Personally do I think all MMOs who made a number of expansions and raised their levelcap a few times actually become worse then the game was at vanilla, and that goes for more games then Wow (EQ comes to mind). There are exceptions, the first Guildwars game made their campaigns really good and made the game better if you had all of them.
But I think Blizzard really should open up a vanilla server or 2, and not just because that would earn them more money but also since so many players want it. It isn't really that expensive.
@Loke666 I think that is the double edged sword of the mmo. This is really the difference between static multi-player games and mmos. MMOs evolve over time. One of the biggest complaints players make, especially in most sub games, is the pace of content updates. How is an mmo supposed to stay both static and provide content and progression? The very nature of progression makes numbers get bigger and requires balance, combat, and class updates and changes.
On top of that one lesson we can take from EQ/EQ2 with legacy progression servers is that it has increased their cost, split resources, and most importantly fragmented the community. At least on a live server version your community is one and complaining about the same things. With two massively different rule sets they are not and it is divisive.
That said I would play a WotLK server (not vanilla) if it were B2P with a cash shop like ESO or GW2.
No. EQ progression servers have made them more money. Most of the active players on those servers are not going to play live EQ. Go talk to some of them. They don't even know what the hell is going on with the live server.
I really enjoy arguing with people on a topic that already has already been determined by a different game.
One single EQ TLP server is successful, Phinigel. The other two are almost always low pop. The funny thing is that Phinny is the fast progression server. There is no doubt it brought a small revenue bump in the short term. Whether it's cost effective, successful, and good for the game long term is another story. Whether it's actually profitable and paying for itself is questionable as well because they didn't hire more dev staff to handle the extra demand and resource drain the server brings. The EQ2 TLE servers are pretty much a failure.
There is no doubt that the move has fractured the community. You can see it plainly on the forums. Nothing has been determined despite the blinders being worn by a vocal minority.
The reason why the EQ2 TLE servers are a failure, is because it's todays Version of EQ2 minus the expacs! in todays EQ2 all the old content is completely broken due to the drastic stat changes and class revamps they did over the years, that completely messed up pre-Level 85 content!
They tried to fix that with a so called "super" database script to update all old gear (drops, quest rewards, Dungeon drops, crafted) in one sweep and it was a total failure and a created even more of a mess!
So rolling on EQ2 TLE you have to suffer through old content with crap drops that don't make sense to any class, because it contains stats that have no longer any meaning to your class. So the first thing People need to do, is farming Maths to Craft Master crafted gear with stats that make actually sense for your class.
This is just stupid, as it just removes all the enjoyment of a Classic server. Doing all the old content again, but without the enjoyment of getting meaningful rewards and drops. Old Dungeons totally useless in doing, as all drops are useless and outdated!
They only fixed the newest starter zones (from later expacs) and master crafted gear to todays Classes and stat changes. These zones are ofcourse not available on the TLE, until a point in time when that expansion gets unlocked.
That is the real problem with EQ2's TLE servers and why they failed. Everyone knew this, the moment they said they were unable to recover the classic code nor had the Resources to roll back to Vanilla EQ2.
So I read this article about Runescape. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/building-past-how-runescapes-official-legacy-server-avoided-kemp and it sounds like doing Vanilla servers for WOW is possible and could be profitable. Runescape started with 3 people to maintain the servers and game. Well its now at 15 people because the money that the old Runescape is bringing in. Also I like how the community owns the game not the develop by doing this "If 75% of those voting did not agree, the update didn’t happen. This gave a very strong sense of ownership of the game to the community; they were in control." That would allow people who want to play classic but want to have some of the newer features added like the in game Calendar, and today's Looking for group tool in that unless 75% or more of the community want something the developers will not do it. That is a great idea.
The only way I would play WoW again is if they had a vanilla server. Also, MMORPG companies have too much power over the games, City of Heroes was home to me and thousands of others who put countless hours into it and NCSoft tore it away from us. I will never forgive them for that.
An interesting inflated sense of ownership, for a consumer.
Actually it's the software industry who believes that they don't have to follow the same rules that pretty much everyone other industry has to follow. And it's pretty much getting worse year over year.
Fuck I have software where I'm paying 5 figures a year in maintenance. And if I don't pay, I'll lose access to "all" bug fixing patches that I've already payed over 100k in maintenance fees over the years.
I call bullshit on a lot of the industry's business practices. Time the industry's business practices get reigned in a bit.
I disagree about WoW's franchise being undermined by legacy servers, official, endorsed or illicit. Blizzard has already incurred that damage.
What this article is beating around the bush at saying is that Blizzard doesn't want to admit that recent iterations of WoW were not as popular and not as successful as legacy iterations.
Anecdotally; Blizzard already had a big hurrah hype-fest to get back old school players with the promises of a return to old school with WoD. A lot of my old friends from back in the day checked it out and left within the first couple of months.
In fact that was the consensus. The 3.5 million players that had come back for WoD had left by March of 2015, just three months after its launch as shown by the same graph linked previously.
Personally; it has been very difficult to be a WoW fan; a Blizzard fan lately. With bold hubric statements such as "you think you do, but you don't" by J. Allen Brack, WoW Executive Producer, and complete ignorance of the player-base's wants with the now infamous "Flying in Draenor" fiasco stumbled into by Ion Hazzikostas, Assistant Game Director (it was not about flying, it was about Blizzard not communicating with the community), I do not expect Blizzard to acknowledge the concerns of the community, writ large; let alone communicate meaningfully with their player-base about this issue.
As with the "Flying in Draenor" issue, I do not even expect Blizzard to understand what the issue is actually about. To be clear, it is not about Nostalrius. The issue is myriad frustrations that have been long overdue to be addressed; from low server populations, account services fees and their lucrative symbiotic relationship; to reiterations of failed design concepts such as Garrisons being repackaged as Class Order Halls in Legion; to the shuttering of virtually all meaningful community relations; what remains being relegated to 140 word derisive quips on Twitter; to 14 month long content droughts, expansion after expansion;
I believe that until significant and meaningful strides in communication with the WoW player community are reestablished; long-standing issues with WoW as a service as well as the game's direction of development are addressed and or resolved; that the population of WoW subscribers, the quality of WoW as a service and product and the reputation of WoW and Blizzard as a franchise and game development company will continue to churn.
Yes Blizzard has lost touch with the player base big time. While I agree they should make the game they want when it comes to a new game, when it comes to a running game they need to find a better way to get in touch with the player base than the kool aid drinking forum goers they have.
I like the idea from the Runescape article that unless 75% of the player base votes for something the vanilla Runescape will not get set update. That would be great because I dont know a lot of players who in WOW would have voted for AOE fest dungeons and LFD. They might have at the time but learned later that well it sucks.
The only way I would play WoW again is if they had a vanilla server. Also, MMORPG companies have too much power over the games, City of Heroes was home to me and thousands of others who put countless hours into it and NCSoft tore it away from us. I will never forgive them for that.
An interesting inflated sense of ownership, for a consumer.
Actually it's the software industry who believes that they don't have to follow the same rules that pretty much everyone other industry has to follow. And it's pretty much getting worse year over year.
Fuck I have software where I'm paying 5 figures a year in maintenance. And if I don't pay, I'll lose access to "all" bug fixing patches that I've already payed over 100k in maintenance fees over the years.
I call bullshit on a lot of the industry's business practices. Time the industry's business practices get reigned in a bit.
Sounds like my royalties system called Alliant. We pay 500K in maintenance a year in that.
I haven't read all the comments here, sorry but there are too many (just first 2-3 pages). I'll simply say what I think.
I have played Vanilla, TBC, WotLK. I have resubbed for a monthin Cata and MoP. I haven't touched WoD.
I'm perfectly ok if you like WoW for what it is nowadays. It's really hard to expect that you played older versions of game, because it's really old now. Why do you mind if I liked Vanilla or TBC more and would like to play it again? Why would you advocate against it - can't we both have what we want?
I don't like a lot that's happened to WoW past WotLK. Not everything, but a lot. I liked playing a regular Joe who met some Warcraft heroes. I never wanted to become great hero in this game because it's not about it.
I liked how WoW in the past required more social interaction. In 2004 it was one of a kind thing that you were playing with all those people from Romania, France, England etc together in 40-men raid. Newer expansions have rendered even talking to people unnecessary and due to nature of people they don't talk (we're lazy animals).
You can literally (I know what I'm saying) queue up for instance and swim through it without talking to people in 30 minutes top. Then you repeat and repeat. How can you call it MMORPG? It's worse than Counter Strike. You can play it as if it was Single Player game and pretend everyone's NPC.
Besides, Warcraft lore is in state of convulted mess. I understand that it had to happen eventually with so many expansions. It's just funny to think that Azeroth had one big Burning Legion invasion 10k years ago and then it was rather stable. Nowadays we have such event every second year. Couldn't they come up with more creative villains and enemies?
In general, going back to the topic. If you like WoW as it is now - that's great. I'm really, REALLY happy for you. I would love to play OFFICIAL AND LEGAL progressive server or if it's impossible TBC or Vanilla. I'm not hurting nor offending you asking Blizzard just for that. Please don't hate on me for that, we're both gamers.
Yeah...pretty spot on. Though, I'd say, despite brand strength differences, EQ is still trucking along because it begat WoW and is cemented in history, not through subscription numbers, but by writing the book on PvE MMORPGs.
"somewhere a piece of paper said that it was illegal and so all of those virtual citizens were doomed to die"
Uhhh, yeah, big mean corporation sticks it to the little guys again, am I right? Activision is a 26 billion dollar company. They can't just ignore infringements of their IP so that people can play a game, even if all the armchair socialists think that's just the way it should be. Blizzard doesn't crack down on people running emulators on private servers that stay out of the spotlight. But 800k registered users? Be serious.
Imagine someone opening a free admission theme park that had all of the old rides that Disney has since closed (Carousel of Progress, If You Had Wings, etc.). It doesn't matter how many people enjoyed it, or cried about it to the powers that be, that place wouldn't last a single day before being shut down.
"somewhere a piece of paper said that it was illegal and so all of those virtual citizens were doomed to die"
Uhhh, yeah, big mean corporation sticks it to the little guys again, am I right? Activision is a 26 billion dollar company. They can't just ignore infringements of their IP so that people can play a game, even if all the armchair socialists think that's just the way it should be. Blizzard doesn't crack down on people running emulators on private servers that stay out of the spotlight. But 800k registered users? Be serious.
Imagine someone opening a free admission theme park that had all of the old rides that Disney has since closed (Carousel of Progress, If You Had Wings, etc.). It doesn't matter how many people enjoyed it, or cried about it to the powers that be, that place wouldn't last a single day before being shut down.
Cool
Your Avatar reminds of Sleestaks from the old Saturday morning TV show "Land of the Lost"
If Blizzard doesn't do it, its just a matter of time before private WoW servers go the way of torrent sites that pass the server code and player data around the world every time one gets shut down.
It will be their own fault and a monster of their own making.
I am sure sooner or later they will give in cannot imagine that they will not even if it will take few years maybe . I do hope they keep some things like new models etc but keep with the old way of looking for group etc.
Reasonable conjecture given that over 100 million World of Warcraft accounts have been created but currently only 5 million or so are active. Do you really believe that only 100,000 out of 95 million would want to try legacy servers?
Anyone who thinks it through will realize that WoW is in a class by itself. You can't compare the success of progressive servers in EQ1 to the potential success of official legacy servers in WoW. World of Warcraft has a massive pool of past players to draw from; far larger than any other MMO.
hmmm, you have to take into account that just because people aren't playing anymore doesn't mean that the reaosn is that they want legacy servers.
I have an account made in the first week of the game and I've never been able to get a character above the 30's. Just never kept my interest. I wouldn't play on a legacy server nor a modern server. I'm sure there are peopel who just tried the game "just because" it was popular or people were talking about it.
I agree.
So taking that into account, let's say only 2% of past customers would reactivate their accounts to pay a subscription for WoW legacy servers. That'd be about 1,900,000 subscriptions, give or take.
It's absurd to throw around any kind of numbers like that. Nobody knows how profitable a vanilla server in the US would be short or long term. In my opinion they should seriously consider adding one with a few people in charge of it (assuming the source isn't really lost).
The "official" servers will never be as good as a properly done private server. P1999 is the prime example of this. Way better than SOE/DBG's attempts at progression servers. Keeping the original lock date times actually kept the pacing good for the game, not just blowing through content with exp potions and downing the raid mobs mere days after the server opens. So I could care less if Blizzard ever does this, personally.
Everquest progression servers and new expansions both being played proves this article wrong by some amount
how many of those got shutdown?
I tried looking and other than the release of a 5th TLP server named Phinigel back in 2015, none that I could find, correct me if I`m wrong.
TLP 1.0 were Combine and Sleeper. They caught up to the live servers
and were merged into one of them many years ago (I forget which).
Fippy (TLP 2.0) is currently at Secrets of Faydwer if I am
hearing correctly. So it sounds like enough community there to keep the
server moving towards live.
Vulak (TLP 2.0) is a ghost
town. I play a necromancer there and am surprised to see the server
still up. Server has been stuck at Seed of Destruction for some time. No
one in PoK or Baz, I think 8 players is the most I have ever seen on a
/who all (which doesn't account for anon).
Ragefire (TLP 3.0)
is in Kunark and appears to be on 6 month unlocks now. There is voting
here, or at least has been. There is/was a rotation for raid targets.
Lockjaw (TLP 3.0)
just got into Kunark and recent voting means it will get into Velious
before Ragefire? I have a couple of characters here, server pop seems
healthy. My concern is that 1-2 guilds are pushing the content and
triggering the votes (as has been the case on all progression servers up
to this point) but maybe I am getting the wrong feeling from the
official boards?
Phinegel (TLP 3.5) is going to be 90
day unlocks with no votes. Fair bit of official board forum rage about
90 days being too short unless you play a lot (raid heavily). Instancing
of raids as well as open world so expected to be less community drama
at the top-end of the playerbase. "True box" thing where they say you
will only be able to box using multiple computers, and official boards
are full of people saying they plan to workaround this. Official boards
also full of posts from current Ragefire/Lockjaw players and guilds
saying they are moving to Phinny.
1 active progression server suited to the raid-racing-unlock-next expac in 2 weeks types 1 active progression server that moves at a slower set pace (so Phinny rules would work, with more than 3 months per expac). 1 server locked at Velious. 1 server locked at Luclin. 1 server locked at PoP.
****
Best I could find from a Zam thread to self correct for more accuracy.
However the most populated server is Phinny the latest time locked progression server put up on Dec 2015.
This is one of the more depressing things i have read on this website. Nostalrius was a very good experience when i played. It really brought back that vanilla feeling and i would honestly have played to the end if those i started with were still playing. It really weeded out those who who hack it or use the chat system or make friends to accomplish goals. It was Raw barely adjusted Warcraft and thats what i loved most.
I would play a Blizzard hosted Vanilla Server.
RIP hunter mana
RIP tank shaman
RIP no dungeon finder
I feel like Cataclysm should have been WoW 2.0, to me it would have made sense to do this. I realize that from a business point of view on that statement it wouldn't be cost effective, but WoW was still strong enough that it would have been viable. Cataclysm was so vastly different and in most vocal opinions is where the game didn't even feel like WoW anymore. Before the release of Cataclysm is where most of the games old code and hardware was changed and replaced, so this would of also been a good reason to seperate and make Cataclysm officially WoW 2.0.
I think the way it works is that companies are required to defend their licenses and copyrights or anyone can use them and list the private server as an example of WoW relinquishing ownership of those copyrights. So even if they really didn't care about private servers they must do something about it.
First and only factual post in this entire thread.
That is NOT how copyright law works. They can give special permission for a said company or group to use their trademark. They own it and they can do whatever they want with it. It's that simple.
On a side note I bet Games Workshop thinks all this talk about copyright and IP protection is pretty hilarious. Obviously WoW is different enough that GW could never sue, but still...
Sorry, but that IS how copyrights work. You have to defend any challenge to the copyright, or that copyright CAN be declared null and void.
The fact they can give permission to use copyrighted material, which would then not affect said copyright, in no way means they have to. It's their choice.
Psst you might want to learn what copyright law is. You are thinking trademark law and not copyright. You do not need to defend a copyright at all to protect it only a trademark and copyright and trademark law are two entirely different things. Trademark you need to protect vigorously particularly if it is a company in the same business sector as you. Copyright you do not need to defend to keep it protected and you can also give permission for some people to use it and not others or not do anything at all and then decide to start defending it. You are given protection for X amount of time on a copyright and that doesn't vanish unless you explicitly state that it is public domain now.
Wow is done, to me and many thousands of players, Blizzard has killed the game, from 12+million to barely 5 million worldwide is a big enough dent in the games popularity to make a rather explicit statement.
For me Legion is a big waste of time, it's not progressing the game but money grabbing, considering the expansions are now costing more than what the original game cost + you have monthly subs to pay on top, the expansions should be marginly cheaper or free.
Or blizzard revert the game play and challenges back towards the vanilla way, and not keep changing how the game works with half baked stories not fully implemented, leveling your character was very much a big part that attracts me to play any mmorpg, wow doesn't have the flare anymore, costs way to much for what you get. for £40 which is the direct price you pay for expansions since Catalysm and you get only 10 levels which could be achieved within a few days. Once you've capped your character, other than farming raids for loot, there wasn't much more to feel like you achieved anything "Oh wow! I just reach 10 more levels" ????
Comments
I stopped playing WoW for a reason - and though I disagree with many changes, they're not that reason.
The reason why the EQ2 TLE servers are a failure, is because it's todays Version of EQ2 minus the expacs!
in todays EQ2 all the old content is completely broken due to the drastic stat changes and class revamps they did over the years, that completely messed up pre-Level 85 content!
They tried to fix that with a so called "super" database script to update all old gear (drops, quest rewards, Dungeon drops, crafted) in one sweep and it was a total failure and a created even more of a mess!
So rolling on EQ2 TLE you have to suffer through old content with crap drops that don't make sense to any class, because it contains stats that have no longer any meaning to your class.
So the first thing People need to do, is farming Maths to Craft Master crafted gear with stats that make actually sense for your class.
This is just stupid, as it just removes all the enjoyment of a Classic server. Doing all the old content again, but without the enjoyment of getting meaningful rewards and drops. Old Dungeons totally useless in doing, as all drops are useless and outdated!
They only fixed the newest starter zones (from later expacs) and master crafted gear to todays Classes and stat changes.
These zones are ofcourse not available on the TLE, until a point in time when that expansion gets unlocked.
That is the real problem with EQ2's TLE servers and why they failed. Everyone knew this, the moment they said they were unable to recover the classic code nor had the Resources to roll back to Vanilla EQ2.
Fuck I have software where I'm paying 5 figures a year in maintenance. And if I don't pay, I'll lose access to "all" bug fixing patches that I've already payed over 100k in maintenance fees over the years.
I call bullshit on a lot of the industry's business practices. Time the industry's business practices get reigned in a bit.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Yes Blizzard has lost touch with the player base big time. While I agree they should make the game they want when it comes to a new game, when it comes to a running game they need to find a better way to get in touch with the player base than the kool aid drinking forum goers they have.
I like the idea from the Runescape article that unless 75% of the player base votes for something the vanilla Runescape will not get set update. That would be great because I dont know a lot of players who in WOW would have voted for AOE fest dungeons and LFD. They might have at the time but learned later that well it sucks.
I have played Vanilla, TBC, WotLK. I have resubbed for a monthin Cata and MoP. I haven't touched WoD.
I'm perfectly ok if you like WoW for what it is nowadays. It's really hard to expect that you played older versions of game, because it's really old now. Why do you mind if I liked Vanilla or TBC more and would like to play it again? Why would you advocate against it - can't we both have what we want?
I don't like a lot that's happened to WoW past WotLK. Not everything, but a lot. I liked playing a regular Joe who met some Warcraft heroes. I never wanted to become great hero in this game because it's not about it.
I liked how WoW in the past required more social interaction. In 2004 it was one of a kind thing that you were playing with all those people from Romania, France, England etc together in 40-men raid. Newer expansions have rendered even talking to people unnecessary and due to nature of people they don't talk (we're lazy animals).
You can literally (I know what I'm saying) queue up for instance and swim through it without talking to people in 30 minutes top. Then you repeat and repeat. How can you call it MMORPG? It's worse than Counter Strike. You can play it as if it was Single Player game and pretend everyone's NPC.
Besides, Warcraft lore is in state of convulted mess. I understand that it had to happen eventually with so many expansions. It's just funny to think that Azeroth had one big Burning Legion invasion 10k years ago and then it was rather stable. Nowadays we have such event every second year. Couldn't they come up with more creative villains and enemies?
In general, going back to the topic. If you like WoW as it is now - that's great. I'm really, REALLY happy for you. I would love to play OFFICIAL AND LEGAL progressive server or if it's impossible TBC or Vanilla. I'm not hurting nor offending you asking Blizzard just for that. Please don't hate on me for that, we're both gamers.
That's just, like, my opinion, man.
Uhhh, yeah, big mean corporation sticks it to the little guys again, am I right? Activision is a 26 billion dollar company. They can't just ignore infringements of their IP so that people can play a game, even if all the armchair socialists think that's just the way it should be. Blizzard doesn't crack down on people running emulators on private servers that stay out of the spotlight. But 800k registered users? Be serious.
Imagine someone opening a free admission theme park that had all of the old rides that Disney has since closed (Carousel of Progress, If You Had Wings, etc.). It doesn't matter how many people enjoyed it, or cried about it to the powers that be, that place wouldn't last a single day before being shut down.
Your Avatar reminds of Sleestaks from the old Saturday morning TV show "Land of the Lost"
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
how many of those got shutdown?
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/It will be their own fault and a monster of their own making.
Early article related to population-not a bad read in the light of things and from this site
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/9/feature/9684/EverQuest-Travel-Back-In-Time-with-the-Progression-Server.html
Runescape legacy - 7M accounts created, 2M current subscribers
Article from April 15th, 2016
http://www.polygon.com/2016/4/15/11438340/old-school-runescape-legacy-mode
World of Warcraft (vanilla-wotlk)- most popular MMO in history
There is obvious profit and the continued growth of the petition has not slowed down.
171,115 supporters.
Edit: Current supporters - 202,267
Fippy (TLP 2.0) is currently at Secrets of Faydwer if I am hearing correctly. So it sounds like enough community there to keep the server moving towards live.
Vulak (TLP 2.0) is a ghost town. I play a necromancer there and am surprised to see the server still up. Server has been stuck at Seed of Destruction for some time. No one in PoK or Baz, I think 8 players is the most I have ever seen on a /who all (which doesn't account for anon).
Ragefire (TLP 3.0) is in Kunark and appears to be on 6 month unlocks now. There is voting here, or at least has been. There is/was a rotation for raid targets.
Lockjaw (TLP 3.0) just got into Kunark and recent voting means it will get into Velious before Ragefire? I have a couple of characters here, server pop seems healthy. My concern is that 1-2 guilds are pushing the content and triggering the votes (as has been the case on all progression servers up to this point) but maybe I am getting the wrong feeling from the official boards?
Phinegel (TLP 3.5) is going to be 90 day unlocks with no votes. Fair bit of official board forum rage about 90 days being too short unless you play a lot (raid heavily). Instancing of raids as well as open world so expected to be less community drama at the top-end of the playerbase. "True box" thing where they say you will only be able to box using multiple computers, and official boards are full of people saying they plan to workaround this. Official boards also full of posts from current Ragefire/Lockjaw players and guilds saying they are moving to Phinny.
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=1&mid=1448627014106411699
1 active progression server suited to the raid-racing-unlock-next expac in 2 weeks types
1 active progression server that moves at a slower set pace (so Phinny rules would work, with more than 3 months per expac).
1 server locked at Velious.
1 server locked at Luclin.
1 server locked at PoP.
****
Best I could find from a Zam thread to self correct for more accuracy.
However the most populated server is Phinny the latest time locked progression server put up on Dec 2015.
https://www.everquest.com/home
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/I would play a Blizzard hosted Vanilla Server.
RIP hunter mana
RIP tank shaman
RIP no dungeon finder
And i havent touched WoW since 2010 since it became so kid friendly with PUGGING everything, i want the 40 man MC runs etc.
List of SOE lies
For me Legion is a big waste of time, it's not progressing the game but money grabbing, considering the expansions are now costing more than what the original game cost + you have monthly subs to pay on top, the expansions should be marginly cheaper or free.
Or blizzard revert the game play and challenges back towards the vanilla way, and not keep changing how the game works with half baked stories not fully implemented, leveling your character was very much a big part that attracts me to play any mmorpg, wow doesn't have the flare anymore, costs way to much for what you get. for £40 which is the direct price you pay for expansions since Catalysm and you get only 10 levels which could be achieved within a few days. Once you've capped your character, other than farming raids for loot, there wasn't much more to feel like you achieved anything "Oh wow! I just reach 10 more levels" ????