World of Warcraft : Classic

[gameoverman]

I've never played WoW. There's this Youtube channel I watch, because it's usually about movies but this video was about WoW Classic. Is what he says true? Do people really line up like that? That looks crazy.
Folding Ideas

edit: the part I mean is about 10:50 into the video

[Sudy]

Heh, that showed up on my Youtube feed and I watched it this morning also. Haven't seen this guy before.

I think that happened at WoW Classic's launch because there were so many players hitting the starting zones at the same time. You'd never see that under normal circumstances. It's humorous to see and must be kind of cool to experience, but also seems boring as hell. I'd be running the other way trying to find any living mobs to grind out and gain my levels that way.

It's probably an exaggerated example of what happens on launch day in many MMOs that don't have significant phasing/layering/instancing/sharding technology in place (and even then, as I believe WoW Classic does).

[Daehawk]

From what I saw you show up at a mob and there were people there you usually got invited to group because they knew you could steal it. Could be multiple groups then you just got first hit in .

[Blackhawk]

In my experience it does happen - or at least it used to. People who played Everquest back in its heyday may remember the impromptu organization and etiquette involved in camping rare spawns, for instance. Again, it was centered around the idea that on small servers without instancing you'd be seeing the same people every day, and your reputation really did affect your experience. You couldn't just act like a dick and disappear into the endless void like you can now, so people acted more like they would if they were face-to-face.

[gameoverman]

Oh man, it would be so hilarious to be standing one of those lines and then seeing the same player you've been seeing every day in line for a couple of weeks, and this time you're kind of far along and he has to walk all the way to the back. What do you say? "A late start today huh?", "Yeah, I needed to run out and get new batteries for my mouse.".

[Torfish]

So I transferred my classic character to the Burning Crusade classic that went live yesterday. And... the queues are back. 10 mins

[Sudy]

No queues for me on Mankrik, but the starting zones are definitely a zoo. I actually encountered one of those mob queues mentioned above. It wasn't as long though, and it was really annoying because some players didn't respect it. My party had its kill stolen by someone else four times before we could tag it.

So are Wanderers still active on Mankrik? Mrs. Nym and I joined a group called Mayhem and Madness on horde that seem really friendly and fairly mature. It didn't even occur to me there was an OO-related presence there.

[Torfish]

I'm on Mankrik also but as Alliance. It was a 10 min queue. Cool to see the quality of life changes. Going to be a fun ride again.

[Sudy]

Then perhaps we shall peacefully ride past one another one day, with zero interest in combat.

And yeah, nevermind... hour-long queues on Mankrik-horde now. Makes sense for first night after pre-patch I guess. I'm not sure if the realm connections has affected this (I would presume so), but if it has, it would have been nice if they waited until a couple weeks after pre-patch (or even patch).

[Sudy]

Have got two characters around level 15 now, one I play with Mrs. Nym and the other solo. I did the vanilla/TBC early leveling process so many times back in the day, but I still love it. A handful of the quests are just rotten, but it's paced so well. It's hard to compare the experience to retail because it's so different. But I can say that I much prefer the old style of quest rewards (where you weren't guaranteed something personally relevant) and questing (where mobs and quests don't scale to you). Scaling is great if you don't want to out-level a zone, but it also destroys the sense of progression. I enjoy being able to mow through green quests, or struggle with orange/red ones.

I do still miss group finder though. As easy as it is to find instance groups right now during the TBC pre-launch (everyone's levelling blood elves), I miss being able to do each of the dungeons when I want, while I'm questing. Of course, the levelling dungeon experience is also really weird in retail since the level squish, and I really miss being able to visit all the dungeons in sequence. What I enjoy the most doesn't exist anymore, and won't, until/unless progression servers continue to late Wrath/early Cata.

WoW is a game that's hard to love and difficult to hate.

[Sudy]

It's Dark Portal day today in TBC Classic. As a 24 Warlock/15 Druid, I shall not be participating lol....

[Torfish]

I’m 57. So expecting to be enter the portal in a day or two. I’m really going to enjoy the dungeons. Somehow I’m hooked again. Having lots of fun.

A ton of people are playing. Quite surprised.

[Sudy]

2800/33min queue on Mankrik right now. 80 minutes an hour ago. I just want to find a group for Blackfathom Deeps on my 24 warlock.

[Blackhawk]

Oh, that first set of quests where the gray vendor trash items are worth as much as a day's grinding in the old world.

[Sudy]

So, in that other thread when I said I kind of preferred vanilla's pre-cata disconnected questions for their simplicity... yeah, there is a kind of purity there I enjoy and fondly look back on. But levelling a horde character in the early 20s is not particularly fun. The TBC experience of going 1-20 in the new Blood Elf zones is pretty good. But then you're just dumped into the vanilla content and it's a whole lot of running around. There are feeder quests a plenty, sure. But after naturally progressing to Hillsbrad, there's not a whole lot to do. So off you go to Barrens, Stonetalon, and Ashenvale.

I've complained about doing Ashenvale on foot going back to beta. You start out in these fairly small zones, and then you're dumped into one that's nearly the width of Kalimdor.

Grouping for Ragefire and Wailing Caverns was pretty easy. But I haven't been able to get a Blackfathom Deeps group for the life of me. It's not just that I'm DPS, or that everyone's playing in Outlands. There are often 10-20 people online in the zone in my level range, many of them Blood Elf paladins. But I've had exactly two bites in hours of spamming for the past day, and I've tried LFG and popped into Stonetalon, Barrens, and /Trade to ask as well. I don't really care to start whispering people as I find that obtrusive, and I'm not inclined to pay a tank and healer to run it.

Speaking of which, I don't understand where this "boost" culture has come from--it wasn't nearly so prevalent the previous times I played retail. It seems to be an accepted levelling method now to pay a higher level character to run you through dungeons multiple times and just kill everything for you. Sure, I can remember guild assists back in the day, or paying for runs when you're hunting a drop, or paying a tank when you just can't find one. But everyone's spamming selling these runs now, and while I'm happy for people to enjoy the game how they like, I don't see how it's fun. But then, I'm a weirdo who actually enjoys/prefers the levelling process and doing the same dungeon at least once on each character.

[Torfish]

The boost runs are definitely a new thing with Classic. It does makes sense that there is a market for it. A good amount of players only want to revisit the end game, so they would rather rush level as fast as possible than spend days/weeks of playing to get there. I'm sure some players got rich from it.

The lesser dungeons have been tough to find groups. I found that my only chance to find a group was in the evening hours. The more popular dungeons are much easier to get into. A guild of course would help with forming a group.

I'm about ready to hit 59 today and take the plunge.

[Redfive]

The boost runs are definitely a new thing with Classic. It does makes sense that there is a market for it. A good amount of players only want to revisit the end game, so they would rather rush level as fast as possible than spend days/weeks of playing to get there. I'm sure some players got rich from it.

The lesser dungeons have been tough to find groups. I found that my only chance to find a group was in the evening hours. The more popular dungeons are much easier to get into. A guild of course would help with forming a group.

I'm about ready to hit 59 today and take the plunge.

This is exactly my experience. Have 2 friends I play with and we are all mid 40s. I think we've run Wailing Caverns, Scarlet Monastery, Razorfen downs and that's it. Plenty of people will to boost though.

[Sudy]

Is anyone considering going back for the anniversary WoW Classic servers launching on November 21st? As I understand it there will be fresh classic servers starting up in PvE, PvP, hardcore, and RP varieties.

I haven't committed to it. Despite having fun in several eras. I haven't played in a few expansions and always find the game to be a soulsuck eventually. But I have a great nostalgic fondness for the vanilla classic era, warts and all, so I'd like to check it out even if I don't stick around for long. I think there are a few scant QoL inorovements, but it's by and large it's the original at-times tedious original game that lacks most of the improvements of the later eras.

The nice thing is you don't need to buy a client to play classic (or the first several expansions of retail). You just have to pay the monthly subscription cost. (Though I suspect anyone interested in classic has played at some point and has the client and some number of expansions already.)

I'm only interested in PvE most likely. I'm trying to wrangle a couple real-life friends to join me and appealing to other social groups of mine so I can't even guarantee I'd be available to join a guild. But in terms of server selection, I might as well try to land where as many other folks/communities I know are doing so.

Or maybe I'll come to my senses and not go down this rabbit hole again when I want to be doing productive things in my life. But I'd just like to experience those first levels again in the game the way it used to be. And having friends around makes doing dungeons and crafting a lot more fun.

Note: I'm actually going to be away without a computer until early next week so I probably couldn't be the person to start a guild if anyone was in a rush.

[DOS=HIGH]

I'm thinking about playing Hardcore. Since I have no interest in endgame, just getting to 60 is fine. I tried it when it came out and lost two characters in the 30's. A mage when I crit myself with a frostbolt from a mob spell reflect. Then a druid when an escort npc pulled a couple mobs, I tried to run but ran into respawn after respawn. Losing the gold and access to stuff in the bank was the most painful part. I did have an alt set up to hold most of the gold and some stuff I really, really didn't want to lose. It's about time I gave it another go.

[Sudy]

That must be a thrilling experience, but I don't think I could ever do it. Not with my propensity for falling off cliffs lol. I'm still stunned they introduced a hardcore experience, but I know it's something that had been asked for for years, and when the game is this old with multiple forks, why not?

[Blackhawk]

I get the appeal of hardcore, but I enjoy pushing the limits of what my character can do too much. Can I kill that +3 level elite for a quest without looking for a group? Can I make it to the opposite faction starting area to tame that rare pet? I don't want to always have to play it safe.