Things you loved about vanilla that don’t happen now...

[Bathory]

People giving a shit. People being nice. People being a community.

[Projectmars]

World PVP, failed Canadian bank robbers picking fights with the guild I was in, capturing and defending the pig farm outside Orgrimmar, running the server’s Progression thread, failing to complete a dungeon three times in a row because no one remembered that beating bosses spawns a patrol that makes its way towards where you are. Agreements to let someone else in the dungeon group auction the first world epic drop you get, despite it being an upgrade for you because you still haven’t gotten your first mount.

[Aggrophobic]

Being a warrior tank who was happy to pug out of trade chat it was great once people knew I knew my shit that they would just whisper me before spamming trade to see if I was upto a run.

This created a sense of community that I feel retail currently lacks a bit, although I have yet to have a bad pug experience in Legion after returning from a 5 year break.

What did you love that don’t happen anymore?

Oh but that still happens. You join a guild and people ask you to tank befor they look for pugs.
Or they don't becuase you're not good enough but thats hardly the games fault and classic won't fix that.

[Veyne]

Sitting and drinking for an entire minute every two mobs while leveling. Felt real good.

[Nomads]

Oh but that still happens. You join a guild and people ask you to tank befor they look for pugs.
Or they don't becuase you're not good enough but thats hardly the games fault and classic won't fix that.

No it doesn't. What are you smoking. No one looks for group in trade. They use GF.

- - - Updated - - -

Sitting and drinking for an entire minute every two mobs while leveling. Felt real good.

Oh look.... another shit poster who comes to the forum of the game he doesn't like to try to bring others down. And he plays an UD Priest... lol can you be anymore of a stereotypical asshole?

[Aggrophobic]

No it doesn't. What are you smoking. No one looks for group in trade. They use GF.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't think my guild mates ever used group finder to ask me if I want to tank a dungeon. Odd that yours does.

I also have several players that I met in m+ that ask me regularly if I want to run a few.

[Nomads]

I don't think my guild mates ever used group finder to ask me if I want to tank a dungeon. Odd that yours does.

I also have several players that I met in m+ that ask me regularly if I want to run a few.

I don't think guild chat with like 50 people online is the same as trade chat with like 500 people....

Just saying.

[munkeyinorbit]

people taking in general chat in zones

a general sense of confusion about the game

Thats because there is something better. People talk in Group chat which can be accessed from anywhere.

[BetrayedOf52]

the community and thats it, bring every qol change + the old school community id be happy, i hated vanilla in its core, but i wont lie the community was great

[Aggrophobic]

I don't think guild chat with like 50 people online is the same as trade chat with like 500 people....

Just saying.

No but we have groupfinder for that and it actually works much better.
Having to spam a chat, that is not actually intended for groupfinding for hours to get groups was not a pleasant experience.

All I'm saying is that you can still find people that want to play with you and after a while, you don't actually have to pug.
If you can't, it's probably you and not the game thats the issue.

[Craaazyyy]

About the only thing I miss about the vanilla community is being able to shit on horribads, loot ninjas and gankers.

Not a very healthy community tbh.

- - - Updated - - -



Gameplay was much more laid back, because you auto-attacked pretty much every mob from 1-60.....
God and this 'loot=rare' crowd. Seriously, there is rare loot. Go get it. I will never understand this concept of 'lots of loot=bad', when the reality is 'lots of loot=variety', and in an MMO with 6 secondary stats and 35 different specs you fucking need variety.

Shit, vanilla had even MORE stats, just less variety and less specs. But I get the feeling you're the kind of person that's alright with a level 45 staff being BiS for feral druids and other stupid design decisions like that.

well considering that blizzard trying to remove variety from the game.. its not about just having a lot of loot its more about how easy it is to get that loot and how many ways there are to obtain that loot without actually doing anything that requires much effort

back in the days there was alot of loot, it just wasnt as easily obtainable and the game didnt have too many sources of basically free loot

- - - Updated - - -

the community and thats it, bring every qol change + the old school community id be happy, i hated vanilla in its core, but i wont lie the community was great

QoL changes is what killed the community

[aeuhe4yxzhds]

Oh, sorry. I should have mentioned that 90% of what you'd be doing on the majority of melee specs was just auto-attacking. But seriously though, thanks for pointing out that one clearly satirical comment meant to illuminate just how fucking horrible playing anything melee in vanilla was, you know, because I was there.

Call me wrong all you want, auto-attacks were anywhere between 60% and 90% of any given melee class' damage back then, especially when leveling up. It was fucking awful. Also needing to level first aid on a class that can heal itself just because you deal so pitiful damage outside of auto-attacks (windfury much?), that was pretty much enh shaman in a nutshell.

Also warrior before victory rush. Ehl oh Ehl. Suck down those pots and bandaids like you're a burn patient in the trauma ward.

You really should not kill red mobs. Green is faster. Cant know anything when you suck at the game

[Nomads]

No but we have groupfinder for that and it actually works much better.
Having to spam a chat, that is not actually intended for groupfinding for hours to get groups was not a pleasant experience.

All I'm saying is that you can still find people that want to play with you and after a while, you don't actually have to pug.
If you can't, it's probably you and not the game thats the issue.

Group finder would be fine if it didn't teleport you to the instance or put you with players from other realms. Those 2 things alone are some of the worst things to ever happen to the game.

[Dazu]

I miss the exploration and discovery because I didnt know about the end game or anything. I didnt have any reason to optimise my play or leveling.

[God Save The King]

If the game is better now why did vanilla have way more subs? WoW lore went to shit and they turned it into a casualfest. Just about every good feature from vanilla is gone

Blizzard stopped publishing sub numbers, so there's no way to know that Vanilla had more subs. It's just speculation on your part. It's also called an opinion, Vanilla was not objectively worse or better, people prefer different things.

Also, by your own logic, TBC, LK, Cata, and the first half of MoP were all better than classic, since they had more subs. You could even argue, with your own logic, that the WoD launch content was better than classic, since subscriptions spiked well above the classic peak.

[Forogil]

^This.

Haven't seen a retailer able provide any sort of answer for this yet.

Because retailers like Walmart sold (and possibly still sells) WoW. You should try asking WoW-players instead.

As for the question:
First the premise is wrong: the sub-numbers are at Vanilla-levels at least or possibly higher (i.e. a couple of millions); so Vanilla did not have way more subs.
If you had asked why sub-numbers aren't at TBC-levels it would have been a better question.

Secondly there are plenty of reasons why WoW is no longer growing in subs: the game is getting a bit old (and already heavy on reusing contents - time-walking, raid-quests in old raids, remaking raids as dungeons and vice-versa), I can imagine it can be a bit awkward getting started with now, and some prefer other genres that have appeared.

Vanilla is not cure for that.

[Nomads]

Because retailers like Walmart sold (and possibly still sells) WoW. You should try asking WoW-players instead.

As for the question:
First the premise is wrong: the sub-numbers are at Vanilla-levels at least or possibly higher (i.e. a couple of millions); so Vanilla did not have way more subs.
If you had asked why sub-numbers aren't at TBC-levels it would have been a better question.

Secondly there are plenty of reasons why WoW is no longer growing in subs: the game is getting a bit old (and already heavy on reusing contents - time-walking, raid-quests in old raids, remaking raids as dungeons and vice-versa), I can imagine it can be a bit awkward getting started with now, and some prefer other genres that have appeared.

Vanilla is not cure for that.

*RP Walks away from explosion*

[Aggrophobic]

Group finder would be fine if it didn't teleport you to the instance or put you with players from other realms. Those 2 things alone are some of the worst things to ever happen to the game.

It does not teleport you when you do raids or m+ though.
The other stuff, I don't really care about.

The realm thing is a must though. You'd be in queues for days on some realms if cross realm was not a thing. The other option would be to use systems such as Wildstar where everyone is pretty much on the same server. You're not really though but it gives you the illusion that you are.

[Forogil]

*RP Walks away from explosion*

You know that you are posting fake numbers from at least 2016 onwards?

[Nomads]

It does not teleport you when you do raids or m+ though.
The other stuff, I don't really care about.

The realm thing is a must though. You'd be in queues for days on some realms if cross realm was not a thing. The other option would be to use systems such as Wildstar where everyone is pretty much on the same server. You're not really though but it gives you the illusion that you are.

This is why you're a retail noob. Retail made raiding the only content that matters. Vanilla was never and is not that way.

The "realm thing" changed MMO communities into another MP Queue for content with other strangers game. Why do you think sub numbers have steadily declined since Wrath?

- - - Updated - - -

You know that you are posting fake numbers from at least 2016 onwards?

I knew you'd miss the joke...

Doesn't change to fact that Vanilla has compatible numbers despite not having the global community WOD and Legion do. Vanilla didn't even have servers outside North America....