Do players know Leveling was a Big part of Vanilla?

[clevin]

Do players who've been watching the Classic stuff know? Yeah. Do a lot of people who havent been paying attention but will learn about it when it launches know? Nah.

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But there's much more to the game than gaining XP, even at low level. The magical pull of WoW is when you have other things to do, like farm gold, improve your gear, work on professions, complete quest chains to see how it ends and get the reward, learn to play your character and make plans to build it up to level 60.

Yep. VERY simple example. My first character was a rogue. At 20, you get a quest that gives you, as a reward, the ability to brew poisons. It is, I think a single quest, might have been a short 2 quest 'chain' but it was somewhat challlenging at level for a new player. And it was fun! You were an adventurer taking a new step, gaining knowledge that would make you more powerful.

Now, well, poisons are basically a time limited enchant that you just re-apply.

[chrisnumbers]

The main audience knows these things. For anyone who doesn't, let them find out as everyone else did.

[Armourboy]

Wake up 6.30. Arrive back home at about 21 apart from wed and fri. Not everyone works at 10 minutes from home, plus my son plays volley 3 days a week and finishes at 20.30. By the time we finish dinner, wash dishes and so on it’ 22-22.30. Add 20 minutes for a shower, you are near 23. At this point I have to chose if totally ignore my wife and play 1 hour before going bed or watching something on tv with her talking about stuff.

Back then was more or less the same with the difference i went to gym every evening 19-20 or so and by the time I was home+dinner+shower it was easily 21.

My situation is borderline maybe, but don’t assume everyone works 6 hours a day in a place near home with nothing else to care about.

So you work a ton of hours, yeah you won't be able to play a lot of you do that, but you won't be doing a whole lot of anything in that case no matter what it is.

Truth is our guild was filled with families who managed to play as much as anyone else. Yeah they had 9-5 jobs, but working less and having more leisure time is a choice you personally make with or without playing an MMO.

This notion though that the only people that have time to play are young kids or those that are single is just flat wrong, as we were doing it 14 years ago and even before that playing other MMO's.

[MoanaLisa]

There's 60 levels in Vanilla. Of course it's going to take a while. I don't know why people need to be warned. They'll find out soon enough if they don't know.

Part of the pleasure of vanilla for me will be taking my time.

[Drusin]

No one is going to give up on leveling before 10 because it's so """""hard""""". The amount of self-wanking over what a challenging, arduous task leveling in Vanilla was has reached flat earther levels of delusion.

Feb. 10th, 2010

Blizzard has revealed that only 30 per cent of new World of Warcraft players make it past level 10.

That's the tipping point at which people either stay or go, which make's the game's 11.5 million subscriber base all the more impressive.

sawwwce:https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/b...ast-level-10_1

This is in WRATH lol, you can't get past level 10 in WRATH?!

Leveling might not be as bad as vanilla earthers portray it to be but don't overestimate the playerbase either. Anyone coming to Vanilla that started in like WoD is going to be in for a surprise lol

[Armourboy]

Feb. 10th, 2010



sawwwce:https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/b...ast-level-10_1

This is in WRATH lol, you can't get past level 10 in WRATH?!

Leveling might not be as bad as vanilla earthers portray it to be but don't overestimate the playerbase either. Anyone coming to Vanilla that started in like WoD is going to be in for a surprise lol

I gotta wonder what people were doing to stop at level 10. I mean I've heard some individual stories but I figured that was the exception. Heck you dont have more than a couple of abilities and are still in the starter areas. I can't imagine paying for an MMO and quitting that easy.

[Hitei]

Feb. 10th, 2010



sawwwce:https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/b...ast-level-10_1

This is in WRATH lol, you can't get past level 10 in WRATH?!

Leveling might not be as bad as vanilla earthers portray it to be but don't overestimate the playerbase either. Anyone coming to Vanilla that started in like WoD is going to be in for a surprise lol

Because they don't like the game, guy. It means that people play for an hour or two, aren't that impressed and then stop. Not that "OH MY GOD IT'S SO HARD HAVING TO SPEND MORE TIME EATING AND DRINKING, AND THINGS DIE SLOWER, HOW CAN I POSSIBLY COPE!?!" Tens of millions of people leveled in Vanilla, many of them stupid kids at the time. No one is going to quite because leveling is hard, because it wasn't. If they quit it will be because leveling was fucking tedious and grinding out 40 mobs for 8 item drops doesn't have the appeal in 2019 that it did in 2005.

When I made my second character in Vanilla to go play on a friends server, I had zero idea what the fuck I was doing with hunter. I didn't even begin to think about kiting, I didn't have the faintest clue how autoshot timing worked. Most of the time when I pulled a mob I concussion shotted, arcane shotted, and then spent the entire rest of the time fighting the mob in melee with my pet not taunting, so I was actually tanking. I was in the mid 30s before my friend actually explained to me the basics of fighting shit as a hunter. Leveling is and has always been a complete joke. It just took longer. That is what anyone coming to Vanilla from WoD is going to be surprised by. How slow paced every aspect of the game sans geared PvP is.

[chiddie]

So you work a ton of hours, yeah you won't be able to play a lot of you do that, but you won't be doing a whole lot of anything in that case no matter what it is.

Truth is our guild was filled with families who managed to play as much as anyone else. Yeah they had 9-5 jobs, but working less and having more leisure time is a choice you personally make with or without playing an MMO.

This notion though that the only people that have time to play are young kids or those that are single is just flat wrong, as we were doing it 14 years ago and even before that playing other MMO's.

I do not work a ton of hours. I simply have 4 hours of travel time (more or less). But even if I worked 5 minutes from home, my son’s sport timings would make spending hours in game quite difficult.

It’s quite the standard in northern Italy. Maybe other countries are luckier.

[smityx]

They should make it as difficult to org EQ leveling even with hell levels. Wow leveling was easy and casual even in the beginning

[Armourboy]

I do not work a ton of hours. I simply have 4 hours of travel time (more or less). But even if I worked 5 minutes from home, my son’s sport timings would make spending hours in game quite difficult.

It’s quite the standard in northern Italy. Maybe other countries are luckier.

Whether actually at work or driving it's the same thing, it's for the same purpose ( and btw screw that, I drive 2 hours a day and that's bad enough).

Thing is you've prioritized what you want to do, they did as well. They had the time even with multiple kids so it is possible it's just a matter of what you want to do.

[Aphrel]

the best part of vanilla leveling is that questing and dungeons isnt so streamlined.
Quests arent conveniently clumped up in hubs with Qgivers handing them out in portions. As opposed to today (or even any version of wow tbc and forward) there is no On-rails experience when it comes to questing in classic.
In vanilla it was chaos, with quests being found in the oddest of places, dropping from random monsters, sending you across the entire continent, or in some occasions being handed out in droves often when you as a player was way off the levelrange for them (gotta love that first visit to booty-bay xD), and it was wonderful.

It felt like an offroad hike instead of a carefully planned themepark ride.

[chiddie]

Whether actually at work or driving it's the same thing, it's for the same purpose ( and btw screw that, I drive 2 hours a day and that's bad enough).

Thing is you've prioritized what you want to do, they did as well. They had the time even with multiple kids so it is possible it's just a matter of what you want to do.

I’ve not prioritezed anything.

Maybe you live in a place where people call you everyday to offer all kind of works but in my country situation is kinda bad. It’s not that I WANT to work far from home, I don’t have a choice (unless I accept horrible salaries).

Also, again, good luck in finding a wife that happily accepts you spending 90% of your leisure time on your own standing in front of a monitor speaking with an headset.

Anyways I’m happy to hear that there are lots of husbands or wives with many sons that can manage work, family and still find 2-3 hours a day to play, maybe I’m only unlucky this side.

[Armourboy]

I’ve not prioritezed anything.

Maybe you live in a place where people call you everyday to offer all kind of works but in my country situation is kinda bad. It’s not that I WANT to work far from home, I don’t have a choice (unless I accept horrible salaries).

Also, again, good luck in finding a wife that happily accepts you spending 90% of your leisure time on your own standing in front of a monitor speaking with an headset.

Anyways I’m happy to hear that there are lots of husbands or wives with many sons that can manage work, family and still find 2-3 hours a day to play, maybe I’m only unlucky this side.

You dont need to play every day, and thanks I've already found one that is just fine with it. Granted we met playing MMO's so she can't really complain.

As far as the job, I'd be moving or taking the crappy job. In fact I took less pay to be where I am because I didn't want to drive an extra hour. At some point you are burning up about as much with maintenance and gas as the extra pay is. Not to mention time.

[Muajin76]

Leveling (quest hubs) was shit.
Class/spec balance was shit.
Itemization was shit, tier bonuses being designed for one of 3(4) specs a class had???
Dungeons were crap, for the most part.
Raids were crap, for the most part.
PvP balance was crap.
Spec design was crap with a few exceptions.

Honestly Vanilla was a poor game, by modern standards, Character progression and Realm Communities was the only good parts ...but they were very good. Hiwever I still think TBC and WotLK are massively better games.

All of the above plus the fact i played through vanilla, are why i'm not interested in spending time on a game that doesn't add to my toons on live.

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I’ve not prioritezed anything.

Maybe you live in a place where people call you everyday to offer all kind of works but in my country situation is kinda bad. It’s not that I WANT to work far from home, I don’t have a choice (unless I accept horrible salaries).

Also, again, good luck in finding a wife that happily accepts you spending 90% of your leisure time on your own standing in front of a monitor speaking with an headset.

Anyways I’m happy to hear that there are lots of husbands or wives with many sons that can manage work, family and still find 2-3 hours a day to play, maybe I’m only unlucky this side.

and here i thought most members in high raiding guilds like method are happily married or have a gf/bf.

[Merie]

It took me nearly a year to get my first 60... because I would burn out and lose track of where to go or what to do next. It was a completely different time to be alive back in 04 and 05. My second 60 was done in a month. Jame's leveling guide, baby. I sorely wish I had had it the first time and will definitely be using it for Classic.

[Cracked]

Leveling WAS THE game in vanilla. Max level content was something that was tacked on and not too in depth.

[Tseng]

The "on-rails" design-shift for quests is something I never liked (I always wondered why Blizzard sold this as a plus) because it killed immersion / "realism" for me (realism in relation to the Fantasy world :P).

Most Vanilla quests were not placed/designed for player convenience, but rather in a way that made sense in the context of the world.

Quest design from TBC onwards to me always felt like it was following a script ("Go to quest hub" - "Collect 3-5 quests" - "do them all" (of course they coincidentally all happen at the same location" - "go back to questhub, turn in, collect next 2-3 quests" - "do them all" (again they coincidentally all happen near each other at another location) - rinse and repeat - "go to next quest hub".
It suddenly no longer was the story that dictated quest placement and patterns, but the other way round - quests had to follow the pattern, and afterwards got their story "imposed" upon themselves (which often resulted in super flat story telling).

[vsb]

I leveled in TBC which I consider close to vanilla and I never made any friends or grouped that often, most quests are solo-able and rest are solo-able at later levels. The only quest that I remember I was explicitly finding group for is warrior class quest for weapon, because it was so good at that level. Dungeons is a different beast, while I never made any friends there either, I had some social interactions, so that's what I'm really waiting for.

[Armourboy]

I leveled in TBC which I consider close to vanilla and I never made any friends or grouped that often, most quests are solo-able and rest are solo-able at later levels. The only quest that I remember I was explicitly finding group for is warrior class quest for weapon, because it was so good at that level. Dungeons is a different beast, while I never made any friends there either, I had some social interactions, so that's what I'm really waiting for.

By the time TBC rolled around you wouldn't have really found that many people to do the quests that you would need help on. But there were several in Outlands you couldn't solo and that existed in Vanilla as well.

I think the first group quest I remember in Vanilla was Hogger but my wife had a high level mage by then so I kind of got to cheat on that one.

[andrewjoy]

You mean the game has content at all levels ........... terrible , shocking.