quit. Is that a kind of neurosis or something like that? Why do they treat themselves that way? It's just not worth it. It's insane. It's literally insane to invest that much energy and endure so much misery and frustration over some game I used to enjoy in 2006 or something. I wonder what these guys would do if they went through a bad breakup or divorce. Turn into creepy stalkers or commit suicide?

These people are pretty much the only ones I could say I feel bad for. It must be extremely attritional and grueling to have that attitude all the time.

[Ailuvan]

They really missed out on some of the greatest times in WoW history.

* 3-month attunement quests to get to the next place in the game.
* Spending hours leveling a Weapon skill because the best weapon you get in this instance is one you've never touched before.
* New complicated boss strats, now with a tank swap! Or _three_ tank swaps!
* Being able to pick skills that actively degraded your performance in game.
* Having to travel back to a capital city to pick those skills.

Yeah, I'm sorry I missed all of this.

[Srg56]

They really missed out on some of the greatest times in WoW history. Not rose colored glasses or anything, remember it is the game that attracted a climbing subscriber base.

If i feel bad? No. They wouldn't be able to appreciate it. Different generations. You had to have been born in the 80's to truly appreciate what WoW was back then. If they would launch vanilla WoW today, even with serious class balance (rogues not 2 shotting clothies) the game would tank so fast against a super casual experience like GW2. It's just not possible to have a game like that anymore. People these days want to log in and achieve something in 30 mins or 1 hour, while this type of game was created for those who could dump more than 6 hours daily on it, back then. They don't care about the story, the immersion, progression, server communities etc. Press button, shiny falls in mouth, repeat.

[Darsithis]

It's ridiculous that anyone would. I like to tell people about all these awesome games I played as a kid 20 years ago, sure, but I don't feel sad or bad that they didn't get to experience them as I did.

[Underverse]

I feel bad for people who started in Cata

[barackohmama]

I played in vanilla and TBC but then stopped until recently. I feel a bit sad that i've missed out on raiding in wotlk and cata.

[Orkwuzhere]

* 3-month attunement quests to get to the next place in the game.
* Spending hours leveling a Weapon skill because the best weapon you get in this instance is one you've never touched before.
* New complicated boss strats, now with a tank swap! Or _three_ tank swaps!
* Being able to pick skills that actively degraded your performance in game.
* Having to travel back to a capital city to pick those skills.

Yeah, I'm sorry I missed all of this.

Amen to that. I also don't miss waiting in town, hoping someone will take my dps character even though it came back through Heroic Scenarios (which I'll never do as a dps after trying them out on my healer*).

*I like healing anyway.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Actually no, I feel they are better off not having played the horrors.

[Rivin]

In a way, yes, simply because they wouldn't be able to appreciate how the game has changed since then. But sorry because they missed an "epic experience" or whatever? No.

[Gandrake]

no, but i feel bad for players who have no reason to become more than they are

[Rucati]

Sort of, BC was this game at its best, raids and PvP were both incredibly fun. On the other hand, vanilla was a massive grind fest, but still fun for other reasons.

I don't really feel sorry for them though, it's important to remember that in vanilla/BC the game was new to a lot of us and that made it feel epic, but if you just started playing today it would have that same feeling, because it's still new to them.

[Futhark]

I feel bad for people who glorify Vanilla/BC. I can't even imagine how it feels to be one of those guys. This coming from a Vanilla player, by the way.

100xThis

Granted, I didn't start raiding until Wrath, and before that I had great times dicking around in non-heroic dungeons and overworld stuff with my friends, but Vanilla and BC were very unfriendly to the casual crowd. Hitting 60 was a brick wall for content. In BC I remember getting a pittance of BoJs and never having enough to upgrade. Remember, this is WAY before LFD.

Wrath opened the game up in amazing ways. I also started playing a tank then, which also helped as the tide of more casual Heroics and Raids began. People complain now since they can't have their community/virginity back, but it really is much better from where it started.

[Santti]

The reason that made vanilla epic for me because that's when I started playing wow, not because it was better or more awesome than what came after it. A player starting to play now would have his/her "epic vanilla" feeling now, just like I had mine all those years a go. So no, I don't feel sorry for them. I might even envy them a little.