Agreed with this, cross-realm was a huge mistake…
It removed and destroyed any community feeling that every server had, as well as the ability to weed out the bots, boosters and bad apples.
Now, it’s a giant cess-pool, where you’re extremely happy to meet someone who’s actually sane and social.
Guess that merits as an achievement?
Most are very aware of this. It does not make the point moot.
That is subjective. You could not kill very much now if you could only use the tools available back then.
There were no raid marks originally. Anyone who had to set up the Garr kill will remember the pain of that. There was no such thing as a focus macro. There was no DBM or big wigs until much later on. The meters we had were basically non functional because of the range they took into consideration. You could not tell who was really slacking in a raid unless you stood on top of them. Weak auras did not exist at all. You were also limited to the people on your own server. There was no cross realm raiding and I have no idea when realm transfers became a thing. There really is a huge amount of tools you take for granted in the game now, that were not around back then.
So yes the mechanics were immensely simple in comparison to today. But there were so many other factors that made completing a raid a noteworthy achievement in itself.
The classic reiteration you see today is not the same as back then. It is bumped to the final patch of the expansion. All classes skills were boosted to a point not seen before in preparation for TBC. And as I said the knowledge and player base you have today was not there.
It makes the entire point moot.
Cause there’s nothing to win, thus there’s no pay to win.
Just people who have more money than brains.
oh here we go again
its paye to progress simple as that as you will never “win” anything
I am very much with you on this one. Realm transfers allowed the toxic or dishonest players to hide or start over. The game was so much better when your character status was defined by what the server thought of you as a person.
And we have heard it plenty from those players.
No we haven’t.
Do you have some channels of communication that I am not aware of, because I’m not seeing any evidence that Blizzard are actively going after players who buy gold from third-party sellers on a basis that could be described as regularly or constantly, or to a degree that could be described as significant or impactful.
I mean, by all means, present some examples of Blizzard having taken action against gold buyers in The War Within. I’m sure this is something Blizzard have communicated, because they certainly don’t shy away from announcing whenever they (rarely) do large banwaves of bots. It’s good PR and it acts as a deterrent. So surely there are examples of that with gold-buying as well, yeah?
You mean you haven’t seen it but there is plenty of evidence out there of people getting temporary bans for gold buying.
Put up or shut up.
No idea what your problem is.
Sites like reddit are full of ban discussions, something that is not permitted on the forums.
Oh shut it you! its forum entertainment time.
It always entertaining to read some of our favorite doom&gloom posters. Well the refined ones anyway. (the primitive u sux me guud trolls get boring way to fast). Like our Jito in his endless crusade to prove…to…er somebody on how “WoW is bad, How Blizzard is bad. How everything is bad. There is no hope for us humans and etc”.
Want some ?
Don’t mind if I do!
Brought 
Yeah sorry about that hahaha !
I don’t drink but feel free to partake.
You’re refuting the merit of my word on the basis of nuh-uh!
I’ve agreed hence so far that Blizzard have taken steps toward curbing gold buying in Classic WoW in the past, and if you go way back in Retail history, then there’ll also be evidence of it there.
But suggesting that if I went and bought a million gold from a third-party seller in Retail WoW, then Blizzard would hit me with the banhammer sooner than I can say pay-to-win, is ridiculous.
That ain’t happening.
And the reason why it’s not happening is because it’s a lot harder to track and determine who’s actually buying gold than it is to track bots or the gold sellers themselves. The buyer is the last one that Blizzard has an interest in actually suspending from the game, because that’s just a normal player buying some gold to fund their repairs or whatever.
The only reason why Blizzard approached it aggressively in Classic was because they didn’t sell the WoW Token there. And they didn’t do that because it wasn’t supposed to be part of the gameplay experience, and therefore third-party gold sellers weren’t supposed to be either. And when the gold-selling became too rampant anyway, they obviously had to do something. So they did.
But in Retail? The ain’t doing much of anything. They’ll ban the bots every 6 months, and if they can find the goldsellers and track their gold, then they’ll get rid of that too.
But regular players who’ve just chosen to buy 200k gold from a gold-seller instead of buying a WoW Token are such a small fish that it is not something Blizzard really bothers with, because why should they? It’s a lot of work to track and in Retail we’re pretty cool with gold-buying anyway, and it’s impossible for players to notice whether the gold comes from a WoW Token or a third-party gold seller.
The only thing players complain about on Retail is the bots, so that’s where Blizzard emphasizes their efforts.
Whatever gold gets through to the players in the end just gets to be, unless it’s absolutely absurd amounts that trigger red flags.
If I pay, what do I win?
Gold buyers are punished, usually when they have clamp downs. If you want to believe that doesn’t happen be my guest but there are plenty of people that have received short term bans for it.
Not really more can be said about that.
Lots of people get gold for things other than boosts. Not that I really see a boost as ‘winning’. You’re not going to win a RWF, push the highest keys, or be a Gladiator.
I’m not into believing much of anything.
I take it at face value. And if I can see the aftermath of Blizzard putting their foot down in Classic (for a short moment), and then I look over to Retail and I can’t see so much as a whisper of the same, then it’s because it simply ain’t there.