Cata Azeroth vs Vanilla Azeroth

[Teence]

They are about a living world where NPCs sometimes send you to the other corner of the world because their friend is stationed there. It is an actual story filled with exploration, even if we mostly know all of it now.

This about sums it up for me. Post-Cata Azeroth feels like some precisely calibrated experiment. Every zone spans exactly 5 levels, and provides you with exactly the right amount of experience to complete it, if not using any XP boosts. At the end of every zone's main quest chain, you get a blue item. Once you complete a zone, you never need to return to it again, for any reason. Nothing feels organic or natural because there's so much symmetry, and this is something that I really missed about Vanilla. Retail just feels far too artificial.

In Classic, the world interacts with itself, so to speak, and nothing feels contrived. NPCs deal with NPCs in other zones, on other continents, in dungeons. Also, a bunch of zones have you return at various level intervals for whatever reason, and it gives a positive feeling of anticipation. Think of Un'Goro Crater, where half of the zone is level 48-50 quests, then suddenly quests spike up to 54+. Same with the Plaguelands - WPL starts out around level 50, then quickly spikes up to 54-55 with the later cauldron quests. Or how about completing the Feralas quests in Classic around level 48-49, then looking at your quest log and seeing some of the introductory Dire Maul quests picked up along the way that you couldn't do until 5-10 levels later, depending on wing? These things generated a sense of wonder and anticipation, even if they did mean you had to do a lot of traveling for certain level ranges.

It's a classic RPG mentality. You get a task that you're not strong enough to complete right away, so you go off and do other things until you can finally come back and complete it with satisfaction. In Cata, this quite literally never happens, and leads to the game feeling very compact and self-contained.

[Putni]

That entirely depends on your definition of an MMO, and what you find enjoyable in it.

I HATE leveling. I detest it with every fiber of my being, and I'm going to have to do my best to slog through it yet again, because for me, the game starts at 60. I don't care about Telonas Windstalker and his lost amulet, or Joran Durnhelm and his father's sword that was stolen by centaurs on the other side of the world, go get that shit for yourself Joran, I've got shit to do. I may miss out on some of the lore and backstory of the game, and the mobs I'm killing at 60, but I honestly don't really care who Vaelastrasz is, or why Nefarian is such a dick, or what C'thun did after he retired from Japanese porn.

I met and maintained WAY more people and friendships at 60 than I did leveling 1-60, there's no comparison, it's not even close.

The question was, which Azeroth do you like more, Cataclysm or pre-Cataclysm. In your case, you might like the endgame in Vanilla, but if what you say is true, you would like 70% of Cataclysm more than you do the current game you are playing.

That's perfectly fine, but negates your argument against my post.

[sloasdaylight]

That entirely depends on your definition of an MMO, and what you find enjoyable in it.

I HATE leveling. I detest it with every fiber of my being, and I'm going to have to do my best to slog through it yet again, because for me, the game starts at 60. I don't care about Telonas Windstalker and his lost amulet, or Joran Durnhelm and his father's sword that was stolen by centaurs on the other side of the world, go get that shit for yourself Joran, I've got shit to do. I may miss out on some of the lore and backstory of the game, and the mobs I'm killing at 60, but I honestly don't really care who Vaelastrasz is, or why Nefarian is such a dick, or what C'thun did after he retired from Japanese porn.

I met and maintained WAY more people and friendships at 60 than I did leveling 1-60, there's no comparison, it's not even close.

The question was, which Azeroth do you like more, Cataclysm or pre-Cataclysm. In your case, you might like the endgame in Vanilla, but if what you say is true, you would like 70% of Cataclysm more than you do the current game you are playing.

That's perfectly fine, but negates your argument against my post.

I'm not making any argument against your post except that what makes an MMO good or bad is different and based on the opinions and likes/dislikes for the person behind the keyboard. You like going from Blasted Lands to Theramore for an insignificant amount of xp and a mail breastplate you're going to vendor immediately unless you're a hunter/shaman because it builds on the lore and the story for you. That's fine. I think that's terrible game design. I like a lot of the changes Blizzard made through the expansions with regard to leveling and streamlining the process, and I do actually prefer leveling in newer editions of WoW much more than in Vanilla. That said, I don't like endgame in the expansions, which is why I'm here.

Leveling is the core of WoW

MMOs are built on multiplayer interaction, and there is much more of that at end-game than there is leveling. Whether you're spending hours in a raid, in battlegrounds, or running 5-10 mans, you'll spend more of your time grouped and playing with other players at level cap or close to it than you will from 1-59. If leveling were, as you say, the core of WoW, then Blizzard wouldn't bother adding new end-game raids. Leveling is an important part of the game, sure, but it's not the core.

[Smorgeybork]

In terms of quests, Cata is the honest answer. The quests are far more streamlined, they are far more varied and several are pretty high quality.

Overall, I still enjoy Vanilla far more. The world feels like an actual place. The world of retail will forever be CATA themed now, even though the expansion has fallen out of relevancy.

[Razhork]

Without too much hating on anything not Vanilla, I'd personally say the questing experience itself in Cata is quite more enjoyable because it's varied and puts more emphasis on storyline told through quests and less hub to hub.

Where Cata's azeroth failed is that they made everything extremely easy. Removed elite creatures, dumbed down all mobs to be as dangerous as critters. Removed all the mystery and ambience of most zones were removed. They introduced flying which made the world feel less intimidating, big and mysterious.

All group quests made redundant. They made levelling a means to get to end game entirely. No journey what so ever, but I guess it fits to their new target audience.