Blizzard announced "Classic" World of Warcraft

[Metro]

Most Vanilla quests were straight up grinds -- you just had to RP it like you were truly avenging his wife! Or collecting 10 boar snouts!

 

[Kutulu]

I loved vanilla class quests, i think there was a shaman quest that took alot of effort, had to travel quite a bit on both continents etc...

Edit, found it, it was Elemental Mastery:
http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Shaman_quests

 

[Metro]

Yep, the class quests were fun. You had fairly involved quest lines for some classes that related to certain specs and unlocking talents/abilities as you leveled. They also had some relatively low level quests for items like Verigan's Fist for Paladins. Mid-way through vanilla they added more stuff, mostly around level 50, that had some decent rare items as rewards. Early/mid vanilla, upgrades were pretty meaningful since you couldn't race to 60 and even when you hit 60 you still had to run dozens of 5 man to get solid gear. Not like modern WoW where you do some five minutes world quest and get instant epics.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I quit WoW with Cata, so i have no idea what they did since then. One thing i remember with Cata is that the writing of the quests got considerably worst, which was an achievement considering the writing in WoW was as baseline and generic as you could get. But it was still, i don't know, professional? The writing in Cataclysm was like something out of a bad fan made NWN module. The tone, the stupid jokes, it was really, really grating.

As for the design of the quests. You have to keep in mind the game was designed with social interaction in mind. If you weren't interacting with people, the world was sort of sterile and meaningless, not to mention simplistic. I think that's what people liked in Vanilla, that you were made to interact with others almost constantly. Right from the first expansion the world already started to feel more lonely and even then i felt that was the wrong approach to take, but Blizzard just kept doubling down on removing the "massive multiplayer online" part and here they are being forced to do something they had no intention of doing because people just kept buggering them to bring the good old days back where a MMORPG felt like a MMORPG.

 

[Lacrymas]

Uhm, no, EQ is how you design with social interactions in mind. EQ has other problems, though. WoW did away with the necessity of socializing, allowing you to solo your way to max level. It also isn't difficult or requiring you to be actively contrarian, it's how you normally play the game. It's a rarity that you'd want to group up with people. The world IS sterile and meaningless, it's not "sort of" and only when you aren't interacting with people. It's literally a playground dotted with stuff for you to trod on. Every popular abstract concept that people come up with for vanilla are immaterial and sometimes outright false.

"The world is forcing you to socialize!" - nope.

"World PvP!" - nope, there is none, getting ganked in STV is only temporary and people very quickly get tired of it.

"Epics are meaningful!" - not really, they just take a long time to get due to the scarcity of them, you just pray to RNGesus that Rejuvenating Gem drops this week even when you've been next in line for it for ages, if that's what people mean by "meaningful", then yes. In 9ish months of BWL raiding we only saw 2 Bracers of Transcendence.

"Hard raids!" - hahahahah, nope, the highest difficulty in retail has been brutally difficult for a while now, people just don't have the skills nor the dedication to raid.

"PvP is more fun!" - it's more fundamentally pointless, as it doesn't require any in-game input whatsoever to climb the ranks, apart from entering battlegrounds, so it's just an unbalanced time waster that gets old fast due to the inability to test your skills.

"Gold is hard to come by!" - if you are a retard, yes, I had enough gold to buy my epic mount and training at lvl 49.

What vanilla is good at is creating huge dungeons (not raids) that took ages (in a good way) to finish, they are probably the only thing that doesn't feel game-y and contrived. Grabbing a handful of people and going dungeoneering is great in vanilla, it has always been the best aspect of it from the very first dungeon you can do to the last. The attunements are a nice touch, earning your way to the raids. The questing also isn't linear, you aren't led by the nose by breadcrumb quests constantly. You might notice that these things are all pre-60 and that's true, the best moments of vanilla aren't at end-game.

 

[Makabb]

IMO this is a 'wow revival' by Blizzard.

They see their newest expansions are failing and most servers are empty....... they will start 'wow' anew and the 'current wow' will be dying and at some point in future, they will start making 'new' content for the 'old wow' and the 'current wow' will die, let's hope they have learned and the 'new content' for 'old wow' will not go the retarded way like it did.

 

[Makabb]

It would make no sense to make BC and wotlk because then what they would do? cata pandara etc and they would be back at same point? So either vanilla will always remain vanilla or they will make new content but only if the 'main wow' will fail or the 'classic' will overtake the 'main wow' in subs.

 

[Makabb]

They won't start a second timeline with different expansions, I bet my ass on it and yours too

They will if the 'main' one will die or the classic will overtake it in subs because money.


Making the 'classic' is the first step to acknowledging that the 'main' game is dying, if the 'main' wow had 10 million subs they wouldn't bother with vanilla wow.
If they are reviving the old wow with separate team and separate resources they can do new expansions for it also.


It would be funny if the 'classic' wow killed their own 'main game'.


There was a joke some time ago that the only game that could kill wow is if Blizzard made other mmo..... well guess the meme became reality, but the other mmo is wow also lol.


Going further maybe it is Blizzard intention to milk what is left of the 'old wow' and then 'start fresh'.

 

[Saark]

The only good thing about this announcement is that there is a ever so tiny chance of them somehow retracing their steps patch by patch and expansion by expansion over the next few years. This, in turn, will mean another ~9months of 2.4.3 PvP, and WotLK/MoP for its hardmode/heroic raids. Everything else was shit, is shit, or will taste like shit once you realize that the 14-year old bottle of wine you were saving for a special moment is nothing more than vinegar with a fancy label.

 

[Lyric Suite]

WoW did away with the necessity of socializing

You are given the option not to socialize, but you'd have to be pretty anal to do it. No instances, no difficult quests, no world pvp. Might as well not play at all. All you get is a shit single player game with some nice scenery to look at.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Joining a group =/= socializing. You can easily do instances/quests/world pvp through group finder without ever interacting with anyone.

 

[Lacrymas]

WoW did away with the necessity of socializing

You are given the option not to socialize, but you'd have to be pretty anal to do it. No instances, no difficult quests, no world pvp.

How is that exclusive to vanilla, though? You can't do dungeons alone in pretty much every MMO ever. Same goes for the group quests, but those can be safely skipped without losing much. And, again, there is no world pvp, unless I don't understand what you mean by world pvp. Ganking in STV also isn't a guaranteed thing, you might participate (get killed over and over) if it somehow happens when you are there, but that's it. You can get randomly attacked by the other faction on a pvp server with the intent to gank you (it's never a fair fight) and if that's what you call world pvp, then yeah, that happens on rare occasions.

 

[Cromwell]

WoW did away with the necessity of socializing

You are given the option not to socialize, but you'd have to be pretty anal to do it. No instances, no difficult quests, no world pvp.

How is that exclusive to vanilla, though? You can't do dungeons alone in pretty much every MMO ever. Same goes for the group quests, but those can be safely skipped without losing much. And, again, there is no world pvp, unless I don't understand what you mean by world pvp. Ganking in STV also isn't a guaranteed thing, you might participate (get killed over and over) if it somehow happens when you are there, but that's it. You can get randomly attacked by the other faction on a pvp server with the intent to gank you (it's never a fair fight) and if that's what you call world pvp, then yeah, that happens on rare occasions.

theres always tarrens Mill. Of course you cant do dungeons without joining a group but theres a difference between using a server connecting group finder where you treat people like bits you never talk to and going with people from your server community while stuffing your friendlist to go into other dungeons and raids with them. At löeast thats what I did and how I managed to meet new people.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Not long ago I was playing current WoW and decided to make a super completionist character and do ALL quests. Almost went straight to an asylum. It's maddening, you wouldn't believe it.

I cannot believe anyone in their right mind would even think of something like that. And I'm dead serious.

 

[Beastro]

I don't disagree. It is one of the main reasons why legacy servers won't be the same experience. Especially on their launch when they are flooded with derpies. Give it about two or three months for nu-WoW players to get bored and go back to their world quests then maybe the server's true population/community will reveal itself.

If WoWs progression/nostalgia community is anything like EQs then the major problems come not from the newbies but from the hard core raiders and many RMTers whose playstyle is very much "It's not enough that I succeed, others must fail" that has led to some nastiness from many major raiding guilds and asshole RMTers who keep open world spawns locked down as much to deprive others of loot as much as to resell their shit to make real money.

I don't know how that would effect WoW with it's heavier instancing, but if there's enough of those kinds of players joining the server(s) they'll find a way to make others hurt as they strut around thinking they're actually doing something to be meaningfully proud of.

 

[Metro]

I don't disagree. It is one of the main reasons why legacy servers won't be the same experience. Especially on their launch when they are flooded with derpies. Give it about two or three months for nu-WoW players to get bored and go back to their world quests then maybe the server's true population/community will reveal itself.

If WoWs community is anything like EQs then the major problems come not from the newbies but from the hard core raiders and many RMTers whose playstyle is very much "It's not enough that I succeed, others must fail" that has led to some nastiness from many major raiding guilds and asshole RMTers who keep open world spawns locked down as much to deprive others of loot as much as to resell their shit to make real money.

I don't know how that would effect WoW with it's heavier instancing, but if there's enough of those kinds of players joining the server(s) they'll find a way to make others hurt as they strut around thinking they're actually doing something to be meaningfully proud of.

Always a danger. Or just stuff that's common today like people trying to corner the AH and shit which wasn't done that much in Vanilla. But I'm too old and short on time to engage in the 40 man thing today. It's good that it's there for people who want to do it but Zul'Gurub will be my limit.

I wonder what they're going to do as far as content, though. After about two years (the approximate lifespan of vanilla) I'm sure people will get tired from lack of new progression.

 

[ColonelTeacup]

Title.



I don't know what to say. While I won't be playing it because WoW is shit, I'm still surprised they "caved in".

So has blizzard finally admitted they've had the source code for vanilla wow all this time, or are they scrambling because their expansions keep failing horribly to retain players for longer than a month and they're finally out of tricks and ideas?

 

[Cromwell]

I don't disagree. It is one of the main reasons why legacy servers won't be the same experience. Especially on their launch when they are flooded with derpies. Give it about two or three months for nu-WoW players to get bored and go back to their world quests then maybe the server's true population/community will reveal itself.

If WoWs community is anything like EQs then the major problems come not from the newbies but from the hard core raiders and many RMTers whose playstyle is very much "It's not enough that I succeed, others must fail" that has led to some nastiness from many major raiding guilds and asshole RMTers who keep open world spawns locked down as much to deprive others of loot as much as to resell their shit to make real money.

I don't know how that would effect WoW with it's heavier instancing, but if there's enough of those kinds of players joining the server(s) they'll find a way to make others hurt as they strut around thinking they're actually doing something to be meaningfully proud of.

Always a danger. Or just stuff that's common today like people trying to corner the AH and shit which wasn't done that much in Vanilla. But I'm too old and short on time to engage in the 40 man thing today. It's good that it's there for people who want to do it but Zul'Gurub will be my limit.

I wonder what they're going to do as far as content, though. After about two years (the approximate lifespan of vanilla) I'm sure people will get tired from lack of new progression.

I dont know if it will even last two years. Maybe I am not nerdy enough but as others pointed out I did all the shit I could in Classic. I never managed to raid Ahn Quirai or Naxx when they were new but I have seen everything else, and I dont know how long my nostalgia would last having to go through scholomance for the gazillionsth time. I am also not sure if, as much as I liked socialising when vanilla was new, I really want to socialice with people who play MMO's today.

 

[v1rus]

Never played vanilla - didnt have internet back then. Back in 2006, I was 12-13, and I made continuous efforts to persuade my parents that we should get it, asap. They kept declining (which is rather ironic, since today, they freak out more than I do when its down), but after two or three months, I finally managed to make them approve it. Since Santa Clause already got me WoW vanilla and game time for new year, I was all set up and ready to go. I still remember ecstatically calling the ISP to get myself some sweet, sweet ADSL - just for them to tell me that "they ran out of ports for my area." WTH that meant, I still have no idea. I called them daily, at first, to check up are there any new ports, then weekly, ever so hopeful. Most traumatic part of it was that kids living ~100 meters from me got ADSL from the same ISP in the meantime, and that they continuously accused me of lying about the whole "there are no ports" situation.


When I finally got internet (cable, lol) it was mid 2008 - TBC era. Just graduated from elementary school and had the whole summer ahead of me. First things first, started downloading WoW client and registered to this place. Spent whole summer playing it, and while it was an extremely awesome experience, I got burnt out before the game time expired. Dont think I even made it to 70, prolly like 65-66. Havent touched wow (except for occasional free 10 day trial, which i would get burnt of around day 6) ever since. Still, I read a lot about magnificent time of vanilla, and I'd really like to run AQ, even once, and as such, Ill probably give it a try, unless blizzie goes nuts with price. 20€ for two months (or w/e was the price back in the day) is my absolute limit, and I'd even have to think twice about it. And if they demand any "buying the base game" bullshit, they can gtfo, since I already fucking bought it, back when it costed its full fucking price.

That aside - can any informed gentlemen inform me on the power level of Bala Druid in PVE/PVP during vanilla days? I remember there were "oomkin" memes, but thats about it - druid has always been my fav class, and I'd just luv to try and get that dreamwalker raiment - its sorta childhood dream, really. Same question, for viability of enh shaman.

 

[Beastro]

I don't disagree. It is one of the main reasons why legacy servers won't be the same experience. Especially on their launch when they are flooded with derpies. Give it about two or three months for nu-WoW players to get bored and go back to their world quests then maybe the server's true population/community will reveal itself.

If WoWs community is anything like EQs then the major problems come not from the newbies but from the hard core raiders and many RMTers whose playstyle is very much "It's not enough that I succeed, others must fail" that has led to some nastiness from many major raiding guilds and asshole RMTers who keep open world spawns locked down as much to deprive others of loot as much as to resell their shit to make real money.

I don't know how that would effect WoW with it's heavier instancing, but if there's enough of those kinds of players joining the server(s) they'll find a way to make others hurt as they strut around thinking they're actually doing something to be meaningfully proud of.

Always a danger. Or just stuff that's common today like people trying to corner the AH and shit which wasn't done that much in Vanilla. But I'm too old and short on time to engage in the 40 man thing today. It's good that it's there for people who want to do it but Zul'Gurub will be my limit.

I wonder what they're going to do as far as content, though. After about two years (the approximate lifespan of vanilla) I'm sure people will get tired from lack of new progression.

I dont know if it will even last two years. Maybe I am not nerdy enough but as others pointed out I did all the shit I could in Classic. I never managed to raid Ahn Quirai or Naxx when they were new but I have seen everything else, and I dont know how long my nostalgia would last having to go through scholomance for the gazillionsth time. I am also not sure if, as much as I liked socialising when vanilla was new, I really want to socialice with people who play MMO's today.

EQs progression servers have been going for a good three years, though I admit the pattern they seem to be taking is that most of the server jumps ship once the classic era ends after PoP, but the population of the main full prog server, Phinegal, remains good and that is due to it striking a balance between release dates for expansions that is long enough to be enjoyed but not too long, as it is with Ragefire and Lockjaw.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

I don't disagree. It is one of the main reasons why legacy servers won't be the same experience. Especially on their launch when they are flooded with derpies. Give it about two or three months for nu-WoW players to get bored and go back to their world quests then maybe the server's true population/community will reveal itself.

If WoWs community is anything like EQs then the major problems come not from the newbies but from the hard core raiders and many RMTers whose playstyle is very much "It's not enough that I succeed, others must fail" that has led to some nastiness from many major raiding guilds and asshole RMTers who keep open world spawns locked down as much to deprive others of loot as much as to resell their shit to make real money.

I don't know how that would effect WoW with it's heavier instancing, but if there's enough of those kinds of players joining the server(s) they'll find a way to make others hurt as they strut around thinking they're actually doing something to be meaningfully proud of.

Always a danger. Or just stuff that's common today like people trying to corner the AH and shit which wasn't done that much in Vanilla. But I'm too old and short on time to engage in the 40 man thing today. It's good that it's there for people who want to do it but Zul'Gurub will be my limit.

I wonder what they're going to do as far as content, though. After about two years (the approximate lifespan of vanilla) I'm sure people will get tired from lack of new progression.

I dont know if it will even last two years. Maybe I am not nerdy enough but as others pointed out I did all the shit I could in Classic. I never managed to raid Ahn Quirai or Naxx when they were new but I have seen everything else, and I dont know how long my nostalgia would last having to go through scholomance for the gazillionsth time. I am also not sure if, as much as I liked socialising when vanilla was new, I really want to socialice with people who play MMO's today.

I'm curious as to whether they'll add new stuff into the game that's akin to the design philosophy of vanilla WoW rather than modern WoW.

Stuff like new huge dungeons new massive raids etc that have old school mechanics and are just thrown out untested without adventure guide, leaving the players to figure out wtf they need to do to complete them.

It'll def be cool to revisit all this stuff for the first year or so but I guess a problem is that a lot of the mystery that vanilla had is gone. The meta for vanilla is totally figured out, gearing/raiding is on farm, there's strategy guides for everything, all items have been found and drop rates determined etc..

That said it'll be great for people like me who don't bother using guides etc. I never got past like lvl 28 in vanilla but I had good times exploring and slogging through dungeons

Also remember PvP twinking? Like decking out a lvl 19 char and 1-shotting everyone? Fuck man I'm super hype lol there was so much fun stuff to do at all levels, nobody really cared about rushing to max but I'm kinda afraid that the playerbase mentality has shifted :/

 

[luj1]

Wasn't leveling in vanilla mostly centered around fetch quests? And people still loved it? Why? Because its Warcraft? Are they masochists? What is WOW's secret? It's basically EQ1 set in the Warcraft universe.

 

[Beastro]

Wasn't leveling in vanilla mostly centered around fetch quests? And people still loved it? Why? Because its Warcraft? Are they masochists? What is WOW's secret? It's basically EQ1 set in the Warcraft universe.

I don't know.

Beyond the enjoyment of having a break from EQs old pace of exping in an MMO there wasn't much to WoWs lving process I found appealing.

 

[luj1]

Wasn't leveling in vanilla mostly centered around fetch quests? And people still loved it? Why? Because its Warcraft? Are they masochists? What is WOW's secret? It's basically EQ1 set in the Warcraft universe.

I don't know.

Beyond the enjoyment of having a break from EQs old pace of exping in an MMO there was much to WoWs lving process I found appealing.

Such as ?

 

[Saark]

Q: Will exploits and bugs from Classic be fixed for the Classic servers?
A: Turning to the community for answers. Team wants to recreate the experience as you remember it. They do not want bugs that cause crashes or severe issues, however. Should UBRS be 10 or 5 man?

And down the rabbit hole we go, where community opinion is valued instead of simply recreating classic as it was. Wouldn't be surprised if they kept stuff like groupfinder or dailies to "keep people engaged" and not miss out on "important quality of life features", making firemages viable in MC, undead no longer immune to bleeds and weaponskill/glancing blows are removed because it's "too complicated a mechanic".

Why not just recreate the game as it was in 1.12?