Nostalrius vs. WoW

[Sinjack]

Mostly the immersion. Having to travel everywhere to do things and the fact that no one can change their appearance, race, name makes the world feel more alive or real. I love questing with someone in westfall and then several weeks later pass by them in felwood and see how much we've both changed since then

[rakei]

Class balance is relatively stable in vanilla. In retail most classes have big changes through major patches and expansions. Also there were constant PvP tweaks which have a big effect on arena match ups (at least through TBC, I can't speak for after that).

[Heaterz]

I'm in it for the struggle, and community. i feel like im in a real living breathing world in vanilla. Live feels very artificial and just a rat race to end game.

[ProMeTheus112]

it is interesting, what people have written here

for me I only just registered on Nostalrius,
I played WoW back in Beta, and a few months after release. Then I stopped, mostly because I got scared of getting addicted I think, I was around lvl 40.
I came back to it at some point during TBC, never made it to level cap so I've never done raiding. Didn't play too long, then I just tried once more again during Wotlk at which point I realized the game wasn't going in a pleasing direction. I did once again give another try after Cataclysm, but the world was now almost emptied.

People here have already said with better knowledge why Vanilla is better than stuff done after Wotlk;
I would just add this, for me I always really enjoyed the encounters in the open world, even if I never made level cap and proper raids, I loved the wild 1v1 playing king of the hill on a leveling zone, all these encounters and things happening and yeah, a world alive, laughs and wonders! A lot of this was lost in the expansions, along with a lot of other things. I also dislike the way the classes evolved in the newer expansions, they feel bizarre and overly complicated but bad balance. The classes are really cool and solid in vanilla, everything makes sense and has its own uses, it is quite balanced.

It is hard to describe, but I guess the quality in general is simply much higher.

[Behead]

Vanilla hands down.
This Machinima sure proves it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty2nVp3vWc0

[Niko]

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

community. end.

[toolshed]

Everquest Project1999 is the most hardcore MMO out right now

[deadward]

Retail is watered down. This has class roles that are more firmly defined. Also a definite level cap is nice. The game becomes a game at level 60. Pre 60 content is just a terrible ice wall you have to climb to get to the more interesting content.

That being said the world feels more alive in vanilla and being forced to level gives the world some gravity. Much like long flight paths, necessary zeppelins, and no flying mounts. The world feels like a difficult and large place to traverse. Rules like these movement rules seem restrictive but rules are what defines the game. It's feels much bigger when it takes you 15 minutes to get somewhere.

Also people actually die in vanilla. People have endless health pools in retail. It's stupid. No one ever dies.

[shakur460]

This game is a part of my life been playing wow for 8 years now,from 13 yo to 21 now. Just the feeling of walking in STV by night on my mount... Its so beautiful... its the paradise

[candyb]

Because I missed out on a lot of things, that I didn't care about doing, like more high-end pve (mostly just that).
So even tho I knew a lot and saw a lot in pve, pvp, machinima-videos etc, I didnt experience it myself. So I want to do it "the real way" and Nost is the closest choice.