If World of Warcraft had never changed...

[DrStiglit]

No.. It's the changes that have kept me somewhat interested.. Same game for 9 years is not fun..

[tiporispit]

Ultima Online's subs grew every single year, until they released an expansion that changed the basic mechanics of the game. It basically died within a single month. The game's systems were much more in-depth than those of WoW. There was housing and a rare-driven economy that kept "old-school" players content. Just like real life, you were always chasing a bigger house, better furniture, etc. WoW doesn't have anything like that, which is why some feel it needs constant updates. Contrary to what people say about change, their actions speak differently. The human brain doesn't like change.

[xrayEU]

Without all the changes WoW would have probably been dead by now. Things like LFG and LFR keep it alive

We will never know...
But without LFG and LFR the whole WoW populations IQ would have increase significantly, thats for sure.

[Shamanberry]

If Vanilla mechanics had been left in place, the game would be in roughly the state that SWTOR or Rift are in right now. Still puttering along, but not the big name that WoW is today.

People vastly underestimate it, and the nostalgic tend to cite the very things that have kept WoW going as the things that are "killing" it.

Contrary to popular belief, people don't enjoy playing the game just to be the fan club of the sliver of the population that gets new content made exclusively for them. They're not going to be content doing content from previous tiers that isn't tied into what's going on in the world right now. They're not going to enjoy all this great new story and content being released in the X.4 patch ... that they're never going to see.

"But, isn't it a good thing to have more content?!". No. No it's not. If you have too much content relevant at the same time, it makes it more and more difficult to find a group to do the content you want. Naxx40 and Sunwell weren't cleared by so few groups because they were more difficult than current content (quite the opposite, in most cases) - but because if you didn't start at the begining of the expansion, you were never even going to get a chance to even attempt them.

That's why LFR, LFD, Flex, Timeles Isle, and so on and so on exist - to keep people interested in the game, no matter if they're a hardcore player that started at the begining of the expansion, or someone that joined midway through to play with a group of 8 friends that PUG the last 2 spots of their weekly 10 man flex.


TL;DR: The price you have to pay for the game's continued success is that people that aren't you have to be able to enjoy it too, no matter how much it would be better if Blizzard created it exclusively for you.

[Deleted]

Oh boy, another Superman-Bladesedge thread, these are always fun.

The problems with modern WoW versus old WoW go deeper than QOL changes, and on the subject I'd say that some of the changes you mentioned were necessary and good things (dual specs, built in VoiP, built in quest helper), but some (removing attunement and class quests, watering down class mechanics to make them easier) were not and hurt the game experience.

[Spiralphoenix]

No. The great thing about WoW is it is constantly evolving, changing, and staying relevant (as well as it realistically can), while adding new content. Honestly every time my class gets substantial changes I'm usually pretty excited to learn and play in a new and different way.

As an off-topic aside, that's one of the things I never understood about people not liking Vehicles such as in Oculus/Flame Leviathan fight. I loved them. A small break from doing the same thing your class does over and over to learn, adapt, and master a new thing.

I've come to learn that what I want from games is typically very much different than the majority...

[Thunderball]

Absolutely if there are enough people playing (1k active players would be sufficient).

I would like some successful features to be added, but it's ok anyway.

[Deleted]

Also on the subject of instant flight paths, I can't say how glad I am that they removed those, that was a terrible idea.

[-Superman-]

Also on the subject of instant flight paths, I can't say how glad I am that they removed those, that was a terrible idea.

Yes, because giving people access to zones to level in made less sense than letting them be discouraged and just spam dungeons instead.

[Karnige]

I would have quit ages ago. people were way to hardcore back then. if you were in a guild there was nerdrage and a ton of it. it wasn't fun people took it far to serious. Fuck that era. the people in guilds now are so much more chill

[darkwarrior42]

Depends; I'll address each one at a time, but the general theme is "yes, if it does something other than increase time requirements for no reason"

- Hunters can only use a backpack (16 slots), 3 bags, and a quiver or ammo pouch, and have to buy ammo
---Doesn't bother me too much, but ammo as it was didn't add much. If it was never removed, I would have wanted to see specialty types of arrows that gave bonuses in certain conditions, or had something other than "+ XX dps" on them.... procced elemental damage, bleeds, increased crit chance, things like that.
- Pets have to be fed
---Depends on how much of the old system they kept. The old pet leveling system was abyssmal, and I much prefer talent trees. That said, I like customization and options, and I would like to see pet foods that give different (minor) boosts to your pet... or maybe even just food that gives your pet a well fed buff, based on their talent tree (tenacity gets stam, etc).
- Reagents are a real thing
---This I don't miss too much... ultimately, it was just a money sink and space waster, and it was pretty random what spells took them and what spells didn't.
- You can run out of ammo
---Yes, conditional on my response to hunter quivers/ammo
- There are no flying mounts
---Only if they made flight paths at least three times as fast as they currently are, and go straight line and never waste time circling their destination before landing; otherwise, this just increases time requirements for no reason.
- You get your ground mounts at lvl 40 and 60
---Oppose for similar reasons; getting from point A to point B slower doesn't make it more fun, and only rarely affects difficulty
- Rogues have to make poisons again
--- Generally oppose, though if there was more to it than "buy reagents, grind" I might support it. The system in its original form was just a time/money/space waster.
- Locks have to farm shards
---Oppose, for similar reasons to rogue poisons
- Pallies and Locks have to quest to get their class mount at 40 and 60
---100% in favor, and I am still disappointed that these were taken out in the first place
- Druids now have to go through long chain quests for animal forms which now come at later levels
---So long as these quest chains are long because the content is long, and not because it takes 5 hours to reach your destination, I support the quest chains. I oppose pushing back level of acquisition, but instead would like to see one form offered at level 10, another at 20, etc. That way you can get the form you want early on, but still have to work to fill out your collection.
- No Paladins on Horde/No Shaman on Alliance
----Strongly oppose; great stylistically, horrible for balance.
- No Dual Spec
--- Strongly oppose; making people go back to a trainer to respec adds nothing of value (given that you can respec at all)
- No Transmog
--- Strongly oppose; customization is limited enough as it is
- No Reforge (even if it is now going away)
--- Indifferent, depends on how the stats work out. Don't think it would work well in MoP, but it could work well in WoD if they do a decent job balancing the secondaries, particularly with hit/expertise going away.


Generally, these quality of life changes were made because the original mechanics demanded time, money, and bag space, but offered little in return. There was little choice, no interesting gameplay mechanics.... just a holdover from the EQ mindset.

Would you still be playing this game if everything you had to do back then was still expected of you? If NOTHING ever changed... if all we did was get new content but EVERYTHING remained exactly as it was...[/QUOTE]

- - - Updated - - -

Yes, because giving people access to zones to level in made less sense than letting them be discouraged and just spam dungeons instead.

No, they're supposed to waste hours wandering the world to get to new zones manually silly.

[vindicatorx]

While I am not sure if I miss some of it or if it was I was just used to doing it so much that it seems odd without it. I look back at the time wasted leveling stuff that is no longer used. I had Lock-picking maxed out, made my own ammo, Leveled weapon skills on multiple weapons. I am not sure if I miss them or pissed I spent all that time doing them and now they are gone.

[Mukor]

2h enhancement shamans would rape again like vanilla? I'd be all over it. Miss sulfuras

[TheMork]

Yes i would. Only thing that i really would miss is the dual spec.

50g / re-spec was shit. And when you did spec to enhance (shaman) you had to re-skill your 2 handed weapon skill every time :S

ps: I would prefer the 2.0 patch talent trees doh

[Confirm Deny]

If WoW had never changed, then the damn servers would still need to be restarted like every 4 hours -_-

[TheMork]

I remember feeding my pet to keep it happy, otherwise it turned on me and he was untamed.

Hehe when i played my first hunter i didn't feed them at all. (didn't know that i had to) So started to attack me.
Then i just went out and got a new one. I played that hunter to lv 35 ish, while getting new pets all the time.
Early vanilla <3 So clueless

[Tastyfish]

Well if WOW never changed WOD would never be 50 bucks.. lol sorry, had too.

OT: I am glad its not a static, or the pre BC clusterfuck....

[Hyve]

Nope - While every change to the game hasn't been perfect, overall the game has vastly improved.

[TheMork]

- Rogues have to make poisons again
--- Generally oppose, though if there was more to it than "buy reagents, grind" I might support it. The system in its original form was just a time/money/space waster.

There where short duration weapon buffs for all classes, mp5/sp and so on. Rouges didn't have to farm to get them right?
I'm unsure i know that for shaman you couldn't have personal weapon imbue + mp5 one.

So in a way it was not harder for the rouge.

[Deleted]

Not for one second. The game was a massive time sink that had tons and tons of just wasted time. I barely had enough time to play when I was in my mid teens back in vanilla. I can't even imagine doing that today.

No, the QoL changes the game has gone through over the years have been very, very much needed and only helped the game.

I'm willing to bet my left testicle that if Blizzard ever puts up an official vanilla server, it'll have at most a few hundred thousand concurrent players, if even that.