Do you agree with this image?

[Deleted]

The nostalgia is strong in this one...

[Deleted]

How did you manage to get a monkey to do that image?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

So BC > Vanilla > Wrath > Cata > MoP?

Yeah, disagree totally.

Wrath > WoD (speculative) > BC > MoP > Vanilla > Cata

[Zetsumei]

PvP best in Vanilla? What a joke. Class design best in Vanilla? Don't make me laugh. And I don't have any troubles with the community (I play on Stormscale-EU, it's said to be worst community EU). These graphs are made by a nostalgic whiner.

[Ielenia]

http://i.imgur.com/JYJM9LS.jpg (big pic)

a fan's take on the state of the key aspects of the game from then til now. Would you say its accurate?

It's everything mostly all subjective, subject to personal taste, but I will comment on one thing: Class design was NOT at its best during Vanilla. Whoever believes that to be true is severely deluding themselves. 5-minutes blessings which are consumed by judgements are NOT good design. And that's just one example. There's also the fact that classes only had one viable spec despite having three. Paladins always healers, warriors always tanks, etc...

[zoomgpally]

It is accurate indeed, but on MMO there is a lot of people that will defend WoW for ever and through their teeth so this place is extremely biased.

So saying cata had so terrible story it should be way lower than it is in the image = defending wow?

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So BC > Vanilla > Wrath > Cata > MoP?

Yeah, disagree totally.

Wrath > WoD (speculative) > BC > MoP > Vanilla > Cata

I like this guy

[Deleted]

Yet another picture depicting some random anon's personal opinion of the changes in both World of Warcraft community and playability.
We can only see the changes when they happen. There are too many aspects to consider when trying to predict something about a game of this scale.

[Deleted]

This is a joke right?

The only right thing might be the Community aspect
And i don't PvP - so no clue.

Class design went from a 0 at Vanilla up with every expansion. Someone saying the class balance in Vanilla was better clearly never played it.

PvE Quests & World: About same level since Vanilla with MoP best in my opinion.
PvE Raids & Dungeon: Would say same as above but Cata slightly worse because of Dragonsoul but even better than most of Vanilla.
Musik & Art & Story & Setting: Hard to say.. but i liked the story telling in MoP.

[CosmicGuitars]

Vanilla, BC, WOTLK and Cata had better world design and questing than MOP?

Vanilla had the best class design?

Cataclysm had the best music, art, and storytelling?

Yeah, no. That graph is laughable.

[Larynx]

Not even remotely close.

[Deleted]

Yes, i would say it is accurate, not 100% but it's pretty on the mark. Not sure I would say community has ever been something WoW has been about, but the game used to require people to make phony friendships, and shaky alliances to raid with people they didn't care about or like to get the stuff they were told they needed to have., or they think they wanted.

Did you ignore anything on that picture besides the community aspect? While that one may be true, the rest is absolutely off the mark.

[TheWorkingTitle]

Coming from someone who has played since the beginning, I think these simple graphs are very telling and quite true with a few corrections I'd like to make. Perspective must also be taken into account.

PvE - If you're saying group content, socialization, and sense of accomplishment when doing such things? Yes it has drastically digressed into a near single player mode game that has been sped up to the point of being overtly trivial. The storyline has stayed pretty even keel with each expansion telling their grand stories quite well IMO. In terms of dynamism - it has only gotten better. Overall I'd say yes, the graph is right on this one.

PvE - In terms of mechanics it has only gotten more complex but at the expense of an ability bloat that has turned a portion of the player-base off. As a Warcraft RTS player the raids have only digressed in their motivating factors. To take down Kel'Thuzad, Illidan, Kil'Jaedan, and Arthas were much more meaningful conquests. As the storyline has progressed the "Big Bads" have been less inspiring. Overall I'd say the graph is correct on this one with Vanilla and TBC being a quite bit too favored (I'd lower those 2 a bit)

PvP - Balance has only gotten better throughout the years at the severe cost of homogenization. There's virtually no uniqueness in any class anymore which is very unfortunate to me. Many friends I've had that were top PvP'ers during their respective playing times (gladiators, arena masters, high warlords/grand marshals) have all ceased to play. To me, that says volumes (keeping in proper objective perspective that it's only my anecdotal experience and does not speak for everyone). As a Mage that has pvp'd and played throughout all expansions, the state of a mage has lessened quite a bit comparatively to earlier times. Overall I'd say the graph is right with Cata and MoP being a bit understated on the bars.

Community - Absolutely agree with the graph, for a few reasons. Anonymity has destroyed the community. When you made your character that was your name and that was your server. There was no faction change or name change. You had to build your reputation as a human being, as a player, and as one with professions that you worked on to become a valued person of the server. If you trolled there was blacklists and your namesake was destroyed by your own doing. That no longer exists with the exception of small pockets of cliques and cultures inside the game sharing their opinions and experiences with players on the server. The graph hit this nail on the head.

Music, Art, Storytelling - It's gotten better graphically, there's no debate there. There has been re-hashing which is near unavoidable in normal circumstances. Although I strongly dislike their choice to make MoP an expansion, the overall story and research to make it believable is commendable. I like the consistency in the graph on this one.

Class Design - Really about perspective. Did I enjoy having certain specs and classes being ONLY viable in certain areas? Absolutely. Why? Because it made the game unique and purposeful for what specialization you chose to define your character by. I can't stand homogenization so class design has absolutely plummeted in my opinion. Graph is pretty spot on for this as well.



TL;DR - Classic>TBC>WOTLK>Cata>MOP.

[Larynx]

TL;DR - Classic>TBC>WOTLK>Cata>MOP>WOD.

...How you judge an expansion before it even reaches Beta is beyond me.

[Deleted]

Pretty much. Not all of it, but the overall picture...yes I agree.

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Vanilla, BC, WOTLK and Cata had better world design and questing than MOP?

Vanilla had the best class design?

Cataclysm had the best music, art, and storytelling?

Yeah, no. That graph is laughable.

1. Obviously yes. All different and unique zones before MoP. (granted if MoP came before Wotlk/Cata it would have taken the price)

2. Best design probably not, but simpel class design..

3. This zone is extremely personal, this shouldn't even be in the discussion.

[TheWorkingTitle]

...How you judge an expansion before it even reaches Beta is beyond me.

Fixed, thanks for pointing out. How about the substance of the post though?

[willowe]

Something like that, imo.

Let's keep in mind, I almost never PvP. The reason it's gotten 'better' is due to more features and balance, imo.

[7seti]

The usual rose-tinted goggle perspective. Honestly, I wish Blizzard would make Vanilla/BC servers so these people can get a dose of reality.

[Deleted]

...How you judge an expansion before it even reaches Beta is beyond me.

He is one of those diehard nostalgia fans. Change is bad mkeh...

For me it would probably be: TBC > Vanilla = MoP = Wotlk > Cata (vanilla mostly because of nostalgia, if I had to play it again it would be between wotlk and cata)

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The usual rose-tinted goggle perspective. Honestly, I wish Blizzard would make Vanilla/BC servers so these people can get a dose of reality.

Playing in a private server that's 100% TBC progress and scripted. Loving it just as much as I did the first time...only thing missing is my old friends, but here I made new ones pretty fast.

So sad people can't think for themselves and jump on the nostalgia bandwagon.

[Swaggah]

Do not agree one bit

[TheWorkingTitle]

He is one of those diehard nostalgia fans. Change is bad mkeh...

For me it would probably be: TBC > Vanilla = MoP = Wotlk > Cata (vanilla mostly because of nostalgia, if I had to play it again it would be between wotlk and cata)

Rather than attack and degrade with labels, how about you read the post and bring up constructive points as to why my subjective opinion could possibly be wrong? The former is so much easier though.