Most of the backlash I've received so far (mostly on Facebook) frames this discussion as a blizzlike vs. non-blizzlike issue, a pure or unpure issue, as if this is a suggestion to allow faction changes or race changes- in my view, unnecessarily elevating the consequence of this proposed change. Does anyone actually believe that the ability for a few people on the server to change their character's hair cut would adversely affect the integrity of their Vanilla WoW experience? This comes across as irrationally conservative- arguing for purity for purity's sake. And if this is really such a unanimous and intensely believed principle, where was this backlash to the proposed Respec Cost Reduction, a change that actually had a material effect on the game's economy, and thus *every* player's experience?
I've also heard arguments such as "Barber Shops are the first step in the evolution to Transmog". This is a by-the-book slippery slope argument implying that any quality of life change at all sets in motion an irrevocable watering down process, as if we, as a community, don't have the power to arbitrarily stop it. And again, if this potential slippery slope is so daunting, why was no one evoking this argument when Respec costs were reduced? Is that measure not the first step in the evolution to Dual Spec? Where is the consistency? And why the feverish fear of *any* change, no matter how minute?
Old School Runescape has set the standard for Vanilla games by surpassing the popularity of its game's current version specifically because they have a system that allows players to suggest changes to the original game. The majority of these changes have taken the form of minor quality of life improvements, that in no way effect the overall difficulty or feel of the gameplay, such as a Barber Shop wouldn't. To viscerally attack and recoil to any proposed change to Vanilla WoW is, to me, to resign oneself to the inevitability of the game's dwindling into irrelevancy, outmoded and unadaptive. I dream, for example, of a day when Arenas are available in Vanilla- but that's for another time.
