Return to classic World of Warcraft

As I have been playing more and more Warcraft on my break from work, I have decided to revive my old wow-themed blog after a five year absence to share my thoughts on my occasional and more frequent visits to Azeroth.

I like the fact that there are two flavors of Warcraft available to me nowadays: Classic and retail and to be quite frank, I like them both, and I plan to keep playing both in the new year, although if I have to choose, I am liking my time in classic more than retail for many reasons.

The primary reason I like classic, or vanilla, is because of the social aspect. There is a social aspect to vanilla wow that cannot be easily found in the new version of the game. I won't really rehash this in the post as it has been documented quite heavily ever since Blizz shut down the Nos server back in mid 2016.

I think YouTuber Trade Chat makes a good case for pros and cons regarding classic servers in her video from about a month ago following the BlizzCon announcement where they recanted their stance on legacy servers. I had a lot of the same thoughts. (see the vid below)

Boogie also made a good vid about a year and a half ago after the Nostalrious shut down.  (see link)

As I said, my reasons vary for enjoying the classic version more than the current version, though I plan to continue playing the latter at least to level up a few toons for pvp and for gaming once the new expansion comes out. Yet, whenever I think about logging on to play wow, it is classic or vanilla which I find closest to the game I loved to play back in 2007-8 when I first started. For one thing, there are no restrictions to chat channels right off the bat I messaged people on vanilla and they were helpful and even invited me to a guild which I now belong to with fellow vanilla players. That almost never happens nowadays on retail. So while on my Christmas vacations, I befriended a group and leveled an undead warrior by the name of Jawbones to level 10 (as of this post) and had a good time playing with the folks on the guild. And isn't that what an mmorpg experience should be like? That's what I love about these games most. So tomorrow will be the first and last Warcraft Wednesday of 2017, but I look forward to sharing my wow experiences and ruminations of Vanilla and regular servers in the new year. 

Back in wow week 1

This was all supposed to go down a month or so ago, but better late than never as the saying goes.

If any of you have read any of my blogs in the past, you already know that I am a lover of games, particularly role playing games, but in general I like video games.

Furthermore, I like my games to be an escape from whatever reality throws at me and I am sure you guys do to. They have to have a social component, something that a game like World of Warcraft is known for.

I resubbed to wow recently in an effort to play and do some dungeons with a co-worker, even though our schedules have not really meshed of late. Nonetheless, I was in the battlegrounds with my main (a 21 level mage) but seeing as the toon was not geared at all, I was an easy fodder for the pvp gank hungry denizens of Warsong Gulch. Despite dying a few times, I still managed some xp out of the ordeal, and after a horde win in the b.g.s queued my way into the wailing caverns.

I have to say that I am getting a bit sick of running that dungeon, even though the PUGs I usually do it with are chaotic and fun, and the xp is usually worth it.

I also joined a new guild on the Spinebreaker server, though at the moment the name escapes me.

So I am back in wow and I have a few observations to share: There is a lot of waiting in this game, it's almost frustrating to queue for any dungeon, because you may run around 20-30 minutes depending on peak hours or server downtime trying to get into a group. Finding a good guild takes time, like it always did, but the process has been automated through tools.

That's all for now, more later.

RvR beats Wow pvp by a long stretch

Last time I was in Azeroth with my mage I came face to face with Garrosh in Ogrimmar, and I was suprised to see how much the place had changed since Cata's drop.

Color me embarrassed. So it turns out that SWTOR's release was on Dec.20, a Tuesday, not a Wednesday. However, just because I had the wrong day set on my mind for launch day, does not invalidate a lot of the information I presented last post.

I think that it is too early to tell what the long-term impact SWTOR will have on wow on any other MMORPG, for that matter. Most of the gaming forums I frequent or while playing any mmo, all I heard from a lot of players is that they could not wait until SWTOR's release, or that they were just playing the other game until "Star Wars launches" which led me to conclude that it would be a force to be reckoned with, even one that could alter the face of mmos for years to come. I bought into some of the hype, but still reserved the right to judge by myself.

As for my resolve to get back into wow, I have to confess that I have been a bit distracted this week by end of the year life issues, holiday work parties, xmas shopping, things of that nature. Looking back at my previous history with the game, even though I have been playing it all along since 2008, if I had been doing so continously without any breaks to try out other games and do other things, I would probably have several toons at level cap by now, but that just hasn't been the case. MMOs are big time sinks, but I have not had either the attention span nor the time itself to dedicate to any game exclusively, wow included.

Such was the case again last night, realizing that Mythic would give me an extra 14 days to retry DAoC, I downloaded the game and jumped back into Camelot and had a blast! PvP in DAoC is superior to most any games, especially once you get into b.g.s which are different from warcraft's because there is something about ganking opposing realm members in a vast open space. The mechanics are simply different. I don't know how long I will be playing DAoC, maybe after my trial runs out, I may sub for another 30 days. But I will return to Azeroth at least twice a week, and definitely on Wednesdays.

The most important Warcraft wednesday is yet to come

I remember flying over Durotar during the winter season in the past decked out in 

colorful outfits

 pre-Cataclysm

This winter season, I have decided to go back to World of Warcraft. I am not sure if I will be playing my toons after the MOP expansion drops, I am not took keen on the pandarens in Azeroth, as I have made clear in previous blogs and other places online.

I know the race has been part of Warcraft lore since WC3, but that doesn't mean I have to like it that much. I have been proven wrong in the past, so we shall see if I continue to play the game beyond the new expansion.

More importantly, I have decided that I will play this game only on Wednesdays, and give updates to it on this blog, in order to allow me time to do the other things I enjoy in  my life and to take care of my responsibilities and to play other games. There is more to life than World of Warcraft after all. (Like DDO and LOL, but I digress.....)

As is alluded on the title to this blog post, the most important Warcraft wednesday may be the one coming up, Dec. 20 2011. Most gamers have already tatooed the date in their minds as the release of SWTOR, the game that is supposed to change mmorpgs as we know them, and the game that is supposed to kill wow once and for all. I personally don't believe that SWTOR will kill wow, as I think they can co-exist, but that is neither here, nor there. 

We will see how Wow stacks up to the fierce competition from other mmorpgs. Come back every Wednesday for updates!