Wall of Text Alert!!!!
A bit off topic, i suppose, but i am actually really impressed how mature most posts have been. After reading through all, yes all though i admit i skimmed, the amount of "Lol WoW sucks!" seems to be confined mostly to the facebook comments on the front page.
OT: Me and my wife quit WoW recently, just out of sheer boredom. To get into any raids would require grinding out five mans in the DF just to meet the Gearscore requirement for anyone to glance at you, and upon learning we hadn't actually done them yet... Well fuck you buddy.
Before anyone screams "Oh look the casual wants shit handed to him" No. What i want is for there to be fun and varied things to do. Not hit the DF and wait ten-fifteen minutes to get into a group, have the tank snap at a DPS and leave, or even better, get screamed at because someones health dipped below fifty percent, not die mind you, but apparently I am crappy healer for that.
My wife flat out stopped trying to do dungeons anymore. She just can't take people treating her like shit over floating numbers in a video game, and since raiding is all WoW has going for it's end game...
(Shit I am getting off topic... Where was i going with this... Right...)
One of the nice things about the Vanilla game was that there was a place for both the hardcore raider and the casual player. The casual player didn't mind not having the shinies, we had other shit to amuse ourselves with. There were massive, labyrinth like dungeons to explore, Undead to slay for the argent crusade, sillithid to beat down... Me and my friends Loved Black Rock Depths. It was awesome just crawling around that place, looking for shit to discover and explore.
Now look at dungeons.. sequences of hallways... Dungeons used to be the place for Casuals like me to fuck around in and have fun. Scholomance, Lower Blackrock Spire, Blackrock Depths, Stratholem.... Go look at those maps. Do it. Do it now. Those were what casuals did for fun... Raids, Raids were for the people who wanted them... We didn't spend all that time in BlackRock for gear. We spent it there because the place was immense and confusing (No maps bitches, my buddy still has his hand drawn ones in a binder)
Now it's all about Ilvl and achievements and getting the purple and I wasn't much into that... I stayed for awhile because Wrath still had some fun shit for me to do in it... But Cata just.. doesn't... So we left. No MMO yet has anything like what i Wanted, and I likely won't pick up another one. The closest thing to an MMO I am interested in is Dust514, and many will argue that doesn't count as an MMO at all.
This is just the way I see things. I remember logging into WoW and never, ever spending more then four minutes without seeing another soul (and usually, it was a bunch of souls. An adventuring party you could almost say!). I remember Dungeons worthy of that fucking Word. It. Was. A. Dungeon. A maddeningly long twisting turning dungeon.
For Me. BC was the sign of the end. Because after BC i started to stop seeing anyone. People started to disappear from the game world. Dungeons started to be much, much smaller and less confounding. Rarely was I seeing faction brawls breaking out in the middle of Zones because two groups happened across each other.
Now a days the only reason why a field of skeletons litters the barrens is because some 85 prick got bored, and he will turn tail the second another 85 appears. Wrath sealed the coffin on Dungeons, being nothing more then hallways meant to give loot (One being a thing i hated, the other, couldn't give a shit about).
While the quests were still fun and zones interesting dungeons were no longer soemthing for me. I was expected to view them as a means to an end, and not the end to my means. Everything started being geared towards raiding, the zones emptied out, everyone sat in Dal to form groups, then with the DF, people never left.
Then.. Cata... Honestly, i felt a stronger sense of community freezing my balls off waiting for the game then i ever did playing it... More fun to...
You can call alot of what i have said nostalgia... And christ, your probably right. The thing is though... I only dropped my Sub once back in vanilla, and that was when my family moved to a place with no internet for two months. When i came back, i wasn't suddenly leagues behind in what i wanted to do. I logged in, and my buddies were there waiting for me, ready to kick the shit out of dragons and what not.
Now, as an adult, the game makes me feel so... god.. impotent. Like there is all this great shit to do (maybe) but first i got to grind out repetitive dungeons i have no desire to do so i can grind out the raids... So i can do what? Make them easier because of the better gear?
No...
I want to dick around in a labyrinth with my friends.
I want to run into a group of people caught in a faction turf battle, send a whisp and join the raid to be fighting alongside my strange allies agaisnt the Xenophobic alliance. For no other reason then "Well FUCK them."
I want to see the words "THRALL IS BEING ATTACKED!" and watch everyone drop what they are doing to lend a hand in repelling the invading scum.
I want to bump into a random priest fighting for the argent crusade in the EP, join up, shoot the shit while taking them down, and part ways having made a new friend.
Vanilla had it's shared of flaws, problems, and stupid shit that I am positive i am blocking out due to these rosy red goggles i have on right now.
But damn... It was a fine game... I hope that Titan tries to capture the spirit of vanilla while bringing something new to it...
This is just the way i see things, and if you feel completely opposite then me, well that is totally one hundred percent valid. As said, i am sure much of this is nostalgia...
In closing... People keep saying WoW is made 'easier' or that it has been given to 'the casuals'. I suppose in part, your right. However before you cry that shit think of it like this.
There are two playgrounds. One for the third graders and one for the fifth graders. Then one day, the school shuts down the third grader playground and demands they go play with the fifth.
The third graders are unhappy because the fifth grader playground is not fun for them, at all. It's rewarding in a way they are not interested in at all. So the school begins altering it trying to make them happy.
Now the fifth graders are pissed, because the challenges are made more 'accessible' and the rewards they used to work and push themselves so hard for are now in every second kids hands and required half the thought.
Now, as said, i don't doubt most players nowadays really are the bitchy whiny "I want everything handed to me" type.
But remember... For every few dozen.. or hundred... or thousand guys whining because they want things easier... There is a guy like me... Who just wants his fucking playground back...
{This opinion brought to you by Kagim. You are welcome to think I am wrong in every single particular way. It's just how i feel, So relax.)