World of Warcraft: Private Vanilla Server (Kronos) (PC)
I am just one of many World of Warcraft players who maintains that the game has been declining in quality with each released expansion, however I was always reserved about expressing my opinions on the matter, because I was not sure if nostalgia was clouding my judgement. Now, do not get me wrong here - the latest expansion I played (Mysts of Pandaria) turned out to be a giant piece of shit and nothing can change my opinion on that shit-fest! The reason why I bring the nostalgia into the analysis is because Mysts of Pandaria was so horrible that it even made me question the quality of the original. Well, I have found a playable private server for the original WoW, and I am happy to report that the so called "vanilla" version has stood the test of time!
After 10 years, my character returns to World of Warcraft.
But how can you be sure that the nostalgia is not clouding your judgment?
I tried many MMORPGs in the recent years - including going back to World of Warcraft when Mysts of Pandaria expansion was released - but each time I found myself yawning and losing interest within two-three weeks. There were a few exceptions to this rule, but generally speaking newer MMORPGs are just too dumbed down to hold my interest. In fact, Mysts of Pandaria was so dumbed down that I lost interest even sooner than with other games, despite having bought two months of subscription in advance! After just a few days, I was already so bored that I had to force myself to sit behind a computer! When I compare my enjoyment of the game with Vanilla WoW that I am playing now on private servers, there is simply no comparison. Even after a month, the original is still holding my interest and I am enjoying every minute of it!
Kronos private server still has some bugs, but it is the closest thing to original WoW out there.
Problems with Mysts of Pandaria
At this point you are probably wondering as to why I was so bored with Mysts of Pandaria? Just yesterday I watched some YouTube personality making a case how the expansions make World of Warcraft the best MMORPG experience on the market, so why am I being so harsh?
First of all, let us just do some basic factual comparisons between Mysts of Pandaria and the Vanilla WoW.
1. In MoP you gain experience at the triple rate, which means that you will level up three times faster than in the "vanilla" version. When you gain so much experience, you quickly begin to realize how much easier MoP is! From level 1 to level 85, nothing will present a challenge, because you will outlevel the area before you are even close to finishing the quest storyline there. The only way to get some challenge is to skip huge chunks of the story and immediately go to higher level areas, but if the game is forcing you to ignore 80% of the content just so you could have some fun, I think there is something inherently wrong with its game design. Furthermore, MMORPGs are notorious for their simplistic quests which boil down to 'bring back 10 wolf pelts'. When you remove challenge from these repetitive and boring quests, the game becomes mindnumbingly boring!
2. As if triple experience rates did not make the game easy enough, In MoP enemies also do less damage and have less health, whereas your character regenerates both health and mana much faster. This not only makes the game even easier, but it also removes any need for food, water and other similar items which in the "vanilla" version helped you restore those attributes. Furthermore, certain classes which could create food and water, lose an important roleplaying element because of this stupid design decision!
3. Instead of reading quests and navigating the map according to the descriptions, and instead of asking other more experienced players for directions or guidence, you now have map markers which which allow you to just follow the arrow wherever you need to go - without the need to actually use your brain.
4. Skills no longer need to be bought at the trainer and instead they magically appear on your toolbar whenever you gain a level. Furthermore, weapon and armor skills have been completely removed from the game, so that you do not need to be proficient with a weapon anymore.
5. Talent trees have been almost completely removed, so that you do not have to think about things that can either make or break your character. With talents being reduced to 1 meaningless choice every 15 levels, every class plays the same and you can forget meeting unique and strange characters.
6. In MoP you no longer need to be part of a guild to achieve something. If you have a problem with soloing some dungeon, you just need to press "dungeon finder" button in the menu and you will automatically teleport to the mentioned dungeon with a random group of players. Forget meeting people in the world, forget roleplaying, forget getting to know them - why do all that when you can find a party just by clicking a button in the menu. And since you will be doing a run with a random group of people who you will never meet again, solving a dungeon boils down to silently running through trash mobs and slaughtering everything with ease!
7. In MoP the economy is completely broken, because of the influx of money from longtime players. Even the most basic level 20 sword can now be sold for more than a 100 gold pieces through the auction house. You can literally have over a thousand gold pieces within a week of playing the game, which wouldn't be a problem if the developers adjusted the prices for vendors and services. Unfortunately, not only did they not do that, but they also removed many services that existed before. One such example is the removal of blacksmith services which allowed you to fix your gear for a certain amount of money. They removed that service because the gear cannot be broken anymore! By the time you reach level 40 or 50, you will have more gold than you know what to do with - further increasing the inflation!
8. Forget constantly being on your toes for fear of an ambush, because in MoP you will very rarely see any world PvP! PvP oriented players now have a number of arenas they can conveniently teleport to through a simple click on a menu, so there is no reason for them to go out in the world and cause havoc.
This is a sight you will rarely see in the newer expansions.
Final thoughts
I think my 8 points nail the problem with Mysts of Pandaria! The game is so dumbed down, convenient and broken that even a complete moron can successfuly play it. When I can go from level 1 to level 60 destroying everything in my path, without ever using my brain, without dying or feeling afraid, I can safely say that the game has been designed with a lowest common denominator in mind. Vanilla WoW in comparison is a masterpiece, because none of these issues exist there. I am currently level 25 and I have already died 15 times, I have over 15 friends and we help each other constantly, because that is the only way to progress. In the "vanilla" version I have already been ambushed by other enemy players, and I have gotten my first taste of sweet revenge. Weapons and armor can be broken, I am constantly thinking about earning more gold, I need to use my brain to navigate the terrain and solve quests, I roleplay, I need to form alliances with player made guilds,... and most importantly I am enjoying myself! None of this exists in Mysts of Pandaria!
Unfortunately, there are other games I wish to play at the moment and I cannot allow myself to get stuck in World of Warcraft again, so I will have to stop playing after writing this review. However, when I have more time I will definitely revisit it. Hopefully, Blizzard will bring back Vanilla WoW one day, so that I can enjoy it the way it was meant to be played. Kronos is an awesome private server that looks and feels almost exactly like the original, but there are still some bugs that need to be ironed out.
