RanceJustice
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2003
- Messages
- 6,628
I played WoW at/very near to original launch. I kept my subscription active for years and even keep it today (though I play less as of the most recent expansion for a variety of reasons - mostly non-game-related); Hell, I even have one of those statues they sent to long-term subscribers (its a mini version of the orc mounted on wolf that is visible in front of Blizz's campus if I recall). I have more good memories of WoW than most players I wager... but I am not not really enthused for Classic.
Maybe it is because my first heavily invested MMO was EverQuest, maybe there are other reasons, but I would much rather that Blizz spend money bettering WoW as it is and could be, rather than focusing on its past. Going back to WoW Classic can't give you back your memories, your wonder etc.... all it can give is mechanics of the past. I've seen LOTS of people seem to mix up the two - for instance those who for some reason hate cross-realm grouping, the Dungeon/Raid finder, or the Raid Finder level difficulty. These are the people who claim it "ruined" the game by making it "too easy", but more than anything I see people relate "difficulty" to what is actually "tedium". What changed? The removal of tedium meant that (for often unrelated reasons) people saw their enjoyment dip, so they assumed it was the tedium that kept it there! All three of those things I mentioned previously some say "ruined WoW by harming the community feel" - now consider that when cross realm zones/grouping came you could still group with those of your own, that you didn't need to use the dungeon/raid finder to find a group, and you had literally 3 harder difficulties (ie Normal, Heroic, Mythic) for Raids besides raid finder - so the game didn't "take anything away", it simply gave others the chance to enjoy things without such tedium. A lot of the "difficulty" of old school raiding wasn't the encounters - many of them were FAR simpler than later expansions, tank and spank with one or two other mechanics though there are a few exceptions - it was the organization and time commitment! Getting 40 people together, getting into a group, getting everyone there, logistics checks, gear and balance checks, and simply getting a large group of people to listen up and of course, deal with potential drama!
Many (but not all) who espouse the idea the game was "ruined for being too easy/good ol days" seem to fall into the category I call "exclusionists" - The ones who get their enjoyment specifically because content is designed to be inaccessible to all but the most hardcore like them. I watched this demographic ruin more than a few titles (ie Wildstar was incredibly promising, but catering to these people basically took it down the tubes). It isn't enough for them to have Mythic difficulty raids with achievements and gear that show they defeated them, they don't like Raid Finder because "peons who don't work for it" get to see the raid and its story (which is usually a major part of an expansion's storyline) to completion and get rewarded (even though less so). Lots of things come down to this and I find so many of those pining for Classic who are not simply looking back for fond memories, fall into this category.
However, I will say that there is another discussion to be had - there IS something to say for WELL DESIGNED content that takes more time or whatnot. For instance, during its heyday EverQuest had some phenomenal systems - NPC alignment system for nearly every NPC, unique racial and class abilities that were bonuses and interdependent, and some of the most amazing zone design (for its game structure) I've ever seen. There was no loading screen when you got on a boat, there was a 5+ minute trip in a separate zone but this had a purpose as there were islands with rare, difficult mobs spawning upon them! One forest was a newbie garden with bees and rats during the day, but spawned near-max-level undead at night. Some zones were just huge in scale, taking time to run through them but it was in service of other game elements! There were even secret passages and hidden doors (some only accessible by those with keys or unlocked by Rogues); I can recall that in the major human cities, the "evil" professions (ie Necromancer, Shadow Knight etc) had their trainers and related NPCs in secret areas beneath the city - end up in there as a good guy and you'll be in trouble! I mention all this to say that there is a difference between "time consuming yet good design in service of a real objective" and "grind, tedium, simply drawing out playtime requirements etc". While I loved these systems in EverQuest, they also had a lot of the latter that I'd never like to go back to again - Lack of instanced content (at the time) meaning camping waiting for spawns, all enemy combat was made with a D&D style group in mind so most classes couldn't solo against an on-level enemy, XP loss to the point of DELEVELING upon death, "hell levels" that cost twice or three times as much XP as they should just because, All your belongings dropped onto your body when you died and you needed to physically get back to it in order to loot it - all before it decomposes forever in 72 hours - a big problem if you died on a raid or somewhere remote! If EQ removed these penalites, I'd still enjoy the great things about the game just that much - I don't assume that my fun was because of the "hell levels" or the nearly "game as a job" level dedication to grind necessary to really succeed!
I know I've written a lot and don't get me wrong, I think people going to play on a WoW Classic private server for nostalgic fun or those who are specifically enamored with that timeperiod is fine, but I really would rather Blizz put their time and money towards making the game better instead of looking backward. There are still a LOT of things I'd like to see in WoW both to be "fixed" and just plain added (ie such as a real housing system like that in Final Fantasy XIV), big and small alike. I don't want to see Acti-Blizz dealing with the criticism or issues with WoW at current by looking backward.
Maybe it is because my first heavily invested MMO was EverQuest, maybe there are other reasons, but I would much rather that Blizz spend money bettering WoW as it is and could be, rather than focusing on its past. Going back to WoW Classic can't give you back your memories, your wonder etc.... all it can give is mechanics of the past. I've seen LOTS of people seem to mix up the two - for instance those who for some reason hate cross-realm grouping, the Dungeon/Raid finder, or the Raid Finder level difficulty. These are the people who claim it "ruined" the game by making it "too easy", but more than anything I see people relate "difficulty" to what is actually "tedium". What changed? The removal of tedium meant that (for often unrelated reasons) people saw their enjoyment dip, so they assumed it was the tedium that kept it there! All three of those things I mentioned previously some say "ruined WoW by harming the community feel" - now consider that when cross realm zones/grouping came you could still group with those of your own, that you didn't need to use the dungeon/raid finder to find a group, and you had literally 3 harder difficulties (ie Normal, Heroic, Mythic) for Raids besides raid finder - so the game didn't "take anything away", it simply gave others the chance to enjoy things without such tedium. A lot of the "difficulty" of old school raiding wasn't the encounters - many of them were FAR simpler than later expansions, tank and spank with one or two other mechanics though there are a few exceptions - it was the organization and time commitment! Getting 40 people together, getting into a group, getting everyone there, logistics checks, gear and balance checks, and simply getting a large group of people to listen up and of course, deal with potential drama!
Many (but not all) who espouse the idea the game was "ruined for being too easy/good ol days" seem to fall into the category I call "exclusionists" - The ones who get their enjoyment specifically because content is designed to be inaccessible to all but the most hardcore like them. I watched this demographic ruin more than a few titles (ie Wildstar was incredibly promising, but catering to these people basically took it down the tubes). It isn't enough for them to have Mythic difficulty raids with achievements and gear that show they defeated them, they don't like Raid Finder because "peons who don't work for it" get to see the raid and its story (which is usually a major part of an expansion's storyline) to completion and get rewarded (even though less so). Lots of things come down to this and I find so many of those pining for Classic who are not simply looking back for fond memories, fall into this category.
However, I will say that there is another discussion to be had - there IS something to say for WELL DESIGNED content that takes more time or whatnot. For instance, during its heyday EverQuest had some phenomenal systems - NPC alignment system for nearly every NPC, unique racial and class abilities that were bonuses and interdependent, and some of the most amazing zone design (for its game structure) I've ever seen. There was no loading screen when you got on a boat, there was a 5+ minute trip in a separate zone but this had a purpose as there were islands with rare, difficult mobs spawning upon them! One forest was a newbie garden with bees and rats during the day, but spawned near-max-level undead at night. Some zones were just huge in scale, taking time to run through them but it was in service of other game elements! There were even secret passages and hidden doors (some only accessible by those with keys or unlocked by Rogues); I can recall that in the major human cities, the "evil" professions (ie Necromancer, Shadow Knight etc) had their trainers and related NPCs in secret areas beneath the city - end up in there as a good guy and you'll be in trouble! I mention all this to say that there is a difference between "time consuming yet good design in service of a real objective" and "grind, tedium, simply drawing out playtime requirements etc". While I loved these systems in EverQuest, they also had a lot of the latter that I'd never like to go back to again - Lack of instanced content (at the time) meaning camping waiting for spawns, all enemy combat was made with a D&D style group in mind so most classes couldn't solo against an on-level enemy, XP loss to the point of DELEVELING upon death, "hell levels" that cost twice or three times as much XP as they should just because, All your belongings dropped onto your body when you died and you needed to physically get back to it in order to loot it - all before it decomposes forever in 72 hours - a big problem if you died on a raid or somewhere remote! If EQ removed these penalites, I'd still enjoy the great things about the game just that much - I don't assume that my fun was because of the "hell levels" or the nearly "game as a job" level dedication to grind necessary to really succeed!
I know I've written a lot and don't get me wrong, I think people going to play on a WoW Classic private server for nostalgic fun or those who are specifically enamored with that timeperiod is fine, but I really would rather Blizz put their time and money towards making the game better instead of looking backward. There are still a LOT of things I'd like to see in WoW both to be "fixed" and just plain added (ie such as a real housing system like that in Final Fantasy XIV), big and small alike. I don't want to see Acti-Blizz dealing with the criticism or issues with WoW at current by looking backward.