http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3010461094?page=1
As the thread reached its post limit....
Well - I read the OP and many of those that followed - I joined WoW in around Sept 2005 for the vanilla game and I remember the long struggle to 60 - my original char never made it before the first expansion - mainly due to being un-guilded for much of the time as our gm had a motorbike accident irl and my first real guild faded away so I never raided Vanilla. However I did put the effort into the class quests and item quests, an crafting, and really enjoyed what I played. I made friends then who I still group with now, or talk to outside of WoW. However, both in guild, and in the game in general, I have made no new friends since Cata came out - and most of the old friends I have - players from the very beginning, have already left.
I read the post and also realised what is missing - just off to stop my payments going out - back to tv, books, single player and socialising with my wife and kids again - oh and that funny thing called sleep - anyone remember staying up to 4am nights on end to complete MC wipe after wipe after wipe? Downing the Curator the first time in Kara after weeks of attempts when people didn't yet have Arc res gear?
It was hard work but by God it was fun and bonded people like not much else - closest I've seen to it is an army unit under fire over months.
We have lost so much of that close local bond within the realms and no matter what new people say, it changes the whole game, for those that never experienced it, it was like your first years in school where you make some friends for life and have fun freely and innocently in a way that never happens again. Maybe we outgrew WoW?
Farewell Zell, I really hope that somewhere you find fun or it finds you, we share fond memories of a game that no longer is.
Au Revoir fella and to anyone out there under another char who I know and remember fondly, have fun and may your hunting be long and happy!
And to Blizz, specifically to the original developers of Vanilla WoW, thank you for your vision and hard work and for making it possible for hundreds of thousands of us to fill far to many evenings and some illicit daytimes with fun when we really really should have been doing something else! I really hope you can help the current dev team find their way back there, then maybe I and many others will come calling to cheer you on and join in again.
Adios amigos.
