When did Modern WoW start?

[keelr]

Literally every time a patch came wow changed a bit to fit into the current calendar year. Idk much about the classic patches but from TBC with each step wow modernised a bit more and thats why wow is still a game today.

[HateTrain]

Can we get cooler names than era 1, era 2, etc?

[Nerovar]

Can we get cooler names than era 1, era 2, etc?

RPG era - mostly defined by social interactions and heavy emphasis on RPG mechanics
Esports era - mostly defined by streamlining i.e. orienting the game towards accessible competetive gameplay
Systems era - mostly defined by expansion specific throwaway systems and a design focus based on engagement metrics

[Pozz]

Can we get cooler names than era 1, era 2, etc?

Blizzard sucks era.
Blizzard really sucks era.
Omfg do Blizzard never learn, they suck so bad, era.

Judging by forums

[HateTrain]

RPG era - mostly defined by social interactions and heavy emphasis on RPG mechanics
Esports era - mostly defined by streamlining i.e. orienting the game towards accessible competetive gameplay
Systems era - mostly defined by expansion specific throwaway systems and a design focus based on engagement metrics

Well shit. I was wanting funny/cool, but these actually seem pretty on point.

[Akka]

I would argue it started in Wrath. Not fully but that is where the seeds were planted. By the end of Wrath definitely since that is when they added LFG. Cataclysm was the first to bear the full fruit from it all though. Not only did most of the systems you listed get added then but it literally changed the face of the world and "killed" the classic world.

Yeah, except I'd say the first seed were planted late TBC, when they went really ahead with the catch-ups and nerfs and lifting attunements and so on.
BC was the transition phase between two design philosophies, WotLK was when the "new" philosophy was in full swing and Cata when it was having its full effects.

[Coldkil]

I'm going with Legion. Yes, after WotLK thing got streamlined and everything, but the core game was still the same old - you had your leveling, then dungeons then there was the raids. You had catchup systems in place in later xpacks but that dind't really break the whole cycle.

With Legion, everything changed to a completely different level. From borrowed powers to the seasonal themes the whole game seems designed around soft resets with major patches and an hard reset every expansion. Content didn't become immedately obsolete, there wasn't this rushing through stuff as fast as possible and the total focus on scores and competition.

I'm not saying gear treadmill wasn't a thing before. But literally from Legion ongoing i feel that farming for anything has no meaning, because it's just gonna either be rendered immediately useless next patch or stripped away next expansion. It devalues a lot the time i invest in the game - reason why i don't invest much time anymore. If it wasn't for guilds and the social aspects that make the game a lot better, it would be literally playing a solo ARPG where every season you have to roll a new character and start from scratch. Which works in ARPGs but not in an MMO like WoW.

Just my 2 cents.

EDIT: as others have said, you cannot really idetify a specific moment. Many things had immediate effects while others didn't pose any threat until much alter onwards.

[Graeham]

Cataclysm.

Up until that point, if you wanted to immerse yourself in the game's original content you absolutely could - but then Cataclysm completely removed and changed various parts of what a lot of people liked and loved. It was also the same time period where subtle jokes lost all subtlety and we saw entire zones driven by dumb pop culture references that, at best, should have been tied to one off quests rather than 90% of Redridge and Uldum.

The same expansion also introduced Deathwing as a major threat, a character known for subtle manipulation from the shadows. We didn't get to see any of that, in favour of Deathwing just flying around and burning things every now and then.

I identity it as the point where my interest in the game started to wane. It never really recovered.

TBC and WOTLK had their own issues, namely killing off too many iconic characters...but I still enjoyed the atmosphere each expansion was going for.

[unbound]

If I were to base it how the game played, I would put it this way:

Golden Age - Vanilla thru Wrath

Silver Age - Cata and MoP

Modern Age - WoD forward

Golden Age represents the beginning, the growth, and the sustained hey-days of the game. It involved much more RPG than exists in the Modern Age, and the playstyle incorporated the possibilities of the classes which were more unique in those days. This is the Age of the developer caring deeply about their product backed by an organization that supported them at every step.

Silver Age represents the initial decline and playing around with how classes should function. RPG elements were more aggressively removed, and the playstyle started pushing towards only 4 roles (tank, healer, rdps, and mdps). Blizz started putting notably less effort into both of these expansions. This is the Age of exploring what can Blizz cut without losing all the subscriptions all at once.

Modern Age represents laziness (somewhat of an exception for Legion). RPG elements are largely gone, and the playstyle has completely embraced 4 roles. Blizz has put as little effort as possible into each of the expansions during this time (Legion probably represented effort closer to Silver Age) to justify people spending money on the expansion. This is the Age of the repurposed Garrison table, gold sold by the developer, and powers that go away until re-earned at max level each time.

[lukkoth]

Post-Wrath is when Blizzard put into practice the thought process that players cared more about obtaining gear than how they obtained it. The dilution of epic quality gears meaning. You used to look at players with tons of epics because they worked hard and long for it, not everyone got to raid, it was more impressive. By Cata, obtaining epics was already becoming a bit of a joke.

[crakerjack]

Yea I’d say it all really started with cata. Sure Wotlk brought LFD, but cata brought transmog and LFR.

[Azerate]

Legion brought a completely new quality and types of content which continue to this day. And I personally think it's vastly superior to earlier expansions.

[LedZeppelin]

Cata. The answer is cata.

[loras]

I am just going to copy/paste it from Notepad lol
I may edit and organize this later:

When did Modern WoW start?

Modern WoW or Retail WoW
Retail WoW or Modern WoW
Whatever you say.

Modern WoW era: 2015 to Present??

The Modern WoW Era:

WoW being an Esports, Arenas, Rated Battlegrounds, Transmogrification, Dungeon Finder Tool, Premade Groups Finder Tool, Raid Finder Tool, Cross Realms, The WoW Token, Pet Battles, Toy Box, Linked Auction Houses, The New Auction House Interface 2019-21?, Reagent Bank, Void Storage, 30-slot Hexweave Bags, Professions are still useless, No Social Interaction any more in PUGS, Toxic PUG Community, elitism in PUGS, Introduction of Mythic+, No Social Interaction any more at all in WoW, Gear is boring now, Sooo Many Ways To Get Gear, Guild Finder which still sucks, etc.

- started when everything started being dumbed down, being more casual friendly.

- Blizzard catering to the casuals.

- Making everything easy.

- When they added the pandas

Button bloat.
Too Many Abilities Now.
Blizzard removing Button Bloat.
When Blizzard started removing abilities because too many.

Example: Druid's Ability Symbiosis (back in the day)
The Druid would cast Symbiosis on a friendly target
The Druid would get an ability of their class
And the friendly target would get an ability of the Druid

"Yes! I got Cyclone!!!" as a melee rogue.

We are old now lol:

It is 2021. People are old now lol. Families/Kids/More Responsiblities in Life. We as a people have changed, gotten older, got married, had kids, are more familiar with the game, know how to play WoW now (from our noob days starting WoW for first time lol). We want Instant Gratification. We don't want to work for our gear. We just want our gear handed to us lol. Instant Gratification FTW. Kids and their Fortnites. Kids with their V-Bucks they can just buy it lol. They just want to buy it. Not have to work for anything. Kids and Young People Today don't want to work for anything any more. Instant Gratification FTW.


When did Modern WoW start?

Much of the stuff you listed started out in TBC, but existed in classic already (barring the obvious stuff that changed in name over time, i.e. (tbc) heroics to mythic+ nowadays), i think it just got more niticable as the game's community (and we ourselves) matured.

So to answer your main question: TBC for the start of the trend, cataclysm for its "blooming" phase, though Legion was a noticable turning point too in a way i can't quite put my finger on (then again it was, in my eyes, just a better attempt at what they tried to do with WoD).

I suppose that boils down to WoD then?

[Couchpotato2013]

I am just going to copy/paste it from Notepad lol
I may edit and organize this later:

When did Modern WoW start?

Modern WoW or Retail WoW
Retail WoW or Modern WoW
Whatever you say.

Modern WoW era: 2015 to Present??

The Modern WoW Era:

WoW being an Esports, Arenas, Rated Battlegrounds, Transmogrification, Dungeon Finder Tool, Premade Groups Finder Tool, Raid Finder Tool, Cross Realms, The WoW Token, Pet Battles, Toy Box, Linked Auction Houses, The New Auction House Interface 2019-21?, Reagent Bank, Void Storage, 30-slot Hexweave Bags, Professions are still useless, No Social Interaction any more in PUGS, Toxic PUG Community, elitism in PUGS, Introduction of Mythic+, No Social Interaction any more at all in WoW, Gear is boring now, Sooo Many Ways To Get Gear, Guild Finder which still sucks, etc.

- started when everything started being dumbed down, being more casual friendly.

- Blizzard catering to the casuals.

- Making everything easy.

- When they added the pandas

Button bloat.
Too Many Abilities Now.
Blizzard removing Button Bloat.
When Blizzard started removing abilities because too many.

Example: Druid's Ability Symbiosis (back in the day)
The Druid would cast Symbiosis on a friendly target
The Druid would get an ability of their class
And the friendly target would get an ability of the Druid

"Yes! I got Cyclone!!!" as a melee rogue.

We are old now lol:

It is 2021. People are old now lol. Families/Kids/More Responsiblities in Life. We as a people have changed, gotten older, got married, had kids, are more familiar with the game, know how to play WoW now (from our noob days starting WoW for first time lol). We want Instant Gratification. We don't want to work for our gear. We just want our gear handed to us lol. Instant Gratification FTW. Kids and their Fortnites. Kids with their V-Bucks they can just buy it lol. They just want to buy it. Not have to work for anything. Kids and Young People Today don't want to work for anything any more. Instant Gratification FTW.


When did Modern WoW start?

Why do all classic boomer andys always have a difficulty at accurately detailing when things happened? Like if you don’t know when a feature was added, you look like an idiot for mouthing off on something you dislike.

Would be interesting to see if you got any of the harder achievements during vanilla/tbc/wrath. Yes even before the achievement system was added in wrath pre-patch. Or if you at all tried to do anything in a current expansion: challenge mode (without boost), mage tower or azeroth’s champion. Lastly comical to hear people say things are easy when they can’t get aotc, ksm, or rival/duelist without boosting. Those are decent benchmarks for most people, not going to goalpost with needing all 20s or 25s, CE/Hall of fame and gladiator/rank 1.

[Djibrill]

Modern era started with LFD introduction in WOTLK, that's when people lost the need to treat other players as human beings. Although until the start of Cata people were still communicating with each other but estranged behavior was cemented with introduction of LFR in Dragon soul.

[Queen of Hamsters]

MoP and forward.

[Yuli]

this thread is a circlejerk already. Also a "WoW is dead"-thread in disguise.

"No social Interaction any more at all in WoW"

maybe you should just...you know...find a guild...friends...talk to people n' stuff.

[Viikkis]

[I]
- started when everything started being dumbed down, being more casual friendly.

- Blizzard catering to the casuals.

- Making everything easy.

Blizzard was catering to the casuals day 1. Just compare Vanilla WoW to its predecessor and rivals of the time.

[Yuli]

Legion brought a completely new quality and types of content which continue to this day. And I personally think it's vastly superior to earlier expansions.

this - Legion is definitely the newest era, don't miss the era in-between tho, even though I liked MoP.