So, I don't know about most of you, but I totally miss World of Warcraft back in the last couple patches of TBC and WotLK. I remember when raids used to be nearly impossible to complete, and you had to wait for hours to find a decent group to go with. And even then, success was never guaranteed. You got a little bit of this in Cataclysm, but it was never the same. I remember when patches came out for raids, they not only included raid content, but often times 3-4 new five man heroic dungeons that gave players another layer of progression than just queuing up for raid finder and going ham on mind-numbingly easy content. I remember a time when questing solo through content was difficult. It took more than three days to level 10 levels, and you felt like you had really accomplished something when you reached max level. I remember the story being more immersive and making more sense to the universe itself. I feel like recently, Blizz has really cut back on the time and thought that goes into making new content. Instead of making content that will fully last two years and taking the two years to make an amazing expansion, it's more about pumping content out as fast as they can. I don't mind the waiting and anticipation, as long as the content is like it was in TBC and WotLK. What are your guys thoughts? And what memories do you have of this game that you enjoy the most?
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I played WoW from Beta to now and I can tell you my favorite moments.
1 Week after launch, playing an Undead Rogue going through Silverpine Forest on my way to Hillsbrad. This was so legit and fun. I remember a quest where I was sneaking through Silverpine killing guys from Dalaran. I was jumping from roof to roof just to add the feeling of being a sneaky assassin.
3 Months before Burning Crusade launched, playing an Orc Warrior... hating it in PvP, but loving it at the same time. I had the UNSTOPPABLE FORCE and sometimes that was true. Whenever I would feel bad about my character I would convince my friend (a troll rogue) to duel me and I would eat his soul because Orc Warriors could not be stunned back in the day.
BURNING CRUSADE, I dropped my Orc Warrior and made a Blood Elf Paladin and loved life again. The depression of Warrior finally left me. I played from 1 to 70 and enjoyed all of it. This was probably when I invested the most time into WoW. I raided even. SSC and TK. I remember one time really debating if I should buy an epic hammer off the AH and I decided to wait until after that night's Gruul raid... and guess what dropped boys and girls...
Hammer of the Naaru
That was probably my favorite moment.
OLD AV!!!!!!
everybody should remember that, because thats the only thing in World of Warcraft that wasnt copied or cloned in any future post WoW MMOs.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
I also had a lot of fun running into references from the RTS WarCraft games.
This one is a sketch I made for our AQ20 group. Red = a guardian in front of the final boss, green = a player, blue = a deadly zone, and the green dot in the corner is a player infected by a plague dot.
This one is from some special event with Eranikus. I'm not sure what was it about. I just remember that it was insanely laggy and people died all the time.
This one is from when Maraudon was new. Can you see the boss, that most people who did the dungeon never killed?
When Moonkins were added to the game, I was the first raiding Moonkin on our server. I also was the first one of our raidgroup to get the famous staff of dominance. Those were the days...
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
Joining a guild and sitting down in game, whilst the designated class leader talked players through the ins and outs of the class.
Eventually becoming a senior member in the guild and class leader, finding myself helping newer players with the same hints and tips for their class.
oh I miss those days...
I dont like powergrinds to end level, but the stories from my guild with RL friends that loved pvp as I did and were already in the 50+ bracket while I was in my 20s-30s made me speed up the leveling a bit to get eligable for AV. (52+ at the time)
And yes, I LOVED old school AV where I joined up, fought enemies back and forth, left AV, left game, came back 4-5hrs later and reentered the same AV where the advancement was 30 yards!
Plus I loved the excitement of reaching level 20, go to Astranaar, and that particular south elf gate was symbolic because as soon as you went through that and the lone road east bound, it was red alert with possible horde inbound.
LOVED it.
And of course old school STV. hearing the stories how bad it was to quest there because of the world pvp, and then postpone it till you HAVE to go there. Good game.
Then they extended level cap, new zones, noone visited the old zones anymore, the end.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
An allied guild member getting the tiger mount comes to mind (so much celebration on vent).
Being the only dedicated healer in a successful 20 man raid (bandages and health pots flying everywhere).
Overall, my favorite moments were meeting people out in the world and striking up conversation. More a feeling than a memory, but socially the game was considerably more engaging.