In 2004 (the launch year) the original WoW was an amazing time I lost and entire year of professional growth and productivity to. When the first expansion (Burning Crusade) came out, I was equally excited as as the original launch, but after seeing Green gear fall of simple mobs that was better than the epic Purple gear I spent weeks getting in 40 person raids, I could instantly forecast how the entire rest of the game would be forever: and endless grind with your hard won efforts simply trivialized in the first month of the next expansion. I stopped playing WoW about a month after, went back to school instead, and finished the college degree I had started 8 years earlier. Quitting WoW lead to my actions which launched my career to new heights.
I credit WoW with teaching me an incredible life lesson in my 20s to never get drawn into something like that again.
I didn’t start playing when the game first came out. By the time I hit level 60 people had been raiding for months, maybe even a year. Back then, a lot of raiding was about getting fire resist gear so that you could get a bit further in Molten Core. If you were behind, there was no real way to catch up unless you had people who were willing to do work on your behalf to get you the gear you needed.
The Burning Crusade launch basically reset everything, so people who hadn’t had a chance to do raids were on an even footing with people who had.
It was pretty amusing that heroes that were fighting the primal elements of nature were then having a difficult time with mutated boars. But, at least it was mutated boars on another planet. Eventually it was just “oh, you’re on a new island. I know you’ve previously killed a god on this same planet, but the birds on this particular island… they’re tough”. That was poorly explained, but the reason for the gear reset was clear.
To me, there were two big issues with WoW. One was that people constantly wanted new buttons to push, so classes just kept getting more and more complicated to the point that while a MOBA might have 6 ability buttons you use regularly, WoW might have 15ish, with another 20 that are situational.
The other one is just that the story keeps collapsing under its own weight. Increasingly it’s a personal story – it’s not that you’re an adventurer and participated in an event that saved the planet. You’re the individual person who saved the planet (and so is everybody else in the game). And then, because this expansion is over, you, the individual who saved the planet, has to go kill 20 boars on this newly discovered island where apparently boars are as tough as gods. Nobody on this island recognizes you as the hero who saved the planet, so you need to build your reputation up again, and eventually you get to fight the newest god who is destroying the planet.
To me, there were two big issues with WoW. One was that people constantly wanted new buttons to push, so classes just kept getting more and more complicated to the point that while a MOBA might have 6 ability buttons you use regularly, WoW might have 15ish, with another 20 that are situational.
We disagree on this point. I liked 20 situational ones. It made for finding edge cases where a spell or ability was critical and a game changer. While I normally played on an RP server, I would frequenly run around with my PvP flag on allowing myself to be attacked by other players. On a Warlock class, one of the “most useless” summoned pets was the Felhound. However, because almost no one used a Felhound, no one knew how they fought. It was extremely satisfying to be out in world doing a PvE question only be jumped by a casting player that suddenly lost them abilty to cast when the Felhound activated, or when the theif is walking up to you in stealth only to be outted by the felhoud that could see through it.
Not having the many obscure options was what prevented me from really getting into Guild Wars that only had 2 actions at a time when I played it.
The other one is just that the story keeps collapsing under its own weight. Increasingly it’s a personal story – it’s not that you’re an adventurer and participated in an event that saved the planet. You’re the individual person who saved the planet (and so is everybody else in the game). And then, because this expansion is over, you, the individual who saved the planet, has to go kill 20 boars on this newly discovered island where apparently boars are as tough as gods. Nobody on this island recognizes you as the hero who saved the planet, so you need to build your reputation up again, and eventually you get to fight the newest god who is destroying the planet.
This didn’t bother me either. With the 20 and 40 person raids, you were one of many that accomplished the goal. For the individual quests, it made sense to me that new lands wouldn’t know you or your exploits. Its not like there is regular newspapers or internet in game the NPCs read.
It sounds like we had different things we wanted from the game. I’m glad that the things that annoyed me were things that others found value in.
It was extremely satisfying to be out in world doing a PvE question only be jumped by a casting player that suddenly lost them abilty to cast when the Felhound activated, or when the theif is walking up to you in stealth only to be outted by the felhoud that could see through it.
Back when I played warlock, felhound was the PVP pet. Nothing else was useful for PVP except maybe the Succubus if you were really good at using its seduce ability and could avoid accidentally putting DOTs on whatever you were seducing. Even then, that was only really useful in one vs. many fights.
With the 20 and 40 person raids, you were one of many that accomplished the goal
That’s how it was back in the Molten Core and AQ raids. But, then the quests started talking about you as if you were special. For instance in Shadowlands, they started talking about you as being “The Deathwalker” or something. As in, you’re the one and only person who is able to enter the realm of the dead as a living being and then return. But… every other PC in the game is also “The Deathwalker”, and whenever you’re in those zones, you see plenty of other "The Deathwalker"s walking around near you, doing quests.
And flying? Walking around was a core part of the game, seeing stuff, getting whacked by +10 monsters so you had to sneak around, now you just spend 50% of the game in the skybox.
I think a lot of people had this experience. Yahtzee Croshaw had a similar experience, albeit compressed to a month, and it resulted in a book. It’s a really fun book, too.
With your post, I went looking for the book and couldn’t find it. I only found his novels. I’m on the fence about trying to find/read the book. I carry some personal shame from the time when I wasted so much time in WoW. This may be an embarrassing reminder of a mistake of my youth.
Games are just story+art+button timing+math. Mmo’s almost entirely remove button timing, and what is left is extremely formulaic. Given that, number go up isn’t worth anyone’s thousands of hours, and neither is the overall content. I know, as I had the hours and the same epiphany.
Check out their website. They run a number of servers/realms. There is a torrent to grab of the client bins that have been tweaked to connect to their stuff. Check out the forums for more details. But generally, you just create an account on the website and just go. I recommend donating and getting some gold. It will help with the mats for professions without grinding. And playing on a 7x XP, you progress without the grind.
Not gonna yuck your yum, but me and boys had lots of fun with a meme group of druids. Healing, tanking, DPS. Super non-optimal. But it was fun. Only really possible to do that either buying the toons, or training up your own. Training up with 7x means that you basically have no good gear by the time to get up to the upper levels where it matters.
I did that with a friend on Lordaeron. Tank + heal and rdf the dps. Was a lot of fun. 7x would have meant lvling so fast the dungeon runs would have been irrelevant.
Ive tried to go back a few times but nothing topped WOTLK, game play was peak and the community wasn’t jaded and as sweaty. There was still a sense of community and mystery before things got min-maxed. Last time it felt about as friendly as playing League and you were essentially locked out of non LFG raids unless you had a guild and were chronically in there discord.
Yeah and some of the less common ones were fun or even more optimal.
Like I had a paladin tank in classic. It was difficult holding threat especially if the targets weren’t undead, but it was so rewarding to succeed.
My mage was a frost mage like so many were after Molten Core basically pigeon holed mages into frost spec. But holy shit could fire/arcane mages put out dps. The PvP spec was incredibly bursty but the PvE spec could do more damage than frost spec (outside of MC) plus was more interesting than constant frostbolt spam.
Though affliction warlock was probably my favourite spec out of them all, due to the different durations of each of the dots making you have to constantly think about spell order. I didn’t play one in classic but switched to my affliction lock as my main in WotLK and remember getting in the top 3 dps on that PvP zone raid boss, desopite being a filler that wasn’t even max level.
I brought my all in that game and if I was trying to join a pug raid, it was because I knew that character was ready for it regardless of spec or gear. But I did get tired of raiding on a schedule with a guild and pugs could be shitshows, so I kinda understand it.
Pokèmon had a neat answer to that by randomizing each Pokèmon’s stats. Unfortunately people bred them to minmax their stats so that mechanic is gradually getting removed
I forgot cake days were a thing, the clock hasn’t rolled over in my timezone yet.
I got kicked before with warlock unending corruption, seed of corruption spam build. I could max dps charts for some fights because I could hit all the adds and keep dps on bosses that are out of range, but not a pasted build and your gears not capped, your out. I couldn’t get back into it if I wanted to at this point.
I honestly miss playing WoW. It was a fun game, especially if you had a group to raid with. If only I didn’t have to give Blizzard money to play it.
In 2004 (the launch year) the original WoW was an amazing time I lost and entire year of professional growth and productivity to. When the first expansion (Burning Crusade) came out, I was equally excited as as the original launch, but after seeing Green gear fall of simple mobs that was better than the epic Purple gear I spent weeks getting in 40 person raids, I could instantly forecast how the entire rest of the game would be forever: and endless grind with your hard won efforts simply trivialized in the first month of the next expansion. I stopped playing WoW about a month after, went back to school instead, and finished the college degree I had started 8 years earlier. Quitting WoW lead to my actions which launched my career to new heights.
I credit WoW with teaching me an incredible life lesson in my 20s to never get drawn into something like that again.
See, I very much liked the gear reset.
I didn’t start playing when the game first came out. By the time I hit level 60 people had been raiding for months, maybe even a year. Back then, a lot of raiding was about getting fire resist gear so that you could get a bit further in Molten Core. If you were behind, there was no real way to catch up unless you had people who were willing to do work on your behalf to get you the gear you needed.
The Burning Crusade launch basically reset everything, so people who hadn’t had a chance to do raids were on an even footing with people who had.
It was pretty amusing that heroes that were fighting the primal elements of nature were then having a difficult time with mutated boars. But, at least it was mutated boars on another planet. Eventually it was just “oh, you’re on a new island. I know you’ve previously killed a god on this same planet, but the birds on this particular island… they’re tough”. That was poorly explained, but the reason for the gear reset was clear.
To me, there were two big issues with WoW. One was that people constantly wanted new buttons to push, so classes just kept getting more and more complicated to the point that while a MOBA might have 6 ability buttons you use regularly, WoW might have 15ish, with another 20 that are situational.
The other one is just that the story keeps collapsing under its own weight. Increasingly it’s a personal story – it’s not that you’re an adventurer and participated in an event that saved the planet. You’re the individual person who saved the planet (and so is everybody else in the game). And then, because this expansion is over, you, the individual who saved the planet, has to go kill 20 boars on this newly discovered island where apparently boars are as tough as gods. Nobody on this island recognizes you as the hero who saved the planet, so you need to build your reputation up again, and eventually you get to fight the newest god who is destroying the planet.
We disagree on this point. I liked 20 situational ones. It made for finding edge cases where a spell or ability was critical and a game changer. While I normally played on an RP server, I would frequenly run around with my PvP flag on allowing myself to be attacked by other players. On a Warlock class, one of the “most useless” summoned pets was the Felhound. However, because almost no one used a Felhound, no one knew how they fought. It was extremely satisfying to be out in world doing a PvE question only be jumped by a casting player that suddenly lost them abilty to cast when the Felhound activated, or when the theif is walking up to you in stealth only to be outted by the felhoud that could see through it.
Not having the many obscure options was what prevented me from really getting into Guild Wars that only had 2 actions at a time when I played it.
This didn’t bother me either. With the 20 and 40 person raids, you were one of many that accomplished the goal. For the individual quests, it made sense to me that new lands wouldn’t know you or your exploits. Its not like there is regular newspapers or internet in game the NPCs read.
It sounds like we had different things we wanted from the game. I’m glad that the things that annoyed me were things that others found value in.
Back when I played warlock, felhound was the PVP pet. Nothing else was useful for PVP except maybe the Succubus if you were really good at using its seduce ability and could avoid accidentally putting DOTs on whatever you were seducing. Even then, that was only really useful in one vs. many fights.
That’s how it was back in the Molten Core and AQ raids. But, then the quests started talking about you as if you were special. For instance in Shadowlands, they started talking about you as being “The Deathwalker” or something. As in, you’re the one and only person who is able to enter the realm of the dead as a living being and then return. But… every other PC in the game is also “The Deathwalker”, and whenever you’re in those zones, you see plenty of other "The Deathwalker"s walking around near you, doing quests.
Learned this exact same lesson and quit.
My reaction exactly to BC!
And flying? Walking around was a core part of the game, seeing stuff, getting whacked by +10 monsters so you had to sneak around, now you just spend 50% of the game in the skybox.
I dropped out of college because of this game. And honestly, it was worth it.
Because you had so much fun in the game or because college was (or would in the future) serving you so poorly?
did better than me, took me till legion before i truly gave up on it, and then came back for classic
and even now my brain sometimes randomly is like dude you should play wow again
You know you have a WoW problem when you’re spending an appreciable amount of time on Thottbot looking up in-game items and locations while at work.
I think a lot of people had this experience. Yahtzee Croshaw had a similar experience, albeit compressed to a month, and it resulted in a book. It’s a really fun book, too.
With your post, I went looking for the book and couldn’t find it. I only found his novels. I’m on the fence about trying to find/read the book. I carry some personal shame from the time when I wasted so much time in WoW. This may be an embarrassing reminder of a mistake of my youth.
It’s called Mogworld.
Games are just story+art+button timing+math. Mmo’s almost entirely remove button timing, and what is left is extremely formulaic. Given that, number go up isn’t worth anyone’s thousands of hours, and neither is the overall content. I know, as I had the hours and the same epiphany.
I played for a while on the Warmane private server. High population, very active, and completely free.
Nice! Is there an invite process for private servers?
https://www.warmane.com/
Check out their website. They run a number of servers/realms. There is a torrent to grab of the client bins that have been tweaked to connect to their stuff. Check out the forums for more details. But generally, you just create an account on the website and just go. I recommend donating and getting some gold. It will help with the mats for professions without grinding. And playing on a 7x XP, you progress without the grind.
X1 rate, original experience. No pay to win. Best server!
Not gonna yuck your yum, but me and boys had lots of fun with a meme group of druids. Healing, tanking, DPS. Super non-optimal. But it was fun. Only really possible to do that either buying the toons, or training up your own. Training up with 7x means that you basically have no good gear by the time to get up to the upper levels where it matters.
I did that with a friend on Lordaeron. Tank + heal and rdf the dps. Was a lot of fun. 7x would have meant lvling so fast the dungeon runs would have been irrelevant.
Ive tried to go back a few times but nothing topped WOTLK, game play was peak and the community wasn’t jaded and as sweaty. There was still a sense of community and mystery before things got min-maxed. Last time it felt about as friendly as playing League and you were essentially locked out of non LFG raids unless you had a guild and were chronically in there discord.
https://youtu.be/S5Hzh43k330?is=O1TimTrGk1hx1pI5
My feels…
Everyone plays to the meta that unless you’re on your class’ best spec you won’t get in.
Fuck me for thinking for my self and not copy pasting my spec.
Happy Cake day! Also yeah, this push in video games to play them optimally sucks. They’re supposed to be fun, a way from work. Not more work.
Yeah and some of the less common ones were fun or even more optimal.
Like I had a paladin tank in classic. It was difficult holding threat especially if the targets weren’t undead, but it was so rewarding to succeed.
My mage was a frost mage like so many were after Molten Core basically pigeon holed mages into frost spec. But holy shit could fire/arcane mages put out dps. The PvP spec was incredibly bursty but the PvE spec could do more damage than frost spec (outside of MC) plus was more interesting than constant frostbolt spam.
Though affliction warlock was probably my favourite spec out of them all, due to the different durations of each of the dots making you have to constantly think about spell order. I didn’t play one in classic but switched to my affliction lock as my main in WotLK and remember getting in the top 3 dps on that PvP zone raid boss, desopite being a filler that wasn’t even max level.
I brought my all in that game and if I was trying to join a pug raid, it was because I knew that character was ready for it regardless of spec or gear. But I did get tired of raiding on a schedule with a guild and pugs could be shitshows, so I kinda understand it.
Pokèmon had a neat answer to that by randomizing each Pokèmon’s stats. Unfortunately people bred them to minmax their stats so that mechanic is gradually getting removed
I forgot cake days were a thing, the clock hasn’t rolled over in my timezone yet.
I got kicked before with warlock unending corruption, seed of corruption spam build. I could max dps charts for some fights because I could hit all the adds and keep dps on bosses that are out of range, but not a pasted build and your gears not capped, your out. I couldn’t get back into it if I wanted to at this point.
Curse of agony and corruption spells were the thing before they got nerfed
there are private servers that don’t require blizzard money