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Cooking w/ WoW: 1 part nostalgia, 1 part realism
Anniversaries are a time to look back on the past x years but in WoW it seems like players have been doing that since release
German version
By Michael 'Zechs' Radford
Dec 1, 2009 07:31
Anniversaries are a time to look back on the past x years but in WoW it seems like players have been doing that since release“Nostalgia is the last refuge of the moron, said Doctor Johnson. And they don’t make writers like him any more.” – Drop the Dead Donkey
_
As you will have noticed, WoW turned five years old this past week. But Onyxia and co weren’t the only ones celebrating an anniversary. My girlfriend and I also celebrated our 6th anniversary and though neither of us can really cook, I hope the ingredients of this week’s title will be hot enough to match the curry we’ll be eating later today.
It’s perfectly natural at times like this to look back on the previous years. But when it comes to World of Warcraft, the rose-tinted outlook of some players has always irritated me. The idea that “it was all better back then” is ridiculous, but when people take it as far back as Vanilla WoW it makes me sigh with frustration.
I’ll put it simply: Vanilla WoW was not better than WoTLK and it certainly was not better than TBC.
Do not confuse happy memories with facts. What causes this syndrome is, to my mind, the simple fact that Vanilla WoW was newer and more exciting. Expansions are great, but in terms of new experiences they are limited to simply improving what was there before.
In terms of PvE, well… this is an esports column on an esports website. Blackwing Lair was fun and I haven’t really cared about raiding since then. Is that because new raids are more boring? No. It’s simply that I personally lost all interest in running through scripted encounters every week, being held back by the same old muppets that can’t understand why lava/void/poison on the floor is bad.
But when people claim that PvP was better in vanilla WoW it really beggars belief. I mean did these people just forget about pre-normalisation rogues one-shotting people? Do people seriously believe that 24/7 grinding for ranks was a good thing in any way? If so, I suppose it’s good to see that Asylums allow their inmates to use the computers once in a while.
It’s not that PvP is perfectly balanced now, but it has come a long, long way from the old days. The argument that it “meant something” back then is laughable. Even the worst facerolling comps from season five required more skill than farming the old rank system. Grand Marshal and High Warlord are cool titles but don’t kid yourself that it means you were a good player. Just go back and watch a movie like Pat if you don’t believe me.
The fact is that titles don’t really mean a thing. They’re a nice bonus for epeen flexing Dalaran idlers and nothing more. Even Gladiator is meaningless compared to the thousands of dollars and free hardware that true professionals have earned. I remember Zom telling me that people should stop caring about online play as long ago as Extreme Masters finals back in March.
As for The Burning Crusade; that at least is a debatable topic. As a warrior, season three was the highlight of my arena “career” (I use the term very loosely). But was it really better and more balanced back then? Not really. TBC arena was definitely better to watch than early WoTLK was but now that this expansion has developed we actually have much more variety in terms of comps that can compete on a professional level.
I can barely remember seeing any paladins or hunters at all during mid-to-late TBC, even on live realms. As for shamans, they were a complete joke in the 3v3 bracket for almost all of that expansion, no matter what spec they played.
So please, don’t confuse happy memories with things actually being better, especially not in a computer game. The only things that were really better were the armor and weapon designs.
_
As you will have noticed, WoW turned five years old this past week. But Onyxia and co weren’t the only ones celebrating an anniversary. My girlfriend and I also celebrated our 6th anniversary and though neither of us can really cook, I hope the ingredients of this week’s title will be hot enough to match the curry we’ll be eating later today.
It’s perfectly natural at times like this to look back on the previous years. But when it comes to World of Warcraft, the rose-tinted outlook of some players has always irritated me. The idea that “it was all better back then” is ridiculous, but when people take it as far back as Vanilla WoW it makes me sigh with frustration.
"When people claim that PvP was better in vanilla WoW it really beggars belief."
I’ll put it simply: Vanilla WoW was not better than WoTLK and it certainly was not better than TBC.
Do not confuse happy memories with facts. What causes this syndrome is, to my mind, the simple fact that Vanilla WoW was newer and more exciting. Expansions are great, but in terms of new experiences they are limited to simply improving what was there before.
In terms of PvE, well… this is an esports column on an esports website. Blackwing Lair was fun and I haven’t really cared about raiding since then. Is that because new raids are more boring? No. It’s simply that I personally lost all interest in running through scripted encounters every week, being held back by the same old muppets that can’t understand why lava/void/poison on the floor is bad.
But when people claim that PvP was better in vanilla WoW it really beggars belief. I mean did these people just forget about pre-normalisation rogues one-shotting people? Do people seriously believe that 24/7 grinding for ranks was a good thing in any way? If so, I suppose it’s good to see that Asylums allow their inmates to use the computers once in a while.
It’s not that PvP is perfectly balanced now, but it has come a long, long way from the old days. The argument that it “meant something” back then is laughable. Even the worst facerolling comps from season five required more skill than farming the old rank system. Grand Marshal and High Warlord are cool titles but don’t kid yourself that it means you were a good player. Just go back and watch a movie like Pat if you don’t believe me.
The fact is that titles don’t really mean a thing. They’re a nice bonus for epeen flexing Dalaran idlers and nothing more. Even Gladiator is meaningless compared to the thousands of dollars and free hardware that true professionals have earned. I remember Zom telling me that people should stop caring about online play as long ago as Extreme Masters finals back in March.
"But now we actually have much more variety in terms of comps that can compete on a professional level."
As for The Burning Crusade; that at least is a debatable topic. As a warrior, season three was the highlight of my arena “career” (I use the term very loosely). But was it really better and more balanced back then? Not really. TBC arena was definitely better to watch than early WoTLK was but now that this expansion has developed we actually have much more variety in terms of comps that can compete on a professional level.
I can barely remember seeing any paladins or hunters at all during mid-to-late TBC, even on live realms. As for shamans, they were a complete joke in the 3v3 bracket for almost all of that expansion, no matter what spec they played.
So please, don’t confuse happy memories with things actually being better, especially not in a computer game. The only things that were really better were the armor and weapon designs.
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"PvP in World of WarCraft sucks"
Back in TBC I tried 2's with a war/druid (I swapped between them both) and I spent more time cc'ing than healing and on the war I was fucking CONSTANTLY cc'd until I said fuck this and gave up arena, I wonder how many people enjoy arena or just do it to be the best or for a bigger e-peen, but for me personally there is pretty much zero fun to be had in arena, and not exactly much more in BGs aswell, which is down to the heavy CC and the fact alliance play like a bunch of down syndrome wankers.
PVP in TBC (BG wise) was atleast decent, imo every aspect of PVP in WOTLK is pure shit and I can't wait to see how even shitter it gets with Cataclysm. PVE is good for a few weeks and unless you can't wank until you have the IMBA achievements you get bored after killing the same boss a few times and unless you need the sexy purple items you won't care about farming the easy raids, and what are you left with? PVP, yay...
I wonder if Blizzard could possible make it any worse than it already is.
Even though i agree with some of the things you write, i totally disagree on the fact that we have a larger variety of combos running now. Yes we have a larger variety of comps, but still so little viable Gladiator combos.
"Get wizard cleaved"
WOTLK is shit to watch because its a Globalfest (especialy s7). I'd take the old DKS from S5 over Wizardcleave destro locks and shamans whos facepawning people in a global in 3v3. THis also makes it shit to play tbh.
Vanilla WoW was good back then. But compared to WOTLK, yes then it sucks. But i still find TBC way more entertaining.
Hoping for improvements for Cataclysm.
However, it is a "fun" game if you learn it correctly.
I had great time in Vanilla WoW, mostly PvE which was very, very fun for me having it done with the right people. But having done my share of PvP via honor grinding, it was excruciating experience as a warrior and almost always was getting on my nerves!
But could you have given a worse example than Pat? :D It was a well known fact that he had at least 3 healers and 25 buffs on him constantly during his videos.How about Laintime?Wilddevil?Drakedog?Marak?Spoh?Watch some of their movies,I believe you'll change your mind.
The item models indeed were much better in Vanilla.Modifying onyxia to be a lvl 80 boss encouter was pretty cool,cuz now I can wear my alltime favorite item : the Judgement helm.
so... are there? :)
But for me "the old times" were still better, cause i hate this "wow must be balanced and viable for esports". it simply wont ever be. Balance is still HORRIBLE. I mean...in wc3 ppl complain about imbalance in orc vs UD, where orc has somewhat around 60%. I really dont want to know what PMR vs some shit comp would be...90%. at least.
Vanilla was better in that aspect, cause none expected the game to be balanced. it was just running around, having some fun, trying your best to take down opponents. when some BM hunter killed your mage, you simply said "oh, yeah, BM hunter. nothing i can do" and looked for the next warrior you could rape.
S1+S2 were really cool, because nearly every comp was played and it wasnt that stupid "standard play" you do against the standard comps. you just tryed sth, it failed, you said "oh well, try nuke the rogue next time".
But then, for me from s3, it came to that "we must play a viable comp" (gawd, in s1 i played firemage/holypaladin. we had a lot of fun^^) and you met other viable comps and you won/lost because of imbalance most time (you won comp a, but comp b raped the shit out of you). the problem was that PvP suddenly became "serious" and that was when i really noticed that serious pvp is simply bullshit.
Its an MMO, that balance is shit, was even more shit, but you had more fun when you ran around and didnt care, cause it wasnt serious in any way.
...my opinion.
Somewhat true, but no for me personally I just liked Vanilla WoW better. And thats overall, but I enjoy the newer expansions too, and the expansions definitley have some stuff which vanilla was missing.
but the thing i wanted to say is that bc was the best WoW for me.
so much fun in arena (although i was paladin xD)
nice instances (clearing karazhan around 1000 times) and so on
all people who played in bc should know what i mean.
i totally agree with zechs that most people are saying that vanilla is due to the good memories, because everything was new
wow has become old and it's no more the amazing thing like vanilla, and the best thing in bc, it's just a normal game nothing special. people forget that every time...
i said that it used to be better in bc and why.
but yeah i stopped playing in wotlk but i now i'm playing again with a friend because it's a good game to play with others.
not that the addictive " I NEED TO PLAY WORLD OF WARCRAFT MATE"
so i hope you can understand what i mean now
+1
Real world PvP with no real objectives other than to piss off the PvE guilds was THE best WoW experience imho...
Hillsbrad foothills;
Blackrock mountain;
God that was fun to stand with a rogue alt and kill the healers that walked by. Especially priests where made out of paper xD
So yes I Agree... that was FUN.
Arena gameplay is totally imbalanced and the worst thing is that Blizzard effort to improve this is pretty low, do you really think nerfing to the ground OP classes and buffing too much some others every patch is the way to go?
Talking about PvE, it was better too. Istances were harder (or maybe players were noober?), you had to put some effort in killing bosses, not just spamming in Trade channel "LFM ToC25" and being able to kill every boss, Anub too!
or having to kill each boss 4 times/week each week to gear up for the next shit they're going to add.
And item's models were WAYYYYYYYYYYYS better than now! I can't understand what happened to game designers or who's behind this stuffs because current models sucks so hard while old ones were too good to compare.
I'm not saying that expansions are bad for WoW, i just think Wrath of the Lich King ruined the game.
Vanilla was cool, TBC was cool as well. Istances were funnier than now, Arenas were good as well, maybe unbalanced as they are now but still funny. I played a Druid / Mage / Warrior and Rogue at that time, maybe the Druid was too strong I can agree with you, but still you had to do something, not hitting your spacebar while hotting your teammates and sometime casting a cyclone to close the game. Or Warriors destroying you with Bladestorm, Destro Locks doing 20k dmg instantly as Ele Shamans...
Blizzard only had to tweak full PvE Rogues and Druids, then they could stop the game there because it was perfect.
2. at 60, you cant really say the instances were harder man, if you look at any video from back then you'll see how fucking bad people were, besides you had to go with 40 people, which made things more difficult i guess(mainly cuz you dont really know who the mentally challanged person is in most cases, they'll rarely step up and say it was their fault) and you wouldnt replace those who fuck up. when it comes to TBC, well what have we had so far in WOTLK, its naxx, ye some people already farmed that shit back at 60, so ofc people are tired of the shit instance, we got 1 boss instances like malygos & sartharion, we got the filler instance ToC (which is my personal favourite cuz of the lack of trash mobs) which basiclly gives you free loot without any real dedication. I get why dedicated PvErs would go mad at that instance, anyway, whats left is Ulduar which really is a good instance imho, if you compare it to Tempest keep or black temple it really isnt a big difference. Wotlk hasnt even ended and the best usually comes in the end of each expansion, so we'll have to wait and see what ice crown brings us, atleast i am looking forward to it.
when it comes to the game overall, every begining of a new expansion has been shit before blizzard fixed it, just look at mages in the early vanilla, they could easily 1 shot anyone would pom pyro + double useage trinkets. Rogues could kill most classes naked without taking dmg (watch world of roguecraft). So personally i really dont get people who thought vanilla wow was fun in any way, i thought it was shit if you compare it to tbc or wotlk. The begining of TBC was almost the same, do you remember when prayer of mending didnt have a cooldown? or when feral druids could do 1on4 with greens? It got alot better tho, the only problem pvp wisely throughout whole of TBC was the overpowerness of Druid comps, i think at some point even 90% of the top 100 combos were druid combos.
When it comes to wotlk blizzard really messed up with some classes, but can you really blame them? Dks which is a completly new class to the game, who actually expected the class to be balanced in the begining? i sure as hell didnt do so atleast, either they would suck major horse cock or they'd be overpowered to fuck, and well they turned out to be overpowered to fuck (i dont really get how you can implement an ability that gives you 50% less dmg taken and stun immunity for x seconds with a 1 min cd without seeing whats comming tho) but aswell as feral druids and priests got fixed so did dks, even tho it took them a whole season for them to fix dks, after dks got nerfed it was fine for awhile, till destro locks started to rule, then again they'll get fixed, hopefuly, if im not wrong i saw a patchnote which said that conflagrate will be a DoT rather than instant dmg, and hopefuly that will make them balanced in some way. Other than Ele shamans and destro locks 2 shotting people atm and mages being out of control if well played and in right combos i think the game is more balanced than ever(class/combo wisely).
Imo, just give blizzard some time to fix those things and it'll be fine. pve will probably be fun again with the new instance. Rated Bgs, more class balance (it'll never be balanced, its a fact but also so obvious, 10+ different classes with different abilities and different speccs, its close to impossible to make it balanced.). Going back to azeroth will hopefuly give me the nostalgia feeling back atleast, cant wait for cataclysm.
As for the models, lol, it was only naxx items that looked decent back then imo, the rest looked like complete shit. Tbc had the best models, but thats just what i think.
Anyway, what im trying to say is that an expension is almost like a new game, its getting better as it goes, you cant expect it to be at its best in the begining, but if you look at it this way, wotlk is better now than what it was in the begining. So you can only expect it to be better in the future.
peace
Back in Vanilla or TBC it was completely different, you played in a guild to see the content of the game! That was a big motivation.
As I said, I don't like making the same boss 4 times in a week. As I didn't like making Ulduar normal mode to start with and then hard mode for loot/drake achievements...and then again back to Ulduar for Yogg-0. WTF?
Make a boss, make it harder but kill him just one time plz!
And how can you say Vanilla & TBC PvE wasn't better? At least you had NEW ISTANCES (the game was just started ^^). Not Naxx (again), Onyxia (again), Yogg (do you remember Cthun?), ToC isnt even an istance imho.
I rly hope Icecrown will be good, but at this point I'm so disappointed by Blizzard that I hardly believe it will.
Vanilla PvP was imbalanced yeah, but still BGs were funnier than the current arenas.
And you can't say rogue T2 was HUGE! Or grand marshal gear...
But at that time Blizzard didn't care at all about PvP, now they does (WoW eSport game ya why not) and the result is pretty sad :(
DK was totally OP, not it's sux. Lock was bad, not it rules. I don't think this is the way to go, giving each class one arena season to shine and then nerfing it too heavily.
Next expansion will revamp Azeroth. This means old istances will be back, old raids as well I think, funny? NOT. I already cleared these istances, I don't need to do the same bosses again, not in normal and then hard mode and then 10 man + 25 man + uber achiev + immortal + wtf. Not rly.
But I understand that Blizzard wants money, easier istances = more noobs paying monthly fee, most of them don't even know what MC or BWL so it's fine if Blizz just adds some dmg/health to bosses, uses same skin of old sets etc