Nostalrius vs. WoW

[Rucifel]

Nostalgia, greater sense of accomplishment, free to play, greater level of social interaction with other players--retail feels very anti-social for a massively multiplayer game.

[Haitharn]

I'm definitely on the bottom for the average age of players here. I never experienced true vanilla, and played BC at the end for about 6 months (I was 9 around this time, so nothing serious). The reason I play here is because I enjoy putting time and hardwork into something, and seeing the finished product. I don't want to do LFR every week and get free epic gear, that means nothing. In vanilla, an epic piece of gear actually means something (although, there are purple and blue items that are complete crap).

I enjoy the difficulty Vanilla wow brings. Aswell, the nostalgia is a factor. I know, I never even played vanilla. But even when I played BC as a child, I would attempt to run AQ20/40, as it seemed like such a cool experience. I remember being super sad when I found out naxx-60 would be taken out forever, as WotLK was nearing. I remember the people in trade chat looking for more for the raid, as they would never be in the same place again.

I don't know, but the vanilla raids just attract me so much more than Highmaul, BRF, or HFC ever will.

[Pulsar]

I like picking flowers.

[masterpoobaa]

For myself the reasons are:

1. Never played retail vanilla, only started playing around patch 2.1-2.2, so I would like to experience content that I missed.
2. The challenge of truly starting fresh (Thanks to the PvE server), not being able to blow through a zone in 5 quests and 5 minutes, having to do multiple zones at the same time, and actual RISK of dying to stuff!
Retail is too streamlined, too easy to quest, a single-player yawn-fest. It feels so good to get out there and explore!
3. Leveling with others, NEEDING to group with others for quests, guilds and zone chats alive with conversation and smack-talk

Retail WoW:
Questing is too easy, too streamlined. A single player, no interaction, 1 button click-fest.
Green loot is trash, rare loot isn't, epics are no longer epic.
Leveling dungeons are far too easy. LFD & LFR has removed all personal responsibility and obligation to behave like a human being.
Making raiding harder = add more & more mechanics, rather than tighter DPS/Healing checks.
Even making mountains gold has become ridiculously easy.

[Oyani]

Hey guiz,

I'm writing an undergraduate anthropology dissertation on the boundary of the physical and virtual world. I use the nostalrius server as a fieldsite and am studying players of the game in both the physical&virtual world.

Currently, I'm curious as to the reasons people choose Nostalrius over the fully updated and modern version of World of Warcraft. Why do you play on the Nostalrius server rather than the most recent update of WoW?

All feedback is appreciated

Fred

Hahah good one, i did this kind of shit too in college... good excuses to get out of actually doing any real work!

[softclocks]

It's right in the title of the server, OP. Nostalgia.

This server is running a version of the game from 10 years ago, and people are playing it to re-live those childhood memories of the early days of WoW.

WoW has radically evolved with every new expansion released, and people are wanting to play the old versions of the game, the same way they remember it being when they first started playing 9-10 years ago.

Childhood memories? I was 17-18 when I started playing vanilla...

[Odomiah]

Lots of people I met on Nost are barely 18...

I don't think it's nostalgia that much. If this version of game was sucky, nostalgia wouldn't keep you this long.
Its just that vanilla wow is peak in mmo quality.
For example... try playing Everquest for nostalgia sake. You won't last 5 days there, good game but that's just it... good. Vanilla wow is awesome.

For me its the only REAL mmo out there. Why?

- It takes time to get something. I don't have intentions to no-life the game, I just like the feeling of the longevity which vanilla wow has. You can't simply faceroll it unlike 90% of other mmos out there.

- Like it or not, it looks just good for mmo standards. I don't care about flashy graphics and stuff, otherwise I'd be playing Tera or GW2. It runs smooth and won't hurt my hardware. Phasing and optimization of this game is top notch and there is no other mmo that comes even remotely close to it.
I know ALOT mmos that look even worse than WoW does and still run like 18 wheels truck

- Open world. Every mmo except ArcheAge has failed to deliver this. Why are you creating god damn huge worlds if you are going to put hotkey based queues into instanced areas?? After you reach lvl cap you will just stand in capital and queue for stuff. Sad. Just sad.

There is too much to write here and it's been written countless times before.

I'm not originally vanilla player, I started during late tbc days and the first real content I experienced was wotlk.
Difference between me (and people like me) and others who prefer wotlk+ content is just that we are taking the "term" fun on a bit different way.

I'll take real-life situation for example.
I have real-life buddies, best friends you can ever have. Always there for me and vice versa. Thing is, we can't get a game to play together outside some console arcade fighting game and ISS, FIFA etc etc...
They play MoP on wow freakz.. yes, you heard me right. And i'm here.
We are like black and white when it comes to WoW. They like to log in, press hotkey and get straight into action. Repeat it for 2-3h and logout.
I like to wander the world, farm stuff, attack alliance on sight, work for my gear and money income.
When I try to talk them into this they always defend their attitude by saying that "60wow" (as they call it) is a game for no-lifers.
They never felt a joy of getting first HARD EARNED rare item, not to mention epic item.
They never felt a joy of completing an instance after making 1h long run to it.
They never felt a joy of seeing more than 50 people outside of damn city.
Sometimes I feel sad for them, sometimes I just /shrug and say: "whatever floats you boat".
But I always blame blizzard for spoiling the community and leading the genre to its downfall.

Blizzard was company whose work is copied by many. Sadly "copy/pastes" of wow only took the genre to the level of complete misery.
The only mmos worth giving a shot outside of vanilla wow are Guild Wars 2 cuz of it's original progression approach (I don't like it tough) and ArcheAge if you got money for labor points.
Rest is pure crapy grind fest and char models with ass of my wife pasted on 10 year old looking females Disgusting.

[bdan]

I like that its less casual. Leveling isn't hard, but its a lot harder than retail. on retail you can kill mobs in 3 secs in white gear, with heirloom its just even stupider. I hate leveling on retail because its just 2 days played time of wasting your life so u can do "real" content at 100. In nostalrius, leveling is half the fun because it is challenging in some ways.

I also like the sense of community. I have extra leather armor kits on my rogue so I give them to tanks I group up with for dungeons. They usually trade me cooking mats or other bullshit they come across. I might never see them again, but ill more than likely see them 5 lvls later for the next dungeon.

I like stacking consumables and having a million different ways to do things. Buffs like mark of the wild, kings, fortitude, blood pact, arcane intellect, etc... actually stack and aren't just different versions of the same buff.

Epics aren't welfare. "filthy casuals" gets thrown around a lot because imo, they did ruin the game. They see someone running around with t2 and they get all upset because they cant get that gear so they cried to blizzard and now there is LFR, normal, heroic, Mythic gear and warforged versions of the same shit. Way too many lvls of the same gear. I used to be a hardcore raider, now im a casual because I don't have the time. Im fine with not seeing certain content because that content wasn't designed for me.

[ceen2]

In order to get some "scientific" results you need to make a poll which is properly designed.
Back to drawing board pls.

[Oyani]

Lots of people I met on Nost are barely 18...

I don't think it's nostalgia that much. If this version of game was sucky, nostalgia wouldn't keep you this long.
Its just that vanilla wow is peak in mmo quality.
For example... try playing Everquest for nostalgia sake. You won't last 5 days there, good game but that's just it... good. Vanilla wow is awesome.

For me its the only REAL mmo out there. Why?

- It takes time to get something. I don't have intentions to no-life the game, I just like the feeling of the longevity which vanilla wow has. You can't simply faceroll it unlike 90% of other mmos out there.

- Like it or not, it looks just good for mmo standards. I don't care about flashy graphics and stuff, otherwise I'd be playing Tera or GW2. It runs smooth and won't hurt my hardware. Phasing and optimization of this game is top notch and there is no other mmo that comes even remotely close to it.
I know ALOT mmos that look even worse than WoW does and still run like 18 wheels truck

- Open world. Every mmo except ArcheAge has failed to deliver this. Why are you creating god damn huge worlds if you are going to put hotkey based queues into instanced areas?? After you reach lvl cap you will just stand in capital and queue for stuff. Sad. Just sad.

There is too much to write here and it's been written countless times before.

I'm not originally vanilla player, I started during late tbc days and the first real content I experienced was wotlk.
Difference between me (and people like me) and others who prefer wotlk+ content is just that we are taking the "term" fun on a bit different way.

I'll take real-life situation for example.
I have real-life buddies, best friends you can ever have. Always there for me and vice versa. Thing is, we can't get a game to play together outside some console arcade fighting game and ISS, FIFA etc etc...
They play MoP on wow freakz.. yes, you heard me right. And i'm here.
We are like black and white when it comes to WoW. They like to log in, press hotkey and get straight into action. Repeat it for 2-3h and logout.
I like to wander the world, farm stuff, attack alliance on sight, work for my gear and money income.
When I try to talk them into this they always defend their attitude by saying that "60wow" (as they call it) is a game for no-lifers.
They never felt a joy of getting first HARD EARNED rare item, not to mention epic item.
They never felt a joy of completing an instance after making 1h long run to it.
They never felt a joy of seeing more than 50 people outside of damn city.
Sometimes I feel sad for them, sometimes I just /shrug and say: "whatever floats you boat".
But I always blame blizzard for spoiling the community and leading the genre to its downfall.

Blizzard was company whose work is copied by many. Sadly "copy/pastes" of wow only took the genre to the level of complete misery.
The only mmos worth giving a shot outside of vanilla wow are Guild Wars 2 cuz of it's original progression approach (I don't like it tough) and ArcheAge if you got money for labor points.
Rest is pure crapy grind fest and char models with ass of my wife pasted on 10 year old looking females Disgusting.

Sir. I can tell you have refined tastes. So do i.