Why is it called vanilla?

[Deleted]

I always wonder why Classic wow is termed as vanilla. What does vanilla mean other than it's an ingredient?

[Jester Joe]

I believe it's because it's vanilla is considered like, the basic ice cream flavor maybe?

I wasn't far off!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_software

[Harry Botter]

I take it as referring to vanilla ice cream. Most people think that was the first flavour of ice cream and the original. I could be wrong.

[HealTree]

Vanilla is what we associate with boring taste

[tryharder]

Vanilla usually means "the original, without anything added" in the sense that an expansion adds content to otherwise original content. The metaphor is closer to adding toppings to your vanilla ice cream (e.g. chocolate syrup, candies, fruits, nuts, etc.) rather than vanilla as a flavor compared to other flavors. Vanilla is World of Warcraft, where as Chocolate is Guild Wars 2 (or some other MMO) with a different flavor. Vanilla with sprinkles is original WoW with The Burning Crusade added on top. That is the metaphor.

[Ciddy]

Vanilla usually means "the original, without anything added"

That's always been my understanding too. Although I feel kind of stupid using the word "vanilla" to refer to a game. I always just call it Classic WoW.

[Bosen]

The color of the original box.

[Nanaboostme]

Unexciting, normal, conventional, boring.

[Afrospinach]

Vanilla is what we associate with boring taste

Speak for yourself, vanilla is the most amazing sweet flavour.

The color of the original box.

Brown?

[Bosen]

Speak for yourself, vanilla is the most amazing sweet flavour.



Brown?

Hmm..I thought the back of it was cream colored. It's been so long!

[tj119]

No clue, always called it classic. I usually ignore/don't believe anyone who says they started in vanilla.

[Amerissis]

Because people are stupid. It's simply Classic.

[Sketchy]

Unexciting, normal, conventional, boring.

This. I learned the term Vanilla in Wrath and basically most people felt that the original
expack was quite boring compared to Wrath. Nowadays everyone is crying about how
much better vanilla was.... Oh how times have changed!

[Mitters]

I just call it classic, classic was bad but vanilla is the best flavour.

[gaiaovermind]

classic was bad

But muh 40 man raids

[Lochton]

Because it is just a term for the first flavor, or call it classic. We can't just call it World of Warcraft. I normally use the term "Classic" or "Vanilla"

[Thelxi]

It has nothing to do with gaming lingo. Vanilla is used the same way to describe a lot of things in the English language.

[Deleted]

Vanilla is what we associate with boring taste

Then Warlords is like Smurf ice cream, sounds fun but it tastes like shit and you won't get another one ever again...

[Asotcha]

I always wonder why Classic wow is termed as vanilla. What does vanilla mean other than it's an ingredient?

A long time ago ingame, I used to call it 'Old World Wow' since it used just the mainlands. I figured if I just distinguished it from outlands (this was in BC) then that would be fine. When people kept telling me it was called 'vanilla' and I asked why, I was told that it had to do with the color of the map screens. I think maybe over time since then the reason became lost, but 'vanilla' stayed. I always thought that was interesting.

[Alopex]

Plain, old, boring, yet still well liked.