What World of Warcraft Classic Has That Retail Doesn't - MMORPG.com

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What World of Warcraft Classic Has That Retail Doesn't - MMORPG.com

Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed an odd and surprising issue arise for me. It’s one I certainly never thought I’d be experiencing, but it’s time to look the problem directly in the eyes. Whenever I think about logging into World of Warcraft it’s I always want to play Classic not Battle for Azeroth

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Foreverdream

play cassic

JonathJCen

“Whenever I think about logging into World of Warcraft [it’s (unnecessary)] I always want to play Classic not Battle for Azeroth.”

“Somehow my mild disinterest has given way to pure enjoyment[,] which is perplexing.”
[see rule one. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/comma-before-which/]

Hope this helps Robin and Joseph in starting their after post editing. Good luck with those proof reading skills.

Blinkenn

More socialization for one thing. I was trading with a rogue the other day and he says, hey I know you, i've seen you and your pet around.
Just to have someone notice that and say hi is WORLD's apart from the live game. I haven't touched live since the end of Legion and I doubt I'll be back.

Amathe

I think you are finding that these games are more enjoyable without the pressure or distraction of keeping up with a bunch of gear stats.

ScottJeslis

Amathe said:

I think you are finding that these games are more enjoyable without the pressure or distraction of keeping up with a bunch of gear stats.

Yes but isn't there still the pressure of keeping up your "level" with everyone else? Especially in a game that requires more grouping?

advokat666

Hmm tbh. i do not see that much of a difference with a few exceptions. The endgame in classic and in retail is gear gated so you need to have certain things to progress, that´s like in every mmorpg the case. The leveling process in classic is one of the most boring i have ever seen, mostly you kill 10 rats and then carry the 10 rats asses to somebody. In retail they at least try to deliver some story in a bigger context. And regarding community, i have met nice people in retail and complete douchebags in classic and the other way around of course. I did not notice much difference either. What i like about classic is that feeling of danger in the open world, that you really have to be careful and can´t pull half the map easy like in retail. So i guess for me classic is too much time for the fun i get of it.

Mooncubus

So you feel Classic is better because there's less pressure. You can just do questing and take it easy. You do realize BfA has that too right? I don't raid, I just socialize and quest and just enjoy the world and it's great. I think the problem you have is just you are in a raid group so you feel guilty about doing anything other than grinding to be better at raids. Maybe just leave your raid group? There's no shame in that. They'll find another main tank.

Sandmanjw

Lot of games that go through lots of expansions means lots of changes.

A person that played classic ages ago that tried to play the latest would barely recognize what they first played.

To a lot of people all those changes just add to their underlying feeling of unease and takes the "fun" out of games. There are bound to be several changes that hit players that they did not really like, and all those just keep adding up.

Can not speak to raiding aspects, never enjoyed that in any game, too much like learning a choreographed dance. Not easy, but once you learn the moves, time to move on to learn the next. Just not my thing. Never seemed fun to me.

Classic is like a long lost friend to some i guess. Easy to remember fondly, and for most, a time to play a game for fun again.

Harafnir

I have two "most fun in the world" things in WoW, and none of those has anything to do with progression or maxing stuff. First one is Beta, I was lvl... 27 I think, and someone in chat organized a warband on Crossroads. So we went, maybe 40-50 of us. No XP, no loot, no nothing just taking the boat from Stormwind, running through the woods to Barrens, then fanning out outside crossroads, preparing for battle. It was chaotic and hilarious and there my love for WoW started. Hours and hours of pointless fun. Second one was me and a friend, both rogues, PvEing. I mean, if you want to go double anything, two rogues is probably the worst combination unless you PvP. But we did, for weeks, and most of the time we were exploring strange and dangerous areas in stealth mode. Not playing, no XP, no loot, just.... explorers.
I seriously think that people need to drop this whole "Fastest to max" and start enjoying games. And I think developers should should focus more on the enjoyment of the game than what happens when people are maxed?! New max! Wheeee! and then... surprise, new max!! Whoooo! I also think it is a part of the death of MMOs. Focus has been way off, only on the few min/maxers, and none of the focus on the people trying to just enjoy a fun game. I have been thinking about Classic, With classes as they were and world as it were. But I also know, it will be ruined as well, not too far into the future.

danwest58

Classic was about the journey and the social environment not the destination as a single player in the world. Classic is a PROPER MMORPG and not a single player game on top of games as a service to make money off of you.

Panther2103

Torval said:

So I didn't get sold on why Classic is better. The article made the claim but didn't sell it. In fact, what I got is that the author feels social pressure to perform in BfA but not in Classic, but I don't see how that's the fault of BfA. It could happen in Classic too. More importantly the things the author likes to do in Classic could be done in BfA as well, but they're not doing them there.

[Quote start]

So, I got to thinking about why I want to play Classic so much.

I can sit and watch a sunset if I want. Or run back and forth between the barrier between Thunder Bluff and Mulgore because it’s raining in Mulgore but not in Thunder Bluff, and the abruptness of that change amuses me. Or I can stand around in town casting Mark of the Wild on whoever wanders by. To just have fun.

I can play Classic just to have fun.

[Quote end] because tags on Vanilla forums don't work right.

BfA can be played that way. When I played last year, before Classic launched, it was just for those reasons until it stopped being enjoyable for me. In fact the silly pre-launch balance passes to "prepare us for Classic" were one of the things that drove me away. I play MMOs now to enjoy the atmosphere, community, and experience.

The conclusion I drew from the article is that establish social connections in an MMO can heavily alter or influence how it's played. I agree with that, but I wouldn't say that is the fault of the current expansion. Classic will get that way for many or most when those social pressures start influencing game play.

That's true. Classic will get to be the same type of social pressure once more players get to the end game and the people setting up raids or dungeons have a choice of who runs it with them. Once there's a pool of people around that level that is large enough, the min maxing or very toxic players will start getting aggressive in raids and dungeons. 

You can definitely play BFA in the same way as classic, it just is a bit harder to get social interactions going without being in a relatively tight knit guild. In classic I did experience just general chatting all the time, or people helping others out in quests all the time. In BFA you don't generally get that without asking friends you already know. 

veegeedee

I've played WoW from launch up to its current patch (with two breaks around 5 and 3 months each). I've also raided as high as US/NA 12th (World 40th) and as low as US/NA 900 (World who the hell knows at that point). The first thing I want to point out is that Heroic raiding is tuned to have been completed at ~415 item level, azerite neck level 53-55, and essences rank 2 or lower. Essentially meaning Heroic level raids are intended to be done with either close to mythic level gear from the previous raid or normal level gear from the current raid.

The disconnect that happens in modern retail WoW was created from all of the various difficulty levels for each form of content. In vanilla/classic, burning crusade, and the first half of wrath of the lich king you either had the ability to complete all bosses or not. If you couldn't complete a fight you simply never got the chance to see what came next, at least not until perhaps a new set of content came out that allowed you to overpower the old content to catch up to the current stuff. Everyone seemed to understand a skill hierarchy and settled into the spots that suited them. However, WoW eventually moved to multiple difficulty settings complete with achievements for finishing content before new content is released. The end result has been a large amount of the community attempting to push content that they cannot actually complete. As well as the failure to understand that the final boss of heroic is going to take as much effort at their level of play as the mythic version will for another more skilled group.

All of that is before anyone even points out that modern WoW raiding and 5man content is around 3x-5x harder than vanilla/classic and the first two expansions. Do not let anyone attempt to tell you otherwise. The Jaina encounter alone likely has more mechanics than all of the Molten Core bosses combined and most of the mechanics are also harder. Two or three combined bosses from WoW's latest raid likely have more mechanics than all of the Blackwing Lair bosses combined.

Anyways, Classic does have some really great advantages. The most important of which is the clear ability to fail in every single aspect of the game which makes every victory that much sweeter. Quests are designed to cause you to fail if you attempt to push them too quickly, your specialization trees are large enough that the game allows you to pick sub-optimal talents, doing small group content can fail if you have attitude problems due to the lack of random dungeon queues, I could even point out failure to mountain climb up the side of Ironforge to get to the airport for the first time because you cant fly. In modern WoW the true ability to fail is only really seen at the absolute highest level of each form of content.

Zero_name

Mooncubus said:

So you feel Classic is better because there's less pressure. You can just do questing and take it easy. You do realize BfA has that too right? I don't raid, I just socialize and quest and just enjoy the world and it's great. I think the problem you have is just you are in a raid group so you feel guilty about doing anything other than grinding to be better at raids. Maybe just leave your raid group? There's no shame in that. They'll find another main tank.

Exactly, whole post looked like AD for classic. I can easily download any game I want and enjoy the leveling/questing with no rush. So why does someone says that he is "forced" to do end game.. it is just personal opinions of what we are looking for in game.

cheyane

I posted this on another thread but I feel it is relevant here.


My god I have no time for anything else. Been playing it for hours and hours and considering it is a game I have played so often even on private servers at one point here I am chugging away with hopefully no end in sight as far as an addiction goes. Good to find an addiction that fills your gaming time, so satisfying. I guess it is about not getting things easily. Everything is something you worked for. 

Someone very kindly offered to buy my paladin in all white gear some gear guessing I was too poor which I was, had like 3 silver on me after buying some bags (still no drops) and skills, I said no because I would not appreciate the gear since it was not something I quested or had dropped from a mob I killed. 

My hunter though a night elf has just got her tiger from Durotar and it has progressed to being faithful. I was thrilled when it finally dinged faithful. I opened the pet window just to look at the 'faithful' word. I got 5 bag drops and passed one to the poor paladin who at this point is like some cousin from the countryside in rags. I also got a couple of sword drops that I will pass to the paladin.

Not to mention how great the community is. They help others without prompting and invite happily. We type and write things that are to do with the game and only the game. What a relief!

I have my orc warlock too and if I find time I must also play. My god it is good to be in Azeroth.

Viper482

advokat666 said:

Hmm tbh. i do not see that much of a difference with a few exceptions. The endgame in classic and in retail is gear gated so you need to have certain things to progress, that´s like in every mmorpg the case. The leveling process in classic is one of the most boring i have ever seen, mostly you kill 10 rats and then carry the 10 rats asses to somebody. In retail they at least try to deliver some story in a bigger context. And regarding community, i have met nice people in retail and complete douchebags in classic and the other way around of course. I did not notice much difference either. What i like about classic is that feeling of danger in the open world, that you really have to be careful and can´t pull half the map easy like in retail. So i guess for me classic is too much time for the fun i get of it.

Because MMORPG's like Classic were more about the journey than the destination. Not that leveling wasn't a big part of it, as every time you leveled and get new skills it was exciting. Getting high enough level to go to another area was exciting. Newer MMO's are just about rushing to endgame and grinding the same instances over and over to inflate some number on your gear. There is no time commitment in classic. You play, you log off. It is only a commitment if you make it one. I wonder if you are trying to play this like you do retail? Solo.

gunklacker

terrible agro bubbles

Viper482

Classic is what original MMORPG's were all about and meant to be....a social living world with a community. People actually interact, you get invited to random groups in order to quest faster, getting buffs from other classes actually helps you, and people are happy to buff you up. It's about community more than anything else. Crafting actually means something in classic! Newer MMO's are single player games with the option to be social, classic is either you be social and group up or you will have a boring time of it. If you want to solo everything you should go back to retail.

Geeky

Exactly!

Nnyan

I'm actually enjoying Classic OVERALL, but all the pain points tell me right off the bat that this is a limited engagement. I certainly will not role another toon, this leveling process is just too painful to contemplate doing a second let alone third time. Eventually I'll hit 60 then get bored. I'll head back to retail and deal with those pain points instead.

lahnmir

Torval said:

JonathJCen said:

“Whenever I think about logging into World of Warcraft [it’s (unnecessary)] I always want to play Classic not Battle for Azeroth.”

“Somehow my mild disinterest has given way to pure enjoyment[,] which is perplexing.”
[see rule one. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/comma-before-which/]

Hope this helps Robin and Joseph in starting their after post editing. Good luck with those proof reading skills.

Said the forum expert with most awkward sentence possible. There is always some editor-wannabe helping ferret out those mistakes, but has nothing of value to add to the discussion. You're that person.

'With THE most awkward sentence possible.' THE most awkward sentence @Torval ! 

What game are we talking about?

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Arlee

meh

Quizzical

Look at how you're describing Battle for Azeroth. I need to grind this stupid thing, and that stupid thing, and some other stupid thing. I need to make more time in the game to do a bunch of things that I hate, because if I don't, I won't keep up with the Joneses.

Well of course that makes you miserable. What you say that you like about Vanilla WoW is that you can just go do whatever, play a game, and have fun. You could do that in Battle for Azeroth, too. You might say that that wouldn't let you do the top endgame stuff. Well, it didn't in Vanilla, either.

The difference that you describe isn't a difference between versions of WoW. The difference is you. When I play computer games, I play for fun. How about you? Why do you play?

Arlee

Torval said:

So I didn't get sold on why Classic is better. The article made the claim but didn't sell it. In fact, what I got is that the author feels social pressure to perform in BfA but not in Classic, but I don't see how that's the fault of BfA. It could happen in Classic too. More importantly the things the author likes to do in Classic could be done in BfA as well, but they're not doing them there.

[Quote start]

So, I got to thinking about why I want to play Classic so much.

I can sit and watch a sunset if I want. Or run back and forth between
the barrier between Thunder Bluff and Mulgore because it’s raining in
Mulgore but not in Thunder Bluff, and the abruptness of that change
amuses me. Or I can stand around in town casting Mark of the Wild on
whoever wanders by. To just have fun.

I can play Classic just to have fun.

[Quote end] because tags on Vanilla forums don't work right.

BfA can be played that way. When I played last year, before Classic launched, it was just for those reasons until it stopped being enjoyable for me. In fact the silly pre-launch balance passes to "prepare us for Classic" were one of the things that drove me away. I play MMOs now to enjoy the atmosphere, community, and experience.

The conclusion I drew from the article is that establish social connections in an MMO can heavily alter or influence how it's played. I agree with that, but I wouldn't say that is the fault of the current expansion. Classic will get that way for many or most when those social pressures start influencing game play.

My point wasn't Classic is better, it's I'm the problem with retail. Or rather the way I approach playing it is the problem. I like raiding a lot but the fact I feel behind what i could be makes me feel bad if I even think about doing something which won't help raiding in some way. This is why all the positives for Classic I mentioned were purely only positive because of my mindset.

DavodtheTutt

So, what you're saying -- and what some of the commentators are saying even more strongly -- is that it is not the game that makes the difference, but how you (and others) play it. And what makes a game better is dropping the burdens, pressures, and urges that come with trying to "win" a game that should be more of a wonderful, relaxing journey with friends.

I've felt this -- I just want to play "let's pretend" much as I did as a child, only with computer graphics and programming in partnership with my imagination. And it would be even more fun to play with others of the same mindset -- yet it seems all everyone else wants to do is rush to level up, get loot, go on big special missions with special loot, and all as fast as possible.

Good to see that there are others who just want to spend some time escaping into an immersive fantasy world.

Utinni

The self-imposed pressure in an endgame scene is the same in classic as it is in bfa. If you wanna play at your own pace nothing prevents this in either version.