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What was Vanilla WoW like? I am curious to know...
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Post by
331902
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Post by
997249
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Post by
Azrile
There were a lot of things then that people would not tolerate now.
1. Having to run to flightpaths on all your characters before you could fly there. Being a level 12 tauren and having to run past level 23 mobs for a 15 minute run to Crossroads was an adventure.. once. While I think there are too many FPs now, back then it was very very annoying
2. Graveyards. Back in Vanilla, most zones had one GY. Again, just a lot of useless running.. and being dead, it wasn´t even an adventure avoiding OP mobs
3. Instances. BRD took 5 hours to complete. There was no way to get a group except to spam /2 in city. You would get a group, spend 30 minutes getting everyone to the dungeon. Sure enough, 30 mins into it, someone had to leave, so everyone else had to go back to a city to spam /2 to get a replacement.
4. Grinding quest. I almost laugh when people talk about ´having to grind to revered to get epics´.. in MOP. Back in vanilla, endgame for non-raiders was collecting a drop off of a certain mob in Sithilis to turn in for rep. You literally killed the same 3-4 mobs for months to get rep.
5. Class balance. 5% dps is way to much of a difference nowadays. Back then, there were many many specs that weren´t even within 40%. Moonkin or cat druid in a raid? never. Warriors were basically the only viable tank until you had the raid on farm.
6. Raids. Boring.. endless trash.. ENDLESS TRASH.. that had no abilities other than a huge amount of HPs you had to kill to progress. Even bosses were very boring. Almost every boss the dps just had to stand in one place and do their rotation. Very few bosses required you to even move or change targets.
Post by
331902
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422399
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Post by
Adamsm
I think a lot of people labor under the misconception that just because something took a long time to achieve that it is somehow related to skill, or just being more worthwhile.
I don't think that's it at all. Some of us just liked the slower pace of the game; the lore and the RP aspects of it. That's what mattered. We are the minority though, I agree with you on that point.
No, that's really what it is about; if it wasn't, the true hard core group, and the people who 'whine' about everyone getting to experience content wouldn't exist. Also, the pace wasn't 'slower' so much of a slog; in Vanilla I made it as far as Zul'Gurub and never set foot into MC or anything beyond that, while in BC I only ever experienced Kara, ZA and Gruuls at level; it wasn't till Wrath that I actually saw a majority of the content with my guild....mind you, we only ever full cleared T7 content and T9/Reborn Onyxia, but we still enjoyed ourself. As for Cata, well, I actually experience more of that content on Beta then I did on live lol.
Post by
nephthyswanderer
People didn't hate the features back then, there was nothing to compare it with. You just dealt with it.
I would say that the memories of some people in this thread are the 1% of the people who actually saw the endgame content. The vast majority of people never made it that far and missed most if not all of the endgame in terms of raiding.
Back then, the game wasn't about the endgame. There wasn't competitive raiding like you see today with websites devoted to leading guilds. The game was the game. All 60 painfully slow levels of it.
Biggest issue in my opinion is the psychological move that endgame is the only game. Blizzard has pushed this heavily. To me, it's just not sustainable. Obviously you could point to the evidence that WoW is still #1 by far, but I really don' believe it's because of the endgame.
Anything that fosters community, eliminates asshatery, and brings people together is what will keep this game alive.
Post by
331902
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Post by
Adamsm
Of course, the asshatery has always existed in WoW; it's just for some reason, probably due to the rose coloured syndrome, it get's ignored from back then.
I was on the same server as everyone's favorite ass hat Lerroy Jenkins, and I remember how horrible the server became after his stupid video went viral, with endless queues popping up as everyone and their mother showed up on both factions trying to find him and how much it disrupted in game as well with all those 'noobs' running around.
Post by
331902
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422399
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Post by
Adamsm
Actually I called it a slog; whether some had fun is beside the point. The simple fact is, there was a lot of slogging in Vanilla, because that's how the game was set up: There were hundreds of quests that just suddenly dead-ended because Blizzard didn't go deeper, and for a player like myself, who is deep into the lore, that made me angry. BC and Wrath had those issues too, but luckily, at least to me, Cata fixed them and MoP has improved it massively.
Also, that's a bit of a fallacy: Lots of MMO's have the 'end-game' point of an expansion; Runescape does, Everquest does, and so does every other MMO that has come out and tried to knock down WoW, because at this point, WoW has made it a part of the MMO universe.
Back then, the point of WoW was to get into the raids and kill the big bosses. Sadly though, a large majority of Vanilla players didn't hit that point; I was in several guilds that either exploded or never made it past the original ZG. Same thing happened in BC; multitudes of guilds stalled on t4 content. At least Cata was able to fix those issues to a point and allow more people to get in there and experience content.
Post by
oldnewb
I think it's more that peoples attitudes change the longer they play the game,and the more knowledgeable they become.I started playing shortly after Wrath came out and started on a brand new server.You had a few level 80's on there that probably transfered from another realm,but most of us we're brand new.The attitude then was completely differen't to what it is now.People actually tried to help each other(and this was long after the so called golden age)because we was all in the same boat together.Most of us didn't have a clue what we was doing.
I remember one day I was doing quests in theramore isle and had a quest to go to stonetalon mountains.I had no flight paths to get there,so I whispered another player that was in theramore and asked if he knew how to get there.He then told me to follow him and we went all the way to stonetalon on horseback,he even took in all the flightpaths on the way so i'd be able to get around easier.I just couldn't imagine this sort of thing happening today,and i'm still on the same server.
So I don't think it was necessarily vanilla WoW that made the whole experience more enjoyable,but the newness of it all.
Post by
617248
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331902
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Post by
Quilan
It is wholly a myth that Vanilla was more hardcore than WotLK.
O rly?
I can guarantee you it's not a myth ^^ People who say as such are trying to justify their achievements in the AoE-fest that is is WotLK.
Raiding in Vanilla was harder in that it required quite a bit of preparation and knowledge just to deal with certain trash pulls, nevermind the bosses. But the raiding wasn't the only difference - the game itself was significantly harder.
I'm not a masochist in saying I prefer the game being harder, I'm just someone who likes a challenge. The reason chess is a universally popular game is because it is ever challenging. Vanilla WoW often came across as one long chess match. You couldn't walk into a 5 man instance, grab a few purplez and be on your way. Nope, you hit 60, then you had to grind the 5 mans for tier 0.5 to give you a chance to compete in the beginner raids. Then, if you were really committed, you could grind out the few truly epic pieces of armour and weaponry in the game to make yourself more competitive - take the Breastplate of the Chromatic Flight, which required an item that was a 1% drop from a boss in a high end 5 man, combined with Abomination Stitchings from Stratholme which required another 10-15 runs to farm, combined with other hard to get reagents like the rare spawn Blood of Heroes... ALL for one, valuable purple.
Then there's the game design itself whilst levelling. No heirlooms, no dungeon finder, no recruit a friend. You got your first mount at 40 and the epic at 60. You ran around (laboured around is a fair comment) figuring out where to quest next. Rare spawns were actually rare, rather than the increased spawn rate these days. You had to have scouts waiting for rare dragons to spawn and then get a 40 man raid up and running within 30 minutes to down it before another guild did.
Oh yes, 40 man raids too. And very expensive attunements to raids needed before you can even enter them. Not just expensive, time consuming in terms of the Argent Dawn or the Bijous in ZG.
So, no, it's not a myth - Vanilla was significantly more of a hardcore MMORPG than the game is today. Does that make Vanilla better or worse than the game is currently? Actually, I think the game by and large is "better" now as it allows casual players to enjoy all aspects of the game (unfortunately, Gayscore has taken some of that away but nevermind). But I really, really have to say that downing The Lich King is nowhere near the achievement that finishing AQ40 was, and being honest levelling 1 to 80 is weirdly easier than levelling 1 to 60 was.
It all depends on what you want from a game - if you want a game you can put a few hours a day into and get to the endgame no matter what guild or team you're in, the "new" WoW is the better game. If you prefer to put a massive amount of time and effort into a project and become one of the top tier of gamers in your chosen realm (obtaining truly rare mounts like the AQ one to show your status as a "no lifer" for example xD), then WoW Classic was your utopia.
Let's face it, is Kingslayer really that much of an achievement nowadays?
This ^
All of my yes. Someone finally sees the same on Wrath as I do to an extent. Anyway, on topic. Honestly, I hated Vanilla, there was multiple times I was GLAD I couldn't log in, teusday maintenance was a saving grace. It was grindy and was boring. The "Oh God, yes!" Aspects was in the 40 mans and Naxx 1.0, the GOOD Naxx, not the piece of crap in Wrath. Gold was not easy to get. If you had even 200g, you were considered rich, and not to mention riding training at 40 and 60, 60% at 40 for 100g and 100% at 70 for 300g or so, not this 20 and 40 for only 5-10g crap. Anyone who says Vanilla was "fun" was lying, it wasn't and it was an annoyance, much like Wrath was for me. In both I quit many times, only coming back for a day or two due to major patches.
Here's an example of vanilla: Imagine no summoning stones and you're going to do Scarlet Monastery. Wrath? LFD, specific dungeons, Scarlet Monastery - (Wing Here). Then? LFM for SM, need heals and tank. *Spam x10 every ten min*. Finally get group? EVERYONE had to run. On foot. To Scarlet Monastery. Which for alliance, guess how large a pain that was?\
Here's a vid by Wowcrendor that covers it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2saAgaJ6p54
Post by
BlackMonarch
There has never been, and never will be, such a thing as "vanilla WoW"
The game that people are talking about when they say "vanilla WoW" is actually Classic WoW.
People need to learn the difference and stop using the word "vanilla" unless they're discussing ice cream flavors.
Post by
hymer
Why? Is there a risk of misunderstanding the term?
Post by
Adamsm
There has never been, and never will be, such a thing as "vanilla WoW"
The game that people are talking about when they say "vanilla WoW" is actually Classic WoW.
People need to learn the difference and stop using the word "vanilla" unless they're discussing ice cream flavors.
And you need to understand that people use Vanilla because it's easier then saying Classic right?
Post by
Sas148
Old thread I know.
Hows it going all. Long time wow player, longtime wowhead reader, new member.
I couldnt hold my silence.
If you didn't play vanilla wow or tbc upon release your argument is invalid. Im sorry.
vanilla wow and tbc were by far the best wow experiences ever. Moreso vanilla.
baxk then the game had a certain flavor, a certain granduer. It was magical, unknown, and fun because of it.
The game was actually HARD. (and if you say it still is -you didnt play vanilla) and with that level of difficulty was rewarding.
Back in those days you could be the only guy on a server to have an item. And getting an epic mount (i was the third person on the spirestone to get one) was noteworthy.
Now you can BUY epic gear for nothing at all.
Back then you could proudly display your combat might with your rank and gear that was only achievable through days upon days of conquest.
Now its easy.
Back then getting from 1-60 was n adventure, a story, a memory. Now its nothing.
Back then factions would have massive wars outside major cities or if you were lucky, in the open fields of hillsbrad, arathi, or the thick forest of ashenvale (Reavers of Chaos unite!)
The bottom line was back then the game was more than a game. It was an adventure. It was like getting sucked into a good book...except YOU were driving the story.
Now its simply a complete quest get a whole level and get gear that us ancients would, of we could have, slayed our teammates and ninja our way out.
The reason I'm writing this now is for 1, venting reasons. At the fact that when I played this game for that first time nearly a decade ago - most of the players now were still picking boogers put of their noses at day school.
And 2. Because I miss the game (even with all its new flaws and GODAWE new expansion set to release soon) and will probably start playing again onceme and my wife settle down.
Much love, Pikkle.
I agree , but
onceme and my wife settle down.
Actiblizz wants your (future) kids to play the game.(##RESPBREAK##)8##DELIM##sas148##DELIM##Transferred from another thread.
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