Just wanted to share you guys this great video recently made by "Tips Out", on why Vanilla / Classic raiding was great.
Re: the first vid - yeah I loved that the attunements existed and that you had to gear up and do quests to even begin!
Also how raid drops were great in PvP too - a really good incentive to earn these rewards
The word community gets a lot of play to the point it often loses its meaning. The scale of a group of 40 people collectively communicating, organizing, and collaborating gave a true sense of community. It wasn't just your small group of tightly knit friends banding together, it was a group of often several circles all coming together. 10 man raiding often turns into one small clique with a couple fringe members. 25's are the happy medium. 40's are a huge undertaking and brought out the best (occasionally the worst) in community building. As group size decreased and convenience increased the sense of relying on others become more and more of an after thought.
The best of the old times was that it forced you to socialize and participate in group activity to see the content.
The worst thing modern has done is allowing you to effectively solo the entirety of the game and see all the content without ever communicating to another player.
Jynirax is just so right. I bet there is a possibility in retail to experience absolutely everything it can offer (content wise) without opening chat window. Ever. It certainly has some charm, but to call it the greatest MMORPG of all time is flimsy to say at least.
Of course you can argue, that if you have friends playing together it actually becomes a collective effort. That is true. But honestly - how many of us are playing only with our friends? Most of the cases it's a single player arcade.
As Jeff Kaplan said at the Blizzcon 2005 Raid panel: ''The world feels bigger for everyone if there is unbeaten content out there.'' It gives the player motivation and excitement knowing that there is something much bigger then you and that it is very challenging to even face. This is also supported by the fact that there are 40 people in the raid where everyone's potential is even smaller then in 25 mens to leverage the bigger amount of them. This makes the game feel much more dangerous and you feel like an ant in huge living world.
Vanilla environment feels more alive because the players are actually not given strict directions they can take. They can actually make their own content. What I mean by that is for instance world pvp Southshore vs. Tarren mill, Blackrock mountain, raiding cities, world boss / ore and herb / devilsaur leather rivalry etc. etc. There are so many incentives to participate in the living environment that weren't even made by the developers.
Other thing is that there is no sense of prestige in retail anymore. Players cannot distinguish themselves from others because of those stupid transmogs and various raid difficulties. In Vanilla if you saw a high warlord / grand marshal, that meant something, you automatically thought that this guy must have gone through an enormous effort to achieve it and he is THE pvper, same with raiders. This gives the player prestige and reputation.
Retail WoW is much more of an Action RPG then a MMORPG. I rather prefer the slow pace of Vanilla then the smashbutton-like gameplay in retail.
I think one of the key reasons why Classic WoW was so great is due to only having ground mounts. I believe that once Blizzard introduced flying mounts the world instantly became a much smaller place. Flying mounts allowed anyone to fly anywhere, and thus avoiding the beauty of certain zones, or the intimidation of crossing an enemy player along a road, or having to plan the fastest / safest way.
From my perspective, flying mounts is the key element which completely wrecked world PvP. And at least for me, yet I believe for most of us as well, abrupt encounters with the opposite faction while minding your own business were the most shivers-giving moments in the game. Especially if they lead to something involving a group of people eventually joining to defend their comrade.slud wrote: ↑7 years agoI think one of the key reasons why Classic WoW was so great is due to only having ground mounts. I believe that once Blizzard introduced flying mounts the world instantly became a much smaller place. Flying mounts allowed anyone to fly anywhere, and thus avoiding the beauty of certain zones, or the intimidation of crossing an enemy player along a road, or having to plan the fastest / safest way.
Flying mounts left only minor possibility for this to happen. I would even consider them to be the worst decision Blizzard ever made in the development of the game.
Yea as you both said, flying mounts were terrible feature, eventhough it didn't completely destroy world pvp it certainly harmed it vastly.
I'd highly recommend this guy on YouTube. His name is Tips Out and he creates some of the best Classic WoW content out there.
I agree 100%. I understand the appeal of flying and the demand for it. Unfortunately, it had a huge side effect and it basically killed WoW for many people. You can avoid everything that is unnecassary for your progress and that is probably why they changed flying to be available in later stages of the expansions.slud wrote: ↑7 years agoI think one of the key reasons why Classic WoW was so great is due to only having ground mounts. I believe that once Blizzard introduced flying mounts the world instantly became a much smaller place. Flying mounts allowed anyone to fly anywhere, and thus avoiding the beauty of certain zones, or the intimidation of crossing an enemy player along a road, or having to plan the fastest / safest way.
OT: I love that he points out that it took way more preparing and planning before being able to raid. Getting to level 60 alone was something many people were proud of, but stepping into a raid with 39 other people?? That is just massive. And all the experience gained from leveling, elite quests and dungeons were somewhere preparing you for it. It was a great journey.
