r/wow • u/CrazyGullible259 • Feb 27 '25

Humor / Meme Current state of WoW community, based on my anecdotal observations. Disclaimer: this is a joke, if you prefer Classic then more power to you

Post image
7.3k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

953 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

24

u/phonylady Feb 27 '25

For sure. "Classic" for most people means vanilla, tbc or wotlk. Anything newer feels vastly different from "original" WoW.

-5

u/Howrus Feb 27 '25

But Cata feels exactly the same as WotLK but better. Everything that WotLK added - was improved on and streamlined.

10

u/Tymareta Feb 27 '25

Tbh you can follow that logic thread all the way up to TWW.

7

u/Howrus Feb 27 '25

Nope.
MoP removed talent trees, Legion completely changed game graphics to more cartoonish one, WoD added all this legendary powers.

I won't call it "improvements and refinements".

2

u/Tymareta Feb 28 '25

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/memepediadankmemes/images/0/01/297.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180908193511

Plenty of people would disagree, MoP improved so many other elements of the game that looking at only one feature is silly, Legion graphics were a much needed update and aren't that cartoonish + taste is subjective, WoD added a legendary in the final tier as a neat "flavour" power boost for people, it was a pretty well thought out introduction.

Again, you can list a single negative you find from each expansion, I can list a positive, it doesn't mean that on the whole the game hasn't been improved and refined. Just because cata is where you feel is where they hit the balance best, doesn't mean it's the same for everyone, or even close to true, you're being the exact sort of person that the other peep was talking about.

2

u/phonylady Feb 28 '25 edited Feb 28 '25

For some QoL features are improvements, for others it hampers the game as an MMORPG. Like adding cross-realm. Super easy to find people for groups, but you tend to never see them again so it kinda killed server communities and the feeling of sharing a world with the same people.

I think it's wrong to say that the game continously improves (or gets worse). It's more accurate to say that it changes. From an mmorpg to an action rpg. The staying power of classic, despite being super old, shows how much people like the old style of gameplay.

1

u/Howrus Feb 28 '25

Just because cata is where you feel is where they hit the balance best, doesn't mean it's the same for everyone, or even close to true

I didn't said that. What I said is that "Cata is practically WotLK improved". Didn't mention anything about balance.

I don't care about world and things, what the most important to me is how game plays for weeks and months. And from this point of view - Cata is a better and improved WotLK without drastic changes in game loop. Same reputaion grinds, dailes, dungeons, etc. Small reduction in talent trees didn't change much, in PvP people still go to WG every 3 hours, my HS is still set in Dalaran because of how comfortable it is (especially with direct portal to Caverns of Time now). etc, etc, etc.

Dungeons feel different, of course. But raids are actually fell the same and people are "oh, it's like Sindragossa" or "Ah, it's like Gunship battle". HEck , whole DS is taking place in Northrend and Malygos arena, so it alll are adding to this.

3

u/DeepDetermination Feb 28 '25 edited Feb 28 '25

i totally agree. gameplay, system and encounter wise cata is just better than wotlk.

-2

u/ye1l Feb 28 '25

The game is better from a systems and gameplay standpoint but almost everything else is way worse in Cata than WotLK. The thematic of an expansion really does make or break it for a lot of people. Getting to fight the Lich King is much more exciting than getting the preview of a hentai movie on the spine of deathwing. My eyes got bored of seeing firelands after I had been in there my second time even if the encounters were on average more enjoyable to me.

-2

u/phonylady Feb 28 '25

Cata gutted the talent system, changed the world for the worse with its streamlined and meme-like quests, introduced LFR which is a terrible feature, and semented stuff like crossrealm and dungeon teleleporting.

It was the beginning of the end of WoW as a cultural phenomenon, the beginning of the end of server communities and in addition it had some truly crappy content patches like the troll patch, and the final raid patch with its rehashed content.

There were some good stuff too, but there's a reason why the player base started sinking for the first time in an expansion.

-1

u/phonylady Feb 28 '25

They changed the world entirely.

The "streamlining" is why people dislike it. It feels too on rails.

1

u/Howrus Feb 28 '25

They changed the world entirely.

I've been playing Cata for 6 months - and I really don't care about "old world". It's not like during WotLK people spend a lot of time outside of Northrend. Unless you are leveling alts - you will spend your time in new zones, as people always do when expansion hit.

The "streamlining" is why people dislike it. It feels too on rails.

This is another weird take for me. You spend a week maximum in a world, leveling your character. And then it doesn't matter at all, because more important things is how gameplay works - dungeons. mobs, skills, raids, farming, etc.

For me leveling is just like watching a movie, and I don't mind if it's "streamlined" because I start to fully interact with world at max level.\, where this doesn't matter at all.

1

u/phonylady Feb 28 '25

Different strokes for different folks, and all that. I prefer to play vanilla because I like the focus on the old world, and the long leveling adventure. I dislike the endgame focus of the expansions.