Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

UrBobbyIsAWonderland t1_je9rpr1 wrote

Reply to comment by itsafuseshot in Wow fans might recognize the place. by topjben

Nah, the internet ruined it.

Original WoW came out even before YouTube. People don't realize how old it is. Gaming culture was different. there was no meta. It was pure discovery. It just doesnt work like it used to.

44

itsafuseshot t1_je9ta0w wrote

That’s fair, it’s not the same, but classic era servers (vanilla, not wrath of the lich king) are well populated, and still a lot of fun

11

The-Cynicist t1_jea1jnr wrote

I’m with you on this. The sense of wonder and the unknown was vast in the original game. At best you had some spotty article pages on Thottbot if you were lost. Now every inch of the world map has been marked and gone into detail by thousands of YouTubers. Not to mention every min/max guide for the flavor of the month so your character just ends up being uncompetitive or a complete cookie cutter. Really I wish we could go back to 2000s era internet in general, it was a lot more exciting.

10

Shibbystix t1_jea26ph wrote

Yeah, the thing that made wow so special is the thing that cannot exist anymore BECAUSE of the times.

The best thing about wow was exploring out in the wild and randomly seeing someone else doing the same. I made my first long term net friend running from troggs near Karanos.

Now, everyone is using the same speed Lvling guide to level as fast as possible, and people run right past everyone because everyone is trying to max lvl as fast as possible. It's so streamlined that most of the servers are on the exact same paths to get to places, doing the exact same quests and skipping the same quests.

You don't randomly meet strangers in the wild anymore to team up

8

MajinBuuMan t1_jeac72y wrote

That's what made me stop playing most MP games in general.

Meta this, meta that, find the most efficient ways to do things and stick to that.

Even first person shooters are going that way...

I like my sense of wonder and adventure in video games and that's gone from most multiplayer now.

5

Cooleybob t1_jeaga9p wrote

"Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game."

It's essentially an inevitability with competitive multiplayer games. If the goal is to "win", then the most efficient method of achieving that will be found and dominate the scene. For MMORPG's like WoW, that really sucks when the whole point of the game was to explore, quest, collect gear, and build your character however you wanted.

6

JanGuillosThrowaway t1_jedud0w wrote

I did get that feeling again when WoW classic dropped. There were so much activity in the world. someone posted about grouping for the elite quests in Loch Modan and I dragged my NE priest up there and completely but barely saved a group consisting of three warriors and a hunter.

That was such a great time. I'd like to get back into classic now but I guess the experience would be very different from those first months.

1

holdit t1_je9ueh2 wrote

The first couple months of WoW Classic gave me the same feeling as back when it first came out. Was incredible

2

JobsInvolvingDragons t1_jeb4ay7 wrote

Nothing has been ruined, you are just ignorant and cynical. The magic is still very much alive in classic wow, if you choose to minmax the fun out of it that is on you alone.

−2

agamemnon2 t1_jedpwd4 wrote

I think you're mistaken. It's completely different to go back to a "classic" version of a game that's no longer being developed, than it was to explore the same MMO when it was still active. It's the difference between visiting a famous artist's house when they're alive, and visiting it 40 years later when it's been turned into a museum.

1