I was playing some BFA and the zones look gorgeous, the story and voice acting are great, and the combat is dynamic yet I don’t feel the need to keep playing it like with Classic and nothing was memorable. Why is this?
16 Likes
Both feel the same to me.
I can play BFA all day or classic all day.
I just don’t like BFA’s azerite/AP system, thus I stopped playing BFA.
7 Likes
Smaller World with a lot more players in it is my opinion.
Everything feels tighter packed since there are “just” 2 Continents and those are heavily crowded with players, and imo Players make the most out of immersion.
Not saying BfA doesnt have a lot of players in their zones, its just that they are far, far more widespread and the Zones are not nearly as timedragging as Classic is.
A big reason current WoW is doing so odd right now compared to Classic is because you are more than used to modern WoW.
The difference between WoD, Legion and BfA is not extremely high like it is between BfA and Classic and that shows off everytime wherever you go.
Playing Classic feels (obviously) like WoW but still like an entire different Game compared to what you or players are used to playing the past 4 years with Legion calculated in. Of course that will suck you in deeper than just another crappier version of a previous expansion.
I dont know about you, but a lot of the zones in their pre-cata state are more than memorable for a lot of players since a lot of players are veterans which have played prior to Cataclysm, possibly even up to the whole 15 years, thus making those Zones a lot more recognizable than the ones they spend a few weeks or maybe months in.
4 Likes
I don’t know, the gameplay, classes and reward system? The zandalari music and zones are so fantastic, I have the music on my playlist. I’m quite sad that I haven’t wanted to touch it since classic came out. If game designers knew what gave games the x-factor, that je ne sais quoi that classic wow had, they’d all do it.
2 Likes
Both games. Well all games. Are a hamster wheel. It’s like reading a book: you have to be guided to read and understand ( to log in and progress) without you feeling you are being guided. In these two games you have a sense of progress but it’s very different. This is my opinion and I claim no expertise other than how it feels to me:
In retail the open world is a two day race when a new expansion hits. You rush to max level in two days, gear up, and run all dungeons up to mythic difficulty in the first week of launch. That’s it. Game is done. There are no raids, no other challenges. The open world is too easy so where is the motivation to keep going? Prepping for raids. (I’m leaving out stuff like transmog collection, toys, events, etc on purpose).
So you log in to fulfill pre requisites to unlock the same content but at a fictional higher difficulty only to get the same hear but only a few ilvls higher. Repeat that weekly, combine it with rep for flying and some other sort of artificial grind like increasing the heart of azeroth level or finding legendaries by pure chance, and you have retail. That’s it.
Why are people frustrated? Because having so and so item level doesn’t mean anything since we have… World quests. They reward items that scale with your current ilvl up to a certain point and past that well you have Titan forging.
So what happens? People don’t take ilvl seriously and resort to external scores to determine who to play with: raider .io… Which is boring af because it makes you do the same dungeons over and over again for no other reason than to unlock them AGAIN at a fictional higher difficult.
Where’s the feeling of immersion? Well it’s pretty damn hard to immerse yourself in a game that is sooooooooo mechanical. You log in, do your daily chores, log back out, and try to divide your weekly chores from your daily ones so you can fit it all into a reset then go open your chest, repeat. In two to three months all that work is rendered meaningless because I’ll be doing world quests which reward me more than your hard earned world first mythic gear.
I mean, go ahead right now and make a level one char without heirlooms and I assure you you’ll feel so powerful, unique, heroic and capable that not even while leveling will you see half of the challenge you have in classic.
When’s the last time you drank or ate in wow retail? If you’re not a healer running keys, pffft… Need to repair? Pop out a mount. Need to sell? Pop out a mount. Need to travel? Fly with 300% speed or take a portal. Can’t do the weekly boss alone because you lack a tank spec? Double click on the quest tracker, form an automatic group, shard into a new place with 20 players, tag the boss, get your shinies, then leave.
Honestly? I can’t get hooked on that.
33 Likes
Simple - running. World feels bigger, more ‘‘real’’, if you will.
You have time to actually see more of the zones, not just pass through and you actually spend time in zones, die, run, try again and so on.
It’s definitely more immersive then clicking on the dungeon finder till 120 from Stormwind and not knowing whats beyond goldshire.
10 Likes
This is so true. If there was an auction house in the bfa areas I wouldn’t even go to orgrimmar.
1 Like
You’re all mostly talking about end game.
Classic hooks many by the time they’re level 2. Bfa seemed huge to me. The troll city itself was massive and I haven’t covered half the zones in the time I played it. I don’t rush games and came to it late, so I only got to 118. I think I saw maybe 3 or 4 other players out in the world. When I needed elite dinosaur for a quest. I didn’t even need to group with them, just hit it.
It was a beautiful and moving, polished, single player game. Classic is messy and annoying and 100% more fun, I’m sad to say. I might go back and finish a few quests, but I don’t remember any storylines I want to finish to find out what happens, so maybe not. 
3 Likes
Quite a few reasons as to why Classic is much more immersive than retail.
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Itemization, Item sets, no ilvl - gear matters. Item rarity, no epics raining from the sky.
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Stats on armour and weapons are more impactful and noticeable.
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No Item scaling, zone scaling or level scaling. You actually feel your character progressing (in an MMORPG, crazy, right?) in Classic.
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Talent Points every Lvl (Lvl 10+) contributing to building your talent tree to empower your abilities and spells, defence, hit/resistances, important abilities/CDs, Improved CC/Snares, etc.
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No gimmicky Heirloom armor that you slap on and never have to replace until max level.
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No Heirloom mount and no account-shared mounts at lvl 20+
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Mobs actually deal damage and aren’t really one-shotable, even though Blizzard gave the starting area mobs slightly more health in retail after criticism to their terrible levelling experience.
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The fact that Classic isn’t all about end game Mythic instances.
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Retail’s homogenised classes/specs, and classes being locked down to “specs” rather than classes, with important abilities & talents too far in between so that you can go like 40 levels without a single new spell depending on the class you play.
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Classic with its proper economy, actually feeling like you’re getting somewhere when you vendor something worth a few silver or gold in order to save for important skills, profession stuff and mounts, etc.
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No flying mounts = more players on the ground = more natural social interactions occur.
I can go on and on?
25 Likes
Talking of storylines, they don’t seem to be written by authors. You know the difference between the storylines and character development in game of thrones when GRR Martin was writing it and what came later when they ran out of his material.
Right up to the tragic telling of the stories of Arthas and Bolvar, from wrathgate to the tragedy that is Little Pamela, even Millhouse and Nesingwary, don’t we feel we know these npcs and are immersed in their telling as much as in our own? I’m sorry Blizz, but today’s stories feel manipulated and staged, where before they felt lovingly crafted and told.
Maybe that’s just me though and people are more into feeling rewarded by epics lol.
8 Likes
Because not everyone you encounter is world’s greatest hero who rides dragons n shiet and wears shiny top ramen lookin’ gear.
We are just all peasants, lowly servants of the faction who dresses on whatever rags they find and ride more basic mounts.
18 Likes
Maybe Classic is more meaningful to you. You actually care about it and can see your progression.
Yes I know its slower, nothing is super-hard but who ever said that harder content equals more rewarding experience? 
1 Like
Actually, retail has smaller world. ALOT smaller. Its just few zones and even these zones are/feel smaller than classic.
Retail is very tightly paced compared to classic. You just go to quest hub, pick 5 quests, make 3 steps, kill 2 mobs, loot 3 items and you are done, then you walk 10 meters to another quest hub and repeat. Classic has alot more space, alot more running around and overal feels more real. Just doing Barrens alone is more satisfying than whole retail.
9 Likes
I feel the same level of immersion in Classic that I did in BFA to be honest (that is to say I am sufficiently immersed).
To me BFA and Classic each represent an extreme of WoW.
BFA is the overabundance of polish, convenience and streamlining whereas Classic is the stark lack of polish, convenience and streamlining.
WoW was in it’s best state when it was sat between these two, the game got better and better with TBC and WotLK but began changing into a wholly different game by the end of WotLK.
If they were to ever make a WoW 2 (unlikely but it’s nice to dream) they should combine the best aspects of the current expansion with the best aspects of Vanilla.
4 Likes
because in BFA 99% of the content can be done solo and the zones are boring with mob scaling, no sense of danger also small maps, very themepark
4 Likes
Bfa has no soul, it’s everything and nothing at the same time.
10 Likes
In classic I’m a rogue in retail I’m 1/3 of a rogue.
In classic I need to socialize to progress in retail I just press a button and join groups.
In classic there are no flying mounts and first mount comes out at lvl 40 so I have alot of time seeing each zone.
And most importantly in classic Items don’t get warforge or titanforge so when i get an item i want it is much more enjoyable and satisfying.
2 Likes
This is just my own theory of course, but I think it’s because of all of those “minor inconveniences” that we (the players) wanted removed. We got them removed and because of that, the small things doesn’t feel as rewarding anymore.
The game is very, very slow-paced and leveling through it takes its time. Along the way you set small goals for yourself.
“Reach level 10”,
“Reach level 20 for that ability you want”,
“Reach level 40 for mount”,
“afford mount”
3 Likes
If you are playing BfA you are probably a very developed character with a multitude of skills and loads of experience. The game is relatively straight forward cus as a trained and skilled player who has advanced to 120 you treat the processes almost as procedure. In BfA you assume you are strong and able.
In Classic you’re nothing more than a farmer with a shovel to start with and don’t assume any skill level cus you are at the bottom of the Warcraft pile. By level 60 you’re probably just about getting to a stage where the game is allowing you to match the skill levels of the opposition and begins to assume you can take on more tough mobs.
Classic is a struggle cus you want to be strong, you want to be skilled and you want to progress. It gives you talents, skills etc in a slow ordered way based on a relatively straight line and not sharp bell curve as in BfA. Classic is a slow grind and to some very rewarding as you slowly climb the ladder. And for that reason it is seen as more immersive.
For me I found it just too frustrating cus I hated the races I was forced to play and I thought the game mechanics were dumb. Especially as a mage having to drink all the time. I much prefer being skilled from the getgo and able to attain skills much quicker, basically cus I find having more stuff to play with fun.
I guess the main difference in terms of why Classic probably feels more memorable is cus its probably slowly revealing itself to you in steady chunks. You are having to traverse the same ground over and over by foot and so that takes time. It took me a few days even to get to 15 and I found that a real drag. Yet in the real game I created a new char and in a blink of an eye I was 16 and on the dungeon conveyor and now level 87 and cleared a whole zone of Pandaria in the same time as my failed mage in Classic. Horses for courses. Me I like playing Blood Elf and I never get bored of that. And I like it fast and furious. Classic is slow and for me unecessarily so. My game isn’t immersive but then I don’t treat it seriously. Its just a bit of nonsense. Its a game.
What ever gets your motor running.
1 Like
It’s because classic feels closer to a real world, whereas with each expansion the gameplay has been boiled down to a basic formula. Like, for example, in Classic, you’ll be questin’ in Stranglethorn, and some Goblin will give you a quest to take something to his old colleague in the Shimmering Flats (also a Goblin).
This might be a royal pain in the backside for players but it does give the sense that the world is… more real somehow. Like this random quest giver isn’t just a random quest giver, he/she actually has siblings/friends/colleagues in other parts of the world.
Feels more connected somehow.
7 Likes