Have you actually played Vanilla?

[Beroendet]

Yes, 11Feb EU release still getting chills when I think about my first char creation . Been on and off since.

[Shadowsgrace]

Yes?
Caveat: After two weeks, I found out there was a "Burning Crusade" and Upgraded to it.

[MatthiasLehner]

nothing to be proud of or anything, just happened to be there when it happened. 2003 or 04? I don't recall exactly, but during the Open Beta, I played with 2 of my friends as NE Druid, Dwarf Warrior and a NE Rogue. We went as just 3 of us through Kalimdor and reached Blackfathom Deeps, and after many tries, we've wiped the dungeon clean with only 3 of us. It was the best adventure I had in a game :')

I thought it was just the first-timer thing, but, when I go back to certain zones, I can tell that it's the music as well. The old levelling zones have this ominous, mysterious, atmospheric scores that match the zones so perfectly...

[Chemii]

I had the game and a subscription at the end of Vanilla but I think "played" is a strong word for a lot of players.

Most of us logged in but didn't have a clue and struggled with the most remedial tasks because commercially MMO's were in their infancy. That's not to say we didn't have fun but it's not like now where everyone is a raider at some level.

Some of us were battling buying our first mount or simply adventuring doing quests or getting lost inside Mauradon.

[Detheavn]

I loved AV FOR the minigames. I spent many an enjoyable hour in AV collecting scraps, claiming the mines, summoning help etc - those were the days when AV matches lasted for hours or days!

Those were actually the same days I'm talking about. The things you're talking about were part of that battle. Summoning the Lokholar or Ivus were part of that. What I'm talking about is the mini-game of "capping some towers and rush boss". There is literally no fun in this. Like you said, there were epic battles of (longest I've been in was around 5) hours on end, but they have been turned into a little PvE mini-game

[Rogalicus]

I voted no because I played it on you-know-which private server and I'm not going to pretend that it was comparable to live version.

[Heldamon]

Yeah, seal of command bugs = have to relog

[Mstone7781]

Yes, I started playing the day the game launched in 2004. Still playing the same character also, just not the same server.

[Deleted]

Yes i have, bought the game about 2 months after release.

Even when i think back about it right now....
Leveling was shit,
Dungeons were shit,
Raids were shit,
Everything was complete and utter shit compared to now.

God i loved that that era.

[epLe]

Well join date here can give some indication if they are telling something close to truth or not.

Vanilla was a different game.

For those of us that actually played it, raided, pvp'd, grinded and enjoyed the game as it was meant to, it is not nostalgia or rose tinted glasses that makes us say it was better.

Vanilla was better because it was a new game, with 40 man raiding that required commitment and dedication.
This C&D together with no Xrealms made a much better community than todays raidloggers.

So the modern WoW is more pretty, but Vanilla had way better community and playability making it the better game.
(other incentives than RNG slots to play outside raids)

[Demona3]

Yes, I own the CE (collector's edition). yay pets !

[Rogalicus]

Even when i think back about it right now....
Leveling was shit,
Dungeons were shit,
Raids were shit,
Everything was complete and utter shit compared to now.

I'm glad you ate shit for 11 years until your holy saviour Legio came and saved you from suffering.

[Daevied]

No, i remember i started at bc and then quitted at lvl 30-40 couse it was so annoying to lvl up, then i came back during lk and finally pushed my way to lvl 80 in a single month, good times..

[Aeula]

Yup, got to level 23 on an elemental/ench hybrid shaman, got sick of not being able to afford my skills and the length of time it took to level.

[dacoolist]

here's mine, also: Vanilla was too grindy #kakakaka

TBC was a great point to REALLY play imo

[Deleted]

Yup ! 23/01/2006 was when i started my free first month. I was 26 years old. Best gaming time of my life with tbc.

[Eurhetemec]

I would have to agree with this. Although it might not be entirely 100% the case, but I would say its relatively few compared to the original player base. Its difficult to fully articulate what exactly made WoW compelling to play back then, in contrast to today, its something that had to be experienced to understand.

Relatively few people from then are playing because it's 13 years later, and now we have serious jobs, families, lives and so on, so few of us have the time for MMOs at all. Plus games and entertainment generally are better than they were in 2004, so there's more competition for our time.

As noted, I played from open beta, and I think the game has had it's ups and downs, but the idea that Vanilla was actually better is pretty silly.

What made it "compelling" was that you had never played an MMO significantly before. For people like me, it was pretty great, but we could see the flaws/cracks even back then.

[Pum]

This is non existant in current wow.

The chills i got from entering duskwood... jeez

I still go back to Goldshire every now and then to soak it all in again.

[Mask]

Well join date here can give some indication if they are telling something close to truth or not.

Vanilla was a different game.

For those of us that actually played it, raided, pvp'd, grinded and enjoyed the game as it was meant to, it is not nostalgia or rose tinted glasses that makes us say it was better.

Vanilla was better because it was a new game, with 40 man raiding that required commitment and dedication.
This C&D together with no Xrealms made a much better community than todays raidloggers.

So the modern WoW is more pretty, but Vanilla had way better community and playability making it the better game.
(other incentives than RNG slots to play outside raids)

People with a different mindset or different goals in gaming probably don't understand it, but the player community is a big part of what made MMO's great back then. It wasn't anything like a single player game and it wasn't supposed to be.

Before dungeon finder or raid finder or cross-realm or flying mounts or 6 hours to max level, the game was an experience that was shared with a whole community of people that you saw and interacted with every day. Not just your guild, everyone on the server. All the game improvements they have made these days have improved the single player experience greatly but also greatly hurt the shared community experience that was vanilla. I miss it quite a lot.

[tratra]

the poll... 83% of mmo-c has played vanilla, yeah right... lol

I don't really get it, whats the point of lying about it, either you played or you didn't big deal.