I was reflecting on a peculiar aspect of MMOGs: that sections of them disappear over time. Whereas I can dust off my old GameCube and play every bit of WindWaker again, I can't do a 40 man Molten Core run in WoW ever again. Why? Because the game I played in 2006 fundamentally no longer exists. It ceased to exist when the Burning Crusade expansion hit. New level caps meant that what was once an epic challenge was now a fairly trivial matter. Today, post-Cataclysm, MC runs can be done solo. Even if you could get 40 people at level 60 to agree to do some of the old level 60 content, it would still fundamentally not be the same game due to changes to class mechanics over the years.
If I want to revisit an old game, I usually get to go through exactly the same game as I did when I was 12, but this time with more age and understanding. The best I can do in WoW is solo my way through MC or BWL and try to remember what the fights were like back when they were the top tier stuff. It's like visiting your old apartment and finding the building derelict.
I don't have any interest in playing WoW anymore, but this is a phenomenon that I'm not sure has really existed in games before now. You can always go back to Hyrule, but the old Azeroth no longer exists.
What are your thoughts on this?
If I want to revisit an old game, I usually get to go through exactly the same game as I did when I was 12, but this time with more age and understanding. The best I can do in WoW is solo my way through MC or BWL and try to remember what the fights were like back when they were the top tier stuff. It's like visiting your old apartment and finding the building derelict.
I don't have any interest in playing WoW anymore, but this is a phenomenon that I'm not sure has really existed in games before now. You can always go back to Hyrule, but the old Azeroth no longer exists.
What are your thoughts on this?
