Be me
2024
Playing my favorite version of WoW
Boosted XP
Can take breaks whenever i want without being anxious
MFW I was lied to about private servers being unsafe. They just scared us into compliance
Care to explain to a longtime casual gamer what you mean? I played WoW way back when and I would love an alternative way in now.
People host private WoW servers, and some have 2x/3x/4x XP rates and altered drops and stuff like that.
I've never heard anyone say it's dangerous but I suppose the fear isn't unfounded. They generally run on outdated clients that wouldn't have the same level of security as retail, and then there's torrenting your client in the first place...
There's some really cool ones out there, though, and I'd recommend trying them if you want a free way to experience WoW again. There's one called Ascension where your character is all of the classes at once and you can get really creative with different builds.
Anon bought the 90$ mount
WoW was an abomination and started the trend of subscription gaming. It also ended the much beloved RTS series Warcraft, and Warcraft II.
Edit: Say what you want, WoW popularized subscription models for games. Mainstreamed it.
As someone that has played EverQuest consistently for 25 years.... no, no it did not.
Runescape started their subscriptions 2 years before WoW came out. Ultima Online had it in the 90s. I'm sure there were others.
WoW is still nostalgic for many of us. I grew up on Runescape but also tried WoW private servers and man did it have an awesome world for its time.
RTS just fell out of favour and isn't popular as a genre anymore. StarCraft was the only one that endured, and even that was a niche interest. If the genre had any appeal then someone else would have taken up the mantle (as we saw with MobA's).
Subscription gaming was going to happen regardless.
I'm reading Jason Scheier's book about Blizzard and it specifically says that subscriptions were already the norm for MMOs. In fact, battle.net was revolutionary at the time because it was free while a lot of contemporary systems charged by the hour
started the trend of subscription gaming
Edit: [...] popularized subscription models
It's neat to see the goal posts move in the same comment.
Ultima, everquest, anarchy online, star wars galaxies. All were popular MMOs with a subscription fee and predate world of warcraft.
I don't care about subscription models. It's the scummy MTX that I don't like (that and the gameplay changes).
