Have you actually played Vanilla?

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

Your account used to tell you when it was first created. Not sure if it does that anymore

I think if you typed /played it used to tell you. Not sure anymore.

[khazlol]

i still have the tabard from the TBC pre event.

[Oneirophobia]

In the later half of its cycle, but it was still pretty garbage by then.

The blizzard devs are mostly correct when they say “you think you want this, but you don’t.”

Having said that, I think they should do legacy servers just so the standard “DAE WANT VANILLER SERVERS?!” threads get a change of flavour to “DAe WaNt BC SERVERS?” as the population of the vanilla servers dwindle, and complaining about “yes I want vanilla but also heirlooms or boost to 60 and also flying (( “ inevitably pour in.

[Eurhetemec]

Did I play Vanilla? Nope... I started at the beginning of BC.

In vanilla/BC/WotLK, I'd get a new weapon and the mobs I was just killing before died faster. I could then go kill mobs a little higher in level. DING! New spell or talent point and I saw and felt the difference.

I feel so terribly bad for the younger people playing this game now. They have no clue how great this game used to be.

Unlike you, I actually did play WoW in Vanilla, indeed, I played WoW from the open beta onwards (buying it day 1 US at 8am).

I also played MMOs before WoW. Pretty much everything you list as being "great" about Vanilla WoW? That was something other people listed as being "great" about pre-WoW MMOs, and used WoW as example of how MMOs had been "dumbed down". A good example is:

"Dying was punitive... it took a good while most of the time to return to your corpse. This made those close calls exciting."

I mean, are you joking? Like, that is just completely ridiculous. WoW had by far the LEAST punitive death of any mainstream MMO when it came out. People who liked WoW used this as a selling point - "No more losing hours or XP or having to go get your body!". People who didn't like WoW said it was a dumbed-down game for babies because dying cost you a few minutes and some light repairs.

Other claims are just nonsense - you certainly did not feel every talent point or spell upgrade in Vanilla. Generally only talent points in new talents which offered more then just small percentage "number increases" were immediately felt (TBC and Wrath did better on this). Most often, you spent a talent point and basically felt you got nothing. Spell/ability increases often felt like you were playing catch-up, rather than gaining something valuable.

Or how about:

"At max level you had to start gearing to run normal dungeons to get the gear to run heroics to get the gear to run raids."

Bollocks. That wasn't the progression in Vanilla, and it wasn't the progression in TBC. It makes me suspect you started with Wrath, rather than TBC, as you claim (or very late TBC). You couldn't even "gear" properly in Vanilla, because the gear just wasn't there. People were raiding BWL in level 54 blues and worse (I know, because I was in the first guild on my server that downed bloody Nef, and we had plenty of people in terrible gear). For countless MC/Ony/BWL/ZG and even some AQ20/40 raids, I was using the same L57 epic mace on my Paladin (Hand of Edward the Odd), simply because nothing else dropped and/or that bloody silly proc was better. In TBC, people went pretty much straight from normal dungeons to Kara, with no Heroic step in-between. In Wrath that progression you describe became the norm.

I strongly suspect you claimed to have played Vanilla on the poll, and that is unfortunate, because you did not, and no, some retro-server is not the same as actually having played Vanilla.

[Deleted]

I feel so terribly bad for the younger people playing this game now. They have no clue how great this game used to be.

Yet you say in the same post that you never played Vanilla. You just play on a private server and pretend you are

[Teri]

Yes, US closed Beta.

I did switch regions to EU in 2008 however.

[Deleted]

Yes and I have pre tbc tabard.
And the game is better now. Grinding mobs from 55-60 for like half a day and then grinding much more for epic mount. It was fun at the time because we did not know better!

[Oneirophobia]

I think a lot of people claim to have played since vanilla... but I seriously doubt anyone that says it "has evolved for the better", has played anything prior to Cata.

I think a lot of people who claim they played since vanilla haven’t when they say vanilla was better than later iterations of WoW.

[Deleted]

I think a lot of people claim to have played since vanilla... but I seriously doubt anyone that says it "has evolved for the better", has played anything prior to Cata.

The game definitely evolved for the better since Vanilla, and while I don't have to prove to anyone that I did play Vanilla, I actually can. Not only because of the screenshots I still have, not only because of several of my toons carrying old pvp titles and not only because my Warlock still has a robe that only ever dropped in Vanilla Naxx, nowhere else.

Once again we're going in circles and having discussions that we've had a thousand times on these boards, by having people who never played Vanilla claim it's the greatest MMO experience ever and the current game is extremely dumbed down compared to those days, how Vaelastrasz was an innovative encounter while Blackhand Mythic is just boring, easy, dull and simple. *yawn*

The love for Vanilla is induced by nostalgia, because it WAS an outstanding experience for its time. The first time playing a game most of us clearly love (otherwise we wouldnt be here after 13 years), exploring everything, learning the story from scratch is something you can never replicate. It's a personal emotional experience.
Factually, however, the current game is just not comparable to what Vanilla was. Legion is a much more streamlined and way higher quality game than Vanilla. As someone who always raided, encounter design has come a very long way since the days of being on dedicated constant decurse duty on Noth, as frostbolt spammer with the occasional blizzard on Ragnaros or as dedicated wand-thrower on Onyxia because otherwise I'd go OOM and steal aggro.

[MrFiddleswitch]

I think a lot of people who claim they played since vanilla haven’t when they say vanilla was better than later iterations of WoW.

Vanilla was better in one single aspect - Exploration. The entire world was new and so huge with so many different zones and there just wasn't much telling you where to go and what to do after the first little bit. The rest of the game was pretty awful compared to what we have now - but I do wish they could find a way to recapture that feeling of Exploration.

[sentrosi]

Yes i did. As mentioned in previous posts, the first time playing experience was incredible. The game is far better today but i have very fond memories.

[Khaza-R]

I think a lot of people who claim they played since vanilla haven’t when they say vanilla was better than later iterations of WoW.

The only thing better about Vanilla was the social aspect imo. Servers had identity, you got to know the people on your realm.

[Eurhetemec]

Vanilla was better in one single aspect - Exploration. The entire world was new and so huge with so many different zones and there just wasn't much telling you where to go and what to do after the first little bit. The rest of the game was pretty awful compared to what we have now - but I do wish they could find a way to recapture that feeling of Exploration.

Only way to do that is to not have flight, and to have maps as bad and empty as the vanilla ones (I mean the viewable maps you get by pressing M), with no icons for where flightpoints will be or the like, whilst also making normal mobs significantly more dangerous (to the point where exploration risks death to some extent). Sadly I'm not sure any of that would be met with happiness.

[Maudib]

Other claims are just nonsense - you certainly did not feel every talent point or spell upgrade in Vanilla. Generally only talent points in new talents which offered more then just small percentage "number increases" were immediately felt (TBC and Wrath did better on this). Most often, you spent a talent point and basically felt you got nothing. Spell/ability increases often felt like you were playing catch-up, rather than gaining something valuable.

Or how about:

"At max level you had to start gearing to run normal dungeons to get the gear to run heroics to get the gear to run raids."

Bollocks.

Now I know you didn't play it. Or if you did... you were in diapers and couldn't comprehend the game at all.

Everything I stated is accurate and true to me. Your mileage may vary which is why you like the crap they spew out now.

[Quincey]

Yep. Started April 22nd 2005. No breaks since then apart from the week I got banned during wotlk. Went out and bought a new account since it was permanent. I still refute I was using third party software, other than the steel series mouse drivers for the first warcraft mouse. Its been years and Blizzard still refuse to lift the ban or even give me specifics on what exactly I did wrong.

[Maudib]

Yet you say in the same post that you never played Vanilla. You just play on a private server and pretend you are

To me, BC and Wrath was when this game was great which is why I feel sorry for those that did not play it then. Vanilla is still a blast today... so I don't see your point.

- - - Updated - - -

The love for Vanilla is induced by nostalgia, because it WAS an outstanding experience for its time. The first time playing a game most of us clearly love (otherwise we wouldnt be here after 13 years), exploring everything, learning the story from scratch is something you can never replicate. It's a personal emotional experience.

It's STILL an outstanding experience. One many choose to participate in over Legion.

[Teri]

One of the fondest memories was raiding Scholomance with a ton of people (before the 10-player cap), and dropping group to loot the 4 scrolls for the barov peasant caller questline.

Some dungeons were overtuned (for 5 people in greens) in the very first version, a lot changed even between the US and EU release dates.

They tuned/added a ton of blues to dungeons a few patches later.

Spell power items/frost damage/shadow damage etc. , greens were often used early on on casters, even without stamina. Negative spell resist on enemies existed, resulting in shadow vulnerability, but it worked different for frost as it was binary, while shadow wasn't.

[Eurhetemec]

Now I know you didn't play it. Or if you did... you were in diapers and couldn't comprehend the game at all.

Everything I stated is accurate and true to me. Your mileage may vary which is why you like the crap they spew out now.

Dude, I was 26 in 2004, so if that's "in diapers", I have no idea what that makes the rest of the people here, including yourself. Ova maybe?

I not only "comprehended" the game, but I had played many other MMOs before it, so didn't have "FIRST MMO LOVE SYNDROME", like you clearly do with this horseshit about "dying was punitive" and so on. It's not like it's my opinion that WoW's dying was totally lax and un-punitive - it's a demonstrable fact, that, compared to other MMOs, WoW let you off VERY easy for dying.

As for "Everything I stated is accurate and true to me." - so the bits where you both claimed to have played Vanilla, and then admitted that you didn't are both "true to you", huh? That's a remarkable version of "truth". When, exactly, did you even start playing WoW? Sunwell-era TBC or something? Sometime in WotLK?

[Swalload]

Yes and I'm happy I did back when it could be considered good. If I played this today I would puke everywhere like I did when I tried the private legacy servers.

[Azerox]

Yes it was fun. But don't think i would want to do it again @ this age.

Man when Wow released i already played mmorpgs for like 7 years. Still counting!