Can someone explain how the "community" is so much better than it was 14 years ago?

[Prozach]

I think it's a pretty safe assumption that the majority of people that are playing now/will be playing in August have all done the Vanilla thing before. I can't help but remember how much complaining there used to be, especially on the bnet forums, about how awful the community actually was. All of the Barrens chat stuff, trade channel spamming and anal jokes, smack talking in general pretty much everywhere, especially in pugs when things weren't going smoothly.

How are things going to be any different or friendlier or whatever than they were back then? I guess factoring in that most players have "grown up" since then, that's never seemed to stop anyone from being an ass on the internet when anonymity provides the opportunity. Rage quits, loot drama, potentially having your server 'reputation' damaged all seem inevitable.

Maybe I'm being pessimistic here but I get the whole nostalgia thing but I personally enjoy playing the game without being limited to only playing same-server population now. Outside of my guild members, why do I need another few thousand randoms to get things done anyway?

[micwini]

I think it's a pretty safe assumption that the majority of people that are playing now/will be playing in August have all done the Vanilla thing before. I can't help but remember how much complaining there used to be, especially on the bnet forums, about how awful the community actually was. All of the Barrens chat stuff, trade channel spamming and anal jokes, smack talking in general pretty much everywhere, especially in pugs when things weren't going smoothly.

How are things going to be any different or friendlier or whatever than they were back then? I guess factoring in that most players have "grown up" since then, that's never seemed to stop anyone from being an ass on the internet when anonymity provides the opportunity. Rage quits, loot drama, potentially having your server 'reputation' damaged all seem inevitable.

Maybe I'm being pessimistic here but I get the whole nostalgia thing but I personally enjoy playing the game without being limited to only playing same-server population now. Outside of my guild members, why do I need another few thousand randoms to get things done anyway?

The game has a lot of players. No matter how much time goes by, there will always be nice people and rude people. In classic, you have 1 server you play on and you will only ever see players from your own server. If you are going to behave like a little shit, you will build a very negative reputation with the players of that servers.
In the live game? Everything is crossrealm. You can be a dick to someone and be 99% sure you will never see that person, or anyone he knows, ever again. In classic, you WILL be encountering the same people over and over, because there is no crossrealm stuff.

This means less anonymity and also less bad behavior.

TL;DR: Bad behavior in classic has bad effects that the live game does not have, because of crossrealm stuff.

[Holdodlig]

Community was the same as it is today. But since you had to work with people to go further in your adventures, people used to be more polite. And since you had to spend time with people, you actually learned to know them and eventually started to bond with people because sometime the game was boring as hell.

I think you also had this Diablo 2 / Warcraft 3 mentality of doing nothing and just chat in the general channel when you were not in a lobby, and a lot of player of WoW came from those two games. (At least most of those I know)

So the fact you need people to have amusement / progression is something that should make the community "better" (but when you see half the threads here you can be pretty sure you'll still face jerks).

[mojojojo202]

Community was the same as it is today. But since you had to work with people to go further in your adventures, people used to be more polite. And since you had to spend time with people, you actually learned to know them and eventually started to bond with people because sometime the game was boring as hell.

I think you also had this Diablo 2 / Warcraft 3 mentality of doing nothing and just chat in the general channel when you were not in a lobby, and a lot of player of WoW came from those two games. (At least most of those I know)

So the fact you need people to have amusement / progression is something that should make the community "better" (but when you see half the threads here you can be pretty sure you'll still face jerks).

You were also terrified of annoying anybody in case your realm black-listed you...

[Prozach]

I understand what you guys are saying but the consensus I'm hearing with Beta is that the community is so much "better" than it used to be. I just don't understand HOW it could be or what's leading people to think that. Small sample size currently? Everyone just happy to be playing and haven't yet reached progression issues, raiding, end game grouping situations that were cause for the baditude I remember?

I'm curious to see how things will be 6 months after launch. Not that I'm WANTING the community to degrade over time. I'm just having a hard time buying that players have changed so much over the years that I won't have to worry about the same issues that plagued the game before; all of the pissy gquitting and knowing AT LEAST 3 or 4 of your radars were going to be high maintenance dbags who link dps meters after every trash pull.

Again, not saying I don't want that part of the game to be a selling point now, I just don't see how it's possible and that's one of the main reasons I see people saying why they want to play classic again: because of the 'community' factor.

[Maudib]

The game also has less "convenience features" than modern Wow. A group quest is a group quest. You can't just tag a mob another person is killing and walk away knowing you'll get credit. A mage's set of portals is really, really nice... as is their conjured food because gold is scarce. you won't have 11 alts with all the professions maxed.

Your mini-map doesn't have shaded circles telling you where everything is or the ability to track reagents/repair/vendors/banker/flightpaths etc. There is no dungeon journal in game. There is no personal loot. Corpse walks are long... so getting a rez sure is nice.

In other words... there is a lot in he game that encourages communication: "Hey, where is the closest repair?" "Hey, I'm on the XXX Quest... where are the mobs for this?" "LF port to Ironforge... will tip"


As you run around doing your thing, you will often get buffs from passers by. If you are in trouble with mobs... and a person see's it? They will often join you to help keep you alive then mosey on along their merry way.


The game encourages good behavior... good communication... which in turn encourages friendships. After all.. WoW used to be an MMORPG... not the solo experience it is today.

[Trend]

The game encourages good behavior... good communication... which in turn encourages friendships. After all.. WoW used to be an MMORPG... not the solo experience it is today.

You didn't play vanilla so I think it is easy for you to miss the point. The point is that 15 years there was a predominance of dickish behavior in WoW. And it is unlikely that will be any different this time around. So the OP's question is how does this reality support the idea that community is going to be a great selling point? And I think that is a good question.

[kamuimac]

I think it's a pretty safe assumption that the majority of people that are playing now/will be playing in August have all done the Vanilla thing before. I can't help but remember how much complaining there used to be, especially on the bnet forums, about how awful the community actually was. All of the Barrens chat stuff, trade channel spamming and anal jokes, smack talking in general pretty much everywhere, especially in pugs when things weren't going smoothly.

How are things going to be any different or friendlier or whatever than they were back then? I guess factoring in that most players have "grown up" since then, that's never seemed to stop anyone from being an ass on the internet when anonymity provides the opportunity. Rage quits, loot drama, potentially having your server 'reputation' damaged all seem inevitable.

Maybe I'm being pessimistic here but I get the whole nostalgia thing but I personally enjoy playing the game without being limited to only playing same-server population now. Outside of my guild members, why do I need another few thousand randoms to get things done anyway?

well for one spaming anal in barrens chat will get you silenced pretty fast with 1422421312 people autoreporting your language

- - - Updated - - -

The game also has less "convenience features" than modern Wow. A group quest is a group quest. You can't just tag a mob another person is killing and walk away knowing you'll get credit. A mage's set of portals is really, really nice... as is their conjured food because gold is scarce. you won't have 11 alts with all the professions maxed.

Your mini-map doesn't have shaded circles telling you where everything is or the ability to track reagents/repair/vendors/banker/flightpaths etc. There is no dungeon journal in game. There is no personal loot. Corpse walks are long... so getting a rez sure is nice.

In other words... there is a lot in he game that encourages communication: "Hey, where is the closest repair?" "Hey, I'm on the XXX Quest... where are the mobs for this?" "LF port to Ironforge... will tip"


As you run around doing your thing, you will often get buffs from passers by. If you are in trouble with mobs... and a person see's it? They will often join you to help keep you alive then mosey on along their merry way.


The game encourages good behavior... good communication... which in turn encourages friendships. After all.. WoW used to be an MMORPG... not the solo experience it is today.

yours maybe not but i will for sure use addons which will make everything visible on map/minimap

[Heph47]

I understand what you guys are saying but the consensus I'm hearing with Beta is that the community is so much "better" than it used to be. I just don't understand HOW it could be or what's leading people to think that. Small sample size currently? Everyone just happy to be playing and haven't yet reached progression issues, raiding, end game grouping situations that were cause for the baditude I remember?

I'm curious to see how things will be 6 months after launch. Not that I'm WANTING the community to degrade over time. I'm just having a hard time buying that players have changed so much over the years that I won't have to worry about the same issues that plagued the game before; all of the pissy gquitting and knowing AT LEAST 3 or 4 of your radars were going to be high maintenance dbags who link dps meters after every trash pull.

Again, not saying I don't want that part of the game to be a selling point now, I just don't see how it's possible and that's one of the main reasons I see people saying why they want to play classic again: because of the 'community' factor.

It was never as bad as you were led to believe. Dickheads shout loudest despite being in the vast minority

[Prozach]

It was never as bad as you were led to believe. Dickheads shout loudest despite being in the vast minority

That's the thing--I played since Vanilla so that's how I actually remember it. lol Unfortunately, be then a minority or not, they sure were loud. It only takes a handful of them to create the appearance of a problematic social structure.

On a sort of related note, I posted on my servers trade chat this weekend to see if I could have someone help me get to one of the Highmountain racial quests and had five whispers within just a few seconds. All but one willing to fly me from Dal there for free. It was refreshing to know there are still nice people playing and willing to help just for the sake of being helpful.

[BananaHandsB]

How are things going to be any different or friendlier or whatever than they were back then?

The community wasn't any better or worse. The community as a whole hasn't just altogether changed since vanilla.

Perceptions will always been different than reality, especially when trying to analyze an entire community of people.

[Maudib]

You didn't play vanilla so I think it is easy for you to miss the point. The point is that 15 years there was a predominance of dickish behavior in WoW. And it is unlikely that will be any different this time around. So the OP's question is how does this reality support the idea that community is going to be a great selling point? And I think that is a good question.

I was there 13 years ago, and recall quite a bit of how chat went. Barrens chat was pure adult humor, and silliness. It was for fun.

In everyday practice though, chat was full of "LF1M - Tank for DM", "How do I make a fire?", "Where do I train my pet?", "Enchanting Fiery Weapon, your mats, on SW bank steps", etc.

It was not the cesspool community some players wuld liek to make it. It was actually quite nice.

When I saw some derogatory stuff it was USUALLY someone looking for a group and people bashing them for being a Ninja, or a jerk. Or the occasional rival guilds talking crap about one another. you kow.. good stuffs.

- - - Updated - - -

yours maybe not but i will for sure use addons which will make everything visible on map/minimap

Oh I wll too.... But there will be plenty of players asking questions... even if they have them too.

[RealRevChris]

If we are talking about the official Blizzard forum being the "community" that place is still a rancid cesspool of human filth, being rude & reporting anyone with a differing opinion. I hate thet place.

[Belloc]

The Classic community is going to be the same shitty community we have now. The only difference is that it'll have some more enthusiastic people in the first few months. The beta will be mostly enthusiastic players because, well, they actually want to play Classic.

Once Classic goes live, the experience will be a lot different from what we had in the original Classic. Why? Well, because the average player is much better now than they were back then. All of those raid mechanics that were new are old and done to death. Every boss fight has been killed and the strategies are common knowledge. New Classic is going to be easier than old Classic and that's going to make the community much easier to deal with.

It's still going to suck, though.

[Akasha64]

Community back then was less elitist. Sure, there were always elitists even back in the day, but I feel like everyone is an elitist now with the min-max mindset that's been going on for awhile now. When people started playing MMORPGs they were more humble all around.

[Thage]

I think people are going out of their way to be nicer because that's the community they want to be part of, and with server communities mattering more it's something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's like that in FFXIV, too. "Be the community you want to see" and all. Retail's biggest problem community-wise (and why so many server communities rate a couple rungs on the ladder above nuclear sludge) is Blizzard spent 15 years almost completely hands-off in regards to shitty behavior, so cat's kind of out of the bag there despite their recent efforts.

That being said, the server community can be a double edged sword. If your server ends up with only one notable raiding guild on your faction, there's less pressure the community can exert if that guild's main tank decides to be a crusty foreskin in a pug or acts like a dink in Trade chat. That can degrade things, too, as seeing Maintank the warrior from <Ominous Latin Words> getting away scott-free with being a jackass can break down the unspoken rule most server communities live and die by (don't be a dick) which can snowball into people jumping to another server where Maintank's antics can't go unpunished as his guild isn't the only operation in town.

[RobertoCarlos]

Communities normally start off well then end up really shit with any game

[crakerjack]

The community was better because people were held accountable. You knew back then that running into familiar faces was common, so acting out or treating people like shit got you remembered. You'd find yourself on a big server blacklist if you were enough of an asshole. Not just that, but all the good encounters you had with people weren't in vain. I can be incredibly nice to someone in a m+ and help them through 5 or more dungeons and they'll forget about me months from then. If I did that in vanilla, it's likely I'd run into that same person and they'd remember me for helping them. They might even tell other people about me being nice and they might help me. All that is gone because there's no familiar faces anymore. I can see people playing like i've always had, but I hardly recognize them the same way I did back in vanilla.

There's more anonymity then every before and subsequently there's more asshole than ever before.

[Reginald Van Hooten]

All the things you named are not the bad part of a community.
I really look forward to that trashtalk and barrens-chat, especially those nice anal-[Impale] jokes.

[Frolk]

Tougher/hard/slower to get to cap, less shitters/baddies at cap making the game better for the GOOD players, how often to u come across baddies in BFA when pugging M+ norm/hc raids that wanna make u rip out ur hair in agony? Often is the answer, and i welcome this filtered and improved community.