Why did you choose a Vanilla server?

[Arucado]

Because is the best wow ever. It feels so realistic and epic...

[coldrex]

No good TBC/WotLK servers.

[Drain]

No good TBC/WotLK servers.

This. WTB Nostalrius BC server.

[Kogmawn]

No good TBC/WotLK servers.

[Crichton]

The simplicity of it all. There isn't a million UI elements shoved in my face, cash shops, queues, events, 20 types of currencies. It isn't the cluster**** that modern MMO's are now. I also know that playing Vanilla here especially, will ultimately lead to BC.

[Robotron]

I like the Vanilla/TBC design philosophy of the game and classes in general, plus I've beaten TBC and Wrath, but never raided retail Vanilla.

[masterpoobaa]

I missed Vanilla, only started around patch 2.1-2.2.
I love how intricate everything is, the exploring, talents, pet training, difficulty of simple questing, how quests are all spread out and complicated. No archaeology, no panda farmville, no garrisonville, no pet battles...
I want my epic loot to be truly epic not just "Log into garrison, push a button or two, wait a few hours, Hey epix!"

[Crichton]

Also, I think it's understated just how well vanilla WOW has held up. I've been playing SWTOR on the side for the story, and man, it feels downright unresponsive compared to a vanilla private server where I get 130ms, which is nuts. I hit a key in WOW, and it is clearly indicated to me when an attack began and ended, even with basic auto attack. I hit a key in SWTOR (or insert modern MMO here), and there's 20 white damage numbers poppin' up left and right and I don't know what damage is from what ability.

Hell, the game even graphically has more fidelity and runs smoother then some MMO's today (at least indie ones). No wonder we were all hooked on it back in 04'-06'. The default UI is still totally acceptable by today's standards, and with custom UI's, it can feel completely modern. I feel like Blizzard would make a butt ton of money by launching legacy servers and pushing an ad campaign with the theme of "go back to where it all started".

[Dongabhana]

No good TBC server.

[Odomiah]

1. Epics are epics - no other mmo cant provide you that feeling.
2. No hotkey based queue content - only AA comes close to vanilla wow here
3. Best open world pvp experience ever
4. Not everyone can have everything. I know I won't be able to get into some raids cuz of my free time and generally my gaming attitude and that is JUST FINE. Not everything should be accessible to everyone. Know your place in the world.
5. Overall difficulty. Yes, boss mechanics are some basic stuff in compare to WoD or whatever, but seriously... Every boss fight past tbc is faceroll or very close to it. And that is only because players are overpowered even before they get to the boss. Avoiding fire and some telegraphs on ground or whatever isn't what I consider a challenge. Lets log into my Wildstar account and see how many times I'll stay in red Avoiding stuff is easy "super-mario" like mechanics. Vanilla-wow provides you with challenge of preparation, team coordination and patience! Only because of that, I can tell that I respect PvE players almost equally as PvP players here, which isn't a case on any other game.

That was about "vanilla wow".
Now lets see why Nost:

There is one thing you can't script - population.
You either do well in hype-making or don't. And even if you create a hype challenge is to maintain it.
After checking the launch of both Kronos and Nost and being long time player on Rebirth I picked Nostalrius clearly because we all want one thing - population.
It's not about scripts anymore, seriously! These devs nowdays do miracles. Every server I ever played on had it's released content scripted very close to a damn perfection but it always lacked one, the only, most important thing. POPULATION.

You can't script population. Nost hyped up the world and actually delivered the hype professionally. I'd say even better than Wildstar on a f2p launch. What's even more challenging is to maintain the level of hype and if you look at online population this very moment, you can be damn sure that people are here for a reason.
I don't think that 10k (even more) come here on a daily basis because server sucks.