So... initial thoughts

[Diddums 4,305]

I wanted to type out a bit of a post based on my experiences so far. As someone who played retail extensively on and off throughout the game's lifespan, I feel I am fairly qualified to comment on this. The retail game is, without wanting to sound too politically correct, a load of wank. It started off as a the game we all know and love and slowly devolved into little more than a boring, lonely race to max level. The zones all feel dead and unoccupied as everyone's either in their garrison or class hall, or dawdling in a city waiting for the dungeon queue to pop, professions have had so little love that Blizzard even went so far as to remove some of them (first aid for example). The community is toxic and hateful, the ease at which anything is achieved is clearly not intended to be fun, it's intended to make money. This seems to have happened when Blizzard merged with Activision. I know, shock horror. It got so bad that I was literally forcing myself to play as there was nothing else to do. Everything felt like a chore, there was no challenge, no satisfaction, it was literally just start at point A, do the things to point B, level up, rinse and repeat. Absolute dogshit and a real shame.

 

The return of Classic is so refreshing, it's genuinely amazing to be playing the game I once loved. For the uninitiated, every MMO that's launched since WoW has at some point been "The WoW killer" - yet they've all failed, each and every single one of them. WoW still stands as the benchmark for all the other efforts and the yardstick against which they're measured. The game had fourteen million people worldwide all paying £9 a month to play it. On top of paying for the expansions. This is on one platform. No game in the history of games can claim to have achieved it. That said, the WoW killer has finally arrived and it's driven such a hard nail in to the game that it's very possible it never recovers. That game is WoW Classic. 

 

Blizzard has removed all the things that make the game too easy, in fact it's completely back to barebones stuff. No pets, no achievements, no dungeon / queueing system, no quests on your map, nothing. Every single thing you do in the game now feels like an achievement. You have to actually fight for stuff and if you aggro too many mobs, you're gonna die. End of. In retail I could happily chain-pull 10-15 mobs and zerg them all to death, in this, pulling two mobs of my level or even one below can, and often will result in death. Due to this I am constantly helping others out, even if my efforts are for nothing other than their progress. The amount of lives I've saved is insane and each and every time I get a little thank you. This of course happens to me too, far too many times I've been one-hit away from dying only to have a heal randomly appear out of nowhere, from a passing by priest. He'll then often buff me and leave me to it. As I'm a blacksmith I can make sharpening stones and weightstones to help others out too, so I dish those out like candy too. 

 

The fact that the servers aren't all just one big soup of clusterfuckyness any more and are actually generally single entities mean that your reputation matters, just like the good ol' days. Naturally being the lovable, affable happy chappy that I am I'm already starting to become known. My little warrior is only level 16 at the moment, but I'm in no rush and am happily just taking it nice and slow and chilling. This means my mining also comes along nicely as I tend to mine everything I find. When I eventually move in to new areas I'll certainly be ready. 

 

The community in this game is completely unrivalled. In fact I'd put money on there not being another game out there with a community like this, it's genuinely fun and helpful. The fact it's so nice and relaxed is great, there's no pressure, you can literally just chill out and kill a mob at a time if you want, or join a dungeon and go ham, it's entirely up to you. 

 

I honestly implore all of you to give it a go. Spunk the £9 for a month and see how you get on. If you don't like it, I'll personally give you that £9 back, that's how confident I am. 

 

@Plumbers Crack you in particular. 

[phil bottle 9,567]

Tl;dr have a wank

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[Middle Class Caveman 963]

100% spot on! 

[phil bottle 9,567]

It is actually a great read, you sell it very well sir.

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[GazzaGarratt 10,867]

Nice read Dave. I said I would give it a go so i'm installed and subbed for a month to start. I may keep the sub for a few months and see how engaged I get into the game. It is crazy that its 15/16 years old and there's constant queues trying to get into the game!

[Diddums 4,305]

@Plumbers Crack's efforts to ignore me aren't going unnoticed 💀

[Plumbers Crack 4,033]

<insert tumbleweed emoji here>