Reasons why vanilla World of Warcraft was so popular.

[vesseblah]

also the 3.5m western subs in jan 2007 is a public statement by blizzard.

Care to link Q3/11 numbers of western subs and sub losses that you're referring here? No? So stop pulling numbers out of your arse and claiming somebody else is posting facts selectively.

[Deficineiron]

Care to link Q3/11 numbers of western subs and sub losses that you're referring here? No? So stop pulling numbers out of your arse and claiming somebody else is posting facts selectively.

sorry vesselblah, I think anyone reading this thread can see you are just being hostile and don't like to be shown to not know what you are talking about. I don't mind illustrating basic math and other things to people when they are halfway civil. I will give you a clue - it involves division by 2 as a first step.

And yes, you are very selectively posting info from the q3 call in an effort to be misleading, and I am not. I am done with you. goodbye.

I would suggest anyone having any doubts about the relative accuracy and value of vesselblahs and my own posts review the exchange and our other comments in other places in detail.

[Synros]

Yup, I miss the old days of WoW. Now its "Who can lvl to 85 first, while 1 or 2 shotting every mod on the way". The class uniqueness is completely gone, with so many others sharing the same function of spells, whats the point of being one class over the other? I remember when the community was actually a community. Where, if you needed help, there was people always willing to offer some. Now, if your stuck, you have all these assholes yelling, "HA, newb, L2P loser, trololol, feget, ANAL [insert random ability here]. Most players now, are completely fucking retarded, and offer no real purpose to be playing any MMORPG. I've been playing this game for 7 years now, and my Mage is still my main. Sure I have A LOT of other classes, mainly because its so boring to just play on class now. I remember when I had that feeling of, "Hell yah, I'm a Mage". Now it "hmm, I'm a Mage, I guess".

[xxAkirhaxx]

I think this was said before in this post, but to catch anyone up who skips to the last page.

You need to have been in the MMO scene when WoW was released to understand why Vanilla was so great.

Vanilla wasn't hardcore, it wasn't new and great, it didn't try anything that was radically different. It copied tried and tested systems from games like DAOC, FF11, EQ, Ultima Online, Shadowbane, SWG, etc....... and made them more CASUAL and EASY.

The stories I could tell you about EQ, anyone who was around in 1999 when PoF was released can atest to the relief of how playing WoW was when MC was released. Hell, compare UBRS to Solusek B is like night and day.

WoW made the MMO scene easier and more accessible, and another company is going to have to be able to do what WoW did. Hit the market with tried and tested methods, but create there product in a way that it appeals to a larger market.

Unfortunately GW2 is only half way doing that, it flipped the tried and tested methodology on its back side, but then opened it's market by making it free. The real test will be if they can do what Blizzard does with every game. Make it easy, but make it incredibly difficult to be great at. Blizzard follows this line of thinking with every game, and I've yet to see them create a game that didn't do extremely well with this thought process.

[vesseblah]

I don't mind illustrating basic math and other things to people when they are halfway civil. I will give you a clue - it involves division by 2 as a first step.

And yes, you are very selectively posting info from the q3 call in an effort to be misleading, and I am not. I am done with you. goodbye.

Illustrate me how basic math works when you're comparing year 2007 NA/EU numbers with year 2011 worldwide numbers. You're the only one misleading here, and playing martyr won't change the fact.

[SamR]

I remember when the community was actually a community. Where, if you needed help, there was people always willing to offer some.

http://www.wowpedia.org/Barrens_chat

Why do so many people willfully pretend that Barrens chat never existed? Not that the trolling of noobs was limited to the Barrens. Plenty of that in the main cities, as well. And the realm forums. On my god, the realm forums.

http://pc.gamespy.com/flintlocke-vs-.../921392p1.html

[Destrant]

Community and the fact that EQ's popularity was in its twilight (Gates of Discord didn't help)

[Shadowblade7x]

Most of the people don't know how the intial success of World of Warcraft did happen. I would like to mention some points why the game did become so popular. Feel free to add more or discuss.

1) Warcraft 3 - most of the new players don't know what Warcraft 3 was or they knew, but they have never played it. Warcraft 3 was one of the greatest strategy games of all times and without doubt it was the best strategy game of its era. This game was revolutionary in every aspect, it had great graphics, gameplay, amazing music and sounds, great map editor and let's not forget the great story it had. I can say that the majority of vanilla WoW players(me included) played a lot of Warcraft 3. We all wanted to visit great places from game, explore them, do the quests and do it with your friends or even other random people. I can't even describe how if felt when I visited Ashenvale or Barrens - it was beyond amazing.

btw there was bonus campaing in Warcraft 3, where you played as Rexxar and did quests given to you by NPCs, while you were gaining levels and items. Does it sound familiar?

2) Leveling - people tend to hate on vanilla WoW leveling, but I have to disagree with them. Yes, leveling was tought, but we loved it. Mobs had high hp pools and were hiting for a lot, pulling more than two will most likely result into corpse run. You had to actually use your brain, develop a strategy and use all your class abilities effectivelly to level up quickly. Even AH was very important for quick leveling. Quests were very simple, but most of the time you felt like part of the world and you even felt like you are helping npcs - like in real RPG

3) Social aspect - As I mentioned, leveling was pretty hard and the best way to make it easier was to group up with other players. I like how friendly people during vanilla WoW were. You could just talk to random person and 95% of time he would respond in friendly way. I've mad countless friends in vanilla.

4) No addons - yep, there were almost no addons and it was great. You don't know where the quest mobs are? Ask friends, guild or even general chat. Try to do this in WotLK or Cata, you would get typical "google it, use wowhead" answer. Addons are taking the fun factor out of the game. Why are people using addon to help them with rotation or addons like DBM? That's just silly.

5) RPG aspect - Why am I mentioning this? Back in a day... No, seriously. Back in a day you had to carefully choose your class and stick with it. There were no alts, only some people who played a lot could afford this luxury. Your character was part of you, you were part of your character. It was great, because this game is RPG after all and not just some Dota or LoL game.

Why am I writing this? I just want to tell people that WoW wasn't always only about raiding, arena and daily quests. It was far more. Game had soul, it felts like RPG and leveling was important and possibly the best part of the game. The true mmorpg.

I am going to agree and disagree here with some points. I've played since the alpha WoW started and some of these things are absolutely correct and then some you might just not remember.

1. If it weren't for Wc3 then WoW would have been a random MMO with no player base to start with. I feel like it was because of Wc3 that I was interested at all, infact even during Wc3 TFT I almost didn't play WoW because some of my friends were telling me "they'll come out with a Wc4 in like 2 years and this stupid MMO will be a waste." So Wc3 did help me and a lot of people I used to know play WoW.

2. Leveling was a hard aspect to the game, but almost no one I know who played back then regrets its leveling. Infact, most people I know from that era had 4-6 characters and had grand gear on 2-3 of them. Most players (I know) loved the leveling and leveled many characters. Although I do agree with the fact you actually had to KNOW your class to level, I remember on my rogue I had to gouge and kidney shot ALL the time to take down mobs 1 at a time.

3. Absolutely correct.

4. There were absolutely many many many many many addons. Although we didn't have 'curse' right at the very beginning, there were forums and people you could contact to have addons made. There were tons and tons of addons. Easily up to 1000 before classic ended.

5. Again like I said before, I knew people who had up to even 10 top level characters and was geared on 2-3 of them at the least.


Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents to help some who might criticize your wall of text. Yes there were addons, being social was only greeted with kindness, leveling was fun for everyone who played back then (at least WAY more than it is now), the game was about the quest not the destination. That's why the game was amazing, it was about getting to 60 and your adventure to it, not getting to 60 to raid and endgame.


Edit: This is in no way a bash, just some thoughts I had during my time during classic.

[Deleted]

It's about time someone made a post about Vanilla WoW.

Honestly, Vanilla's gone - the magic for me is also gone the game is nothing like the old, and for all its flaws I genuinly loved it.

[BigAinCA]

It was more casual than EQ

[woodydave44]

It was new

[nuttymuffins]

Not surprising that the first page to this thread filled up with replies of how "bad" vanilla was.
Just to explain my credible on the subject: I started playing WoW about 5 months before BC came out. I didn't level to 60 quickly enough to enjoy the dungeons and raids, but I still experienced enough to know how it was and I'm actually playing a vanilla private server (and enjoying it). When BC rolled in, I finally dungeoned at max level and also did raids (kara was amazing, my favorite raid).
-Ignore the idiots, I can guarantee you that most of the people with positive and credible input of the subject are probably long gone and don't care to even mess with forums. They've moved on.
-People complaining about vanilla's questing and grouping (actually having to run to the dungeon and form your own group), are probably wrath babies and don't have a clue in the world. When you had to form your own group, it wasn't always easy and was a bit time consuming, but made the end goal so much more rewarding. It made the ingame community thrive and made guilds worth while. It also made gear more valuable and it actually meant something when you achieved getting good gear. The LFG was the downfall of WoW. And here's why:
a.) It made you lazy, and made purples mean nothing.
b.) No sense of accomplishment.
c.) Everyone practically has the same gear nowadays. See that guy over there? Yeah, he practically has the same gear as you because he also took 3 seconds to click a dumb button. (woopdy-doo!)
-Guilds and raiding were basically one in the same. You wanted to raid and have good players as group mates? Find a good guild and learn how to cooperate with other people to achieve your goals (GEAR!). This was basic Guild Progression. Do you even know why they implemented the guild leveling system? Because guilds became pointless because of pugs and LFG. Why?..
a.) LFG: You queued and ran the same dungeons over and over until your eyes bled of boredom and easy purple gear.
b.) Raiding: Then you jumped into your pugs and downed the bosses to get even more easy purple gear. (Then you ran around like an A-hole like you actually accomplished something)
c.) And you did all of this while not even needing a guild! (OH BOY!)
-For an MMORPG the community and interaction is so important, you have no idea. Since I've started playing a private server, I've made some good friends and the social interaction just makes it much more enjoyable. You met good players, added them to your friends list, then grouped with them and possibly even raided with them for end game content. The casual style of Wrath and Cata has turned most players into whiny little jackholes, that can't understand the concept of patience. (This basically ruined it for me)
-Remember attunements? Yeah, I do too.
-You made goals for yourself and it took time and effort to reach them. Gear/experience/attunement. (Pfft. Screw the achievement system! Attunement and gear were your achievements!) Guild cooperation; learning how to be kind and patient with people furthered your adventure to achieving your personal goals. (I guess you could say it built character. Lul)
-Yeah there are some things that were added to the game later that made it better, but they were small things; small additions. Yeah it was a bit buggy (oh cry some more). But basically just the social interaction and the quality of the server communities made it better. This is why BC was fantastic as well, and I actually prefer it over vanilla.
Learn to play noobs; players didn't always have the luxuries of LFG and LFR (Which I've only heard of since I quit before this was added). The fun in gaming= CHALLENGE.

[vesseblah]

Just to explain my credible on the subject: I started playing WoW about 5 months before BC came out. I didn't level to 60 quickly enough to enjoy the dungeons and raids, but I still experienced enough to know how it was and I'm actually playing a vanilla private server

Your own words are very fitting here...

-Ignore the idiots

You don't know shit about vanilla gameplay based on private realms, and have zero credibility on this discussion.

[psoodkel235]

#nuttymuffins

watchout we got a 'vanilla private server' badass player here ... -.-

[Spaceshaman]

<snip>

Erm, ... no lol.

Ok a quick memory refresh.

Warcraft1 was just another Dune2 clone. Because it was fantasy people enjoyed it. Me included.

Warcraft2 was a logical extension of W1. Group select, higher resolution graphics, etc.

Warcraft3 was 3d. Although there was quite a few 3D RTS before that still the Warcraft franchise has made it big.

WOW is an EQ clone set in the Warcraft universe. EQ was a very successful game, add to this the popularity of Warcraft universe and you have a blockbuster.

[nuttymuffins]

Your own words are very fitting here...



You don't know shit about vanilla gameplay based on private realms, and have zero credibility on this discussion.

Are you sure you're able to read or did you just completely ignore where I said I played Vanilla just so that you could look like an ass?
-Yes I played well long enough to know how vanilla was, and thanks for ignoring everything else that I said. DERP

[A dot Ham]

Rose tinted goggles is what makes Vanilla popular. You're new to an amazing game where everything makes you literally go "Woaaaaaah...", you can't have that more than once.

Looking back at it, Vanilla was actually pretty bad. The community was good though, because it was required.


>> That's my personal view, btw. Not for anyone else.

I think this opinion is equally biased.

That being said I agree with both of you.

[nuttymuffins]

#nuttymuffins

watchout we got a 'vanilla private server' badass player here ... -.-

Yeah...I'm such a badass for wanting to play Vanilla WoW again...Ever heard of Blizzlike private servers?*gasp* they're free to play! >.>

[vesseblah]

Are you sure you're able to read or did you just completely ignore where I said I played Vanilla

Yes and yes.

just so that you could look like an ass?

-Yes I played well long enough to know how vanilla was, and thanks for ignoring everything else that I said. DERP

Only one here looking like an ass is first post wonder who claims private realms is anything like WoW was actually in vanilla.

Yeah...I'm such a badass for wanting to play Vanilla WoW again

First time.

Ever heard of Blizzlike private servers?*gasp* they're free to play! >.>

And also illegal.

[nuttymuffins]

Yes and yes.



Only one here looking like an ass is first post wonder who claims private realms is anything like WoW was actually in vanilla.



First time.



And also illegal.

-Obviously, no and no. Ill add an extra no just to clarify. No.
-I play on a blizzlike private servers. Their goal is to make it as close to original retail as they can. (That's kind of the point). Actually, my first post never claimed anything like that. If you could actually comprehend you would know that I only claimed to be playing on a private server, and added that I'm enjoying it. For the third time, my first point was that I actually played vanilla, and followed with that information just for added detail. Am I going to have to repeat this, or are you going to actually keep up? Derp again genius.
-Your ability to sense sarcasm amazes me.
-Wrong. Any "illegal" issues would have been handled loooooong ago. So sorry to be redundant here, but no, just NO.