I’ve been feeling a tad bit nostalgic of late. I’m not sure what brought it on exactly. Maybe it’s that I’m tiring of Wrath a little sooner than I thought. It’s not that I don’t like what’s there, mind you, I think they did a great job, but on some level I feel like I’ve done it all before. Just in a different skin.
By way of summary, my Warrior is now running in Ulduar 25 once a week, so far we’ve gotten down Levi (of course) and Razorscale. We are very close on the robot, we just need a couple of tweaks. My Druid is still unplayed, and I don’t know if I’ll pick him up again any time soon. My Hunter is now available for raiding as well, so I’m pretty well stacked.
So it is that I found myself playing my Rogue, Mummrah. The very first character I created on live, who was sitting at 43. I think the reason I initially quit playing him was all the freaking misses built into dual wielding, but that’s not important.
What is important are my memories of my first character, and of my early days tooling around Azeroth.
I began playing WoW sometime around patch 0.7 in beta, I believe it was around the end of June or early July. At the time, I was writing for the WoW Vault. (For anyone who is interested, my columns are actually still there! Look for the ones written by Captain Kryptonite. Keep in mind these were all written before I even played the game!) Like many of you that are reading this, I fell in love with WoW immediately. I loved the visual style. I loved the cohesiveness. The quests. The classes. The removal of the lame CRAP that other MMORPGs felt “had to be in there” (like painful, xp loss on death type stuff).
At the time, the “end game” was pretty far from my mind.
So from release for a LONG time, I kicked around with different characters. Played on different servers. Tried the horde, tried the alliance. I rerolled early and often, with a reckless disregard for the mythical level 60. All the while I had a great time.
I enjoyed the many and varied zones of old Vanilla WoW. I heard of places like Un’goro Crater and Azshara, and marveled at how foreign and far away they sounded. I was still in Loch Modan and having a grand old time. I couldn’t wait to kill Van Cleef, and marveled at the wonder of his dungeon, when the ship was revealed in the giant cave Goonies style. I heard of all the other instances as you leveled up, and I couldn’t wait to see each one, and explore their wonders.
I played WoW from release, and I hit level 60 for the first time in November of 2005.
Now, I honestly miss Vanilla WoW, it’s faults and all. Somewhere between BC and Wrath, leveling became a bit of a job (though quite a fun one!) and max level and end game content became the goal. I’m not sure when, and I’m not sure how, but I miss it.
Have we been slowly pushed towards focusing on the end game? Or is it just me? Let’s take a look at the three major iterations of World of Warcraft.
Vanilla WoW
- No real twinking for quite awhile. Most were experiencing all the leveling content for the first time.
- It took quite some time to reach max level. No leveling guides, boosting, etc.
- Limited end-game raiding at release. Molten Core, Onyxia, UBRS. Added Blackwing Lair, ZG and AQ over time.
- End-game raiding was also quite restrictive. Other than UBRS, raiding was for 40 players. Nearly an un-puggable number. (Did they have raiding pugs in Vanilla WoW?) You needed a large number AND it was difficult to raid.
Burning Crusade
- Twinking became a way of life for many players. How fast could you get to max level? Especially with new race and class possibilities.
- Shorter overall leveling curve.
- More end-game raiding right out of the box. SSC, TK, Kara, and more. BT and others added later.
- Less restrictive end-game raiding. Now you only needed 25 players or even 10 players. Raiding had more of an “entry level” than before, but it was still quite difficult beyond Gruul and Kara.
Wrath of the Lich King
- Welcome to World of Twinkcraft. Leveling is distilled, processed, and the quickest paths are easy to find.
- Shorter leveling curve than BC or Vanilla, by far. Leveling is easy cheesy with all the quests and such in Northrend.
- Fewer new raids than in BC, but still an obvious focus. Naxx, OS, VoA, Malygos. First major patch adds Ulduar.
- Now every raid can be done with 10 or 25 players. Raids at release are easily puggable. All raiding at release is basically entry level.
At this point, I might argue that it’s not so much that Wrath raiding was dumbed down so much, but rather they made it easier to get the initial gear necessary. Do you remember how long it took you to get a decent gear set together for Karazhan? And then you had to farm Kara for a little while to hope to compete in SSC? And so on through MH, BT and finally Sunwell?
There used to be a progression, but now that progression has been immensely shortened. There is a metric ton of good, BOE epic gear to be had, be it through crafting or through zone and instance drops. Outside of tanks, perhaps, just about any class can go into Naxx 10 almost as soon as they hit 80. (Heck, my hunter went into Naxx 25 after a grand total of 2 heroic runs.)
Is this better, though? Or were things more interesting before, what with attunements, keys, and long grinds for gear to see the end game content. Did Blizzard push the bar too far back the other way?
I don’t really know. I’m starting to sound like a crotchety old man here, and I’m supposed to be the voice of the casual. “In my day, you had to get ATTUNED to the Molten Core. I had to use a specialized solo method to get attuned involving jumping off ledges and swim speed potions.” And I’m not even kidding, maybe you remember the solo MC attunement method. 
All I really know is that I miss how I felt about WoW in the beginning. When everything was new, and happening across Uldaman in the Badlands was exciting to me. But, those are the breaks. It was like that with me for Asheron’s Call too, back in the day. And Dark Age of Camelot. I suppose at some point perhaps you get TOO familiar with one game and how it works. At some point I exposed the gears and wires of WoW, it’s inner machinations. I used that knowledge to manipulate the leveling game, to get powerful fast. Now I just wish I could put the old machine back together again.
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I think it’s human nature to make memories better than they really were. Which is why you hear a lot of old folks go ‘back when I was young…’
It’s generally hard to enjoy what you have, but human nature makes you long for times long past or times yet to come.
Its pretty much as Shy said. We remember things are rosier than they were. I loved vanilla WoW. I came to it late, but overall I really enjoyed it. However when I think about some of the things I went through in vanilla WoW…I wouldn’t want them back.
I was sad when they removed the key requirement for Kara. It actually forced you to gear up and took away the chance that you showed up just to get your free epics, but from the same perspective, I remember how sick I was of it. I was one of only two tanks and I ground like 20 characters through those attunements. God I got sick of tanking most of those instances.
End-game raid content in each of the three iterations is getting more intense and relevant to the Warcraft storyline & universe, and thus Blizzard wants as much people to experience this as possible. I have not played Vanilla WoW, but from browsing through wikis and boss pages, it felt like Vanilla raids were mainly sideplots, perhaps with the exception of Naxxramas, but even then Naxx didn’t really feel like an extension of the Scourge storyline, rather more like a standalone Scourge episode.
BC raids started to have some sort of cohesion between them, you had to defeat the evil triad (Vashj, Kael’thas, Illidan) and eventually uncover the Legion’s scheme with the introduction of the Sunwell raid. At this point, Blizzard probably realised that Sunwell was tuned to be so difficult, the overwhelming majority of players did not get to experience the plot weaved into the raid instance.
Hence their decision to try and make Wrath raiding much more accessible: easy starter content, 10/25man raids, hard modes and achievements. In fact, the Wrath storylines kick off right when you begin questing in Northrend, and they culminate in raids such as the Eye of Eternity, Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel. With the climax of each story being more or less weaved into raid instances, it is then understandable that Blizzard wants to place more emphasis on raiding.
However I just think that this feeling we get, just comes along naturally as we spend increasingly more time on an MMORPG. Personally, new MMORPGs always have the novelty factor – you don’t know the full storyline, you haven’t explored the edges of the world, you haven’t seen the horrors that incites fear in the townspeople, that lurk in the darkest regions, that is pretty much the “nobody returned to tell the tale” type of monstrosities. But as we level up, as we become more familiar with the game mechanics and plotlines, that “mysteriousness” vanishes, and it feels more… business-like. In the case of WoW, it’s about finding the strats to down bosses, finding ways to maximise DPS/survivability or just farming gold.
Some people don’t like losing the veil of mystery shrouding the new MMORPGs they play, and thus they keep hopping from game to game, to indulge in that sense of novelty each new game provides.
That Blizzard wants to start afresh with a brand new MMO/franchise, is probably a good thing. The devs probably share the nostalgic sentiments that you and many other long-time gamers harbour. It’s impossible to revert WoW to what it was, so the next best thing is to start from scratch.
Was the same way in Everquest; but to a larger degree. Sony rolled out expansions so fast that if you didn’t play 5+ days a week, you couldn’t keep up. Blizz is doing a good job by keeping the expansions coming out at a slow pace with a lot of content.
Although; I agree that they seem to ‘dumb down’ stuff too much. But at the same time; it gives newer players a faster start from go.
Just recently; I rolled a new character on the server my son plays on – alliance side. I had nothing there; well take that back – I had three horde characters there, but I deleted them; cleaned all the toons and rolled a NE Priest. I like the druid too, but the Priest is a lotta fun.
Only been playing there for two weeks I guess, just now asking my son to ‘run me through’ some instances. But even before that; I told him I didn’t want any interference for the first 20 levels or so. With my knowledge of the game within a week and a half; I had gotten tailoring and enchanting over 150 easy. Made 100/150 gold and was decked out well enough to do decent in BG’s. The twink nerf helped a lot, to be honest. No more 2000 HP Tanks in level 19 WSG, lol. Hey – it gave me a chance! Now at 27 doing the 29 bracket I’m at 899 HK’s, made 42 WSG marks; just grabbing a staff yesterday. A lot of people snicker a lower end instances and BG grinding for a character you will level all the way – but let me say this: when I encounter world PvP I can usually smash people up to 5/6 levels over me – unless they have twinked some too. Mostly; they don’t expect it is why. I ran upon a level 27 Warrior with my 23 Priest – and I had just about as many HP’s as him and had already made a conscious effort to max out my spell power. He didn’t win.. but then later a 22 warrior got me good, lol. but he looked like he was on his way to 29 for some twink BG action.
I don’t even think of it as twinking and in fact it’s not; if you don’t use a higher level toon to get you through content you couldn’t otherwise do. If you can do it solo or in a group around your level – it’s not twinking, it’s just gearing up.
But yeah a couple SFK and RFK runs have made him a half-twink. But it reduces deaths significantly in PvE questing as well.
If high end has got you down and it’s a grind – make a new toon on a new server. If you play normal – make it a PvP server. Start with nothing, and work your way up. Try it all solo or try and group at every possible opportunity. It’s still fun.
I’ve had more fun with this priest and funny thing is; I know many aspects of the game and do very well on the AH. But I’ve yet… to have a toon in WoW over 50. LOL! Seriously – I’ll get to end game eventually. But I am someone who ground the end game in EQ a lot. Who twinked and power leveled in EQ a lot. I led raids, was last healer standing on at least one *major* boss fight and was well respected…
I’m in absolutely no rush to get to end game – but I think I will take this Priest there now. It’s time. So here goes it – but I’m still not in a rush.
I never thought I’d say this about endgame, but what I miss is the attunements.
Trying to finish Loremaster on an alt has taken me back to Outland, and the old attunement quest chains leading up to BT etc. Doing this content over, it really struck me the difference with the WOTLK endgame lacking attunements (except Maly). And, I think Wrath suffers by comparison.
I think the changes in the expansion that have given people access to BOE epics rather than the tortured BOPs from TBC is good. Having the whole raiding cycle available to 10-man groups is also good – so many guilds crashed and burned on the transition from Kara 10-man to Gruul’s etc 25-man.
But having a quest-based attunement for a player adds a lot to gameplay, without being a huge hurdle getting into the end-game content. It lets people experience more lore, it gives them a sense of achievement. If you’re pugging a raid, but everyone there had to get attuned, you’ve got a guarantee of a minimum level of competence/seriousness, unlike the current state of Naxx/OS/Vault PUGs on many servers.
And finally, it slows down the whole raiding cycle just a tad = less raider burnout. Didn’t anybody get bored with running Naxx over and over waiting for Ulduar to come out? Or rehashing Sarth over and over, just with one more drake up this time? Blizz has bet a lot on hard-modes to keep us interested in repeating the same raids, but I don’t think it replaces different content.
So, yeah, they were a pain in the butt, but I miss attunements.
I agree, the spice that is missing from WoW PvE and raiding, more than anything else, is attunements. The other part of the problem is blue is the new green, and purple is the new blue, and *everything* is BoE.
Its way too easy to get really good epic gear, many items acquirable without ever having set foot in an instance. Ever. In fact, the next toon I level up (if I ever do another), I will intentionally *not* enter a single instance. I will get my entire kit from quests and the auction house, until the day I hit 80, at which point I will immediately begin doing heroics and PuGing raids. The problem to me is, I *know* that is a very cheap and easy recipe for success, and I will be successful.
As much of a pain as the Karazhan and lvl 60 Naxx attunements were, they were hardly so difficult as to not be doable. The attunement for Karazhan was the only reason many people ever saw the inside of Durnholde and Black Morass, not to mention Arcatraz. How about that there isn’t even a process for attumnement to heroics? That Frozen Orbs started out as BoE? That most “5 man” quests are easily soloable?
WotLK is the expansion devoted to instant gratification, and I think the game suffers for it. While attunements and finding 5 people to do a quest with was challenging sometimes, it expanded the social horizons of individual players a little, and it forced you to do something in the game that hasn’t been necessary since Wrath was released: think, plan, and prepare.
Yeah, odd they put more BoE’s in – seems that just results in many buying more gold.. Not all – but the ones you usually have to worry about the most are the ones who will.
I miss the sense of achievement from attunements, and progression that took more work. It’s good that the content is more open, but it just feels to be happening too quickly.
There is one very good change in WoTLK though. TBC badge gear was truly messed-up, since you could farm Underbog and Kara until you eventually picked-up gear that was way above your level of progress. I’m glad they fixed that. Still, gear is very easy to obtain.
I feel like what WotLK lacks is any connection between the raids and the game world. This in addition to the fact that there simply isn’t enough raid content available. I hate the feeling that I don’t actually want to complete Ulduar because it means just going back the next week. I miss pre-BC an BC where finishing up one zone meant you would progress to the next level, whereas now you just get a proto drake.
Shopshopshop’s last blog post..3.1.3, or How Will I Tank With 20% Less Bonus Armour?
You’re missing a lot of steps in the “Vanilla WoW” category.
Vanilla WoW started out with very few initial raids, but as time went on it kept adding new ones. MC wasn’t even available right away, people raided LBRS/UBRS…then MC, Onyxia, BWL, ZG, AQ40, and then the first Naxx. (Not positive that the order is all right, I can’t remember where ZG fell, for instance.)
Over time, the dungeons got added, too, for those starting out. Things got easier, people started to twink back then even, people power levelled.
Guilds like my old one struggled with every step, never passing AQ. They seem to be able to do Uludar now, but I don’t think it’s because of a sudden influx of talent.
I’m not really saying much, but don’t over idealize old Vanilla WoW… It had a lot of the faults you’re laying at the feet of BC and WotLK. Those expansions are just distillations of where WoW was going anyhow.
I did mention that at release Vanilla WoW had limited raiding. MC and Onyxia were both available at release, however. The true raid loot wasn’t ready, but they had placeholder loot in.
Of course Vanilla had some major problems. 40 men was too tough to get going all the time, there were no tokens, so if your particular piece didn’t drop, tough luck. I went for weeks at a time without a single drop from MC, and it stunk. Thank god they added badges and the token system.
I’m not saying that it was the be all end all, but it was certainly different. Things seem perhaps a little TOO easy now. Maybe.
The trouble and problem as I see it is now why do any 5 mans in woltk even heroics? Or than just to waste time and maybe do those achievments for the one drake. Now its hit 80 go to Naxx in a pug who cares if your gear sucks.
Run 5 mans while leveling? Why bother. Questing is easier, faster, and more simple. Don’t even need to run 5 mans or heroics to gear to run Naxx. Get crafted and you are good to go.
I guess my rant is about the wasted development time that was involved to design and build the 5 mans. But then again I’m starting to fall in love with the idea of 5 man instances and 10-12 (maybe 15) being the max number in any raid period. It just seems adding in the extra 10 to a guild is when you start getting the “Ugh who is this why are they here?” feeling.
I’ve ran both 40 and 25 raids (currently 25mans in Ulduar) and it seems more like a job of managingee a small company than playing a game now. But I love doing 10 mans they are much more fun to me atleast.
Is end game to important? To some yes. We had 4-5 leave because we weren’t progressing fast enough in Ulduar. We had only been in there a week well 2 days 2 for Ulduar and 2 for Naxx out of 4 raid days. We lost the first week of Ulduar to the various issues with the patch week. And we killed two bosses in those two days.
I guess they got the Naxx raiding is easy mode thing. But look at the WOW boards themselves they are ripe with “Your guild sucks you havn’t done XYZ yet” an “You don’t have this achievement lolz u suxor”
So yeah there is too much importantance on end game
I have never played WoW; a rare perspective but perhaps for you a fresh 1.
First, about Vanilla WoW love. I don’t think the changes later on in the game have much to do with how you feel. When WoW was first out, for you it was “a world”. A place to explore, full of mysteries and unknowns. And most people were in the same boat. This is the same for every MMO. But as time grew, you have seen everything already. The immersion, the “worldness” of the game fades and you are left with a game to play, instead of a world to experience and explore. With all the websites and info and tutorials out there, the entire experience was demystified. That’s why I think you feel the way you do, for WoW and other MMOs.
From my fresh eyes, this is actually a good point for me to jump into WoW. I follwed the game since it was announced but didn’t play it. By the time it released I just didn’t want to get into an MMO anymore. I have a UO and EQ background so I know a thing or 2 about grinds and I was sick of it; didn’t really feel like paying a monthly fee to grind for months. So I waited.
Waiting was worse, since the more you wait, to more you are behind. When everythings been done, everythings been demystified and listed on websites, when half a server consists of near max and max level characters… theres even less incentive for a newcomer to join the game (at least for me). It’ll be a long grind to catch up. I notice that by this point, I’m already thinking about the endgame. Even without playing the game, the fact that the world is full of max level ppl who have raided the top dungeons many times, is in itself a factor that pushed the game towards “endgame focused”. The context of WoW changed because of its maturity. And even an outsider like me felt it.
But now, the level grind is fast, and from some people’s comments even fun. That, for a newbie like me, is a great time to join. I get to play through everything, with no aritificial downtime, and get to the endgame content in reasonable time. The last time I was this tempted to play was back when I was waiting for Blizzard to release new info on the game.
But then, now theres also Aion and a lot of Free games to choose from…