So much this. The mentality was different. Half the people that played classic came from retail and it showed. Was in a top 3 server guild in Vanilla, not once did we collect world buffs. Some did, but it wasn't mandatory. There was none of this MC'ing to get warchiefs buff crap. There was enjoyment in the unknown, ignorance and learning.
I was super excited for TBC raiding. But now that there are around 1,000 horde left on my server, we are eternally stuck in Karazhan as we cannot fill a 25 man raid without pugging. I was very excited to play WotLK eventually, but with the horde populating on Netherwind reducing weekly, I thinking I may just quit. I refuse to pay money to fix a problem blizzard refuses to address. So my eventual option will to be to take my money elsewhere.
This makes me sad. But it is what it is.
RIP Genn Greymane, Permabanned on 8.22.18
Your name will carry on through generations, and will never be forgotten.
RIP Genn Greymane, Permabanned on 8.22.18
Your name will carry on through generations, and will never be forgotten.
Wrath will be dead faster than getting hit by a pair of Gnomish Lightning Generators in season 5.
WotLK is heavily overrated. Dungeons were a joke, raids were a joke (up to HC ICC), questing was still not great (got good in Cata), PvP was as unbalanced as it ever was. The best part of WotLK was the scenery of the outdoor zones, the music and even though I don't care one bit about story, I know the story around the Lich King was also good.
My favorite expansion was Cataclysm, with the best leveling zones ever, revamped EK/Kalimdor, rated bgs, TRANSMOG, reforging, the best dungeons ever, amazing raid (well maybe not DS), archaeology which I loved etc. I really, really hope they do Cataclysm Classic.
the sooner wrath comes out the better ill be personally. i had the best times playing there.
“Listen, three eyes,” he said, “don’t you try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.”
I can't justify playing wow because of the monthly fee, If you are not entrenched in the auction house and token racket it's quite expensive in some regions to even play the game. Mind you I would love to play I just think they should have a cheaper subscription if you're only looking to play the classic versions of wow. They're just trying to gouge people at this point.
the only thing that was good about wod pvp, was gearing system, everything else was huge mess
//im not gonna elaborate, but game became all about popping cds in MOP, and then in WOD they removed half of the spells ->think about it//
pvp overall as a gameplay was at its worst (if bfashadowlands had no borrowing powers it would be better than it)
only 2 comps were strong, games was long and boring, nothing was happening unless u were 1 of those comps - turbo/rmd
maybe u played turbo back then XDD
its horrifying IT IS Fking HORRYFING that game became SO BAD that PPL think WOD WAS GOOD O M G
i can't tell people to spend their money how i see fit and actually expect them to do as i say. i'm not that naive. but paying blizz for access to a good game when most of the people that made it are gone and the current version is absolute crap doesn't help change the quality of products we're given. people are free to enjoy what they enjoy. if someone actually finds shadowlands fun, power to them. but it's clear that the majority of players don't which includes me. the specific issue to me is the ever decreasing quality of expansions as years pass. i'll write out of a list of the past few expacs when they launched and what they had to show what i mean.
shadowlands:
5 zones
torghast (design was changed drastically a month or two before release)
1 raid with no others tested during alpha/beta
4 covenants which have 3 soulbinds per covenant
bfa:
6 zones
islands and warfronts (not changed last minute but also not changed according to feedback)
1 raid with no others being tested
azerite gear taking the place of tier items (consisting of 3 choices total at launch)
the start of allied races which is effectively reskinned models and not wholly new ones (technically started in 7.3 but it was a launch feature for bfa)
1 new battleground
legion:
5 zones with a partial 6th as part of class quests and intro quests
world quests introduced to mostly replace daily quests
1 raid on launch with a 2nd being tested during alpha/beta (nighthold)
12 class order halls
a new class
36 artifact weapons with a progression system
new mythic plus system
wod:
6 zones
garrisons (changed to being static location from the original any zone but otherwise kept the same)
1 raid on launch with 1 tested during alpha/beta (blackrock foundry)
last expac with challenge dungeons
mop:
6 zones (though 5 effectively since vale wasn't used for much)
3 raids launched (though i think the bug one was timegated for a bit)
first expac with challenge dungeons
pet battles
scenarios were added
monk added
pandaren added
new talent system
two new battlegrounds
i try to be fair when it comes to criticism. i don't like giving or taking credit away when it isn't warranted. but ever since mop, the game has been getting noticeably less content (not just pve content mind you) with each expansion with the quality getting noticeably worse each expac after legion. that's why i say people paying for classic aren't helping the issue. the greedy corporate people only care about the money and the only way to make the arrogant wow team (most, not all) listen is to force their bosses to breath down their necks.
So if i understand it, if someone really loves tbc and thought it was the best expansion, them paying to be able play their favorite expansion is wrong becouse it dont fix the current expansions problems.
And I must say i really love those "content" list that always seem to leave stuff out to look alot worse then it is.
Maybe look at it this way: because the developers who created your earlier, preferable version of the game are forever gone, Blizzard is unable to replicate that design for new content whether or not you give them an incentive.
That leaves us with Blizzard's acknowledgement of multiple WoW versions needed to serve a desired customer base. We've come a long way from J. Allen Brack's dismissive remark: here's the game we enjoyed then and in many cases enjoy now. By all appearances, Wrath is on the way, encouraged by TBC's relative success. So it's a simple transaction. You pay Blizzard for fun that Blizzard has conceded it can no longer provide for new productions, but is still relevant to the market. All in your favor. The only variable is whether you deny yourself that opportunity.
i'm not really looking for any design in particular beyond returning to badges and tokens for gear drops. i just want a game that i am more than happy to just be content with. while there were things i didn't like in bfa, i was content with the expac for most of it (i quit shortly into 8.3). shadowlands is just (or at least was) so grindy, the horrible and inconsistent gearing systems, the bad story. the entire expansion just doesn't have quality control. i'm happy with average, i just want to love wow again.
i really want you to think about the phrase "for fun that Blizzard has conceded it can no longer provide for new productions". if a company can't provide a quality product, what is the future of that company? like i've said before, i can't expect people to do as i say and if you find something fun that i don't, good for you. but if a company can't make good products, then that company is doomed to die.
if blizzard is doomed to die at it's current pace, the logical conclusion would be to try and figure out a method by which it may change. sadly, profits is the only thing activision cares about at the moment. that means the only way to force a meaningful change as a consumer is to strip their current profit as much as i can so that the greedy idiots come in and start kicking things into shape. and while i don't think the ones in charge now could achieve that, strip away enough profit and they will feel forced into getting new top dogs.
i don't want wow to die and i don't hate wow. but right now the best thing to do for the sake of wow is to not play it.
A company without a varied portfolio might be finished, but Activision-Blizzard has enough irons in the fire to rethink strategy. In the meantime, Classic proves that old products that should be obsolete are still profitable — plus, Classic itself is a new strategy. I know that forward-looking statements are all "innovation, growth, yada-yada," but sometimes you can make customers happy and yourself money with the same-old.
i completely agree with what you say. it makes perfect sense from the business point-of-view. but as a consumer, while classic is appealing, it won't hold attention forever. it's best as a supplement to retail than it's own thing. people will normally come back for new content and such but outside of the initial launch, few will play it without a wanting to play retail. unless blizz starts making classic+ content, classic will eventually die without retail to support it. we've even seen the hardcore players that were on private realms prior to classic releasing quit the tbc servers only a few months after its release.
what i think people are missing with my point is i'm thinking long term. far longer than 1 or 2 years. wotlk will likely be the last (with mop having a small chance since it was really the last good "classical" style of expansion) classic server general audiences will care about so what happens then? i might not be addicted to wow in the general meaning but when i quit in january, i went through withdrawal because of my moderate-severe depression for months. i didn't quit wow and now hate on it out of spite. i genuinely love the game and think of it as a second home. i'm critical these days to try and get the game to improve. it was where my friends and my main hobby was and i can't enjoy it now because of how poorly its been handled.
so yes, the business can still milk money for a little while, and yes, customers can be happy with the bad product/prior unchanging product they have now. that doesn't mean it can last. and while activision may have the money to last for a while to finally enact the needed change, wow certainly won't if its hemorrhaging subs. wow needs to change soon or activision may cut support.