There are so many new things added in wow during wotlk that I think it does not make it a classic game.
Vanilla was pure RPG game that was classic and maybe only one, tbc was somewhere in the middle, but still classical - they did fix some things from vanilla but maybe ruined some other things such as flying.
Wotlk - destroyed wow completely from my point of view, all that was once RPG was dead in wotlk, there are so many things, just think about it, how philosophy of company changed, as we can see it through game design, focus on end game only, focus on sport gameplay and so on and so onâŚ
Like should it be called classic? ofc it has classic roots such as lvling in northrend, gearing and stats, professions, balance between farming/playing competitive, I mean you could not AOE loot like in retail or share skinning with others, but still it was leaning more towards sporty gameplay rather then pure RPG vanilla style wow.
But, some of the RPG features still exist in WOTLK because they werenât able to erase all of them in 1 expansion. The biggest part of the job was done in Cataclysm.
So, yeah, itâs still can be called a âClassic WoWâ but less than the previous versions.
thatâs exactly what I thought, they erased all RPG stuff in cata, or what was left from old wow, only professions and talent trees were still a thing, then later in mop, they changed all for convenience.
also quest trackers were added, main thing why I wouldnât call it classic, it changed how game played completely, RPG adventure vibe was gone the moment they added that thing.
Vanilla = classic
TBC = budget classic
WotLK = retail
Cata = ruined wow
MoP = tried to restore wow
WoD = garrison simulator
Legion = last good moments before wow died
BfA = game no longer wow but an abomination
SL = bfa 2.0
It all started with Wotlk, if you knew what devs were speaking about it, and inside job description for devs. Some devs spoke about that situation that happened while wotlk was going on.
Forum is the only true classic game. Same threads since the game came out, itâs always ded, everything is always bad and general doomposting from people that donât play the game. You canât get more classic than that.
Just wait, until the failed classic andys, who cry now all of the sudden for RDF, because nobody takes their rogue to MGT heroic pugs, start screeching like fiends and ask for LFR, because of gear score requirememts. They are so traumatized from the shaman/warlock meta in tbc, that they forgot what RPG means. When RDF and LFR are in the game, I will only play retail, and not touch classic with a stick, because there would be no point playing it
It just depends on your definition of Classic. Ask thousand people and you get thousand different definitions of what Classic is.
And because there is no definitive description of what Classic is, you canât objectively say if WotLK is Classic or not. Or if the RDF Classic or not.
All people will give you is their subjective opinion if WotLK matches their definition of Classic.
For me every expansion Blizzard rereleases is Classic, because Classic for me isnât some weird values, that largely only exist in the fantasy of people and not in the game, but just a game for fans of old expansions, to relive their nostalgia. And WotLK would fit the bill, if Blizzard wouldnât make it a completely different game, than WotLK was.
I think that classic is walking from crossroads to thunder bluff for chain questline,
or getting quest from UC to kill some dude in dungeon, because it fits the definition of virtual world, not everything has to be in front of dungeon or inside dungeon, it has to be whole another point of virtual world design.
There are many vibes of vanilla that are unmatched in any other expansion, thatâs why vanilla will be one and only true classic wow.
Just compare Zereth Mortis zone, where everything feels like it is filled up, no empty areas, and compare any zone from vanilla original, it feels wild and empty, because it really is like that, you will stumble on rare very rarely, thatâs why it is called a rare, not everything has to be filled with objectives, when you enter retail zone almost as if you can experience it before going through it, you feel as if every corner is filled with something, and thatâs what no other expansion has but classic wow.
Iâm not sure, havenât played it yet. But things like 1.5 second mount cast, one-tap nodes, maybe faster gathering Idk if thatâs in, and all the vehicle combat. That kind of stuff screams retail to me. Still, weâll see how it goesâŚ
Letâs be honest, this may get me a lot of hate, but it was a pretty subpar RPG. What made it amazing was the MMO. Grouping with real people, helping each other with tough quests, organizing raid and pvp encounters⌠If WoW Vanilla was a single player RPG, hardly anyone would play it. It would be intolerably slow, shallow, with dumb and unfocused story, dozens of unfinished plot threads and no real ending.
Donât get me wrong, I am no fan of the direction it evolved in and havenât really played it since mid-cata, but to call Vanilla a âpure RPGâ is laughable. Baldurâs Gate, Morrowind or Deus Ex are pure RPGs. WoW is an MMO game with heavy RPG elements.
In a sense, Wrath is a much better RPG, with a more coherent story across the zones, some twists (Muradin, Wrath Gate, origins of player races) and a final confrontation with a big bad that was being built toward for the whole duration. Running half-way across the world on a fetch quest doeanât an RPG make. A story and your interacting with it does.
We have two different things here. What an expansion âwasâ and what âisâ currently either as Classic version or private server recreation.
In the âwasâ category vanilla was the initial step to most of it players into MMO, there was no âold MMOâ problems like meta and player optimization. With each major patch and then expansion the game was improving in terms of what it is. Like hybrids were unfinished in Classic and got finished in subsequent 1-2 expansions. Then raids evolved from MC which from nowadays is braindead to more and more âdemandingâ - actual mechanics, personal responsibilities, although still crude difficulty sometimes in the form of high spike damage and loss of control effects (like fear). And expansion/business model got established as well.
Nowadays those expansions are played way differently. Pretty much no one treated Classic vanilla as RPG/Journey. The meta quickly degenerated the game. There is a âTurtleâ out there that is successful at slower, RPG style but thatâs a niche.
We have strong meta and over-optimization, plus the playerbase is way different and aside of the hardcore part has much less time for playing the game (so it pushes optimizations as well). In Classic vanilla you could bring like 10 ânon raider/AFK/whoeverâ to a raid and it was fine. You speedrun a raid even with 1/4 of the raid being AFK. Parses did run 40-man BiS comps to push the timers but it was nowhere near needed to steamroll the content and have fun.
But already in Classic and more-so with each every expansion after it the content got more and more defined. Early on players and game developers werenât the best at the game but you make the biggest improvements on the very start as there is a lot of low hanging fruits on the âimprovements listâ - so raids got defined as the highest PvE end-game, it got harder and smaller to manage some balance on the player and content side. You could not bring âwhoeversâ any more, yet âwhoeversâ got more and more content for them as well. TBC got HC dungeons and tokens, continued with smaller âcatchupâ raids and so on. WoTLK will get more token action and catchup. Plus various dailies, achievements and so on.
So anything from like AQ40 isnât âclassicâ but as well anything from AQ20 has more bracketed content for various type of players which is in power up to this day on retail.
Or the players changed? The original dungeon finder shock wasnât that it is but good players got paired with bad players and were in shock how bad people are at the game. This segmented the playerbase eve more clearly but also showed âplebsâ what is above them - in terms of gear, collectibles, fame and fortune. Some/most started chasing the rabbit.
And one of reasons GDKP rise to power in Classic and that some moan on it is because rabbit chasers want what achievers have yet most of them even with GDKP canât achieve things - yet they are entitled to full set month after tier opening⌠Early Classic vanilla this was achievable without effort but soon thereafter it was not. People in original expansions werenât aware of that not conditioned by meta to start chasing so quickly.
This is the biggest truth in gaming history . The list of oldschool rpgs is much bigger than that tho , any boomer in their 30+ can also add Planescape:Torment ,Fallout 1+2, Arcanum etc . In any case , kids these days cannot tell the difference between an rpg and a gaming product with rpg elements
This is where we disagree. I do not find that the changes in subsequent expansions were for the better.
I am with that
And I still think it a shame that they build Wrath Classic on 3.3.0.
I never played anything but WoW on Blizzardâs severs (not any other RPG, no Pservers, not any of the games often mentioned in these threads as a comparison (From BfA to launch of Classic, I simply did not play anything but Peggle and Candy Crush)), and Iâm not going to start now. so Iâm going to continue playing Classic Era for the experience and nostalgia and pure fun of playing.
Iâm going to hope that Behsten and Slaatz will offer their services with the pre-patch as Iâd like to re-live this too, else Iâll return (to non-Era) when Wrath launches and the 50% XP buff has gone away, Iâm going to play my main on HW to have a lot of achievements. Iâm afraid that Wrath Classic will feel not so classic to me as all the changes, that came âsneakingâ in OG Wrath is poured upon us in one fel go at launch.
But yes, WrathClassic is still Classic. Itâs the lastof the Classic expansions.
Iâve been leveling and running dungeons for 2 months now and Iâm yet to meet some1 who doesnât use questie and I bet you use it as well. These are QOL things yet the people like you just seems to be complaining over and over and over again that somehow theyâve ruined the gameâŚ
Not to mention I have memories from late vanila and early TBC where youâd constantly go to wowhead/thotbot? to see how to complete the quests. These things just makes it easier and more accommodating to new players that donât know what addons are yet.
. In any case , kids these days cannot tell the difference between an rpg and a gaming product with rpg elements
shame that they build Wrath Classic on 3.3.0.