Where did WoW go right?

[runlvlzero]

Originally Posted by Diggles [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

HEY

HEY HEY HEY

I RAIDED IN WOW AND EQ

COME @ ME

YES, YES, BRO!

[Diggles]

i leveled a warrior back in bc/wotlk

shit was hard

now you just hit victory rush and heal for 40%

[Renk]

This thread probably belonged in off-topic(then RnF), so I'm not sure if many people are reading it anymore since it turned into a bit of a flame war, but here goes:

Originally Posted by rubinoff [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

leveling in WOW doesn't mean anything other than to prepare you for the real game which starts at max level.

While many people feel this way(which is a completely legitimate way to feel), and it is probably more prevalent in recent expansions than in the original release, I've always felt much different. After burning out on the 51-60 grind of early EQ, followed by years of raiding and AA grinding, the leveling experience in WoW was such a breath of fresh air. The gameplay and quest structure was so much more dynamic, well designed, and just plain fun. Albeit a lot was soloable(/easymode) there were still elite quests and dungeons for those seeking group challenges. And I really loved the design and atmosphere of the original zones, like a previous poster had mentioned. Many classes played and felt very different, so it was a blast leveling up alts. I purposely put off getting 60 and raiding MC for awhile in order to enjoy everything the lower level game offered because it totally blew me away compared to EQ in the accessibility/fun department (though it obviously lacked some of the challenge and social aspects that make EQ and P99 so nostalgic).

Early in the thread some people were asking about WoW equivalents of P99. I play on The Rebirth that aims to be a (mostly) legit vanilla-WoW platform with 1x rates (many other emus have drastically increased rates and are more focused on the high end, leaving lower level stuff more broken). While my WoW-emu experience is pretty limited, it seems this one best captures old WoW in the way P1999 captures old EQ, and I kinda view them as sister projects even though they are not related. It isn't quite as polished as P1999, but it's quite good overall. Between P1999 and The Rebirth, I'm in old-school MMO heaven. Someone earlier mentioned a progression Emerald Dream server or such, which might also be quite compelling.

Not really trying to turn this into an advertisement, but just so I leave some basic info, an old thread in off-topic layed it out, although it is an old post and perhaps a little over-hyped. The population these days is more in the 50-150 range, while the other severs with boosted exp and more raid focus get more action it sounds.
http://www.project1999.org/forums/sh...hlight=vanilla

[choklo]

Is it true that some veteran EQ players(or programmers) had a role in the making of WoW?

[Renk]

Yes, it's true.

Two of the most notable are Rob Pardo and Jeffrey Kaplan. Kaplan was formerly Tigole < Legacy of Steel > and posted their guild news (and kept Tigole as his forum name as a Blizz dev), a premier raiding guild in the early days of EQ, and Pardo was the guild leader according to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey...me_designer%29

They still maintain all the guild news posts that he wrote back in those days when they were doing the same content we're doing on P1999 now, where he not only gave updates on their guild progression, but also sometimes commented on the state and content of the game, which is probably what helped Blizzard become interested in him for their game, and thus helping lead to WoW's resounding quality and popularity. If you read some of them in detail (and also note the humor aspects), you'll see how even the raid guilds on P1999 are still trying to copy their swagger with rip-offs of their "Stalkers, Wanna-Be's and Unoriginal Bastards" sections and such.

http://legacyofsteel.net/archives/index (scroll down for the old ones by tigole)

I think there were many others, including Furor < Fires of Heaven > (probably the most famous name of old EQ raiding days), but I'd have to do more digging to find out for sure.

[choklo]

Very interesting. It's obvious that these guys had huge potential to work with the WoW team on improving EQ. It also makes sense that they took many ideas from EQ. It makes me wonder if the WoW players or team members will go to Arenanet or SOE, etc to improve the game once again.

[GDoubleYou]

Coming from a person who raided a fair amount in EQ and then a lot in WoW...

The one thing that WoW didn't give me that I always loved about EQ was a sense of danger. There's something about the "unknown" that intrigues me and in EQ I got that time and time again when the game was new. I can't tell you how many times I stared at screenshots of big guilds in VP, scanning the rooms and imagining what it'd feel like to be walking through it during a full pop.

The idea of a "corpse" in EQ is something that to me has been lost by all other games that have followed. It added a lot to the game, and although it wasn't for everyone, for me it provided a unique experience.

Sounds stupid but, I remember the first time I walked through corridors in NToV and seeing some of the later bosses in their little rooms and getting goosebumps, happy that I wasn't there alone [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Anyone else feel the same way? Again I say this as someone who was a front runner for a while in WoW - led a progression guild for a while during vanilla and did every raid there, did every raid in BC, every raid in WOTLK, and I stopped raiding after beating the release Cata raids.

Now some of this might have been due to being younger, as I find my innocence and view on the world back then is different than it is for me now. Also, with P1999 and nearly everyone who plays knowing the in's and out's of almost every zone, a good bit of it is lost.

[DatGrump]

WoW was fun untill they made it obvious that they were going for people cash. Mini-stores and half-assed Xpac's for all now. Same art, same crappy models.

I'm sorry but even with the current gen stuff, no game will come close to the immersion or the feeling of hard work paying off like EQ(now p99) or Vanilla UO.

Thanks again to the p99 guys for bringing the best PC gaming memories I had as a kid back. Not even looking at another MMO current or down the line since I've found this! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I tip my hat to you all.

[Diggles]

man, you guys havent seen good content until you get expansions every 4 months for free.

<3 eve online

[DatGrump]

All I'm saying is WoW use to be a social MMO (raids, RPing, world PvP, ect) and dumbed it down to the point where it's just a casual fling. Having people randomly use a menu to queue instead of making an effort to be social or a system where people just NEED on anything they can get their greedy hands on instead of helping others with lower gear. Good stuff right?

MMO's use to be about social interaction, not just using enough bodys to faceroll their way thru content as quick as they can to get gear. WoW started with something great and now have sunk low enough to cater to the only crowd they got.

Have fun with your mini-pet battles tho. Really looks fun, bet you like that kinda thing eh?