Page 1 of 5
1
2
3
... LastLast
  1. #1
    Dreadlord Nigel Tufnel's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Here lies David St. Hubbins, and why not?
    Posts
    839

    What made Vanilla magical for you?

    Sorry, I’m sure there have been lots of threads like this but:

    I’m remembering all the things that made Vanilla WoW magical for me (newb to MMOs, playing holy priest).

    - Elwynn Forest music.

    - At lvl 15 or 16 or whatever it was killing Van Cleef, clearing Deadmines and exiting the side of that hill. I got lucky and my first experience of a dungeon was with a group who knew what they were doing.

    - Developing an understanding of mechanics: being told by a warrior not to cast PW:S on him as it interfered with his rage generation; figuring out my first macros; MP5; trawling Thottbot!

    - Further down the line: Stratholme and Scholomance 15 people raids! BRD - fuck me, what an amazing dungeon. First 40 person raid. Being swept through Molten Core with my new guild. Onyxia - triumphant march through Stormwind with guild to deliver head.

    - I never got Benediction! I want it!

    - Community. Your reputation mattered. The way in which you interacted with other players mattered. /2 LFG UBRS have key

    The problem is I no longer have the time to invest in the game that I did in my 20s.

    I can’t decide whether to leave this in the past or to give it a go.


    What made it magical for you?
    You can't really dust for vomit.

  2. #2
    Leveling, and the extraordinary achievement of killing 4-5 mobs at once, or by killing a ?? elite with a friend.

  3. #3
    Attacking a fully Tier 2 (or tier 1 not sure anymore) geared Paladin on my level 2 Warlock (first char ever made) in 2006. Guess who got rekt very hard . I just thought it was a quest mob back then. I still remember it untill this day

  4. #4
    server community

  5. #5
    the feeling of being a lowly adventurer and not a big damn hero. overcomming challenges feels more rewarding when you are the underdog.

  6. #6
    Dreadlord Nigel Tufnel's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Here lies David St. Hubbins, and why not?
    Posts
    839
    Quote Originally Posted by Hatebreedd View Post
    Attacking a fully Tier 2 (or tier 1 not sure anymore) geared Paladin on my level 2 Warlock (first char ever made) in 2006. Guess who got rekt very hard . I just thought it was a quest mob back then. I still remember it untill this day
    Ha. Yes.

    If there's anyone from EU-Nordrassil (10 years ago) reading... who was that undead Horde rogue who used to wind up players in Elwynn Forest. The bones guy... just can't remember his name.

    One of my many noob mistakes was to assume that by swearing at him in /1 he'd be able to read what I was saying. Doh.
    You can't really dust for vomit.

  7. #7
    Warchief Mekkle's Avatar
    7+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    My desk, Lurkin'.
    Posts
    2,242
    A mage *Ba-Dum tis*

  8. #8
    The Lightbringer starkey's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Planet Caravan
    Posts
    3,640
    Watching Stitches coming down the road towards Darkshire
    Finding a Krol Blade while farming runecloth in Andorhal
    Running MC for the first time
    Playing AV for 2 days straight in the same game the whole time
    Killing Doom Lord Kazzak and Azuregos
    Being at the opening of Gates of Ahn'Qiraj event
    Scourge Invasion and of course the corrupted blood outbreak
    I'm gonna let 'em know that Dolemite is back on the scene! I'm gonna let 'em know that Dolemite is my name, and fuckin' up motherfuckers is my game!

  9. #9
    Easy, it was the novelty.
    The novelty of a new game, a large new world and the MMO concept as a whole.

    3 things that can't be recaptured for ever.
    That's why I think Vanilla will bomb, hard, once people will realize that it's just a clunky wow that they have already played.

  10. #10
    Pros:
    - Server Community.
    - Pacing, you had to work for your goals.
    - (follow up from pacing) Rewards felt extremely rewarding.

    Cons:
    - only 1/3 of the class/spec/builds were viable.
    - game balance... Rogues, Mages and Warriors would destroy absolutely everything in PvP and PvE damage.
    - PvE was extremely simple, not saying easy ...but simple. Bosses with 2 mechanics and a damage over time? /yawn.
    9thorder.com | Recruiting exceptional players!

  11. #11
    Dreadlord Nigel Tufnel's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Here lies David St. Hubbins, and why not?
    Posts
    839
    Quote Originally Posted by starkey View Post
    Watching Stitches coming down the road towards Darkshire
    Yep, there was something genuinely spooky about Darkshire. Especially if you were a few levels too low for it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Hell-Nicø View Post
    Easy, it was the novelty.
    The novelty of a new game, a large new world and the MMO concept as a whole.

    3 things that can't be recaptured for ever.
    That's why I think Vanilla will bomb, hard, once people will realize that it's just a clunky wow that they have already played.
    But MMOs had been around for ages? Runescape? EQ? And 'clunkiness' was just the way the game played. Only today's player would call it clunky?

    Anyway - I want to know what made it special at the time.
    You can't really dust for vomit.

  12. #12
    The friendly and inclusive community, which was the only legitimately good thing about vanilla.

  13. #13
    Seeing Rag shoot up from that lava that first time absolutely blew my mind.

  14. #14
    Dreadlord Nigel Tufnel's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Here lies David St. Hubbins, and why not?
    Posts
    839
    Quote Originally Posted by Huntingbear_grimbatol View Post
    Bosses with 2 mechanics and a damage over time? /yawn.
    Ahh, but this is the thing for me. Somewhere between WoTLK and MoP a transition occurred (for me) between enjoyable and unenjoyable boss mechanics. Lich King HC was about as far as I went in terms of actually enjoying it.
    You can't really dust for vomit.

  15. #15
    Eight years or so of rose tinted hindsight.

  16. #16
    Demo Warlock in BGs in my dungeon blues.
    "Auto-correct is my worst enema."

  17. #17
    Leveling taking a long time. More time spent on the character makes you more invested in it, and just reaffirms that Vanilla is more about the journey than the destination. It's an adventure, unlike retail with its on-rails guided-tour "questing" and sitting in town queueing for dungeons over and over.

    Getting upgrades to your character's strength a little bit at a time, instead of every other level like in retail.

    Running into a quest that rewards a nice piece of gear and hurrying off to complete it first, unlike retail where you are in full blue gear by level 20.

    Having to group up to complete an elite quest in a dangerous area full of elite mobs, unlike retail where everything can be solo'd with no effort.

    Classes actually having flavor and being unique, even if that makes class balance a bit of "rock paper scissors", unlike retail where everyone is homogenized and equal and have the same general abilities so that no one class is more powerful than another.

    Vanilla is just slower paced and enjoyable, a social experience that really feels like you're in a living, breathing WORLD of Warcraft...a stark contrast to retail where everything is gogogogogogogogogo instant gratification single player action game with very few RPG elements.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Hell-Nicø View Post
    Easy, it was the novelty.
    The novelty of a new game, a large new world and the MMO concept as a whole.

    3 things that can't be recaptured for ever.
    That's why I think Vanilla will bomb, hard, once people will realize that it's just a clunky wow that they have already played.


    I'd tell you why you're wrong, but I've argued with this exact type of sentiment so many fucking times that I can only assume you're trolling by repeating it.

  18. #18
    Mmorpgs were completely new to me at that point. Its definitely not going to be as magical when it comes out in 2019 as it was when I started playing in 2005.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Nigel Tufnel View Post
    Ahh, but this is the thing for me. Somewhere between WoTLK and MoP a transition occurred (for me) between enjoyable and unenjoyable boss mechanics. Lich King HC was about as far as I went in terms of actually enjoying it.
    I feel the same way. I stopped doing any serious raiding in MoP because raiding just isn't fun for me anymore. I'm not interested in being "challenged" I am interested in being "entertained". Boss mechanics just keep getting more complex as the years go on. I long for the simpler days of patchwork fights, not standing in fire and spam the cleanse button.

  20. #20
    WoW has never been magical for me, it certainly wasn't my first MMO by any stretch.

    It was a good solid game is all, and today Classic offers a step back to a different time in MMO thought and development.

    Honestly the closest I came to a magical moment was actually in TBC walking through the portal for the first time.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •