Why is classic levelling so fun?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Does anyone know why is classic levelling so fun and immersive?

I can’t stand levelling in Retail, I am at the moment trying to level another Rogue and Paladin in my Retail account and I can’t bring myself to play for more than 1 hour every few days tops, but with Classic I could chill and level all day.

But classic levelling is a lot harder, I’m trying to level my first classic character at the moment and I think I’ve died at least 10 times , no joke, and I’m only level 13 and it’s probably taken me like 15 hours (I’m bad I know, first time playing vanilla)

Why is it so immersive and fun even though it’s technically super slow and painful?

It’s weird huh? Has anyone thought about this?

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A good question!

I believe it is, in general sense, because to feel good about overcoming an obstacle, there needs to be an obstacle to begin with.

Modern games often reduce the obstacle in the name of player comfort. But it is a road to hell. Because with comfort comes boredom.

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this video covers it pretty well

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In TBC people said that the game starts at lvl 70. That is pretty much the mindset of all expansions. While in Vanilla the game starts at lvl 1. Vanilla was created with the WORLD in mind. Expansions were made more with numbers, raiding, arenas and most of all… money and the players in mind. Expansions revolve around the player and his/her experience and well being. Vanilla is a world for itself. Azeroth does not owe us anything. Player starts as Mr Nobody and gradualy becomes the part of the main story. Questlines accross the entire world, locations that exist simply to exist, no cross-faction cities, you can’t skip being in the world (flying), you have to travel to get somewhere, trainers are scattered accross the world, they haven’t yet moved to main cities, so that every player can find them, choices matter, each playthrough is different, some quests can be impossible to finish, it is possible to die a lot and fail a lot during questing, etc. Many, many, many things that together create the World we have to face and help each other while doing that.

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I think its the other way around, how can classic leveling be considered fun and immersive? The gameplay consists of slowly walking from point A to B with 0 interactiom aside from exedently pulling a mob, its not really immersive for me if all i am thinking is Why am i doing nothing for 30 minutes for absolutely no reason other than poorly aged game design?
Also, i dont really enjoy normal quest mobs feeling like bosses because 90% of my attacks either miss, get dodged, or parried or what ever, not fun.
I never really enjoyed leveling, but then i played dragonflight, and i can tell you i am currently working on my 10th lvl70, i could not believe how fun leveling is now that i can freely choose what i want to experience, and actually experience it. I like being able to use my mounts early, i dont understand why i have to be a high level to move around half decent at this point.

Also, classic just feels so empty now. Theres nothing in the game, you have a handful of raids, collectibles dont really matter, gear doesnt make any sense, barely any mounts, no transmog, i understand people need to make up gameplay such as HC to atleast have the feeling of having atleast a goal.

No i couldnt go back to classic, retail is just too good and i have officially put off my nostalgia goggles and accepted the fact i was just blind and in denial. Classic can get flushed down the toilet, where it wholeheartedly belongs.

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Are you talking about Classic Era or Classic Wrath of the Retail King here? Because Era is not empty - unless you joined a dead cluster.

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There’s really nothing to do in Retail if you’re a solo player though.

I have nearly 3K io but pugging keys above 22 is almost impossible, unless you like to spend 12 hours to maybe time 1 key.

Raid has been on farming since January, it’s boring now.

PvP, unless you play a healer, ques are 20-50 minutes so that’s kinda out of the way.

I mean, I guess you got me there on collecting transmogs and as someone who has his favourite transmogs on almost all of my characters (I have every single class at level 70 btw, I am working on my 2nd and 3rd of certain classes), and mounts. There’s just nothing to do.

It’s horses for courses though, sometimes less is more, choice is not necessary a good thing. Also, I’m finding the community a lot more interactive in Era than in Retail. Retail is basically lobby simulator, feels a bit like league of legends or overwatch, where you log in and press play, the only difference with League you get a game in 1 minute, with WoW you’re lucky if the wait is less than 30 minutes, it’s just not sustainable when people are creating apps for a queue pop because it is so long.

I play a healer in M+ and am lucky I don’t have to wait for more than 20-30 minutes for a group, my friends who play DPS specs? Unless I queue with them, they aren’t getting in a group without waiting more than 1 or 2 hours.

So Retail looks like is filled with stuff to do, but unless you have a dedicated group of people to play with online, it’s very hard for solo people. And most of my friends are in their 30s, so finding time to play at the same time is each other is already a chore in itself.

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I play solo only, and i can assure you i can play wow retail all day without getting bored once. There is so much to do if you really want to play the game its insane. I have to make a list of priorities so i dont go crazy trying to do everything at once.
Not even joking or trolling when i say i am having the best time i ever had playing wow retail right now, big props to blizzard for nailing it this time.

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There is an actual challenge, effort and give a different type of satisfaction. Even running to through Wetlands at a slightly low level is tense, never know when a croc will grab your ankle…

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And thats the great thing, you can go and play retail whilst others enjoy classic.

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Is fun BECAUSE slow and painful. It keeps you on your toes. Having things served on platter of silver = not fun.

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Fine for you; stay in Retail. Let me have Classic. My fun.

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I feel sorry for you, but sure i mean i never said you couldnt have it

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So you actually don’t play classic. Did you watch the video in the 3rd post?
Where the streamer says he thought it’s all BS nostalgia until he actually tried to play ?
Yea.

And yet here you are, posting on a classic era forum.

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But I do, because I found the topic “Open the TBC server”

Which he meant he wants to play TBC again, instead to move on to wrath while classic vanilla still stays

Edit: I am sorry that I did not read rest of these posts in this thread

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Yes you said to put down the drain:

Not nice to say for us love Classic. I do not go around saying bad about Retail. I just do not play it.

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Classic leveling is indeed better than any others.

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Leveling in wow is cool first time around. No matter the expansion. After that it’s mixed bag… except vanilla, I would rather bolt my ballsack to a bullet train before going through that snooze fest again. Classes got no buttons, zones are not finished, interesting quests are few and far between, the game is obscenely easy unless someone actually goes for some world first max level speedrun and depending on your class progression is just horrible.

Putting vanilla leveling on a pedestal nowadays, calling it difficult or trying to retroactively assign some deep design philosophy to it is 2nd biggest cope produced by Classic release.

It’s cool that the game is there for people who enjoy that but personally for my “press 2 buttons and watch numbers slowly go up” experience I will go with Path of Exile.

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Just ignore him. It’s yet another internet warrior who believes his opnion is the only truth and can’t get around the fact people enjoy different things.

That’s a misinterpretation. I remember the Classic forums when WoW Classic had yet to come out before August 2019 and almost everyone agreed it wasn’t difficult, just slower and with more RPG elements like weapon skill, skills from a trainer etc. The only thing I can agree on is that you have to be careful when pulling mobs or elites, in that only sense is it more difficult. Raiding? Even LFR is harder than Vanilla raiding. The hardest boss is to get 40 ppl together and paying attention. Yet Ppl, including me, love it.

This is the way to frame things. You don’t like it, that’s fine, all the respect to you.

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I think we can all agree, that vanilla is better when it comes to world design, dungeon design and quest design.
Encounter design is a different story ofc, but that is just one minor detail.

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