- Originally written on 6/17/2021
- Game-A-Week Episode 39: World of Warcraft Classic
- So WoW sucks, right?
- It does! It absolutely does.
- But it wasn't always so shitty.
- Thankfully, Blizzard let us play the good version again.
- And thus, the drums of war thundered once again!
- World of Warcraft Classic takes us back to a time where MMOs were more than just games that demand an unhealthy amount of time commitment
- They were communities, adventures.
- And while there ARE MMOs that manage to successfully capture this (PSO2, FFXIV)
- World of Warcraft is very much its own beast entirely, taking it to a complete other level by turning the entire world into a battleground
- Anywhere you went, you could encounter an enemy player. Even the safest places in the game could be invaded by a well organized strike team
- It creates a level of world-building and immersion unlike any other game before or after it. So much so, it inspired me to write several novels with this concept
- Depending on which race you chose, you would be put on one of two sides of the #RaceWar
- The Alliance whose goal is to end war and bring peace to the land is made up of Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes and Night Elves
- The Horde whose goal is to create war because that's how their society operates is made up of Orcs, Trolls, the Undead and Tauren
- Typing all that out made me realize that Tauren is the only race that's 100% unquie to the Warcraft universe.
- A wise man once said "No other game lets you play as a cow"
- Which is true, as the Tauren are anthromorphic cows. I guess the undead are sort of unquie too as the undead in most works of fiction are usually just mindless zombies instead of people like they are here.
- Night Elves are probably the coolest race in my opinion though because they have glowing yellow eyes. And they can do backflips.
- Originally, back in the day, I played a human warlock. Because I was THAT kid who always insisted on making their character be as close to the real life version of themselves as possible.
- His name was Alvon and Belnam was his beloved imp companion.
- But this time around, I played a Troll Shaman named Brombo. Because my friends are all degenerates and choose to play Horde instead of the very sophisticated (and clean!) Alliance.
- I mean, I woudln't have a problem with the Horde if every single one of their races didn't look like a total eyesore.
- If you're not sure which side to pick follow this guide:
- If you want to look cool, pick Alliahce (Gnome is exempt from this rule)
- If you want to look like a meme, pick Horde (Gnomes are included in this rule)
- The two sides cannot communicate with one another as this game has a language system. Every race in the game speaks two languages, a common tongue and their race's own language. Except for Human and Orc who only get their respective common tongues.
- Its really fun to play as a race other than Human or Orc because you can talk to other memebrs of your race in your race specific language and no one else can understand you. Its like you have your own little secret code. Its a very neat detail.
- I also like to put macros on some of my spells to shout something when I attack another player because I imagine it would be terrifiyng to be chased by a big gangly troll while they shout who knows what in jibberish.
- Going back to the subject of my friends, can you believe they actually liked modern WoW at one point?
- Not only did they like modern WoW but when I said I didn't like it, they actually got mad!
- They thought I was crazy! And when I explained why, they said and I quote "Its their game. They changed it, get over it" (And then they refused to play Guild Wars with me!)
- Now fast forward to Classic's launch, not only did they try it out, but they liked it.
- They liked it so much that they now wholeheartedly agree with me that modern WoW is a simulation, not a game.
- They won't even touch modern WoW anymore! They refuse to.
- They've actually had a taste of what playing a good game feels like and now they can't go back! How the tables have turned.
- I believe this is what the young kids call "getting red pilled". And I was the one who did that! I made them see the light!
- This is what vindication feels like and by god, its great!
- Anyway
- I was originally going to go with the name "Mumbo". You know, like "Magic Mumbo Jumbo" but that was taken so Brombo was my next choice. Its like Mumbo, but cooler because it has "Bro" in it.
- Unlike modern day WoW, the level grinding is actually quite enjoyable because you get to explore the world instead of just going from point A to point B
- And getting a new piece of gear is always exciting because its never just handed to you, it always feels like you earned it.
- Other than that, there isn't much that I can really add to this. Everyone knows World of Warcraft.
- It does have some flaws such as putting together a party for dungeons and raids is like pulling teeth and can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours just to get all the right people together.
- But its always worth it because such a good time is always had by all. Dungeons and raids are absolutely the best part of this game! That's where it truly shines. In the modern version of the game, there's a complete disconnect between other players and yourself.
- You press a button to go to a dungeon, you clear it, everyone leaves without saying a word. Its completely souless and frankly boring.
- But this version of the game encourages you to talk to each other and everyone always walks away having had a good time.
- It actually feels like you're playing a game instead of running a simulation. Press one button and get top dps? No thank you. Make jokes about shamans bringing rain? Yes please!
- As I am writing this, The Burning Crusade Classic has released.
- Upon logging in for the first time, I was given the option to either allow Brombo to move on to the Burning Crusade or move him to a "Classic Era" server where he can remain in vanilla WoW.
- I made the descicion to remain in Vanilla Wow and I do not regret it. While I was the leader of a guild called the FBI on the main server and this decision automatically disbanded that guild, there's a certain type of magic that Vanilla WoW has that even the very next expansion, The Burning Crusade, failed to capture
- The Classic Era server surprisingly has low population to the point where there's only one guild on the entire server. So I had to join up with them instead of restarting the FBI if I wanted to do anything. You'd think there would be more people that would just want to play vanilla..
- Unfortunately, the drama and high stakes of traveling the world is now long gone due to Blizzard literally splitting the playerbase in half.
- Gone are the days of encountering an enemy player in the wild.
- Gone are the days of that very same situation triggering an actual fight or flight response.
- Gone are the days of forging silent bonds with enemy players who don't attack you.
- Gone are the days of getting shit talked for being an Elemental Shaman only for the very same person to come crawling back to me because they're getting camped by someone 10 levels higher than them and they need my guaranteed critical hits.
- And most importantly, gone are the days of defending the Barrens from an assualt by the Alliance resulting in a full-blown war between players.
- No more do people call me "Brombo, local shaman and god-king of the Barrens" for when I bravely lead the defense against several level 30 players while I was still in the low 20s.
- But even with all these huge flaws, I keep coming back to play as Brombo. I prefer it over the Burning Crusade. Will I prefer it over Wrath of the Lich King? We'll have to wait and see.
- I give World of Warcraft Classic an 8/10. It has some pretty big flaws but we thought we wanted it and as it turns out, we did.
- Because I bet you want to know what its like to be Brombo, here's what an average day is like for the legend himself. Can you believe this man can dps, heal AND tank all at the same time? Brombo can do it all!
