Everyone will enjoy Classic differently.

In my opinion, vanilla is a game that's already been explored. Years of private server min-maxing and new discoveries about the intricacies of the classes, items, and zones have destroyed that mystical feeling WoW had for all of us when we first started. The mystery is gone.

However, I feel like I have a style of playing that the community might enjoy. Play for the immersive experience. You don't need to spend every minute trying to min-max your playtime. The game is about having fun. Sure, some people might find it fun to rise to the top of the community, but very few us will be on top.

Try making a character with your own headcanon. Don't pick goblin engineering because some guide told you it was better. Pick it because it better suits your character. Classic WoW is a sandbox adventure that the following expansions have slowly taken away from us. Make your own adventure. Sometimes it's best to slow down and smell the roses.

To each their own, but this is the way I choose to play. How are you going to play Classic?

Personally I'm not very much into lore or character building or anything like that. I don't get immersed in the game. I get immersed in the human social co-operation aspect of the game. That's what I play for. It's the same reason why I like playing team sports. Except the difference is I suck at sports but I'm good at WoW.

Players will still minmax in Classic.

You're painting a picture of a bunch of elite players who, having achieved everything on private servers (or maybe even in 2006), can say "I won, I beat the game, now I can take it easy." For those people, Classic will be a calm retirement home where they can lean back, focus on hobbies instead of treating WoW like a job, and reminisce with other veterans. However, retired veteran players will always be a minority. The vast majority of Classic players will be getting a chance to raid for the first time. The fact that theorycrafting has been done to death already will only make minmaxing easier. The guides are out there, so in their eyes there will be no excuse.

The players running off-spec fun builds will be the most skilled, but again, I think they will be a minority. If the community turns out to be non-toxic, the minmaxing but low-skill fresh meat will be able to co-exist with the off-spec but high-skill retirees.

I think the most important thing for many players will be to find a community where they belong. Advising people not to min/max is a waste of breath. Trying to encourage people to stop and smell the roses, is pointless. People will play the game however they choose. Just as the loremaster slow poke enjoys casually exploring every nook and cranny in the game, sniffing every rose along the way, the sweaty caveman neckbeard enjoys killing boars 18 hours per day to rush to max level and collect an epic 2hander to slay the loremaster who is 40 levels below him. Spend less time concerning yourselves with how others play the game and more time focusing on yourselves and your immediate friends/guildmates.

I experience immersion from real emotion... A real connection to the game. Real anger after a wipe, real adrenaline while fighting a 2 vs 1 PvP situation. A real sense of accomplishment when my guild downs progression content. When I corpse camp you for 2 hours straight and you feel frustrated and annoyed... That is real. Those emotions are real. That IS immersion. This is the deepest sense of immersion you will ever feel. No amount of lore that was created in a writing room will ever make an impact on you within the game like other players will. You are actually feeling animosity because of my actions. Our virtual interactions are creating a real emotional impact. This is immersion.

This is not some feelgood story where you will always feel warm and fuzzy. A huge part of Warcraft (for me) is war. Conflict. Competition. I dont care what makes the game valuable to you and I wouldnt dare try to change how you play it... Just play. Log in and play and you will be contributing to the community. It takes all kinds to make a server function. Just like Barrens Chat =).

Yeah, as @Stfuppercut said, the key will be community for many people.

I already won't be minmaxing my leveling so I will most likely be running around fishing, mining, cooking, helping low level people by tanking dungeons etc. I mean I already did the nolife approach, so this time around I don't want (or need) the same experience. Just soak all the goods Classic has to offer; read the quests, take an epic journey (on foot), craft some useless items, and so on.

For me Classic is also about a different approach to gaming in general. I don't know about anyone else, but lately (read: past 3-4 years), I very rarely had a game that had me on the hook like old times. I can't just lose myself in Skyrim for hours on end, or even finish Witcher. The "open world gaming" trend in recent years feels empty to me. I know both are really amazing games, and maybe 10 years ago I would have played those two nonstop.

Part of this most likely getting old. I'm 31 years old, and similar to many am married (no kids) and have a somewhat stressful job. Getting lost in a gaming session for more than 2-3 hours a day is a luxury for me. For a very long time it took me quite some time to get used to this (I'm still not very used to this). It felt like being in a "gaming slump", for lack of better word. I didn't have the "joy" as I did 20 years ago - which is probably not that uncommon.

While I don't foolishly believe that Classic WoW will "cure" this for me, I've been starting to see Classic in a different gaming paradigm. Since "pure gaming" isn't all that enjoyable for me, I will approach Classic in a different light. And that light for me will be the community. I know some people will approach Classic as a "pure game experience" and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that - I'd be lying if I didn't desire the same. So instead, I'll just try to help out in whatever shape or form to those around that do want to experience Classic to its fullest. I think that will bring some feeling of accomplishment. Not the "10 POINTS FOR CLEARING RAID!" achievement, perhaps not a shiny epic loot, but the sense of being helpful to other players. I'm hoping I'll gather like-minded individuals to our guild as well (so far we have about 15 people, so clearly other people are in a somewhat similar boat).

Maybe I don't need to clear Molten Core. I mean, I will still aim for that for somewhere in the future, but it's okay to "miss out". I for one am just going to immerse myself in the world, and try to enjoy it on my own terms.

Anyway this has become an oddly personal blog-like entry, sorry about bumming anyone out there heh.

I don't think there necessarily has to be a conflict between min/max and RP immersion. I want to know the underlying numbers, but I'm not playing numbers I'm playing an imaginary world given pseudo-reality by numbers and pixel art. Not really different from old skool tabletop RPGs, it's interesting to play when only the DM sees any rulebooks but I'd rather know the player side or you're trusting the rule framework to make intuitive sense in terms of the imaginary world, which is probably impossible. So in AD&D 1st ed you want the longsword not the broadsword, important to know but doesn't gank my sense of immersion personally. You can make choices that are good for numbers and story both, and often avoid creating situations where that's impossible if you see them ahead of time.

Community for me, I'll cooperate with people's characters sometimes and really like being able to help if I happen to be running by but I usually don't want to know the real people behind them. Because immersion. Looking into the RP server maybe, sort of expecting ridiculously bad fake-medieval drama club ish but I'm tired of rogues named Tupacc. And responding to "Forsooth, yon rogue, whither dost thou fare this morrow?" with "Shut yer hole" probably counts as dwarf RP anyway.

I think lots of people are comfortable with the idea of choosing RP over numbers if you don't put it that way-- a lot of the best class guides from hardcore players spell out the (dis)advantages of different race choices and then say "Ignore all that and choose the one you like." One "efficiency" thing I won't usually touch is speed-leveling, reminds me of eating contests and I'd rather enjoy the meal. If someone else wants to go for the prize instead, up to them ofc.

Stfuppercut wrote: ↑

5 years ago

I experience immersion from real emotion... A real connection to the game. Real anger after a wipe, real adrenaline while fighting a 2 vs 1 PvP situation. A real sense of accomplishment when my guild downs progression content. When I corpse camp you for 2 hours straight and you feel frustrated and annoyed... That is real. Those emotions are real. That IS immersion. This is the deepest sense of immersion you will ever feel. No amount of lore that was created in a writing room will ever make an impact on you within the game like other players will. You are actually feeling animosity because of my actions. Our virtual interactions are creating a real emotional impact. This is immersion.

is it wrong I read this in Metzen orc voice?

Everyone will enjoy the game differently. And like Meanderthal said, there's a middle ground. You can still find immersion in the game while picking the best option. You don't need to purposely gimp yourself unless you really want to get immersed, and that's more for RP server players.

The whole idea of playing more for immersion are people who have already tried keeping up with the server community's treadmill and want to play Classic more casually. I don't recommend raiding like this, but I think for a lot of people, Classic will probably end with 60 dungeons and MC/Ony/ZG/AQ20 PuGs.

Zhohan wrote: ↑

5 years ago

This is a masterpiece.

You can min-max and still immerse yourself in the game.
but if a pretty blue dress like https://classic.wowhead.com/item=13346/ ... he-exalted makes healing easier then I absolutely must wear it.

Stfuppercut wrote: ↑

5 years ago

No amount of lore that was created in a writing room will ever make an impact on you within the game like other players will. You are actually feeling animosity because of my actions. Our virtual interactions are creating a real emotional impact. This is immersion.

I think this relates to one of the many shifts that retail wow has taken that I dislike. The whole retail game involves having lore and storytelling rammed down your throat. The lore and storytelling in classic was just kind of in the background, and the game presented you with a loose framework and a sandbox to play in. The various books laying around on tables and in explorer's league rooms and libraries throughout the game let you read about the backstory and lore if you wanted, but it was just background. I love finding those 5-6 page long books in the game and reading them, but I appreciate how it's all background color. Classic is all about us and what we choose to do. That's one of the big draws to the original game for me.

I'm planning on the same. A slow progression and leveling professions I want to have right along with my character.

Zhohan wrote: ↑

5 years ago

Play a druid, we can minmax our gear and still have a "matching tier set" at all times thanks to our forms!