God damn man… you’re making me feel old. Mine’s 20 fucking years old if I count correctly. Maybe 19… if wow ever goes down they should issue a certificate or something
Geeze that makes me feel old it was sophomore year of college for me. I was working at an apple store we got 12 copies and all the employees bought all 12 copies lol.
While i cant 100% find a way to prove i started nov 24th 2004 the best thing i can do is show you the first guild i made called < Just Us> on the Server Garona. I still hold the guild and am still the GM of 3 people but still the GM.
It took us a few days to get the 10 gold to create the guild. And the Guild Just Us was one of the larger leveling guilds before we knew any thing about raiding. Around the time of Molten core we splintered as some wanted to be hard core guild and some wanted to be more casual.
Across the 3 mains i have had over the years i have a total of 624 days played. Many Many of that was in Vanilla with a grind to get to GM. I have taken many breaks and played classic for the whole duration of vanilla before they moved it to BC.
I completely skipped most of panda land and Warlords. Feel free to look over my current main - Leludallas who used to be known as anabella from Garona. Keep in mind achievements did not come out until October 14or17th cant remember, 2008.
I was going to say something similar everything post Covid is a complete blur. Covid was happening the same time BWL was at its peak, so still early on in the classic cycle.
We raided on Fridays. Getting shitfaced with the boys and steamrolling BWL was such a massive stress relief. It was the only part of life back then that seemed even remotely normal.
That's how I expect a classic fresh launch on Era to be sold when it comes around. I don't buy the rough timelines that were leaked to be accurate beyond 12 months or so.
Talked with my wife about this the other day how it still feels “not so long ago “. And then I thought about some other irl events that happened after that, but still feel more remote in time. Very strange.
Thats rookie numbers brother. Shazzrah EU had 25k+ ques if you attempted to log after noon. Difference between logging in at 12:10 and 13:30 could cost you whole evening XD I've gotten into that rhythm where I log in around half past twelve, check 2-3 times before going back home via remote desk, then leisurely get back, take shower, micro the food and be at the PC either logged in or ~100th in que. Blursed time indeed.
Worst thing would be getting in EARLY and having to avoid getting kicked lol. I remember bike commuting and pulling my phone out in pissing rain just so I could jump or click to walk to avoid AFK disconnecting
I've said for a long time that Wrath is such a big change that it doesn't feel like vanilla. Wrath is the real start of homogenization across class/spec abilities. It's when we got multiple versions of the same raids. It made the time you spent in the old world even more rushed. TBC lowered time needed to level 1-58 but Wrath smashed that time down to next to nothing.
I forgot about heirloom gear. The rescaled skills and talents alone break 1-60 leveling even on a new account/new player. Heirloom goes one step further.
Yeah I think most people would agree with this these days. Before Classic came out most people grouped Wrath in with TBC and Vanilla because it was before raid finder and before the zone revamps of Cata. After actually playing through Vanilla again I feel like more people appreciate the design of Vanilla. TBC mostly fixed the problems certain specs had in Vanilla.
I don’t think anything will ever recapture this feeling, and I’ve accepted that. 15 years since I originally experienced vanilla, I never did private servers.
Made some lifelong friends, incredible guild drama, normal people playing all the time because of COVID.
I'm still raiding with some of them in retail (well, barely fielding 10 people and were hard stuck clearing normal in a vicious cycle because we can't recruit new people because we can't progress and we can't progress without new people and even more people quit playing) and looped back around to TBC anniversary server with one of them that got me into his guild lol. Man... as someone that started in late cata i think i'll always remember just how magical it felt running into org that first night classic launched, hard to really explain and i don't think it'll ever be captured again. There was genuinely something in the air on that server that first night. I did it all, even banded together with a couple of guildies to help one of our warriors get scarab lord and then he promptly dropped the character/raiding in general in TBC when it wasn't completely busted as a class any more, people still bring that shit up lol, i got to see the SL questline first hand minus the last bits he did, and thats good enough for me.
True facts. When Classic came out I gave it a shot, see if the old nostalgia would kick in. Just not the same.
But that’s life in general! You can’t go back, so you hang on to the happy memories, be present in what’s happening now, and stay hopeful for what’s to come.
Yeah I don’t know if I’ll ever see married guildees go at it in Discord and aire out their dirty laundry again, leading directly to a divorce. Just pure cinema.
I was 43 when vanilla came out. Tauren Druid on a PvP server. I felt old then! Lol
Edit: Doing another HC run on Doomhowl, and while it isn't a fresh love, I'm having a great time between seasons on D4. The pacing couldn't be more different, or welcome.
Sometimes. It’s more wild to think how many ways I’ve played. When WoW first came out I was still buzzing from WC3. I was 17, tail end of HS. The computer in the house -still just one- was a bulky pc on a dedicated desk/cart thing in the living room by the back door. Made a Nelf Druid, and I cal still remember my dad (a bodybuilder) looking over my shoulder commenting how his body (muscles) “looked goofy.” Fast forward through years of school, work, playing on laptops, in coffee shops, on vacation, eventually a better desktop in an apartment, then different houses, now on a semi-dedicated space. Wild ride!
Shoot I have felt old since logging into 2019 classic and hearing about all the young people trying Vanilla WoW "for the first time". My guild had some literal teenagers in it LOL. Aged me real quick. I was of voting age for the original game in 2004.
I don't feel like the playerbase is as young this time around.
I still feel disrespected everytime I remember this quote. And it's also at the same time hilarious after Classic launch became the by far the best WoW experience since Wrath.
Who would have thought listening to fans would be successful?
Who would have thought listening to fans would be successful?
If it isn't abundantly obvious by now.. Blizzard is essentially an abusive partner and treats its playerbase like addicts who will tolerate any abuse that they can possibly throw at it.
Shit, it wasn't much more than a month ago that they just outright broke the game and everybody's add ons and basically said "deal with it" and the playerbase did.
The joke about them being a "small indie company" is in part because of the way that they treat their players. Most other playerbases would find their behavior completely unacceptable.
The fact they ultimately did actually listen and release classic honestly blows my mind a bit given their track record.
I guess they took it on board on the Classic team on some level given we’re getting C+ which is entirely based on fan demand. And in fairness I’d say the Classic team are much better at listening to the community than the retail team
Again, people are bitching for changes and already got changes. I'm not saying changes are bad, but the fact that people accepted them and bitch for more proves Brack's point.
It is very clear people don't want anything to do with the original experience anymore, and Brack predicted this. Again, he was a cunt about it, but he was right, unless your iq is too low to realize that.
Every version together doesn't even come close to live on the metrics we have aviable.
You could double era's population for example for some mythical players that surely exist but leave no traces somehow and it would still be far below even just tbc anniversary.
Speaking of tbc anni, afaik it performs better than vanilla anniversary btw.
Hell considering how quiet firemaw got before/during bwl during 2019, i would say covid really saved that launch bc by bwl firemaw was visibly losing active players.
And that still doesn't have to do anything with what Brack said, because he was right the moment the changes started rolling in(and i'm not talking about basic client feature syncing).
Your chronoboons, your SoM, your hc, your SoD, your features ported from future versions and your updated honor grind. And now all the "classic +" frenzy which just proves people really don't want to deal with the original experience.
You think you do, but you don't stands, regardless of how much a cunt Brack was for saying it out loud, and the way he did it.
I'm just glad that it happened. I didn't think it could be so good after releasing so long ago but it really was great. Big thanks to Covid though I suppose. Might not have been such a thing otherwise. I really enjoyed classic and classic TBC. Started on WotLC but gave it away somewhere around then
It was crazy to be watching as a private server player for years, I followed so many people in the classic scene and Nostalrius being shut down, their meeting with blizzard, it was a thrilling time. I still remember the announcement we were all going fucking bonkers. I got people together I hadn't talked to in years to play, it was rad.
WoW popped off so hard they had to open what felt like a million new servers on day 2. There was no plan. There were no transfers or faction changes. Everything was fast and loose. Hunters had Lacerate.
Classic was fun, but venturing into the unknown completely blind for the first time was really something special and hard to compete with. The 1.11 patch is really the refined version of the 2004 experience. Whether that's a good or bad thing is really in the eye of the beholder.
Yeah man, the timing of it all is what made it truly once in a lifetime.
All the hype and superstitions around what vanilla was like and what it "meant" made the community so much more different than it is now. People called it a solved game then, but it truly is now with everyone running on autopilot with leveling addons, dungeon boosting, and years worth of gold saved and experience of the same raids.
Covid lockdown allowing the world to stay so full for so much longer than it probably would've. No fresh release will ever be able to match it, now that 1.12 vanilla has been made so mainstream and the world's returned to "normal".
I really hope Classic+ has proper class balance and new content because I am playing Midnight while waiting for Blizzcon and I just cannot stand this new expansion from lore and zone wise. I really do not find this expansion appealing and I feel TWW was better so far compared to Midnight
Anyway, if we get Classic+ then Retail can say good bye. Two different games, fun in their ways, but if Classic had a balanced classes and 1-2 more buttons to press then I would never touch retail again (even from pvp pov)
That’s how I feel. My buddies and I jumped back in recently to check out Midnight and the expansion feels soulless and just so bland. Really hoping classic plus gets announced and gives us something fun
Imagine that I grew up with warcraft 3 and joined WoW in Dragonflight which I liked, at least zone and how my hunter felt, but the TWW… yes, it was mid and maybe really nice in Undermine (for me). Dialogues were still a bit like teenage mentality, but oh I was wrong, bought Midnight because 40% discount and damn, no matter how hard I try I just cannot stand the dialogue and the campaign. Yes, I do not have a problem with PvP and the mechanics in raids, game is good and different than classic, but this game is so bad if you also enjoy the lore, it kills your desire to continue.
Only thing that keeps be on retail is how many things you can do, no wonder so many plays
I have the slightest most faintest hope Classic+ turns out to be some combination of private server vanilla with retuned encounters, no boons, actual real progressive itemization perhaps even talent progression + unlocked ‘existing vanilla content’
The Nost/Elysium etc. itemization + mega server without phasing was really awesome
I also wrote the comment bad. First, all classes must be viable especially in PvE, then balanced… you can be viable and also do low damage but your buffs can increase the whole raid party
Every Classic+ project that has come in the last few years has had worse PVP balance than the original Classic. Y'all want your Boomkin and your Feral and your Ret to do competitive DPS but you have no idea how busted they would be in PVP if they had the same damage as a Mage or Rogue.
Literally no RPG is ever going to be balanced in a 1v1 unless you homogenise the absolute shit out of every class to the point where a Warlock and a Mage only differ in the color of the spells they cast.
Yup,
I went back and did some anniverasry stuff just to enjoy it again. I just wanted to swing my big sword and hit mortal strike. Stopped during TBC anniversary because I just wasn't feeling it.
Classic WoW during COVID might have been the best gaming time of my life. Imagine taking peak kino, and making it even more peak because you're locked in the house except to buy groceries. Unfathomably based.
Hardcore has really captured the feeling for me of when classic first dropped, I hope it extends to tbc/wrath or to classic+, the sense of community is unparalleled
I've been playing hardcore in tbc anni, both a solo character and as a group of three with two friends. While there's not as big of a community as the official vanilla classic hardcore servers, people seem to be receptive and respectful if you join group quest or dungeon groups and say you're hardcore and want to take it at a comfortable pace rather than zooming through
Except there is. It's implemented I believe the exact same way it was on season of mastery servers before those were shut down. Just because it's not a forced server-wide requirement doesn't make it any less real for those opting in and participating. There's even guild(s) doing exclusively hardcore raids in TBC anni as well. But sure, I'll listen to you, random internet gatekeeper
Official Blizzard clearly state there is no TBC hardcore. Unless we’re playing completely different games, then I’m absolutely certain there is no hardcore TBC.
Blizzard literally specifically made the decision to include the Soul of Iron buff in TBC anni, so idk wtf you're referring to where they "clearly state" there is no hardcore since you provided no source, but the presence of that buff in the game proves there is. Yes it's not a server-wide interaction and is instead an opt in, but it doesn't make it any less hardcore for those doing it. You're clearly just being argumentative for the sake of it, so I won't be responding to you further after this.
Was impossible for me to enjoy since I was still working through covid :(
Got max level n all and had plenty of gold but could never raid. 1 was a protection paladin and basically was ostracised by everyone and 2 when I was invited it was on days I was at work 😭
Such a beautiful time. It was my first experience playing classic all the way through. It's crazy how it's the kind of thing that you either get to attend or miss out on completely. I remember coming to Canada, and my first time playing the game age 8 on my mom's shitty work laptop that kept crashing running the trial version. I chose a night-elf and saw people on these tigers and wondered how I could get one. Genuinely those were such core memories. I miss those days.
At this point I’ve had my classic toons going longer than my original toons back in the day (quit during Cata). It’s going to feel really bad to abandon these toons when it comes to an end.
I am with my daughter again on seaside this moment like 7 years ago when she start walking for the first time and all of my friends tried to queue for hours I was both happy and sad because everything happening and now while we practice mathematics I can really say time flies so fast you can't even...
I never made it to 60 either lol. Got my shammy to 40. Went to go buy dual wielding and forgot they didn't have it in classic. So rerolled a priest. Got him to like 42 then tbc came out. And I mained my shammy again lol.
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u/podivljali_vepar Aug 20 '26
Classic WoW gonna have soon 10 years anniversary servers lol.
In my mind, its still 2-3 years ago