Your Classic hotspots and preferred areas
- Thread starter Dalloway
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cento
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- Nov 9, 2014
i stopped playing wow in bc,
i hate that you left azeroth and went to Outwhatever... that killed it... and flying mounts.. cmon... horde palys... oh boy..
the only + i give it, is that it was the only exp. that wasn't welfare casual...yet
If i compare it to other exp's, it was ok, but still shit compared to vanilla
... but hey! Thats just me.. to each his own.
i hate that you left azeroth and went to Outwhatever... that killed it... and flying mounts.. cmon... horde palys... oh boy..
the only + i give it, is that it was the only exp. that wasn't welfare casual...yet
If i compare it to other exp's, it was ok, but still shit compared to vanilla
... but hey! Thats just me.. to each his own.
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The best part about vanilla zones is they aren't balanced. We have contested zones which favor one faction over other. We have random quest givers in remote locations no-one sends you to. We have areas inside popular zones no-one visits to. We have seemingly useless zones with not many quests. Instances middle of factions heartland. "Non-efficient" FP and graveyard locations.
With TBC onwards factions had to have equal footing in everything it went boring. Be it size of the quest hub, amount of quests, connections, opportunities. Every ravine and cave and mob had to have meaning. When you look at the map it doesn't look like a living environment, it looks more like a carefully balanced board game.
With TBC onwards factions had to have equal footing in everything it went boring. Be it size of the quest hub, amount of quests, connections, opportunities. Every ravine and cave and mob had to have meaning. When you look at the map it doesn't look like a living environment, it looks more like a carefully balanced board game.
cento
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- Joined
- Nov 9, 2014
Well said. Vanilla was raw and beautiful and full of mistery and thats why we love it. Outlands is like a themepark you go too, when you step thru the portal.
...Acually evey expansion was like a themepark
) northrend was just more snowy themed And cata managed to turn our beloved Azeroth into one aswell.
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I like seeing someone on the forums say that. I don't bring this up often since most generally, people playing on a vanilla server will reject ANYTHING that has to do with later expansions, but there's ONE thing that Blizzard has UNQUESTIONNABLY gotten better throughout the years : storytelling.
As I see it, questing has gone from exploration-driven to story-driven ever since Cataclysm. But it's gotten even better since then. In MoP, you really feel you are part of the story sometimes, instead of being grinding levels. You get to play an important part in events, with recurring NPCs voiceacting and doing actual things instead of standing around. I haven't played WoD, but a friend of mine who did said that questing is even better than before.
And now for the point that will be even more controversial : when I say they got better at storytelling, I'm not only talking about mechanics, I'm talking about the large-scale crafting and planning of expansions. I can say for sure that MoP (too early to talk about WoD, but most likely WoD as well) has a story that is 10 times better than say, TBC or vanilla. Even WotLK. It is better written, it has a more coherent narrative structure, it has character development, it is a lot more complex than the random combinations of patches that barely had any link together back in earlier expansions. In MoP, every patch was different in its tone and in the way characters acted, AND each patch flowed into the other. You can't take one off or the whole story crumbles. Even better, WoD is a direct continuation of MoP instead of being yet another world-threatening monstruosity unrelated to the previous one that got defeated less than a year before.
I could explain my arguments even more but I don't feel like writing a 1000-word essay.
in b4 ''OMFG PANDAS 4 KIDZ BLIZZ TRING TO BUY CHINESE''
cento
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- Nov 9, 2014
Yea i can see your point in the story being better, but too bad the whole package suffers from that. Being very narrow and linear theme-parky and if i may say, booring.
And to be honest story is not the main thing i play wow for, never did(dont get me wrong i like wow lore) ...but vanilla for me was more like making your own story/path.
Hell if i want story im better of playing The Last of Us, or reading a book.:smile:
And to be honest story is not the main thing i play wow for, never did(dont get me wrong i like wow lore) ...but vanilla for me was more like making your own story/path.
Hell if i want story im better of playing The Last of Us, or reading a book.:smile:
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Testosterown
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- Joined
- Oct 9, 2014
Damn right!
1000000000% this. When I played Vanilla with friends back in the day it was all about OUR STORY, not about some scripted nonsense that is played out after the first time (literally instantly played out the second it's done). Was the first time in WoD (Warlords of Draenor) cool to see where they took the story, lore, events, and how you ran through it? Sure. Did it become instantly bland, boring to repeat, and take away from YOUR STORY in it? Absolutely.
I played the game since beta (and every expansion since for 10 years on / off), and all I have to do is check my sub time. Vanilla I was subbed the entire time (and most of TBC too but only because it takes time letting go :no
, I checked it recently because of my interest in wow again over a new expansion I about fell out of my chair. No online game can keep me interested for more then a few months (and not because I am older), I have played all the triple A (if we can even call PC games that anymore..) MMOs recently, competitive games, got 2400+ in Arenas / rbgs, etc, all the PC gamer stuff and nothing even holds the smallest of candles to original vanilla for me. This coming from someone who played Everquest when I was 14, so WoW wasn't even close to my 'first' MMO like it was for most who treasure vanilla. Barrens, Ashenvale, Stonetalon Mountains, Tanaris, Desolace, STV (OF COURSE!), Feralas, Winterspring, THE CITIES! (all of them), Duskwood, I guess I could list every zone because it was that legit of an experience for me and my friends that has never been matched, or even been able to compare to be honest.
Saddest of all is that it is a generational problem with games now. Vanilla WoW had one of the biggest designer crunches of all time, no joke it literally made some developers quit the industry because they thought this was going to be the new norm of constantly having to literally work over nighters nonstop, meet insane deadlines, and put so much passion into your design that you LIVED your work. Oh boy were they wrong. Games now a days, PC games the worst of it, are just a cash shop in every way. Pay to play alphas, hell; pay TO WIN alphas, moba games that make you fu**ing BUY characters to even play them, cash shops of cosmetic items instead of working towards them, twitch streaming (sorry but this ruined so much about gaming as it once was, now it's just a popularity contest of the youngins watching people they look up to), instant gratification instead of oldschool delayed gratification- what the older MMOs ENTIRE PURPOSE was vanilla WoW included.
It really comes down to simple economics, why would they design and make a game that takes the biggest designer crunch of all time when they could just release a new 'skin' that costs sometimes 1/3 as much as a 5 year project? Why design new content when you can introduce a new 'mount' that costs 1/2 the games retail price? The generational gap for most of us when looking at retail games, and retail wow atm is quite large, it has been 10 years and those youngins are 15-20 now with money to burn and instant gratification to yearn. I am 27 now and I feel like I had more patience when I was 14 then some of the kids growing up now will have when they are 40. I love my step-son (only 7) but I do not envy his generation or the one that is right after me. They wont appreciate anything, they will constantly have a new bombard of crap, and never be satisfied.
TL'DR- THE WHOLE FU**ING GAME was my hotspot and preferred ERA. =p :yes:
Bandagespecc
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2014
1000000000% this. When I played Vanilla with friends back in the day it was all about OUR STORY, not about some scripted nonsense that is played out after the first time (literally instantly played out the second it's done). Was the first time in WoD (Warlords of Draenor) cool to see where they took the story, lore, events, and how you ran through it? Sure. Did it become instantly bland, boring to repeat, and take away from YOUR STORY in it? Absolutely.
I played the game since beta (and every expansion since for 10 years on / off), and all I have to do is check my sub time. Vanilla I was subbed the entire time (and most of TBC too but only because it takes time letting go :no
Barrens, Ashenvale, Stonetalon Mountains, Tanaris, Desolace, STV (OF COURSE!), Feralas, Winterspring, THE CITIES! (all of them), Duskwood, I guess I could list every zone because it was that legit of an experience for me and my friends that has never been matched, or even been able to compare to be honest.
Saddest of all is that it is a generational problem with games now. Vanilla WoW had one of the biggest designer crunches of all time, no joke it literally made some developers quit the industry because they thought this was going to be the new norm of constantly having to literally work over nighters nonstop, meet insane deadlines, and put so much passion into your design that you LIVED your work. Oh boy were they wrong. Games now a days, PC games the worst of it, are just a cash shop in every way. Pay to play alphas, hell; pay TO WIN alphas, moba games that make you fu**ing BUY characters to even play them, cash shops of cosmetic items instead of working towards them, twitch streaming (sorry but this ruined so much about gaming as it once was, now it's just a popularity contest of the youngins watching people they look up to), instant gratification instead of oldschool delayed gratification- what the older MMOs ENTIRE PURPOSE was vanilla WoW included.
It really comes down to simple economics, why would they design and make a game that takes the biggest designer crunch of all time when they could just release a new 'skin' that costs sometimes 1/3 as much as a 5 year project? Why design new content when you can introduce a new 'mount' that costs 1/2 the games retail price? The generational gap for most of us when looking at retail games, and retail wow atm is quite large, it has been 10 years and those youngins are 15-20 now with money to burn and instant gratification to yearn. I am 27 now and I feel like I had more patience when I was 14 then some of the kids growing up now will have when they are 40. I love my step-son (only 7) but I do not envy his generation or the one that is right after me. They wont appreciate anything, they will constantly have a new bombard of crap, and never be satisfied.
TL'DR- THE WHOLE FU**ING GAME was my hotspot and preferred ERA. =p :yes:
yeah, I miss the times, where I could play all night without getting tired. The times where I could play for 8 hours straight - and wanted to play MORE. Retail WoW is awful. I get bored really fast, and it's sad to see, what it has become. The pre-cata zones were better and had charm and depth. There were fewer quests, so you had to go to more zones to be able to level up. I resubbed for 1 month before WoD - after two days I was bored already and did not want to login.
Retail WoW is like a Ferrari with a Lada engine. Polished and shiny on the outside, but inside no quality at all.
It is so true, I leveled 2 100s in WoD, I got 2400 on a deathknight in arenas, 2200 on a resto druid, did the raid. About 2 weeks ago I thought of the idea of searching for a type of server like this, first time ever, been playing on vengeance just to kill time until kronos goes live and it just reminded me how sad retail truly is. I've had more fun leveling a rogue on vengeance then retail in my passed couple months of playing it, even a new expansion. Sure the story is cool, but it feels so inorganic and stale, like I am playing a single player game with scripted stuff that should stay in single player games.
Soooooooo glad I found this community and server:yes:
Agreed. But don't bash Lada. It's golden compared to WoD :biggrin:
I like all the remote areas and generally the least populated zones. I see many people mention STV, but that is just too mainstream for me, just a highly populated questing machine in my opinion (as is Tanaris).
A couple of areas I remember discovering (and I mean discover, as in I saw a place on the map and decided to go there. Not some new-age "fill out the map"-achievement-style discovery:
- Ethel Rethor in Desolace, even awarded with a Quest.
- Grim Batol in Wetlands. Dying, corpserunning. Back then I thought this was the only way for horde to access Badlands. This was so early not many knew about the dwarven pass. Moreover, Grim Batol had no obvious place in the game, making it all the more interesting.
- Climbing Dreadmist Peak in The Barrens for no reason at all and suddenly the atmosphere becomes red/foggy.
- Going to Demons End Canyon in Ashenvale.
- Doing the quest with the stranded sailors off the coast of Arathi Highlands.
- Doing often-skipped elite quests such as Stromgarde in Arathi Highlands.
- The worgen/human dynamic of Silverpine Forest.
I generally love the non-linearity and apparent "pointlessness" of many zones (like Deadwind Pass). You really have to plan your questing and travel, think about flightpaths and turn-ins. Zones aren't simply "40-41, quest here", the levels vary greatly and you will need CD's/Pots or come back later. Additionally, people who do research and pick up pre-quests from all over the world actually gets rewarded with additional quest chains. I especially like the quest chains which start at seemingly odds places/NPC's.
A couple of areas I remember discovering (and I mean discover, as in I saw a place on the map and decided to go there. Not some new-age "fill out the map"-achievement-style discovery:
- Ethel Rethor in Desolace, even awarded with a Quest.
- Grim Batol in Wetlands. Dying, corpserunning. Back then I thought this was the only way for horde to access Badlands. This was so early not many knew about the dwarven pass. Moreover, Grim Batol had no obvious place in the game, making it all the more interesting.
- Climbing Dreadmist Peak in The Barrens for no reason at all and suddenly the atmosphere becomes red/foggy.
- Going to Demons End Canyon in Ashenvale.
- Doing the quest with the stranded sailors off the coast of Arathi Highlands.
- Doing often-skipped elite quests such as Stromgarde in Arathi Highlands.
- The worgen/human dynamic of Silverpine Forest.
I generally love the non-linearity and apparent "pointlessness" of many zones (like Deadwind Pass). You really have to plan your questing and travel, think about flightpaths and turn-ins. Zones aren't simply "40-41, quest here", the levels vary greatly and you will need CD's/Pots or come back later. Additionally, people who do research and pick up pre-quests from all over the world actually gets rewarded with additional quest chains. I especially like the quest chains which start at seemingly odds places/NPC's.
Moonforest
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- Joined
- Jan 17, 2015
My favourite spot all time. Loved at first sight, cannot even explain why, both atmosphere and music match perfectly, with that sense of loss that surrounds the area.. pure beauty.
Well done sir
Hogger
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2014
Anyone likes ungoro? Dunno why but every time i quested there i felt like it was only me and prehistoric beasts over there,never saw players
Un'Goro is great. I remember feeling the earth tremble and seeing a Devilsaur in the distance. That shit was scary!
:horror:
Gilthresa
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- Joined
- Jan 27, 2015
I was a raiding shadowpriest, so I spent more time than I care to think about in the North East of Felwood farming satyrs for demonic runes to keep my mana up during boss fights. I still kind of get nostalgic thinking about it, because I had a lot of really great guild conversations after raids and on off nights while I was up there farming at 2am.
I spent more time in that 1 area than I did anywhere else in the game.
I spent more time in that 1 area than I did anywhere else in the game.
goris
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- Joined
- May 17, 2010
- Location
- Galaktyka Kurwix
Hmm, I wonder who started that trend. Every game I knew before WoW was a simple buy and then play whenever you want deal. WoW, with its monthly payments, and tremendous popularity showed the industry that games can be milked for cash in new ways and so the industry started milking.
how is that different from a pay to play/pay to win full game? Whether an alpha, beta, or full version, it's still just an entertainment product for which the author asks compensation and it's only on the consumer to decide whether the product is worth the compensation author asks for. If the alphas aren't worth the money, we shouldn't buy them and the publishers will get the message.
thankfully, the original (pioneer of the [CR]moba[/CR] arts genre) has sense enough not to fall into this category. DotA masterrace!
you can't compare this to wow, because those cosmetics don't upgrade your game character in any significant way. If a counter strike hat made your gun hold 20 more bullets, you would definitely have to work for it a lot.
Also, the games where this is an issue are mostly free to play. You can look at it as a replacement for the mandatory monthly payments, the (Vanilla)WoW-way of making profit. And I must say I fail to see the "downgrade" here. In Vanilla, if you wanted to play the game, you had to fork over loads of cash. In DotA, or CS:GO, for example, if you want to play the game, you just download/buy(CS) it and play. No milking the gamers each month for extra cash. And only those who want to look at hats have to pay for it.
To reiterate, in TF2, for example, you have to pay for an item you don't need in order to be competitive.
In WoW, you had to work and pay for an item you need in order to be competitive.
I, myself, use twitch streams to watch professional tournaments, which I otherwise wouldn't be able to watch/attend. What a sad day for gaming when the very best gamers in the world meet up somewhere and fight insanely intense battles of Starcraft/CS/whatever providing you entertainment and maybe even pointers how to improve.
Though you are entitled to your opinion, I think the majority here do not agree with you. Yes, the story telling is more professional, but for me who enjoyed vanilla I feel it is force fed down my throat. I was personally appalled by the questing and storytelling in MoP and WoD. The whole sensation of exploration and creating your own story is completely gone, it's like watching a Hollywood blockbuster. Do you remember that people used to think Bolvar and Thrall were badass? They didn't need some cutscene and facepalmingly easy quest line to achieve that, people read up on the background story and created their own images.
All Blizzard did was making the playground and the players created the story and memories. Now nothing is memorable. Seriously, nothing about the top-notch storytelling stuck with me. I remember some names, Durotan etc, but have no idea who died and who lived, nor did I care to be honest. Every place I visited was because a quest told me to go there. I don't understand why they want to create a game-movie out of it, if I want that I watch Lord of the Rings.
