My favorite vanilla memory: I was levelling in Duskwood, when some guy in zone chat said "LF 1 DPS SM". We're all alliance characters, we don't have a lock in our party, and the nearest flight point anyone in the party has is Ironforge (except that one night elf who did the Wetlands run). So we literally all met in IF, two of the toons lagged out and had to reconnect. 15 minutes later, we were able to set out from the front gates, ON FREAKING FOOT. It took us the better part of an hour to get to the instance, counting the times we wiped in Arathi. If we were on a PVP server it would have been even worse. We were running on the road with that one hunter having Aspect of the Pack on (one of the only times that spell has ever been useful in my experience). The reason why it's my favorite: It truly felt like we were on an epic quest across the world to destroy an evil force, contending with all sorts of dangers along the way. It was like living Lord of the Rings. It didn't matter that millions of people were progressing in AQ at the time. THAT was the defining moment that made me love the game. It was never the same after that.

Vanilla was epic. Just because i never played an MMO before. the world was massive and i was a complete noob - that is what made the game epic! I think no matter what blizzard does - I can never re-experience that epicness just because it can only happens once per life time.

Holy shit i remember back in the old days when i mad a nelf and i wanted to go to goldshire..I had to take boats trough gates of Loch modan...I won't lie it was hard but it felt like adventure.

I remember when after every mob on my warrior leveling, I had to sit down eat and bandage.

Its nice coming back to this Video after classic launched :)

Honestly I loved how nonlinear leveling was back in the day. Absolutely loved every single minute.

I loved how long it took to get to places in vanilla... i loved the sense of travel and scope

Shaman Vanilla leveling: Flametounge, Autoattack, set up Stoneskin and heal totem, Make some tea, go to the toilet, Buy some stuff, come back, forget something and go back to the shop, return and the mob is at 50%

As a alpha and beta tester of vanilla wow. A lot of the points here are correct but even some of the negatives I feel are missed. Searching for quests being one of them. They were supposed to be all over the place and not necessarily always easy to find. Hell, finding the ghost quest outside MC/BWL for the depths key was always cool and very awesome when you first found it. I think some of the issues of vanilla are some of the things missing in todays games and definitely current wow.

Warrior in classic... right click an enemy... stand there for half an hour trying to build rage.

Maybe in Titan, maybe... Nope!

the lvl 30 berserker stance questline XDDDDDD loved it

Lol, everything in this video is what made vanilla so, so epic. I remember back then it was a big deal getting your riding mount (yes, the lvl 40 one was a big deal back then) and once I had mine a friend challenged me to a race... It was so dumb, but just small things like that were what made vanilla so much fun. I also remember I met these two paladins and we became dungeon levelling buddies for a while. So it was me as a bear tank and these two ret paladins who would take turns healing me with whoever else would tag along. We would sometimes colossally fail (naturally), but nobody got mad at each other and we would just take hours to work at it because that's just what people did back then. I'm on such a nostalgia trip right now it's unbearable. Share any great memories of dumb yet fun things you did back then!

In Vanilla I ran around not knowing wtf i was doing half the time, don't even know how i put up with it.

with the announcement of classic wow I remembered your video and wanted to rewatch it ; and as someone who started playing in cataclysm, thanks for sharing this vid and all the hard work that went into it

Vanilla was the best because it actually felt epic. It was grindy as fuck. If you saw someone in all purple gear, you knew they commanded respect. I came back to WoW for both Cata and Panda, and I cancelled both after a month because it only took a month to see absolutely everything. Every dungeon, every raid, every boss. I never came close to seeing all of Vanilla.

Read your goddamn quest text, people.

Well, granted Vanilla forced you into corners sometimes, it was for your own good. You couldn't just Q up for LFG for a week and grind to 60... That would be too easy, and that's what the game's become, instead of refining the flaws it had, they've taken the game, and just simplified it for children. It was simple enough in Vanilla, it just needed refinement. I don't think most people who think the game has progressed for good understand that. BC was good, only because it refined what needed refined to an extent, and added solid content, while keeping the game almost as hard.

Preach I love videos like this! With that quirky background music, sarcasm/humor, random popping up graphips etc. Do more like this!!

By far my favorite of the Preacher's Legacy vids. What a wonderful time to be a WoW fan!

Vanilla WoW was modeled after more hardcore MMO's like EverQuest and did reflect this with alot of grinding and quite punishing levelling time. Also, raid progress was insanely difficult cuz bosses only dropped 3 items at most, and raids were 40 man. It took a long damn time to gear up properly to even have a chance. We could spend 3days wiping on a boss, at some point 2 weeks, and remember - gold was not easy to farm so repair bills were very punishing after such wipefests...but oh man, when we did down a boss - The feeling was epic. I think, all in all, those times were...not harder, just required more dedication...but that dedication led to the forming of very nice communities and friendships. I can say without a doubt that communities and the social value was amazing back then. Reason? Because the design forced people to behave, be social and interact. Today, you can be in a guild where no one even talks, they are just there to gain guild boons, the rest they can solo through. People are rather rude and will have none of it unless your itemlevel is above X. Such is the price of casual design.

come oooon, leveling never required grinding for me. From what i remember i had to switch zones and go to another zone of the same level and then i would get to the level for the higher zone. It just required you to move around, which was fun.

This was the first preach video I ever watched ❤️

Positive things about Vanilla WoW: 1) No gold sellers in the chat (Well atleast not on my servers ^^) 2 Because dungeon finder didn't exist yet, people had to make groups from scratch and from the same server and had an easier time getting along. But now everytime I queue for a dungeon I usually end up with 2-3 douchebags who can't even speak english..... 3) Epic was EPIC. Anyone who had the Tier 1,2 or 3 set gear usually found himself/herself surrounded in Ironforge by players who could only sigh in envy. Back then, having full Epic gear MEANT something. 4) Alterac Valley...where to even begin. Battles that lasted hours...even DAYS. Now THAT was PvP ;D 5) Raids were actually DIFFICULT back then, and some required you to having completed a long and tedious quest chain. Ahh, I still remember the old raids. Those were epic raids. Zul'Gurub....okay maybe not Zul'Gurub ;D But Molten Core, Onyxia's Lair, Blackwing Lair, Ahn Qiraj....and I dare not even mention the original Naxxramas. Just getting attuned with the Argent Dawn to set foot into that raid was a nightmare. 6) The Keymaster. Remember back when some dungeons required you to have a special key to get there or make it to the final boss? -"LFM UBRS, need the key!" That was a classic line on the chat usually. Those who had the key were automatically given a spot in the group, even tough they sucked ^^. But hey, it meant that you got to see all the adventures ;D

I remember my first mount. Blue Skeletal at level 40. Thought I had won at life.

Not sure what you're on about with vanilla not having enough quest xp. I never ever grinded mobs for xp in vanilla. I did however do all the dungeons at least a few times, and all the quests I could find in all the zones and some pvp to boot. But I loved that. In fact I hate that in all of todays mmo's there is WAY too much xp for everything, so that I constantly outlevel things I would like to experience at the appropriate level. Also, it didn't take as long to get max level as you would have it. Maybe if you did it the grind mobs way. But if you knew what the good order of zones and quests were you could easily get to max in two weeks of full day gaming. (By which I mean 10h+/day.)

The thing I liked about WoW back then was that it had a much more social aspect to it.... You join a guild back then with 20 people, they all talked about everything and it was awesome. You join a guild with 200 people now.... No one says anything besides "LF Carry"

Watching this 6 years later, I like the contrast between the our expectations of Vanilla when it came out, to now, to ~half way between those two times. It's an interesting look.

Moving on foot for a long time - Thanks for reminding me another advantage of vanila, traveling.

Got to be honest, at first i thought the Legion campaigns/artifacts will bring back the times from class quests in vanilla but i havnt got anything near of the old feeling. Its still missing this "i become stronger and stronger"-feeling, hope someone understands what i mean ^^

I'm returning to watch this in 2022, because I miss Mike doing regular wow content and I miss the days when the game was so fresh and so exciting. RIP

You know, I have seen these vanilla videos quite a few times and I gotta say that I was very fortunate in vanilla. I had played a prot/arms warrior with my father who was a holy priest. We mostly did dungeons because we had so much fun doing them so I actually missed a lot of content while on my way to 60. I never even knew there was an xp problem until well after vanilla and didn't even know zones like Winterspring and Azshara even existed until I went back to do the quest and exploration achievements. It's just about 13 years later and that warrior is still my main, even though I can't play with my dad anymore. I wasn't there for the AQ gong event, I never raided past MC, and I did the bare minimum of my class quests because I thought they were a pain my ass. I basically coasted through vanilla on dungeons and actually hated leveling through it when I went back and tried to play it on a private server. However, I would give anything to be able to level through vanilla with my dad again.

I actually enjoyed the questing in vanilla and bc. It was difficult, many quests required you to go through different zones. Many quests chains ended with a big finish that needed multiple people to complete. I greatly miss my guildies from back in the day. Played from beta to mid cata.

Murlocs... anyone who played vanilla, knows the true evil of murlocs during level'ing

I don't think it's the content that everybody misses about Vanilla, but the community and the feel of the game back then. The world was alive and vibrant with people out leveling there characters and professions. Guilds were families, and you had a hardcore allegiance to your faction. You also only knew your server. For example, I would see the same Horde guys that were leveling the same rate and zones as me from Stanglethorn Vale all the way through being level 60. I developed feuds with many of them over the 30's 40's 50's and at level 60 as well. Also my guild back then (which was the top Alliance guild on the server) had a feud with a Horde guild (which was top Horde guild of the server) and about every Friday night one of there guild would gank one of our guild and then a few of ours would show up then a few more of there's and so on until a massive guild war broke out in some random "noob" zone as we called it back then. World PvP isn't even really around today. And I was on Illidan too which was the top server back then and probably is the most infamous WoW server out there. The main thing, however, is simply the fact that the game is 10 years old now. Everything was new and fresh back then, so of course every single little thing was epic and questing new zones was fun even though it was always the same thing with new monsters (kill 10 of these, collect 10 of those, kill this boss). Does that mean the game still isn't fun? No! It just isn't that same epic game it once was. But, WoD actually looks pretty cool! I've been there since the beginning and every single expansion, and the reasons above are why everybody says Vanilla is better. -Vanilla through Cata (then quit mid Cata) Mop through present.

11:21 I had a vanilla character named "Grimm" on Tanaris. (Grim was taken

In my opinion and from my experiences, back in vanilla people really made the game fun. There really was a sence of adventuring, finding crazy bugs and things happening, and since the game was new, it was fresh and exciting. When something would happen people would flock around and cause havoc and mischief. I really enjoyed everything and the people I met. I took time to take it all in, peoples names, what they looked like, their gear. Doing random pugs I always tried to be social and become a part of my realm, for better or for worse. Dueling my server nemesis' in the middle of goldshire and winning never felt so good. Running a long dungeon or raid with random guild leaders, server legends and few of your RL friends and just killing it in style and walking around with swagger wearing your new gear... priceless.

I'm currently leveling an alt (without heirlooms) and I just leveled from 39 to 40 with literally 4 minutes played at 39. Times sure have changed

love coming back to this series as much as i love watching of vanilla pvp vids

Ugh, so many memories! Now I remember why I joined in Vanilla and have played every expansion. This game is amazing.

Played 9 years on retail untill Mop end, now i'm playing on vanilla private server and guess what classic wow is still the best.

When I first started playing Vanilla I didn't even know about quests and that stuff so I just leveled up by slaying mobs for exp.

I watched this so many times in the past and felt I missed out. Preach its so nice to be able to watch this again with WoW Classic out

My favorite Vanilla moment was in STV, I was a paladin at the time, a clicker and barely in all greens, an undead rogue around the same level as me tried ganking me. Me being a paladin the fight lasted so long and when I was about to die. Me being a noob clicker and adrenaline running in my veins. I bubble hearthed. Helping solidify the hatred of the bubble hearth.

I'd love to see a return to the legacy vids now classic has launched. Legacy Revisited...?

I remember sneaking a level 10 dwarf hunter into Mulgore just to tame The Rake on Bonechewer. Also finding hidden quests like the scroll half buried by rubble underneath the Thandol Span bridge. It lead on a quest to have a statue made for a widow in Ironforge. I miss moments like that from vanilla.

I miss vanilla :(. I started as a warrior, made it to 60 as was so addicted to this game for like 2-3 years haha. Only got to raid zul gurub and molten core before BC came out unfortunately because I joined vanilla a bit late to the party. Still though i'll never forget the memories I had with this game. What made it so fun was the interactions and the community. I had so many friends from school that played also and we all made a guild together, ahh good times lol. I made it to level 70 in BC but all my friends started to quit one by one through that expansion and I eventually gave it up a year into BC as well. I came back to the game a year ago for nostalgia when WOD was out and man was it different. So much different from the old WoW and it felt a lot easier to level through everything. I leveled to 60 so damn fast lmao. It's just not the same and it feels empty compared to the old days and even doing dungeons just seemed rushed and no one even talks anymore. I only played for about a month and stopped again. Oh well. I had a great time with the game 10 years ago and I'll never forget the memories of exploring kalmidor and the Eastern Kingdom. I have to admit though just hanging out in goldshire again and hearing the music of Elwynn forest was very nostalgic haha.

1. There was never enough quests to meet the lvl needed for the next zone? Not true. You just had to run from places like elwynn to darkshore and alterac mountains to ashenvale (this added to the overall adventure). You NEVER ran out of quests, and Arathi gave way more than half a lvl 'at best'. 2.It took half the time to get from hammerfall to Stromguard than you make out. 3. I just lvl'd to 60 on Nostalrius and i skipped STV entierly due to world pvp and never ran out of quests once. I never had to grind on red mobs for hours at a time. ...fuck it see tbh you clearly didn't have a clue how to play in vanilla. For a guy that says he put loads into planning and research before he started playing you seem to have derped your way through the game. Almost everything you say is tainted in some way.

I think people liked vanilla because it was their first experiemce in wow. I loved cataclsym and wotlk the most. Lich King lore was insane

The best time I had in WoW was doing the paladin quest that sent you across the world to Shadowfang Keep. I was only lvl 18 or so, so I had to grouped up with another lvl 20ish paladin and we traveled there together. It was literally an adventure. In the end we got our 2h hammers, Vergins Fist. I also miss looking for groups and walking across the land to the dungeons. It was difficult to find a group but it prevented people from leaving after the first wipe so it made players a lot nicer, I think thats why people say Vanilla had a good community.

I only started playing In Cata, but my favorite memory from even back then was my first and only real raid team experience in the Firelands, i remember doing the hyjal dailies to try to get geared enough to run it, as well as heroic dungeons with my guild, sadly that guild fell apart shortly after mists launched, the raiders xfered or went to a new Guild and that was the end of it, the game hasn't been the same since. The realm i'm on is also pretty much dead, so that makes it worse. Here's to the good day's and all those memories of a time long gone

I want to go back in time and play this. Not just to play it again, but to play it when it was fresh. Good times...

I remember pvp outside the Crossroads. It was a blast.

I thought the undead warlock with the infernal was the most appealing bit.

I remember I was just a level 20 paladin, and all my friends were in the barrens, all humans and lvl 20. All from Goldshire. We ran through the south of the eastern kingdoms, which took forever, deaths, and deaths and gy running, then we finally got to booty bay which was amazing, we'd never seen such a cool port, so we explored everything, and repaired, bought some white gear that was better than our quest items and set sail for ratchet. what a day that was.

Watched these videos countless times over the past years. Guess its an appropriate time to watch it again.

awesome, nice trip down memory lane.

Damn, I remember taking my night elf on the journey to Stormwind... you had to take the boat from darkshore to menethil harbour, then walk all the way across the zone into loch modan, then walk through dun moroph, then finally to Ironforge where you could take the tram to SW. (This was in TBC, idk if it was even worse in Vanilla)

i dunno why but youtube is blowing up my feed with your old videos (i'm subscribed) - this is great

For me, this will probably be the best computer gaming experience I ever had. First MMO. Dedicating so much time to the game. I'm about to tear up ...

There were some things about Vanilla WoW that I liked - but there were some things that honestly we wouldn't like. You've already mentioned how there were not enough quests to do. One consequence of not having enough quests to do were the fact that players would get bottlenecked around certain zones - Specifically Ganklethorn Hell and Ganklestan. If you played on a PvP server, you HATED Those zones just as you hated Hellsbrad Foothills because you couldn't go three steps without getting some 60 ganking you. Or in Ganklestan, some rogue walks up, sticks a knife in your side, vanishes, then leaves the guards to beat you up. Or a hunter shoots you, feigns death, and leaves the guards to kill you. Sure I like how the zones now usually have a story arc around them - perhaps the best are the Badlands and Thousand Needles. Heck, the Thousand Needles feels really unique because you get a boat to ride around the zone on. I know there are people here saying that they outlevel the zones, and honestly, I've tried this - and unless I have Heirlooms on, then I am not having that happen. Sure I can dungeon spam, but I'm not always dungeon-spamming. With the dungeons... holy crud. Sure I know a lot of people hated attunements and 'grinding towards heroics to get the keys' but one reason we hated that? Because we would never find anyone to fucking do it with us. Don't you just love spending an entire evening sitting around in Ironforge or Orgrimmar saying "LFG Black Morass!" We didn't. We hated it. I was so so so SO glad when they added the dungeon finder because I remembered that hell. I played on Dentarg trying to get a fresh start - and trust me, if you played on Dentarg, you would have hated attunements like mad. There were only two guilds that actually ran stuff, and if you weren't BT geared, then they wouldn't even look in your general direction so the best you could hope for was Karazhan (And until 2008, nobody else would run the dungeon except those guilds.) Wanted to work on your attunement? Ooooh too bad - you missed the group that formed... I hear there's another one forming next month. I hear Warlords of Draenor will be bringing back attunements, but as long as the quests are soloable or at the very least inside dungeon finder stuff, then it won't be this bad at ALL. The main reason we hated them was because nobody would ever want to do them. Heck, my guild leader was threatening to /gkick people because I was standing around the city asking for a group. A lot of people love to say 'LOL THEY JUST GIVE OYU THE LOOT'. Well... I would much rather have this "Everybody gets SOMETHING" system than what we had in classic. Have you ever run Molten Core or Blackwing Lair, and been one of the 30 people who walked away with nothing but gold for repairs? Four weeks in a row? Especially because most of what dropped was stuff for Warlocks and your three warlocks already HAVE that gear? Yeah. We hated it. Our hunters were going into Blackwing Lair in blues because their gear would never drop. As I mentioned before, we had the catch 22 - to get into Blackwing Lair, you needed gear from Molten Core and Blackwing Lair. However, without 39 other people, you couldn't GET the gear!!! D:< I kind of like what Mists of Pandaria has where you can, at the very least, get gear that will get your gearscore READY for raids, but you still get upgrades in the raids themselves. And even then, all having a gearscore good for the raid means is the game thinks you're ready. You still have to learn the mechanics of the boss fight and will still have to learn your rotation. Especially if you're a tank or a healer - a healer who doesn't know what they're doing is a HUUUUGE difference.

I think that the community has changed a lot and that fucking sucks, it used to be a much more friendly, interesting and social experience back in the "good old days".

You have the best retrospectives. I loved your everquest one as well

This was a really good look at what it must've been like back in vanilla. Anyone wanting to try and get a feel for that experience or simply re-live vanilla should try looking at the Feenix private servers. They're really awesome :)

I don't know why ervery body was grinding for levels. You needed to zone hopping the goal was to explore the world. Do half of your level range in one area for the level range, then switch continent and do the other half of the quest range in the range zone on the other contintent and back for the higher level quests in the first zone etc. I never level grinded in vanilla ever and had both continents explored at level 60 with all flight spots

ohh baby class quests were boss I remember the rogue quests those were sweet

is the music from banjoo tooie/kazooie (or how it was called, havent played it in a long time :P)?

I remember a lot of old memories from my WoW experience. One of them was when they introduced weather effects. It made the game feel so alive and it was amazing. :D Then I remember being a Mage conjuring food AND drinks (yes both were separated at one time...) for about 15-20 people in the raids. Took me about 30 mins just to hand it all out. I remember being a hunter and having to be OOM and out of arrows and having your pet pissed off at you because you didn't have any food. Another thing was the massive Zul'Gurub pandemic when a hunter would dismiss their pet during the Hakkar boss fight when he poisoned. Then call the pet when they were in a major city like Ironforge or Orgrimmar. The carnage of watching everyone die in the matter of seconds was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen. The game had its many negatives, but the memories of friends and having fun in those instances were amazing.

I'm a 10/13 mythic raider and I quit playing to go back and play a vanilla pserver. Yes, vanilla is way better than the garbage today...

The inability to level in a single zone is what I loved. You had to level in all the zones. if your lvl 30 go to desolace. vanilla desolace was my faveroute zone. these days you do the starter quests for a zone and suddenly you've outleveled it. never get to read all the lore before your forced to leave. and the streamlined questing may be convenient but its way less immersive.

I know this video is older but I really enjoyed it. I often get nostalgic for vanilla wow, back when things were sort of a challenge, where you didn't really have *time* for an alt, unlike me nowadays where I have like half a dozen. It took me SIX MONTHS to level my Shaman, Torrg from 1 - 60 and it happened just *barely* after Burning Crusade came out. Ammo bags, reagents, hard enemies, mounts at 40. And Class quests.... oh dear god I loved the class quests. The amount of immersion was what I loved about it. I still enjoy playing it because every new expansion delivers some epic stories, but the catering to make content 'easier' for people just starting out burns me out sometimes.

I remember having to go back and fourth between Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdom just to try to level. I also recall going into areas about a level prematurely just to try to level up. Back then, creeps hit soo hard that it would be almost impossible to do this without health and mana pots. Thank goodness my first character I leveled was a mage.

I never played the game but why I'm I feeling so Nostalgic?

Hahahahaha... Warrior Qs... plz don't make me laugh... WARLOCK! Warlock Qs... for every single minion... Imp... Void... Suc... Felhunter... (Felguard)... Infernal... and ow the so Epic Doomguard... not to mention worth while gear Qs... like that darn Arcane Robe! And let's not forget the Dreadsteed... Ow our lovely lovely Dreadsteed... so yeah... And those were not single quests... but chains of 4 - 7 going back and forth over WHOLE Azeroth... I miss those Quests...

Watching this video 5 years later is still awesome ! (exept the part "maybe in Titan...never forget)

Thank you for making the series!

What in the actual fuck? I absolutely loved questing in Vanilla. Having to hunt down quests and make huge treks to explore everything. Actual hard quests that were meant to engage you with other players. If you couldn't kill a level 38 with the recommended player count you probably had no business doing that quest line anyways. I still remember the first time I entered West Fall, then Duskwood. Then learning about a huge dragon that spawns in the middle. Learning about every instance and actually exploring to get there. Opening of AQ was one of the best things in WoW I've ever done. Everything was so right about the mixture, some annoyances, but 99% engagement and fun. Imagine leveling, meeting people, forging friendships, then eventually guilds to lock down end game. I remember when I started I grouped up with two or three people in west fall and we never split up all the way to 60. Questing was just 100% more fun in a group. Almost everything I have described is missing from the current iteration of the game. Now everyone has a million different alts, can level legitimately in a few days, and play solo for the bulk of the game.

We're going home, boys. We're finally going home.

Really? I thought the best part about vanilla wow was that it wasn't "streamlined" like today's retail wow. Every zone felt unpredictable and dangerous, and quests really felt like adventures.

my favorite time in the game was the days leading up to hitting level 40 so I could get my first mount. When I made my way back to Darn to train riding and buying my first mount I went back to Darkshore to see how much time it would take me to ride from Darkshore to Ashenvale. It felt like a big deal then to hit that level 40 mark, no one walks anywhere anymore in the game.

the Paladin Mount Quest, loved it and hated it, the mats were just so hard to get!

I wouldn't say Vanilla was the best. It was Burning Crusade that blew people's tits off and made the subscriber count jump past 10 million.

*Wishes I could have that lovely music that plays in background* :D. I do remember using thottbott a lot, funny how it was basically wowhead of vanilla until wotlk or so. With no quests shown on map and my terrible direction sense I relied upon it quite a lot for some zones! But that mystery was part of the fun, added an element of surprise. Fuck yeah nostalgia!

that's pretty neat. i too got stuck on a griffin in vanilla days. you couldn't take any damage or had any breath but you'd be able to move around like you were on foot. so of course i explored the waters then ended up walking all the way to undercity to take a look inside as an alliance character. after I was done, i relogged and went on a straight line path to my original destination sending me thru hills and mountains

You might be right about a few things. But i very rarely got ''stuck''. Just did some instances and help some mates with their quests and you were good to go :)

Leveling* Seriously, though, would I do vanilla all over again? Yes, I would in a heartbeat.

wow, hearing "Maybe in Titan" gave me so much nostalgia.

Ya know, as tedious and grindy as vanilla WoW is, it still had that X-factor, the charm, the moxie, the sense of wonderment. Even while grinding Ogres from 44-50, or Ghosts from 52-56, or Owlkins from 56-60... I was having fun. Tedious fun, but fun nonetheless. Maybe it really is just nostalgia, but I miss having a reason to kill things, I miss having a reason to grind, I miss the grind in general. I'm not saying I want WoW to go back to all grind all the time, because that sounds horrifying, but some grind here and there would satiate the 2004 version of myself that still lives in me somewhere. I MISS grinding Twilight Texts in Silithus. I MISS having a reason to kill elementals for Essences or grinding Tyr's Hand for gold. The modern WoW has none of that, and it's a shame.

Huh, so the queue times in classic was surprisingly on point.

BC was hands down the best time for WoW... I'll never forget my glory days during Season 1 PvP. Getting laughed at in high school by RL trolls mocking me for being a duelist rather than a gladiator at the end of the season... and busting my balls in the following seasons to finally get gladiator rank... screaming my lungs out when I logged in to see a note from blizzard in my mailbox with a gladiator drake attached. *sigh*. I'd kill to have a game THAT fun again. And I didn't even mention the amazing pve side.... I'm just sitting here bored out of my mind with these new MMOs/FPSes and advancements on previous ones... I honestly MISS the days that I looked forward to sitting on my ass for 16 hours playing one character on one game, and loving every minute of it...

I've just returned to WoW after being away for over 4 years. I am kind of enjoying it. I'm not a fan of Pandaria at all but it is a stepping stone to WoD. I loved Vanilla WoW but the huge queues to get online and then getting disconnected not long after I managed to get on was so frustrating. I was on the boat to Menethil Harbour one time when I got DCed in the middle of the trip. When I got back on I had to rez at the graveyard as I couldn't get to my body. Some great memories were the arduous druid and shaman quests. I actually used to hang out at Xroads to help new guys with the shaman quests. The warlock quests were a different story. They drove me insane. I did so many Deadmines, BFD, RFC, WC, etc etc runs I could almost do them in my sleep. They were the best way to level and get some gear. The game has changed, we have changed and our expectations have changed. At least we still have WoW in 2016 which I doubt anyone thought possible back in 2004.

God I love this video. I come back to watch it now and then just to bring back memories of Vanilla

when the game was actually fun to play, now let me sit in my garrison and get items every 3 days

Yeah BC was awesome. A mix of some Vanilla Stuff (such as the World which was just sooooo full of Secrets and Beauty and what not) with BC's Raids and Dungeons which were far better.

That 'guy and a bear' shot totally sold me on WoW back in the day, lol. Coolest shot in all the cinematics, imho.

The greatest vanilla glitch I ever saw was one night the instance servers crashed and disconnected everyone. When we logged back in everyones dead bodies had appeared under the terrain in Stonetalon Mountains in a giant mile-tall pile of dead people. Apparently that location was some kind of failsafe spot to send people when Bad Things happened, so the entire server worth of anyone in an instance appeared there.

lvling and questing in vanilla wasn't nearly as bad as it was in BC. I think there's no denying it got improved in cata. quests we really bland in vanilla. it was always the same shit over and over, in different zones. It's not exactly a joy now, but at least blizz worked in some new stories, and occasionally, some mechanics and things to break up the monotony. But, of course, you can't make everyone happy. There's a group of hardcore players that isn't happy unless everything in the game is as difficult as possible, and I thank god that blizz doesn't listen to these people.

the game now is lacking alot of things that would actually make you feel connected to other players and your own faction. basically now its an individual mmo. you dont need other players to help you do anything and thats whats missing. i dont even think about the fact that im on a faction anymore. horde and alliance never have conflict....EVER. if they would have another world event where the 2 sides met up and fought eachother that would be amazing. if they would add another war effort that made players feel like they where actually contributing to somthing that would be amazing. everyting now is way too fast and way too easy. you dont feel challenged at all to do anything. they have made the game into a super casual game and taken out the things that make you want to actually sign on and work towards somthing. hell theyve even made you picking a faction not really mean anything. if i pick a side what diff does it really make now?

Shaman class quests to get access to your various totems...those I actually enjoyed. It made it worth it, like an accomplishment vs. just getting the level. They need more things like this throughout all MMOs.

Grinding Rock Elementals in the Badlands to get from 38-40 and make enough money for the mount from the rocks they dropped haha.Keeping a tab open for Thottbot. Warlock and Druids had great class quests too. Berserker quest was a twist on the cult film Highlander by the way, hence the name "The Islander" and the names of the NPCs being a twist on the movie characters.