Pig & Whistle Tales - A World of Warcraft Podcast

When Nostalgia Isn't Enough in World of Warcraft

• Gabriel • Season 4 • Episode 56

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Have you ever wondered what could lead a veteran player to quit World of Warcraft after nearly two decades? Join me at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind as I take you on a journey through the highs and lows of World of Warcraft Classic. From the thrill of taming Broken Tooth as a hunter to the unique quests for class-specific epic items like Rockdalar and the Dreadsteed, this episode is a nostalgic trip down memory lane. I'll share anecdotes of my time as a Mage, fondly recalling the days of being a "vending machine" in Ironforge, and delve into the surprising impact of minor UI changes that led one longtime player to walk away from the game.

Our discussion also touches on the intricacies of guild life in Classic WoW. I reflect on my own regrets over not joining a more enjoyable guild from the beginning, which significantly impacted my overall experience. Despite being part of an efficient guild that cleared content, the toxic atmosphere often soured the enjoyment. I'll recount the simplicity and calming nature of Classic gameplay, particularly in leveling and specific raids, and share memorable moments like mage tanking in Blackwing Lair. Ultimately, this episode is a heartfelt reflection on what could have made my journey in Classic WoW even more fulfilling and why finding the right guild can make all the difference.

Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!

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Speaker 1:

Music. Thank you, hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go through a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft, go through a variety of subjects with regards to world of warcraft. I grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this midweek episode. We'll be looking over a couple of forum posts, but mostly I want to be dipping into classic and I'm not saying classic cataclysm, I'm saying classic. Classic when it was released back in 2019, and going over my thoughts and sort of regrets on what I wanted to do in the game, looking back on it now and kind of gauging was it a successful classic for me? That kind of deal. So let's start off with these now. These are very two short forum posts, but this is kind of what gave me the idea of the whole episode in itself. So this guy obviously went into Badlands as a hunter and what's one thing that you do in Badlands when you go there as a hunter? You get Broken Tooth. Now, for those that didn't know, broken Tooth is the best pet that you could tame in World of Warcraft. Classic For PvP anyway. This is due to the very fast attack speed of the pet and that's essentially what it did. That was its thing. But that's kind of what triggered me into getting it and or into thinking about Classic. And I was wondering was there anything along them lines that I enjoyed from my class, like when I first tamed Broken Tooth or anything along them lines like got an Anathema or a Rockdalar, lockdalar, you know. And for me, I played a Mage. Ok, mages didn't have a lot in terms of class specific things, of class specific things. So the like I said uh, broken tooth or the rock to la, lock to la warlocks had their pets, their you know different bits and bobs there, their dread seed paladins had their summons. Now, what mages didn't have a lot, but obviously mages were still very good in classic. That's why I picked the mage. Your, your sort of thing was being a vending machine for 12 hours. If you stand in ironforge where you know you can make water and food and people might pay you for that service, which is amazing, don't get me wrong. Um, but yeah, that's sort of what triggered this idea.

Speaker 1:

Now I'll come back to a classic in a second. I want to take a small little divergent or a small little. What would it be? A U-turn and go back to the next forum post, which is the. Can I say idiot? No, no, it isn't the idiot of the week. I would say it's more just like really, are you going to complain about that sort of segment? So this forum post simply states goodbye. After nearly 20 years, you've lost my custom.

Speaker 1:

Ok, so three choices. Number one why has this person left World of Warcraft? Is it because he's rage quit over PvP? He's rage quit over PvE or he's rage quit over something that is like very minute, such as UI differences or like something like that? What one is it? You can guess, but I'm pretty sure you know what one is going to be. It's. Number three he's quit over something very minute.

Speaker 1:

So first logged in in may 2005 okay, nearly 20 years ago. Yeah, just let that sink in. Loved the game. Had enough of retail. When classic was released in 2019, I think everyone had enough of retail when, uh, retail was retail back in them days because BFA was not a good expansion and then you led, or after that was Shadowlands. So, yeah, it really wasn't great. I can understand having enough of retail back then. Now just sick of all of the content, messing around with SOD stuff affecting era. So this guy plays classic era and some of the season of discovery stuff has bled into uh era. Okay, classic era goodbye. Wow, it was good, but I crave you no more.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so what could possibly have bled over into classic era? Did they accidentally move some runes in there that you know have really shaken up the foundations of Classic? No, they've changed a couple of UI bits and pieces. They have changed the user interface, where if you open the interface, it gives you the retail version of the interface, so you can change certain aspects via that. And they have changed the way that the guild looks. So when you press J in cataclysm classic, you will have the guild tab, or in retail, I should say, and that is what it looks like. Those are the main differences. There is nothing crazy about it. There is nothing amazing or really game-breaking. That is all. Now there are bits, other bits and bobs, I believe, which has to do with the world buff system. I think that's still in classic era where it's like changed from season of discovery as well. But these aren't big changes. They don't change the fundamental part of classic era, which is the leveling experience, experience which everyone loves If you can go through an entire expansion in World of Warcraft Classic Era without having to open that guild tab at all.

Speaker 1:

You can simply join the guild, press enter and then slash G and then type hello to your guild. You do not need to interact with that window at all. In classic era you never, did, never have to, unless you're a guild master or promoting someone, demoting someone, removing someone. You know that sort of thing. But it really isn't that big of a deal. If you are quitting World of Warcraft after 20 years nearly because of a couple UI things that have changed which are better, by the way they are better than the classic UI, what it had then you are ridiculous for doing so. It is the most stupid way to leave, like to exit the game. Now, I get that not everyone will enjoy the UI or the like, different interface sections, but you don't have to stare at that when you're playing. You go into the interface, you change around a couple of settings and then you're done. Ok, that's it. You don't have to open the interface settings at all, possibly for the rest of your gaming life and well, but some people don't realise that you don't have to open the interface settings at all, possibly for the rest of your gaming life on WoW. But some people don't realise that they don't.

Speaker 1:

I have seen people get mad over the most ridiculous things in World of Warcraft. So when Classic came out and it was in its beta yeah, this is the re-release of Classic. So 2019 mid-summer-ish, people were mad about the colorblind feature in the interface menu on Classic. Okay, let me just reiterate that People got mad because they added a colorblind option in the interface menu, because it wasn't part of original classic back when it was released. Because the whole hashtag no changes is a ridiculous thing. Okay, some things need to be implemented for the enjoyment of people. To just get the full potential out of the game. If you can't see certain colours, you need a colourblind mode to be able to allow you to enjoy the game to your full potential.

Speaker 1:

And some people really had the audacity to go yeah, no, we shouldn't have that in the game. It wasn't there back in 2004. So, no changes, no changes, blizzard, you shouldn't have this. And it's like really, they're the people who ruin Classic. They're the people who go oh, my God, all these retail players are ruining Classic. No, they are the ones who ruined it. Okay, they ruined everything about it because they were the toxic ones. They were the ones who just wanted to argue for the sake of argument and it's all about the community for them. You can't see it, but I'm doing the thing with my fingers. I've forgotten the name of it, um, but you know, they're the ones who argued and it is ridiculous. These are the type of people who would have done it.

Speaker 1:

This person who's quit after nearly 20 years because of a simple ui change now, I'm guessing it's a ui change because I mean, I think that's the only thing that they've changed about season all classic era from my knowledge. Now I could be completely wrong and they've changed everything, but I'm pretty sure they haven't. So it still is classic era, it still is the leveling experience of classic, it still is the raiding experience of classic, it's still the gearing experience of classic, but it's just a different interface and a different guild interface. You know it seems a bit ridiculous to quit because of that, but you know it is what it is. So, going back to Classic WoW, I do regret a lot of things. Ok, I regret things that I couldn't have changed because I needed to do them, to do the things that I wanted to do, if that makes sense. So I wanted to do PvP ranking. Ok, and I've spoken about this many times throughout the like past few years.

Speaker 1:

Now, the way that I wanted to do this is not like I will let my eyes bleed looking at the screen for 14 hours a day, like I'll do it for a fair amount of time, because I don't enjoy retail at the moment and classic is just a fun experience. You know, it's one of them things I get to really enjoy the classic experience mid-lockdown, when retail isn't really popping off at the moment. It's one of them things. It was good, fun. So I did a pvp ranking for several hours a day nearly okay now.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now this ranking experience got better and better when you had more gear. What do you need to do to get gear? You need to be doing raids. What's the most efficient way to get gear when doing raids? To be in a guild that clears these raids and does these raids. Okay, that's fair enough. So find a guild, and I found a guild at the very start of classic and that's the guild that I stuck with throughout the entirety of classic.

Speaker 1:

Now, throughout my classic journey, I found out that these people weren't the most pleasant people. Now, this isn't all of them, okay, but there were a lot of people in this guild that were not pleasant. I would argue that maybe 80 to 90% of them weren't pleasant, not to me personally, but to other people okay, in some sort of shape or form. Okay, now I wish that I found a different guild at the start of Classic. This guild were they were effective at clearing content. Okay, we slowly progressed and we managed to clear all of the content that Classic had released to us very easily or not easily, but once we got into a routine it was quite easily done.

Speaker 1:

Now I wish that I joined a guild that maybe didn't clear all the raids and that really went for it each raid night and you know, still we couldn't clear the raids. I would have been completely fine with that. Still, I needed enough gear to do my pvp ranking and that's the one thing that I enjoyed. But the guild is where I kind of feel I was let down. When it comes to the classic experience, I feel if I was in the right guild I would be still playing classic era to this day, potentially because of the guild. Now I look back on my time in classic and it has that sour taste because of who I was playing with. Now, again, this isn't everyone that I was in the guild with. There were members in there that were like I enjoyed their company, I enjoyed their time and stuff. There's many different factors to it but ultimately they are the ones that gave me the sour taste that has been left in my mouth since Classic.

Speaker 1:

And I do enjoy Classic. I do enjoy it to a certain degree. I enjoy the simplicity of it and the almost the mind numbingness of it. I'm starting to play season of discovery a bit more again since phase five and there is a certain mind numbingness to it. When I level, because my brain can switch off and go into autopilot um, because it is just very, very simple. Now, when I level in retail, people might think, oh, my god, leveling in retail is so simple as well and easy. Yes, it is.

Speaker 1:

But when I level in retail, I kill the mobs, loot them, mount up, use my dragon flying to get to point a and b. Whether it be 10 seconds away or 30 seconds away, I still have to fly there. I'm engaging in the flying with the dragon, riding stuff like that. My brain is engaged. It's having to actually think of what to do next, whereas in classic it's go and get 15 skeletal fingers, you know, from the graveyard in western plagueluelands. Okay, I walk in, start killing skeletons Mind-numbingly. Okay, I walk in and my brain is just quiet. And you know that's why I play Season of Discovery or Classic, because I know these quests so simply and I know the mechanics of the mobs aren't going to be complex at all. I know that they're going to be very simple. I know my rotation is simple, so everything is very easy to me and that's why I play these ones or these sort of versions of WoW, because they are simple to me and they are very calming. In a sense is the best way to do it, whereas retail is very much. I want to do arenas on retail. So I have to be active, active, I have to constantly be thinking and stuff. So it's a switch off, almost. It's a switch off.

Speaker 1:

Wow for me now, something that obviously I liked about classic were the raids at some points, but other points it was boring. Now, a example of this is in molten core. I was just spamming frostbolt as a mage. That's what you do, it's one of the things, whereas if you go into blackwing lair, you have these goblin packs and these goblin packs need to be or you. You can do it other ways, but you know we figured we'd do it as a mage tank thing. So you'd get a mage and this mage would essentially run in their arcane explosion and get aggro on all of these goblins and then they would just run around and kite the goblins very simple.

Speaker 1:

Right now. I wanted to be the major that did this and I did this in one of our pug runs that we hosted as a guild now. I really enjoyed it. It's something that was very engaging and I wish that I did more of that sort of thing. You know it's one of them things, but I also messed around in raids. I wasn't paying attention.

Speaker 1:

I knew all the mechanics. The mechanics were simple as anything. Once you get a few stacks of flame, buffet on fire more, you simply line a sight. You know it's really not rocket science. It's the most simplistic mechanics that are ever in the game. Okay, it's a fact. Classic mechanics are the like simplest mechanics that have ever been introduced in world of warcraft. It's. It's that simple and I don't think you'd find many people disagreeing with that. Um, I don't think you can disagree with that, in my honest opinion. But I enjoyed messing around in raids no-transcript, uh, linking something in group chat, just talking with others and chilling and having a laugh, or even watching youtube. I I have like my other monitor, just watching youtube during all of these raids.

Speaker 1:

I didn't listen to the raid lead, which is very ironic because I'm now a raid leader, um. But essentially I knew these mechanics. They were very simple and you don't really need someone raid leading in um classic. In my honest opinion, you could autopilot it. Pilot it as 40 players if you all like were decent enough at the game, because you simply go into nax ramus.

Speaker 1:

You walk up to patchwork. Okay, you need four tanks in aulty man. No melee should be going above the fourth tank in threat and if you are, you simply want to dip your health to a certain point so that there is no worry of that. You know you stand in the green goop and essentially it will put you to 20 and you won't be hit by the hateful strike or whatever it's called from patchwork with. For Grobulus, you simply just move out and get dispelled. Kill the oozes when they spawn, the off-tank picks them up. It's really not rocket science, is it? Or I forget the dog's name, galuth. I think it's Galuth, I don't think it is. But essentially, you pick up the skeletons and just kite them at the back of the room. You can have a holy paladin sparing a blessing whilst a warrior battle shouts and a mage just conic holds. You know, these really aren't interesting mechanics at all, are they?

Speaker 1:

So during these raids, I would mess around and I would talk to people constantly. I would just message others and, you know, message them random stuff, watch YouTube and, primarily, just mess with the raid. Sometimes, whether it be yeah, saying something dropped from a trash, loot, you know, boots of pure thought come to mind in Blackwing Lair, I always liked the same sort of pack. I would always link it in chat and people would. There would be people that fooled for it. Or, at the end of a raid, you throw up a Darnassus portal instead of Stormwind.

Speaker 1:

Now, so many people got angry at that. So many people actually got pissed off at that. There were people who were crying for me to be demoted or kicked from the guild because of it, because I put a Darnassus portal instead of a Stormwind one. And they didn't read in the bottom right what it said first. Okay, now, bear in mind every time that people got sent to Darnassus, I teleported to Darnassus to pick them up and send them to Stormwind, okay. So yeah, this kind of gives you an idea of the guild that I was in, where they were crying for a demotion and sort of um, complaining about the fact that they didn't read what a portal said, just saying it is there, they don't have to click it blindly. Um, but yeah, they, they complained about it to an extent where they were asking for a demotion or me not to be in the raid, or something like that. I don't know, it's absolutely crazy.

Speaker 1:

And this person wasn't good. I'm going to say it right now. This person wasn't good in raids. They were usually one of the lower DPSs. They were more of an RPer, which is fair enough. It's an RP realm as well. It was RP PVE. So, yeah, I mean they were more of an rp, which is fair enough. It's an rp realm as well. It was rp pve, um, so yeah, I mean fair enough, but don't complain, it's a bit of fun. You've not lost tens of thousands of years of your life, or you know it's ridiculous. Get over yourself, but that shows the sort of people that were in the guild that they're going to complain about a portal to darn asses. You know, it is what it is. It is what it is.

Speaker 1:

Um, there were also many different things that I enjoyed about the server. Now, there were obviously notorious gankers and dispellers on each server, and each server had their, you know their people that did this, and ours was no different. But one day we were getting our Zul'Gurab buff on this tiny island, this island, the Zigi island, we all called it, and what you do is you stand around this little cauldron and, essentially, someone pops a quest and you get a buff for it, and as this buff went off, you had about four or five mages that came out from being dead and they simply and they essentially just started using sapper charges and trying to aoe everyone. It was amazing to see, because I didn't give a shit about world buffs, I'm not gonna lie, I didn't care. I did it for the first like couple months, and then I got purged and I was like, okay, well, that's depressing, so I'm not doing that again. You know, it was one of them things and that was the most refreshing and amazing feelings. It was almost like I was being unchained and sort of unshackled, almost from the world buff meta, but to see 38 odd people who cared about world buffs scrambling and running for their lives was hilarious to me. It was absolutely amazing. Now, only one person died. The mages only killed one person, and that one person didn't care about the world buffs as well. That one person actually was taking screenshots of what was happening because they didn't care as well about world buffs, which is amazing. They still have them screenshots to this day as well. Um, which I always find quite funny, but I.

Speaker 1:

After that, there were these things called frozen runes that you picked up in nax ramus, and these frozen runes were used to craft gear and they would, on use, absorb fire damage. So our guild made the decision to give a frozen rune to everyone to use on ZG Island so that they didn't get bursted of their world buffs. I mean, come on, how ridiculous is that? It doesn't matter, it's a bit of fun. And the thing is there were no mages that day, so we all just wasted about 30 odd frozen runes for nothing, which will equate to a decent amount of gold for the guild or anyone really, or even towards crafting materials. But yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

There were a lot of stuff like that that happened which I actually really enjoyed. I enjoyed seeing it, I enjoyed watching it and being a part of that, and whenever I heard people get dispelled of world buffs or killed with world buffs, I was always I don't know, there was something in me that kind of went. I mean, that's why I don't get it. That was the satisfaction part of it where I knew that being purged of world buffs wasn't a great feeling and that sort of re that that gave me this uh confidence to yep, I'm still not going to get world buffs because of that. I know how that's that guy's going to be feeling right now and it's not great.

Speaker 1:

But you know, classic was one of them things where I wish I could do it a second time and I've experienced it the first time for the very first time. Uh, and people who experienced it back in 2004 got to experience it a second time. I wish I could experience it a second time. I wish I could experience it a second time Genuinely. I would get everyone that I know who I currently play classic with, retail with, and I would ask them to come join me on that classic adventure, whether we do pug raids or mess around or just battlegrounds, I don't care. I would enjoy the time with with them, even if I'm not raiding like leveling through classic than I would when I played back in 2019 slash 2020 with the guild that I was in, and I think that says a lot for how much I messed up my classic experience.

Speaker 1:

I guess and it's one of them things that you look back on and you think, dan, that's quite sad because not many people will get to experience a second chance at classic um. All those people who obviously played in 2004 got this second chance, but I don't think many of us will be able to again, not unless we go to classic era um, but the numbers won't be the same. That's that's always going to be the problem now. But that is where I will end it for this episode. Thank you all very much for listening. Make sure to check out every social down below constant stuff happening over there, as well as the Etsy shop constant stuff being put up on there. I think something else might go up there later today or this evening, so keep an eye on that. But thank you all very much for listening and go aval, a friend, goodbye. Thank you.