Private server - not vanilla experience at all?

[Syphonize]

I think your point of view is a little over the top, OP. That being said, it's not without merit.

There are too many guilds (read: most of them) who style themselves as hardcore guilds and look way too closely at class/spec/whatever. Fact is, when you're clearing BWL/MC for the 18715915th time, it's hardly relevant anymore. Not to mention people feeling the need to scrutinize specs/classes/whatever when you aren't even rushing for a server first (assuming that a server first on a private server in 2015 even matters).

I think plenty of people wanted to play vanilla because the raids are easy and you aren't forced into a specific playstyle in order to successfully clear the raids. Instead, we have the private server community doing the forcing. You can go with 10+ AFKs and still clear Molten Core.

Too many people have lost sight of this. Giving people specs that they "must" have, as though success and failure of a raid depends on it. I am willing to bet lots of people came here in order to escape the rigidity of retail. After all, there are no talents on retails and in theory, there were many ways to talent your character in vanilla (even if 1-2 ways would end up being "superior"). And what do they find? Rigidity from this community with regards on "how to play".

Personally, I did my share of "hardcore raiding" when I was younger, through vanilla and some of BC. I am not interested in doing that shit again. I am way too old and disillusioned to give a fuck about some random's opinion on what the "right way" to play is. This was just supposed to be a place where I could relax, relive some of my childhood raids and not take things seriously. Instead, we have.... this.

It's really sad.

[TomDeBaere]

It's like so many things in life... So many people are nostalgic about something and try to bring it back but it will never be the same. I like playing on this server, I enjoying visiting some old content but I know of course that it can never bring back that first feeling of discovery. Yet, it's nice it's here and its for free, so I don't complain.

[mentalalchemist]

MY FIRST POST :

For the last several days I have been looking for a new game to play. I have scoured the reviews.

I'm 53 years old. I have played my fair share of MMO's over the years. I am certainly not a newb to MMO's of all the various types. Somehow I missed out on WOW. I did play Lineage II for a few years and became very well known on my server.

I finally did play retail WOW for awhile during the Cataclysm launch some years back, but I lost interest before even leveling to 60 on my first Alt. I do recall I had the most fun leveling the early levels, but there was nobody around the old areas. It was like playing on an empty server. Everyone concentrated on the new and cared not for the old haunts. The bots and the instant gratification crowd are what finally made me lose my interest. I vaguely recall I had made it into my level 50's by then. I only found out about these independent WOW servers this morning. I just downloaded the install. Lets give it a go. I think I will do the PvE server to start out. Mainly because it is newer.

My first MMO was Ultima way back when unless you want to go all the way back before the internet when all we had were the local BBS's when I played TRAVELER on a used IBM clone from Radio Shack. The Tandy TSR-8088 became the thrill of my life. The Commodore 128 I had prior simply never did it for me. Those floppy disks sucked, but the Tandy introduced me to the HARD DRIVE.

Talk about nostalgia.

In reading this thread I was instantly reminded of an article I read this morning that weighed heavily on my decision to try this out.

I think many of you will enjoy the read...

The People Who Still Play World of Warcraft Like It’s 2006

http://kotaku.com/the-people-who-still- ... 1704465372

[Sevvy]

This is still the vanilla experience that I remember. I played vanilla beta. I raided MC and Ony with an awesome crew while most people were still leveling and didn't even know what Molten Core and Onyxia were.

It took us a hell of a lot longer back then to clear all that(and I remember our tanks being in full Valor tanking MC), but it was still pretty efficient. I used addons, I had a couple of tabs open to Thottbot at all times, I used *cough* some consumes.

In other words, not everyone back then was a clueless, keyboard-turning shitter. Though I am now. So whatever. I blame old age.

<MisFits> of Archimonde represent!

[Slicy]

OP just asking to be virgin again basically.

Yes it is a different game, because we are in 2015. Now what ?

[Bioness]

In reading this thread I was instantly reminded of an article I read this morning that weighed heavily on my decision to try this out.

I think many of you will enjoy the read...

The People Who Still Play World of Warcraft Like It’s 2006

http://kotaku.com/the-people-who-still- ... 1704465372

To chime in, I would not recommend reading anything from kotaku, the quality of their articles goes beyond terrible often catering to the lowest common denominator of internet readers.

[mentalalchemist]

In reading this thread I was instantly reminded of an article I read this morning that weighed heavily on my decision to try this out.

I think many of you will enjoy the read...

The People Who Still Play World of Warcraft Like It’s 2006

http://kotaku.com/the-people-who-still- ... 1704465372

To chime in, I would not recommend reading anything from kotaku, the quality of their articles goes beyond terrible often catering to the lowest common denominator of internet readers.

Regardless the author who wrote it (Luke Winkie) is somewhat prolific and is published by a great many sources throughout the industry. This particular article he wrote for those interested in "Nostalrias" and hence addresses the subject of this thread specifically. Since it was his article that brought me here what you are suggesting is that WOW players who play on Nostalrius are among the lowest common denominators of internet denizens. Are you sure you don't want to retract you're comment? Perhaps you should read the article first.

This Youtube video somewhat sums up my reaction to you're comment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c

[Fay Ray]

Then don't play it. You may be here for nostalgia, but don't assume that everyone that plays on this server plays because of nostalgia. Some of us are here simply because the game fit our play styles, before welfare gamers such as yourself came along and ruined everything.

[mentalalchemist]

Then don't play it. You may be here for nostalgia, but don't assume that everyone that plays on this server plays because of nostalgia. Some of us are here simply because the game fit our play styles, before welfare gamer's such as yourself came along and ruined everything.

You do make a good point. There are a fair number of overly egotistical/vanity players who seem to have as their primary motivation attaining bragging rights for various (level/BIS) pet goals. I have noticed that from reading the forum these past couple of days. Then there are the relatively anti-social types who are generally sociopathic in their nature particularly in their behavior towards others. The personality types that enjoy bullying, teasing, putting people down, and throwing insults. That is in every game and forum on the internet. They are attracted to the anonymity being online affords them to act out their mental illness without any fear of real life repercussions.

Statistically 5% of the population are sociopaths, but studies have indicated that while most hide their true nature in the real world they enjoy coming out of the closet online which increases that percentage significantly within the online sub-population.

Thankfully they pretty well gravitate to the PvP server, so I probably won't have to deal with as many of them.

[Fay Ray]

Totally true. Current WoW meta and most 'RPG' MMOs now days are geared directly to that exact thing, stroking the players ego. Fortunately WoW doesn't do that. Well it does, but not with the ease most games today do it. They actually make you work for it. The first thing I noticed (with amused pleasure) were all the corpses of the egotists (most likely from retail) that litter the ground in noob zones, laying where they died and rage quit. Classic WoW has a way of pushing away the more extreme versions of these simply because it forces you to actually work for that epicness, and when you obtain it, you didn't do it on your own. They easy to spot too. Usually their in trade chat spamming for a high level to run them through something so they can get a drop w/o actually having to work for it with a group of similarly geared people. Sure you're going to have assholes, that's just the human nature of things, especially when they're in an environment where they don't have to suffer the repercussions of their actions. But even here, there are still repercussions. Like I said, you're not getting anywhere meaningful in this game without help from someone else. Likewise, the raiding community by it's very nature, is very selective, and is typically a small section of the community, and generally run in the same circles. Which also means they frequently communicate with each other. IF you're an asshole to too many of the wrong people, you'll very quickly find out that all the doors that have the ability to get you anywhere meaningful will be securely shut, and the best you'll manage to do is five man content in between picking flowers out in BFE Un'goro.

Case in point. One night my guild got 40 people together to go to Duskwood to have a go at Ysondre, in Twighlight Grove. Naturally 40 level 60s from the same guild riding through a noob zone with a world boss in it's center generates a lot of attention and excitement, and long before we reached the dragon, general chat was on fire with how we were going for the boss. Half the zone showed up to watch. There was this one hunter there that had to make an ass out himself though. Silverdog was his name, if I remember correctly. Right when we'd be getting buffed up and ready to pull, he'd run out and aggro the boss and pull him back to the group and get us all wiped. Ysondre puts a rather lengthy debuff on you that makes it where you can't just wipe and restart the fight. So after about the 2nd or 3rd time of him doing this we open a ticket to a GM. Shortly after she shows up and we tell her whats going on. She says to go ahead and pull and she's watching. Sure enough he runs out and makes an asshat out of himself again. Everyone, including Lethon, is promptly frozen and the almighty GM voice of god echos through the zone telling everyone Silverdog now had a three day suspension for being an asshole. Well BC comes out shortly after and we all go our separate ways, and I grind my way up to 70 and start looking for a raid guild. I had been in this guild for about month, and low and behold, guess who's name I see pop up in the guild chat saying he just joined the guild. I promptly send a /w over to the guild leader and tell him what I just told you above. Needless to say his attitude hadn't changed much in 6 months or so it had been since that night and I don't think he lasted more than a day or two in the guild.

Long story short, the point is assholes in vanilla do actually suffer some repercussions. Outside of naming and shaming here on the forums, there's also a LOT of naming and shaming in game, and word will pass around who the people are to stay away from. In the end they're only hurting themselves. In WoW, Karma has a much stronger force than in most MMOs.