Vanilla was the highlight, for obvious reasons; coming from Everquest the content, questing, diversity was fantastic. I became obsessed with PVP and quickly hit rank 11 utilizing my autistic robot camping powers garnered from years of Everquest grinds. (As well as being in a top-10 Horde guild that will remain nameless.)
Burning Crusade was pretty fantastic, but my guild had dissolved in late vanilla, so I spent most of it running Warsong Gulch, Alterac Valley and doing heroics with my then close-knit group of friends. Some disappeared late in to TBC, right around the pvp gear wellfare patch. I got banned during a massive banwave for altering the climb angle so I could venture over into the terrain beside Burning Steppes (It's no longer there now.)
WOTLK was Vanilla quality, to be honest. Sure, a LOT of content was cut during it's development (numerous raids, instances, a whole underground world.) but what we got, other than ToC was pretty great. (Ulduar being the pinnacle of raid content as far as I'm concerned.) All my friends are gone by mid to late WOTLK, I quit then, too.
Cataclysm - Appropriately named. Talent tree nerfs take the fun out of leveling, despite the new low level content being decent. Population is dropping like a stone, almost all long-term players are gone by mid Cataclysm. Molten Core 2.0 was decent.
Mists of Pandaria - Chingchongpotato, u riek bamboo? No thanks. The only thing about this NOT horrible is the zone and terrain design.
WoD will probably follow the trend set by Cataclysm and MoP. Lower quality everything, lower population. More cash grabs and just general failure. They're really out of touch with their more consistent, loyal playerbase. Dumbing everything down for "the masses" isn't the solution to Cataclysm driving so many off. Yes, the game is old, but it didn't have to be, and a lot of us that quit, and really QUIT weren't bored with the game, but driven off by off the wall changes in fundamental design. It's too late now.
Conclusion: WoW is the hot girlfriend that became too complacent, thus lazy, fat. Yeah, she could lose the weight, but she won't. Not because she can't, but because she lacks the conviction, backbone, from having things too easy.
As harsh as it sounds, i tend to agree. The games nothing like it once was. There was talk of trying to bring it back the vanilla feel in WoD, but i don't think it will. imho what made the past wow expansion great was the time and effort you put in. Some may say it was slow/unnecessary, but it made the game what it was. All this streamlining has just made it a game easy to pick up, but just as easy to drop. which never really happned hence the game surviving for so long. The amount of new players entering and sticking with the game so much lower compared to the past.
Saying all this i'm glad so many people still like it, but for me it's not the same. But i do fear blizzard might even push those players away by going a step to far with their cash shop or "streamlining" Players have already raged on the forums about the excessive amount of shop buttons, where they feel blizzard are ramming it down their throat (lol).
The overall question, will i play? probably not, ill see how they game fairs up, but i know i'll play 3 months, realise nothings changed, then quit like i did with MoP
I will be playing WOD.. just wanna see how different's pvp gonna be in WOD as compared to MOP.. I read somewhere they are gonna implement a solo que for arena(skirmish) and those who participate will earn honor in the process.. Dont know whether its true but if it is.. im gonna stick by WOD cause i like pvp..
Comments
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
As harsh as it sounds, i tend to agree. The games nothing like it once was. There was talk of trying to bring it back the vanilla feel in WoD, but i don't think it will. imho what made the past wow expansion great was the time and effort you put in. Some may say it was slow/unnecessary, but it made the game what it was. All this streamlining has just made it a game easy to pick up, but just as easy to drop. which never really happned hence the game surviving for so long. The amount of new players entering and sticking with the game so much lower compared to the past.
Saying all this i'm glad so many people still like it, but for me it's not the same. But i do fear blizzard might even push those players away by going a step to far with their cash shop or "streamlining" Players have already raged on the forums about the excessive amount of shop buttons, where they feel blizzard are ramming it down their throat (lol).
The overall question, will i play? probably not, ill see how they game fairs up, but i know i'll play 3 months, realise nothings changed, then quit like i did with MoP