The day Classic started to suck and suddenly Retail became cool

Community General Discussion
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I’ve been a huge fan of WOTLK back in 2010, and when WOTLK Classic was announced, I couldn’t wait to start leveling and do dungeons. So I rolled a Hunted and within a month I got to max level.

Then the pre-patch came. And my second son was born the next day. Suddenly I was with baby at hands, helping my wife, cooking, cleaning, washing dishes … Then I found myself in a familiar situation - battling endless nights, dealing with insomnia. And during these nights, of course, I had to do something - read a book, or … yes, play World of Warcraft.

My time is limited… I don’t enjoy leveling as much as before, so group content in my situation is limited - casual heroics, casual BGs, catching up with renown. I admit, when Classic was released in 2019, I haven’t paid much attention to Shadowlands. Instead, I preferred to immerse myself in nostalgia, walking around Old Orgrimmar… so I missed a lot of stuff in Shadowlands. I never did the raids, even on Raid Finder. And when the pre-patch of Dragonflight came, I found myself catching up with everything I missed … minus the time gates, with good ways to gear, with a story to enjoy.

WOTLK Classic was in the background, but still switched to do daily heroics. That was, until today.

This is what happened.

As I said, I missed a lot of things. During my sleepless nights, I decided to check my achievements. Then I found I’ve abandoned so many things… including mount farming and raising my renown. I was close to Renown 40. I did a couple of battlegrounds and immediately noticed the diversity I didn’t see in Classic. Brawls. Ashran. Revamped old BGs. Suddenly, PVP turned into a joy. It didn’t take long when I got Renown 40 and obtained my second Unicorn.

Then after my afternoon nap, I decided to do quickly WOTLK Violet Hold, which is today’s daily heroic. I gathered a group in no time and began clearing the trash and bosses… And then, on 12/18 progression, the tank didn’t know how to kite one of the bosses and we wiped. Then tried again. Everyone wiped except for me, as a hunter I soloed the boss… but when my groupmates came back again, the trash after the boss was too much and … the dungeon was reset.

By then, I’ve wasted half an hour of my life and I couldn’t afford to waste any more second. Real life was calling. When I found that we have to do all VH waves all over again and start from scratch, I told my group that I am fed up and want to leave. And I hearthstoned to Dalaran’s inn.

Then one of the groupmates started /w-ing me, begging to return, that we’re saved, and if I am to leave, I’ll waste the time of the other four… This blaming led me to re-evaluate my gaming priorities.

What am I doing in this game? Am I having fun? Seriously… WOTLK no longer works for me. Certainly leveling and re-experiencing the story was fun, but I have no desire (or spare time) to do ICC again, and to wipe on old dungeons.

And what are my priorities on the internet? I’m a grown up. I have a wife two kids. And friends. Classic is good for socialization, and I respect Blizzard to remove dungeon finder. But suddenly… it’s my wife, my children matter. Socializing with strangers no longer matters. Blaming me for not desiring to stay in a wipe group makes the game not enjoyable for me. If it was 10 years ago, I wouldn’t mind staying for a third try of VH. But today I can no longer afford it.

Meanwhile Retail offers everything I need to calm up my insomnia and make my sleepless nights better. Casual BGs? Arenas? Cool! If I have to leave abruptly, I do it, and I’m no longer blamed for ruining other people’s game. I wait for the debuff, then queue again when I have time.

Yes, Classic means socialization and … if you don’t behave well, there are consequences. RDF and Raid Finder are blamed for bringing toxicity because there are no consequences. But right now… I desire no socialization except for casual chat.

Meanwhile…I progress! I raise my renown, gather mounts and titles. As for WOTLK… I’m just not interested in gathering valor, honor. Not right now at least.

So… that’s it. Retail turned out to be enjoyment in a period in my life that brought a lot of changes, and Classic started to suck.

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I like the fast pace of retail , classic is just to much , played it in it’s prime .
Both have their issues we don’t live in an ideal world .

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True.
To me World of Warcraft should be … a game.
I know that some people play it competitively, doing keystones, Mythic Raids…
I shouldn’t be like all the others… I have a family, kids, different priority. Other parents play sudoku or Facebook games, I just want to hang around, chill … while still progress.

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You’ve pretty much described the majority of players here OP!
Not the exact situation but most people have real life concerns and dont have time to sort out raiding/PVP schedules, they just want to log on and play and have abit of fun.

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Correct :slight_smile:
I admit, one of the things that drew me to Classic first place was RDF toxicity, being kicked for stupid reason end lack of consequences… It does spoil fun. But Classic also has its own toxicity… being unable to leave when you want, being tied to a chedule and everyone blaming you if things go awry isn’t fun also.

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Similar experience here. I see the classic games as a game from an era/a time now gone. Not just an era in gaming but an era of my life. Neither can be brought back…
I suffer badly with nostalgia, so I do a lot of looking back at things in life. In terms of WoW I have great memories of when I first started at the end of BC, playing all through wrath and most of cata. For me, it just has to stay in the past. Doing the DK starting area to get the retail mount just affirmed that for me.

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OP has hit the nail on the head when he explains how long everything just takes to do. And sometimes going back to something that was magic 15 years ago isn’t as great as you remembered.

I was dead set on getting into Lich King again on classic and got myself up to 70 on a DK before I just burnt out on the levelling task ahead of me. Maybe it’s because I play alts through the same zones in retail that I’ve just done all that stuff too much, but I couldn’t stomach how long it would take me just to get to 80 again. And I did want LFD back really. Not all PUG groups are toxic and I prefer to not wait forever to try and get a group together to do these dungeons.

TLDR, we all got old. Nobody has the time for long dungeons, huge levelling tasks any more. OP is saying a lot of stuff that’s right. I’ve enjoyed levelling a couple of alts up through the big XP buffs we’ve had over the last week or so.

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Most based perspective I have read here in a while.

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I started playing late Cata/start of MoP, so never experienced Classic when it was relevant. But I did try it recently and it simply is too time consuming and outdated. And unfortunately, killing 50 wolves at a super slow pace to gain a small amount of exp is just not fun by current gaming standards. At least for me.

I think what you describe is something a lot of WoW players have, a lot of us are around thirty and simply do not have the time to commit this much to WoW anymore, when real life is generally quite hectic and you have work, family, gym etc.

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It’s pretty much true, sums up the good points of both game versions. Retail might be quick but it’s good enough for those who have a lot of work to do IRL and we know what’s good in Classic and the better chances to make frens.

Personally, I’m more of a Classic player as WotLK is my fave expansion, but with my work schedule I aim to make leveling fun mostly, instead of endgame (which means raiding, which means having to stay focused for hours) and the group loot system (where I can thank the loot gods if I actually win an upgrade instead of rolling 10 against 13 other people minimum).

I do a twinking of sorts instead - leveling profs on mains for powerful items to send over to alts, gear, pots, enchs, you mean it.

With it, you get to feel powerful on certain specs/classes, and you get to level solo, independent from any other players (as many elites can be easily soloed with the class balance there). Well, I did ask a fren or two at times to give me a ride through an important dungeon (Zulfarrak for instance, with its 5-6 dungeon quests and rewards) but I could be a lone wolf with ease.

As you’re a hunter, you too shouldn’t have too many problems with this, especially if you’re BM. :wink: Give it a try if you like. You won’t regret it, promise.

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Welcome to the casual life, it’s far more relaxing and enjoyable :sunglasses:

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I’m quite happy with my class :slight_smile: Maybe if I start to miss WOTLK, I’ll return back.

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