A reminder of why Classic got made

Here here!!!

Yeah, for many of us retail it’s a mess. I’ve been trying to level a new toon until Classic, just to see more post-cataclysm zones (so no dungeons) and it’s boring AF.

My lvl 15 character on the stress test had almost two bars of abilities. My 20 on retail has 9. I counted.

There’s rumours that the next retail expansion will have a huge squish, but i’ve lost any hope of retail being fun for me again. I think having 2 active versions of the game is for the best right now; everyone can pick what they enjoy.

Fun is not optimal. It has been excised.

I’ve been trying to level a new toon until Classic, just to see more post-cataclysm zones (so no dungeons) and it’s boring AF.

It's funny because I've been trying to do that since... well, Cataclysm. And no matter how many times I try I get bored out of my mind and just end up dungeon spamming, I just can't bear it, the levelling up process through mindless questing for 120 levels. My latest (not the first, or second or third) attempt was a Zandalari Druid, I didn't even make it to 21 (They start at 20).

I don't know if it's the zones, the quests, or the pace of the game, but I always feel like I'm in a rush, that levelling is not a journey but a massive bump in the road, I kill things fast because I need to go fast because 120 levels, because my spells are fast and my mana never ends and my abilities are so fast with fast jumps, fast charges, fast casting, fast mounting and heirloom mount at level 1 so that I don't even need to walk any more... everything is telling me to go fast.

...And I do it because I am weak, because physics say that any force will choose the path of less resistance, because human nature tells me to pick the easier way, because the game is constantly reminding me that I can do THIS and THAT easier by using this item, or this tool. And it's really sad because the game in 2019 demands absolutely no effort, no dedication, nothing whatsoever out of me.

Eh, I found that cataclysm enormously improved the leveling process. More time is spent actually getting things done and making decisions, and less time is spent running from place to place or waiting for your rage/energy/whatever bar to refill so you can finally push a button. This is to say nothing of how the quests themselves are now infinitely better-organized, with better storylines and a better sense of "progression" through a zone as you complete quests. NOTHING from Classic can compare to the Forsaken campaign against the Worgen in the new Silverpine Forest, or the Battle for Andorhal in the new WPL. I'd even argue that a lot of the revamped zones still weren't linear enough.
heirloom mount at level 1

Wat

Wat
I see you've been 'missing-out' ;)
https://www.wowhead.com/item=122703/chauffeured-chopper

And yea, I get you with the linear quests, and it helped, a bit too much I'd say because all you had to do is follow the crumbs, and personally that bored me. I wasn't required to explore the region for quests any more, I was just being told a story. For me it just feels like you're someone else's puppet (Sylvanas is Silverpine is the perfect example) instead of being on your own helping members of the populace here and there.

Don't get me wrong, the Sylvanas in silverpine story was great, but for me personally it makes your character live in the shadow of someone else's big narrative.

Today we're all champions, we are known, we are heroes, we are commanders, and I'm sick of that. I want to be a nobody, a single un-named unit from Warcraft 3, not a Hero or a Champion.

I'm glad the story is evolving in Retail, but in order to keep up with demand of players wanting content and wanting it faster, the gameplay has suffered and the stories and lore are constantly stirred and ret-conned, Azeroth these days simply cannot go without a major world threatening crisis every two years, and it's immersion breaking to be quite honest.

This of course is my opinion on it.

Just to add up, you're defending Cataclysm here in your latest post, so I'm not entirely sure why you made the original post. I'm sure I'm 'doing it wrong' by assuming so literally that it was the insanity of portal travels that created the demand for classic, which obviously wasn't. So if you're defending Cataclysm (considered possibly the second worst expack) then what exactly are the reasons you think created the demand for Classic to be made?

I say this with no snark, just curious.

Haven't given it much thought, but that's probably one of the best things about vanilla. Everything being on only two continents and no flying mounts. It'll be glorious.

Wat
I see you've been 'missing-out' ;)
https://www.wowhead.com/item=122703/chauffeured-chopper

Ah, yeahh, I'm just a few heirlooms short of 35 so i never got that one.
I wasn't required to explore the region for quests any more, I was just being told a story.

If by "explore" you mean "wander around blindly until you accidentally end up at whatever the NPC was talking about", then sure, but I don't see how less of that is a bad thing. If you mean "Try to figure out a way to the blue splotch on the minimap, seeing terrain along the way that you've never seen before" then that's still in the game.
For me it just feels like you're someone else's puppet (Sylvanas is Silverpine is the perfect example) instead of being on your own helping members of the populace here and there. Don't get me wrong, the Sylvanas in silverpine story was great, but for me personally it makes your character live in the shadow of someone else's big narrative. Today we're all champions, we are known, we are heroes, we are commanders, and I'm sick of that. I want to be a nobody, a single un-named unit from Warcraft 3, not a Hero or a Champion.

You're being extremely inconsistent here. The unnamed units from Warcraft 3 were someone else's puppet (namely the player's). They were living in the shadow of the named characters' big narratives. If you mean you'd rather be a minor footnote in the story of Coleman farthing getting his revenge against the Agamands than be a minor footnote in the story of Sylvanas kicking the Worgen out of Silverpine Forest... well, okay, you do you, but I don't really see this as a qualitative difference. You literally go back to collecting bear asses immediately afterward.

I can certainly see a big change when WoD came out, and quests went from "swab the decks of the Bloodsail Buccaneers' ships to earn their trust" to being in charge of your faction's entire excursion to Draenor (playing basically the same role in Draenor that Garrosh did back in Outland and Northrend). But I'm not going to defend WoD.
I'm glad the story is evolving in Retail, but in order to keep up with demand of players wanting content and wanting it faster, the gameplay has suffered and the stories and lore are constantly stirred and ret-conned, Azeroth these days simply cannot go without a major world threatening crisis every two years

A major world-theatening crisis like an Old God waking up in Silithus? Or a Scourge invasion that can only be stopped by entering Naxxramas and killing Kel'Thuzad?
Just to add up, you're defending Cataclysm here in your latest post, so I'm not entirely sure why you made the original post. I'm sure I'm 'doing it wrong' by assuming so literally that it was the insanity of portal travels that created the demand for classic, which obviously wasn't. So if you're defending Cataclysm (considered possibly the second worst expack) then what exactly are the reasons you think created the demand for Classic to be made?

Cataclysm made a LOT of mistakes, to be sure. However, letting players spend more time actually playing the game and less time staring at their screens was not one of those mistakes. Also, Cat is nowhere near the second-worst expansion. BC > Mists > Wrath/Cat (they're about tied) > Legion > WoD > BfA

I used to have a Facebook group where I listed all the things that had gone wrong with WoW over the years, starting with Burning Crusade's idiotic system of making characters worse instead of better as they level up. However, that page was created by a sock puppet account that has since been flagged and nuked for having a fake name, so the page might not exist anymore. I'll see if I can find it.

EDIT: here we go
Good changes: Flying. Transmog. Old-world flying. Archaeology. Reorganizing the old-world quests and questgivers to make zones "flow" better. Pokeyman battles. Fight Club. BMAH. Account-wide achieves/mounts/everything. Timewalking. Flex raiding (FOR NEW RAIDS, NOT RETROACTIVELY APPLIED TO OLD ONES). The CURRENT version of the group finder where you have to put groups together manually and actually travel to the fucking raid. Account-wide appearance collections. Almost all new races and classes. A few of these things aren't necessarily my cup of tea, but other people like them and it's better to have the option than to not have them.

Bad changes: That scaling thing in BC where leveling up actually makes your character worse instead of better. Removing the original level 60 Kazzak. Inappropriately powerful items of mundane rarities at the beginning of each new expansion ("Green is the new purple"). Removing 40-player, level-60 Naxx and the original Onyxia's Lair. The original LFD/LFR that groups you with randoms and teleports you to the dungeon/raid even if you have no fucking idea where in the world it is. Letting Allied races other than Draenei to be Shamans and Horde races other than Blood Elves to be Paladins. Removing most of the Old World quests, NPCs, and items, and the original versions of many dungeons and raids like ZG. Removing the ranged/relic slot. "Nuggets" and the removal of minimum profession level requirements for harvesting resource nodes. Not letting players choose their own quest rewards. Buttfucking the Barrens during Voljin's Uprising. Welfare epics on the Timeless Isle. Legendary questlines that literally everyone can do so literally everyone ends up with the same fucking legendaries (capes/rings). Literally all of Warlords of Draenor, but especially making professions irrelevant, and the buttfucking of UBRS, and the buttfucking of the Blasted Lands, and being unable to gather resources without randomly spawning hostile mobs, and being able to craft high-level gear at a profession level of one, and seriously the whole fucking thing was a dumpster fire. Artifact weapons, like how the fuck can every paladin in the world have the Ashbringer at the same time? Welfare legendaries in Legion. Repurposing the side entrance to Kara. Zone scaling. Removing the 25-player version of Black Temple, and the 10-player and 25-player versions of Ulduar. Buttfucking Silithus. Removing everything related to artifact weapons except the artifact weapons themselves. Removing first aid. Stat/ilevel squishes. Buttfucking Tirisfal Glades and Darnassus.

Don't give a shit: adding glyphs. Removing glyphs. Talent tree changes. Allowing ONE alliance race to be shamans and ONE Horde race to be Paladins.

It is, of course, not a complete list.