Let's talk about changes!

I'm hoping for basically no changes. Vanilla was the best game ever made. I do not trust Blizzard to be wise and I do not trust other players to know what is good for them. Here is my reasoning:

I saw the excitement when cross-realm battlegrounds were announced in late Vanilla and I shared that excitement. I also cautioned people (on the WoW forums) that, besides the obvious advantages, there would be social disadvantages. It drastically damaged server identity. Player connection to other PvPers, both friend and foe, was almost completely eradicated. There was something special about knowing your teammates and enemies. Within a month our realm forum went from active to fairly inactive.

In TBC we saw flying mounts. Meeting stones turned into summoning stones. Two more things that everybody was excited for. Two more things that ended up drastically altering player interaction with the world.

40 man raids were reduced to 25. People were excited: they could drop the dead weight players. They could have an easier time with guild logistics. Unfortunately, Ventrillo became a lot quieter and less entertaining, as those dead weight players were sometimes the funniest or most interesting or stupidly entertaining people to raid with. In Vanilla some classes had their own little cliques within the guild because of how many of them raided together. They'd set up class text channels to talk shit. It was a really cool part of raiding. In TBC so many less players raided that these class channels dried up a lot.

I could go on. There are tens of examples of changes that 98% of the player base celebrated but that are now recognized as factors in the decline of the game. Our instincts and desires lie to us. Changes in an MMORPG need to be deeply analyzed and philosophically considered. Changes that appeal to immediate gratification and satisfaction can have subtle, deeper-level effects that are only predictable with careful consideration.

tldr: if you want a change to the game then ponder on the pros and cons.

/r/classicwow Thread