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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast topic: The good old days
by Amanda Dean 
Dec 12th 2008 at 8:00AM
I've been playing World of Warcraft for nearly three of it's four year run. It's kind of amazing to me to see how things have changed over time. Many of the adjustments have been by player suggestions, and most of them for the good. The folks I've been playing with lately don't have nearly as much time in the game. I find myself reminiscing and thinking about the way things were, and telling them how good they have it now. Some things I remember least fondly are:- Single-server battlegrounds, and sometimes waiting hours for a queue.
- The old battleground ranking system, with one High Warlord per server.
- 40-man instances, if you think keeping 25 people in line is challenging, give this one a go.
- Epic ground mounts for 1000 gold in a time when cash did not flow so freely.
- Horde had no Paladins and Alliance had no Shamans.
- Before the report feature, I got a whisper message from a gold spammer about every thirty seconds.
- Many more limitations on where mounts were allowed.
Sometimes it's fun to read old WoW Insider posts, and remember what we were all excited and angry about in thee past. I'm sure many of our readers have been playing for as long as I have and some considerably longer. Walk with me down memory lane, which little annoyances were you glad to see go?
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 12)
MadScientist17 Dec 12th 2008 9:03AM
Wow yeah, I had forgotten about that. Had to try to remember which flight points went where.
briker Dec 12th 2008 8:21AM
12-14 slot bags the norm. Half the items didn't stack. No key bag, no extra large profession bags. Extra bag slots in the bank cost a fortune. 1 hour delay between mail on alts. No currency tab for marks/badges/ etc. Bag management was a huge pain in the patootey. It was my single biggest complaint on the forums. There was even a developer who posted on it once. He said he considered bag management a "fun mini-game". Nothing else has ever gotten me so mad.
Things are sooo much better now. Still some room for improvement (would love to see an extra bag slot for a profession bag, and one for soulbound items - armor and such) but I am spending a lot less time dealing with bag issues and able to play.
Aerei Dec 12th 2008 8:22AM
Filling three and a half of my five 16 slot bags with conjured water before a raid and still running out before getting enough drinks to everyone, even with 2 other mages also dispensing water on a 20-man run. >_
Anaughtybear Dec 12th 2008 8:25AM
Ah, the sweet days before there were belfs and space goats everywhere. I'm just glad we're over that awkward BC phase. I want the person in charge of armor sets for BC executed.
evestraw Dec 12th 2008 8:26AM
i miss the zul gerub plague
Jahbulon Dec 12th 2008 8:31AM
I remember it vividly.
Waiting hours every time to get into AV.
HOURS -_-
Then ofc, the battles themselves were absurdly long. My second ever AV took over 6 hours and I had to go. Something awesome about that but also very very very sad.
Rekranar Dec 12th 2008 8:32AM
I miss the zombies lol
JPN Dec 12th 2008 8:38AM
Another whining about the good 'ol days post...LET IT GO PEOPLE!!!
rosencratz Dec 12th 2008 8:53AM
Who's whining?
You've not replied to a commenter so it sugests you refer to the article, which isn't whining at all. it's just reminiscing, i saw no critical or negative comments of change in the article, only positive, so wheres the wine? I'm thirsty.
Kaawn Dec 12th 2008 8:41AM
I miss all the elite areas, (Ogres in Alterac, Trolls in the Hinterlands, etc), they were a pain in the arse, but it felt really great completing those quests.
I still love playing, but it all seems a lot less challenging now.
//More Dots!!
Therosfire Dec 12th 2008 8:41AM
I miss the selling of your soul to the AQ gate quest turn in guys. Many a good hour were spent farming for materials.
I also missed the single server BG's, you would get a nice rivalry going with people from the other fraction.
Tieria Dec 12th 2008 8:42AM
Dishonorable kills. Back on my now-forgotten Alliance character, I had finally made my way up to Corporal status after a long weekend of battlegrounds. I grouped up with a friend to knock out some quests, and instead he took us into the nearest little Horde town and started slaughtering civilians. When I woke up the next day I was back to my Private (I think?) rank. /cry
timmy! Dec 12th 2008 8:44AM
leveling a priest then pally pre-2.3 *shudder*
rosencratz Dec 12th 2008 8:44AM
It was a shame to see single server BG queues disapear for one reason, as in, in the old days, you thought with people on your server against people on your server, it made things personal/interesting. Which also was bad, mostly because some fights go too personal but still.
it was always nice to think that you might bump into people you were fighting in the world elsewhere at any time.
That said though, queues with such limited player supplies were stupid, faction imbalances were particularly mean and in the long run battlegroups did make more sense.
I will always miss the Tarren Mill wars though, even though there was always someone stupid enough to get too close to the Mill and spawn the adds.
In those days people from opposing factions could become infamous, back then i remember there was a rogue in particular that used to gank people in the tramway, a shaman that everyone knew who just owned everyone all of the time... at the same time probably. Getting to level 60 was considered a difficult task just on it's own(partially a test of patience) let alone getting anything with a purple name, my [Headmaster's Charge] still sits proudly in my bank after a month and a halfs farming. Just getting into a guild that did 40 man raiding was an achievement back then, the elitism was so prevalent and in honesty it was required to do that sort of raiding.
Mounts at level 30, massive bags, gear, epix and cash falling from the skies all the time as you progress, far far far more balanced and tweaked classes to play, more convenient transport and UI, more holiday and world events than you can shake a stick at let alone a swamp of daily quests.
The days of idealing in general chat in Eastern plaguelands typing lfg and offering summons as a lock as summoning stones weren't in game yet as i recall. Crazy crazy days.
Omestes Dec 12th 2008 1:03PM
Everything you said and...
I miss the social attitude, everything in PVE was tougher and slower, so you were encouraged to group moar, forcing you to make friends.
About two months after release, I met a mage, and we played together for over a year. When we were bored we actually went huge exploration kicks, trying to see all of Azeroth (at like lv30). Later I met a balance druid and a rogue that I spent more time with than my family, it seemed.
Now everyone has their eyes on the "prize", epics. The whole lowbie thing is something to be passed over. Which is a shame, I enjoy leveling much more than grinding the same content over and over for some purples, just so I can walk through town feeling "hardcore".
schwander Dec 12th 2008 8:48AM
AV turtles lasting days and days
Rekranar Dec 12th 2008 8:46AM
I remember I worked hard farming gold and shit for my expensive level 40 mount.... 1 week later they announced cheap level 30 mounts... When eve r I saw a level 30 run by on a mount I died a little inside
Blackhorn Dec 12th 2008 9:38AM
Disqualified.. that was what, a couple months ago? Even with the level 40 mounts, you could make that kind of cash overnight. Back prior to BC, you couldn't get 4g for a level 13 item on the AH.
stevens.ce Dec 12th 2008 12:18PM
Yea, reach a little further back for "the old days", please. Three toons to 40 before BC came out, and getting your 40 mount was a task - my first toon didn't have his mount until 48, as it was pretty close to impossible to get the money by 40 if that was your first toon.
Money falls from the sky these days - getting a mount at 40 (or 30 now) has been ridiculously easy for the past year/year-and-a-half. One day of effort or a little sense about saving and *poof*, it's there for you.
shazmaru Dec 12th 2008 8:48AM
Mostly I remember waking up 2 hours early for a raie that lasted 8-10 hours with 40 people. And hunters usually got the boot on their epic quest :P [MC]
I remember when there was no heroic.
I remember calling UBRS after wiping on rend >_<
I remember pally armor dropping in a horde group.