Vanilla - an honest review

[ksx 0]

"Know your audience."

 

Trust me, when I say that I am taking this into consideration when discussing the topic to know that I am serious. It's been roughly three weeks or so since my friends and I had decided to embark on this endeavor, to dive back into the classic version of World of Warcraft that we had only casually meddled with at the time of its inception. With an open mind I'd decidedly attempted to re-live those first years, setting aside the version I had actually grown with and experiencing this in a very new and intriguing way. There was good, there was bad, and then there was straight up confusing. Many of you, all things considered, may not very much like this post but I think it is important to address these topics both here and eventually to Blizzard in the years to come, should you hope to get the best of this experience as you move with them.

First and foremost I'd like to address both communities, as I feel it is just as vital to do so. The World of Warcraft community on live is composed of a variety of ages, anywhere from the mid teens to the mid thirties (for the most part). I would assume, and this is a stretch, that this server is much the same, though perhaps leaning on quite a bit older, say anywhere from the mid twenties to mid thirties, perhaps even older. This community does indeed remind me of the community that had existed back then: social, loyal (to factions), Alliance whining for the most part and Horde being generally indifferent, with Alliance having a slight more involvement with PvE and Horde with PvP (again, generalizations). With Vanilla being much more a traditional setting of an MMO (obviously), I find that you have many players that appreciate exactly that. An RPG, with a focus on immersion, with a character that one becomes attached to and with a community accordingly - with a guild, with friends, etc. For this article I will dub them RPG players. The game is focused on time well spent and rewards you for thus, it emphasizes team, unfair play being widely accepted and encouraged (engineering, alchemy, gear disadvantages etc.) Whatever advantage you have - use it. Disadvantaged? Sorry, git gud, etc. Or, play more. "My character is more leet, kek."

Now, I say some of that to say this: Live is not full of RPG players - it is full of Gamers. Now, I know what you're thinking: (Hey, Ksx, i'm a gamer!). Okay, you might be, but bear with me (kek, druud reference). If I were to snapshot the cultures from an iPhone 5 (I know, I'm behind the times), and never told you what game they were playing, just from a community standpoint, I think that the games would look entirely different. Imagine present WoW, with most if not all RPG elements behind, in a more CSGO or COD atmosphere. Players Q within a lobby, for PvE or PvP, for the most part (at low levels of experience) with strangers, formulate strategies, win or lose, then go on their merry ways. They play the game to win, or to lose - with the min and the max, and this idea is the foremost goal in everyone's mind. Each participant is, loosely, and of course this coincides with many things, very immersed in the gaming aspect of the game, and not much else. Forget the community - what are your achievements, where are your ratings? Titles? Etc. The game is very focused on balance, fair chance, even opportunity, and rewards play well over play often. Use Engineering or said Potions in a duel or wpvp situation, you'll probably get laughed at. Get jumped in wpvp - why did you need help? Etc. The game is no longer about the character and/or accomplishments, but about the player behind. 

To divert your attention off of this subject I would like to further address a few other things that have come to mind. For better or for worse, whether you like this or not, I mean however you feel about the game in general, the community of 2004 is still living in 2004. Now, this would be great, I find, if this were still 2004. And actually, it still serves you well on this private server. What I mean to say is that I do not think the merger of the live and private server communities would benefit either party. I do not think the live community has the general respect for the immersion and rpg elements of the game of the past, nor do I think the past respects the competitive elements of the present, though I do myself hold both to be equals, there is a very serious disconnect between what is and what isn't, allow me to explain. From my experience, as gamers, the private server community and/or community of 2004 (whichever it may be), does not, as gamers, hold a candle to the community of present. Hell, we use the terminology washed to apply to (myself and others), players from 2012, let alone 2004. Now, I know there's many of you who wish to argue and perhaps disbelieve this statement, as "vanilla is best and we are best and all is best of the best kek" etc., so if you do disagree from both a PvE or PvP aspects I do implore you to actually attempt to get the equivalent ranking that you have on said private servers on live today and do come back with your results. Moving forward.

With this, with the above, there is an issue that (used to) plague most MMO's, and this issue is the abundance of misinformation. I will give one example that I'd mentioned in another post that tilts me to no end every day: Horde has better PvP racials. No, no they do not. In fact, they so much do not that there is zero evidence supporting thus from the past 14 years of any changes to Horde racials other than a 30 second cooldown on Will of the Forsaken for arena comp sake, and that is it. By contrast, they have redone the human racials entirely two times because of how terribly biased they were towards Alliance. In fact, if you were to go to both the Arena and Battleground communities today and ask them, hands down Alliance has and for most of WoW has had better racials. Yet, yet, in Vanilla everyone has an equal say. And you might reply, well, Ksx, why is this bad? Well, this is bad because this is essentially some sort of gamers communism. What does that mean? Well, you wouldn't take medical advice from some random asshat walking down the street, would you? So, why do you in gaming? Without proof of a medical degree, a doctors office, staff, etc., you wouldn't be able to distinguish a medical professional from the guy that works at starbucks. This happens in gaming all the time, most predominantly with games without structured ranking systems. So where's the difference lie?

The difference is that in games with ranking structures, the guy that's 114-3 gets to set the trend for what's in and what's not, not the dude who's a "great dueler" in durotar with a "rank 14 title" (aka a lot of HK's, cod leaderboards, anyone?). Not to put that down, but doesn't that essentially mean all you did was play a lot, and by no measure or means does it indicate you played well? Anyway, not the point. The point being is that, all of a sudden you find yourselves surrounded by verified, very much factual evidence supported by people who clearly have a deep understanding of the game, and all of the magical peons form around them in awe, repeating the whispers of their bountiful master. Kidding, but no, really. And crazy enough, this is a good thing. Because when this DOESN'T HAPPEN, you find yourselves surrounded by morons, who shout things like "if you're not 60, you're a bad player", which, LOL, PEOPLE BELIEVE, and - not only that - REPEAT. Anyway, you find this situation occurring, a lot, until things like this end up happening.

"Are druids good in pvp?"

- "No because x."

- "Yes because x."

- "If you're good - they're overpowered."

- "It doesn't matter if you're good or not, they're broken."

Who is correct? Well, it doesn't matter who you think is correct, because it's just Mary, Paul, Sue and Steve talking and we have no f'ing idea who any of them are. But someone believes. Someone believes enough to reroll their class, or to start on a different faction, just by this moronic heresay. 

So where am I going with this? Right now, at present, you have a casual, nostalgic RPG that a typically older generation player plays, that is community-driven and guild-centric. While I've certainly been critical of Vanilla, I am equally thus (though, perhaps to them moreso) of the live community. Look, if you want to protect your beloved home from the COD-like lobby FPS players of the future, you need to address to Blizzard and yourselves what exactly it is that you hold most precious about Vanilla, because trust me, if you know Blizzard like I know Blizzard, they listen to their community. And guess what? You are vastly outnumbered. What I'm saying is that I firmly believe in that if 1 million players start saying they want balancing changes in PvP/PvE in Vanilla you are fucking getting them. Or whatever else this implies, but before that happens and also to prevent that from  happening you need to be honest with yourselves for a moment, what you are and what you represent. Because, I say this warmly, if you are the elitist, pr0 gam3r players like many of you make yourselves out to be, then have at it. But, if you come to find down the road that you have been left without an RPG, community, and feeling quite mediocre, well, don't say that I didn't warn you. I guess what I'm saying is, don't let your pride get in the way of having what you love. 

Personal recommendation? Stay with Project Elysium - don't even move to official servers. Look, there's a period of WoW that is most precious to me as well (WotLK), but I'm 100% aware of and not in denial about a few things. 1. Legion players would rick roll us. 2. Most of us are in our thirties and do not have much time for video games 3. I hate most of the younger, self-entitled millennials with a passion. So, if they made a private version, I know that this would not be WotLK, I would not be any good at it or have enough time for it and the community playing it now would be nothing like they were back then. The general gaming community of the world did not wait for you while you were stuck in the Eminem era. They moved on. They are very different now, grew up with a different sub culture, and in general are way more serious about competitive gaming as a whole than you were in 2004. Don't believe me? Twitch, YouTube, ArenaJunkies.com, Blizzcon, Pro team sponsorship - these things didn't even exist when you were playing. They've been here for f o u r t e e n y e a r s (well, except AJ, rip AJ), but anyways. Look, whatever you think you are, this article, or this rant, or whatever the fuck this is - this is what you are. Whether you're cool with it or not, accept it or not, love it or not, it's up to you guys how to deal with it, because come two years you are going to be dealing with it. I suggest you start now, but that's up to you. 

As for me? For the most part? Loved it. Loved the RPG element, the immersion again, the community, the real gritty earthy feel of a gaming exploration that wasn't really sure where it was going but entirely sure that it wanted to go somewhere. Would've loved to have launched with it, and much more would've loved to had hopped in the military a year or so later and actually grew with it, but unfortunately this is all I get, though what a pleasure it's been. Unfortunately, my rose tinted glasses were just that - rose tinted, and though I very much love what WoW was and what MMO's were (I started with PristonTale, iRO, RoseOn, etc), at some point I have to just shrug and say hey, it's 2018. As much as I fucking loved the Playstation back then unfortunately it's just not that hot right now, for me at least. If they took the RPG elements of this game, the real vibe of a character growing, somehow brainwashed everyone to forget how competitive you can actually play these things and yet were able to address the game from a 2018 perspective i'd be here forever. But alas, they have not and cannot and so I bid you all adieu. Thanks for the fun.

 

edit: 

p.s. By the way, I did want to take a second to acknowledge the staff. I don't care about the past, the past is the past, but what I have seen is that you are 100% about your community and 100% not thanked often enough for what you do. Having had experienced servers and staff like returnofreckoning.com, I couldn't possibly give you enough credit for how professionally and honorably you hold to your station, many of this server do not even deserve you nor do they know what it is that they have so let me and very much for them thank you for any and all of that which you do. 

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Edited February 10, 2018 by ksx