This Housing is just WoW

So Housing has arrived in World of Warcraft in its Early Access stage, if you have pre-ordered the Midnight expansion, which I have. I'm normally not a fan of pre-orders, but I bought it with in-game money, so who cares?

If you're not in the know, Horde and Alliance have their own special islands accessible from their capital city portal rooms that take you to the relevant island. There you can choose a plot of land that you want, pay 1000 gold and the house is yours. Once bought, you can customize your house appearance which is separate from the inside. In fact, there is no correlation between inside and outside at all. A house that is a small and shabby shack on the outside can be a huge and elegant mansion on the inside. The options for how you want the outside of your house to look is incomplete for now, more options are coming in patch 12.0.

The genius of the housing system lies in its free form modularity. Every piece of décor whether it is a shelf, a lamp, a tree etc. can be resized, turned and moved anywhere you want. Do you want a floating bed? A series of tiny statues on a shelf above your stairs? Go for it. You can also combine décor items by placing them inside each other, creating new things. Put a smelting brazier inside a table so the fire shows a little bit and you have an impromptu stove top. Stack three fountains on top of each other to make a big fountain if you want. It is almost to the point of “if you can imagine it, you can do it”. Sure, some items are outside only and vice versa, and outside lighting is currently disabled, but the housing décor system is incredible. It far exceeds what I imagined Blizzard would do.

But with everything positive there are a few negative sides as well. There are several ways of collecting décor, from achievement rewards (added retroactively) to vendors, quest rewards, drops and crafting. The others are fine, although I hope they add more drops to old dungeons. No, the big negative comes from crafting décor.

First off, Blizzard did say that you don't need maxed out crafting per expansion to craft the new décor and it is true, but you do need very high skill. 240/300, 60/75, 85/100 and so on depending on the expansion skill roof. They could have staggered the décor to work as a catch up mechanic, but they sadly elected to put it all at a pretty high level, meaning a blacksmith can craft intricate magical armor before a chandelier.

Then we get to the material components and they are ridiculous. I had hoped we would be able to utilize all the crafting materials in the game, but alas no. With a few exceptions, everything requires top level, rare ingredients, even for mundane items. A bronze banner requires 8 khorium bars, a metal that is very hard to find instead of using bronze which exists in the game! A Gilnean pitchfork requires 12 elementium bars and 6 volatile earth... A pitchfork! This is equivalent of going to IKEA and buying a tungsten frying pan and a set of titanium cutlery. It makes no sense. Where are my copper pots? My silver cutlery? I hope they change this, but I'm not holding my breath.

Blizzard has also added a new crafting material, Lumber, which can be harvested in pretty much every zone as long as your character has bought an axe from a special vendor. This is fine for things like benches, beds, chairs, you know, things that use lumber, but it is a must for all crafted décor like pillows, decorative potions, books, plushies etc. I like the lumber mechanic but please make it make sense.

For being in early access, the Housing system is already a massive success. Besides my complaints above, it is fun, creative and really exciting. I truly hope my concerns are laid to rest when Midnight launches, but even if they aren't, housing is an incredible addition to the game, a real success, and I can't wait to see how it will be developed going forward.

 

Playing with a challenge

I've played World of Warcraft since it's early days. I have also been away from the game many times, even for years, but sooner or later, I have always returned.

The beauty of a game like WoW is that you can play it how you want to (within reason). Some are almost pure PvP'ers, others spend all their time in the auction house making fortunes buying and selling goods. Raiders, transmog hunters, explorers, completionists, the list goes on.

Today I want to share two players with you. Both are Youtubers, and the first is Pathalerix, who's Goldlocked series has taken off in a big way. His deal is this; his character is at first stuck in Elwyn Forest until he can earn enough in-game money to buy a WoW token. Then he gets to move on to an adjacent zone, and so on. I have learned a great deal from watching Goldbound. I highly recommend it. 

The second channel is Manaburst who decided to only level up in dungeons, nothing unique per se, but he's soloing the dungeons, starting with Deadmines at level 9! This ongoing play-through has also taught me a thing or two, and I heartily recommend this channel.

Both of these gamers and Youtubers have created a challenge for themselves that is inspiring and awesome despite being pretty masochistic at times. They may not be the originators of these challenges, I simply don't know, but they are examples of how you can come up with a new way of playing a game beyond what the devs intended, much like my own project of clearing Sniper Elite 5 without taking any damage. There are new and interesting ways of playing our favorite games if we use a bit of imagination.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week! 

 

The War Within pre-patch part 1.

The pre-patch for the next World of Warcraft expansion, The War Within (TWW) has started and it has been an interesting experience.

To start, the character screen has been changed significantly, with all characters showing up in one long list. Added to this is a section for four characters that when placed, show up around a campfire. You can arrange all your alts as you wish, but there is no sorting mechanism, so however you choose to arrange them, you need to do it manually.

There is a search function which is nice, as you can search for a class, but I hope Blizzard adds a sort by function as well. You can access the server list, but as far as I can tell, it only determines where new characters are placed.

A huge change is the new flying option. It can be found at the top of the screen where you see your mounts. Toggling it (5 second cast) switches your flying between the old system introduced in The Burning Crusade and the new dragon riding that was added in Dragonflight. All but one or two flying mounts are affected by this, allowing you to zoom along at incredible speeds on your favorite mounts. This flying style is unfortunately not chosen per individual mounts, but rather on the character itself. Oh, and it also affects the druid flying form, which is amazing.

The new warband bank, which will allow you to add items and some currencies into it so that any characters can withdraw them is implemented but it is currently disabled. Apparently there is a problem with it, and Blizzard is working to fix it.

What does work, however is the new transmog system. Through the years, many raid bosses have dropped tokens instead of gear. These tokens are grouped by classes and when a character of that class uses it, the token becomes a piece of armor. These tokens can now be mailed to any character you have on any server. Super useful! Armor that is specific to a single class is exempt from this and can only be learned if picked up by the correct class.

But it isn't all roses. As of now, currencies that are sent by mail can disappear, so wait before you do this. Likewise, many achievements have been reset, but Blizzard is aware and are investigating. I myself found that my progress for the Professor title which require 20 rare items found through archaeology has been reset to 1 from 18. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

The next step of the pre-patch, which is the fight against giant bosses that will let you amazing gear should launch this week. Overall this is really exciting, and I am looking forward to more fun in World of Warcraft.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!

 

World of Warcraft News

There are some exciting things coming up in World of Warcraft, starting this week.

First up, the WoW 18^th anniversary event has been up and running for about a week and will continue for some time, but with the upcoming elemental invasion pre-patch event, it will probably be very hard, if not impossible to get any help against these world bosses.

Now, starting this week, on November 15^th, the elemental invasion will start. In a nutshell, you kill elementals that spawn in certain places and who drop tokens when defeated. These tokens are a currency for some seriously good gear, and well worth getting. When a hundred elementals or so are killed, a boss will spawn, who drops more tokens and can also drop gear directly. At least, this seems to be t he case, as official info is hard to find.

For a more detailed look, check out this link:

https://www.wowhead.com/guide/primal-storms-dragonflight-pre-patch-event

Also starting this week is the Twitch drop event with Blizzard. Simply connect your Twitch account to your Blizzard account and then watch live streamers play WoW and you can get some cool stuff like a mount.

Here are the dates and some more detailed info including instructions on how to connect your accounts:

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/23873861/updated-nov-1-dragonflight-twitch-drops-earn-rewards-watching-and-supporting-creators

My wife and I will be streaming during these dates on Twitch.tv/Chelidda so why not come on by and watch to grab some cool stuff. If you don't want to chat, it is enough to merely have the stream on for the required amount of time. There are of course lots of streamers to choose from, so find someone you like, sit back and enjoy.

Finally, this week is when those who own Dragonflight already can make and start playing the new Drachtyr race. They start at level 58 but can only be one class, the Evoker. Evokers are either healers or dps casters, and based on my experiences on the Beta, they are a lot of fun to play. They can even fly without a mount, although they use the same mechanic as the new Drakes in Dragonflight. This flying technique takes some getting used to, so it may pay off to get some practice in early.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Dragonflight Beta!

I got into the World of Warcraft Dragonflight Beta and this is a bit of info and a few thoughts in no particular order.

But remember that this is a BETA and all information is subject to potential change. Nothing is written in stone.

First up, the new talent trees. Old players and those who play classic are familiar with how the talent trees used to be; huge and hard to use. Then they changed them to a choice between three options every fifteen levels or so. Now? It is amazing!

Every class has two trees, one generic for the class, and one for the spec. At first glance they look really intimidating, but once you look more closely, it's not that complicated. It pays off to go over all the talents and trace a path down to the higher level talents you want. On top of that, different aspects of the class, like AoE abilities, healing and so on tend to be on one side of the tree. You can even choose to leave abilities that you don't use. So far I'm very impressed with the new system, just be aware that once Dragonflight comes, it is going to take time to go though all your characters, and you need to let it take that time. 

Check them out on Wowhead: https://www.wowhead.com/beta/talent-calc

Lets talk about the new UI next. It is very different, and a lot of the elements are super small. Bags, buttons, character window, all is much smaller than it used to be. On top of that, most of the UI is now customizable. Right click your character portrait and choose edit layout and you can move the action bars, resize them, you have a lot of options. You can even choose where you want your character portrait to be. There is also an option in the game options to re-scale UI, so if you fiddle with that and perhaps shrink the action bars, I'm sure you can get the UI to be what you need it to be. There is also a new bag slot, but that one is for specific crafting bags only.

I haven't had time to check out the new crafting system, so we're skipping that.

I did however try out the new race, the Dracthyr. This new race of dragon people start at level 58 and have their own start zone. I hope Blizzard re-balances some of the mobs in the start area, because I died a lot. That said, it was a very enjoyable journey and they did a credible job teaching you to play this new race. But why do you need to learn how to play a race you ask? Because Dracthyr can only be Evokers, either as mid-range DPS casters or as healers. They can't take any of the normal classes at all, but that is fine because their class really lean into being a winged dragon-person. They also have a humanoid form, and holy hell do they get customization options! No other race comes even close to the amount of choices you get here. Oh, and they can fly! Not just glide like Demonhunters, (they can do that too) but actually take off and fly.

This flight mechanic uses the same mechanic as they new drakes that can only fly in the Dragonflight zones and that is not always easy, but super fun when you get it to work.

From what I have seen of the first zone in the Dragon Isles, it is nice. Nothing too stand out, but after the mess that is Shadowlands, I'm so happy that it feels like Azeroth again. Some of the changes are big and sweeping, but I have high hopes that the new expansion will feel like World of Warcraft again! Rogues can even survive getting an add in a fight again, unlike now...

I don't know when the beta ends, but if possible, I'll bring you more insights at a later date, but this will have to be enough for now. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

A bad time for everyone

 

Well, the you-know-what has hit the fan.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing is suing Activision-Blizzard for to quote BBC News “unequal pay, promoting men over women, and widespread sexual harassment”.

This story has exploded all over the internet, and I'll link a few articles below. In a nutshell, women at Blizzard have been sexually harassed, they have been refused promotion because “You could get pregnant”, they have been saddled with extra work some of their male colleagues were supposed to do, but they were too busy playing games or drinking to do it. They have also been subject to tighter scrutiny while asking for time off, something their male colleagues seemed to just get.

Some of these male employees have also been cubicle crawling (as in pub crawl) where they apparently drink heavily at work and go from cubicle to cubicle behaving like swine. There is even a suicide linked to this, but I don't even want to type out what led to that.

The list goes on, and it is at best a long term case of extremely unprofessional behavior, or as seems to be more likely, a widespread culture of harassment, abuse, intimidation and discrimination. You can read more yourself if you want to know more.

For me personally, I am disgusted, plain and simple. In situations like these it is always difficult to discern who is being 100% honest, who is embellishing a little, and who is outright lying, on both sides of the fence. Seeing that this is such a sensitive case, I have no choice but to believe the accusers. In response, I have canceled my World of Warcraft account, at least until the case is over and done with, and it's pissing me off. I wasn't done playing this lovely game, but I don't want my money to go towards someone who's more interested in getting wasted at work and harassing women, instead of working. If the situation is rectified I'll be happy to subscribe again, but as it stands, I'm out. This doesn't mean others can't keep playing, however. A choice like this has to be personal and it is not okay to give anyone a hard time for choosing to play. A game like WoW means many things to many people and some might only get through the day because they know that they can play when they get home.

This disaster also goes, in my opinion, a long way towards explaining the lackluster quality of recent WoW content. If people are too stressed, to distracted or just too plain drunk to do any work, then it's no wonder the game is going slowly down the drain. Don't get me wrong, I still love WoW, but the latest content has been extremely weak, and since some employees brag about being hung over at work, it is no wonder.

Time will tell what kind of ramifications this will have. The company's response so far seems to have been a case of “This may have been true once, but it isn't any more, and your mean for suing us” (my phrasing obviously). Meanwhile former Blizzard President and CEO Mike Morhaime and former senior vice president of story and franchise development, Chris Metzen have publicly apologized for not seeing and stopping this from happening. Whether they are sincere or just covering their asses, I can't say. Blizzard's current President, J Allen Brack has circulated an email company wide claiming that he reveres Gloria Steinem and is against all forms of harassment and “bro-culture”. No one seems so far to believe a single word he wrote. After all, as the top man in the company it is his job to know what is going on and put a stop to things like this. The fact that he hasn't, pretty much indicates that he is either incompetent or okay with it.

We'll see what the investors think about this, especially if the company looses the lawsuit and gets slammed with a brutal fine. Either way time as always, will tell.

PCGamer articles:

https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-alleges-discrimination-sexual-harassment-and-frat-boy-culture/

https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-employees-denounce-corporate-statements-we-are-here-angry-and-not-so-easily-silenced/

BBC News article:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57929543

You can easily find more if you want, just Google it.

That's that and all that. I was hoping to have something more entertaining for you, but it is what it is. Please join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

Blizzcon 2021

 

This weekend was Blizzards virtual Blizzcon.

I watched a couple of their presentations and Q&A sessions and figured I should highlight some of the announcements here.

The Burning Crusade is coming to WoW Classic. When it drops, you will be able to choose whether to stay in just Classic or move on to TBC. You will need to make this choice for each character you have. Additionally, if you want to pay real money, you can clone your characters and have them in both Classic and Classic Burning Crusade.

The Burning Crusade won't be 100% the same as those of us who played it back in the day remember. There will be modern upgrades behind the scenes, things like that.

While on the subject of WoW, Shadowlands will be getting it's first major upgrade which includes the pathfinder achievement that allows flying, a raid with Sylvanas as a boss and a new treant mount that will be free to all owners of Shadowlands.

On the flip side, there will be no further cosmetic character option in the foreseeable future. Maybe one day, but not now. However, I found out that the hole in cloaks used by Forsaken characters is already fixed and on the Public Test Realm, so that's something.

 

 

They revealed the Rogue class for Diablo 4, but I honestly didn't pay too much attention to that panel, since I'm not a Diablo player. What did catch my eye however is the official announcement that the incredibly well loved Diablo 2 is getting a dual remaster.

That is, Diablo 2 is being redone in glorious modern detail with all the bells and whistles. They are also recreating the original Diablo 2 with the only thing changed being the required operating system. Otherwise it will remain untouched for that original experience.

I'm guessing they learned something from the disastrous Warcraft 3 Reforged launch where they essentially deleted the original version from existence. I really hope Blizzard pulls this one off, or there is really going to be hell to pay and they can forget ever remastering another game.

Finally they are releasing a trilogy of Blizzards original arcade games; Blackthorne, Lost Vikings and Rock N Roll Racing. These games are only available in the 30^th Anniversary Collection on the Blizzard store. Get it there if you are interested.

There was some stuff about Hearthstone and Overwatch but Blizzcon started at midnight my local time and by the time I gave up it was already 2 am. And after that my brain was completely fried. It's not hard to find summaries of the announcements if you want to learn more.

Alright, that's enough of that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week and stay safe!

Lots of changes in World of Warcraft

 

Last Wednesday the pre-patch to WoW Shadowlands hit and changed everything. Well, most things anyway. The big level squish hit, dividing character levels with 2.4, the new starting zone Exile's Reach is here, plenty of new character customization options and more.

Some things are still very much missing however, but I really do think they'll be added later. Some of the advertised customization options were not implemented, like being able to choose straight backed trolls and orcs and a few other quality of life things are still missing. Time will tell if and when they'll be added later.

Blizzard did say that leveling your characters will be faster than before, and they were not kidding. At least to me it doesn't really feel that fast, but that is only because my brain doesn't yet understand what the new levels mean. A level 10 is 24 in the old system and a 25 is 60 in the old way. I got my new warrior to 25 in two evenings. It used to take months to get to 60, not two evenings! So yeah, you level up crazy fast, believe me.

I had expected some server issues and Blizzard did not disappoint. On both Wednesday and Thursday evenings it was almost impossible to log in, the queues were that bad, and when the authentication servers got full you got booted just as you were about to log in. Sit in queue, check. Load times, check. Get in, nope – out you go!

These issues are now solved by and large, it just amazes me that after 16 years, Blizzard still hasn't learned to avoid this. Back in '04 it was understandable. Blizzard were new at the whole mmorpg thing, server technology was still pretty raw, there were no where near as many IT-techs as there are now, but still for some reason, the servers seem to be held together with bubblegum and scotch tape.

There is one major thing I want to bring up. For quite a while now, Blizzard has pushed the whole Exile's Reach and straight to Battle for Azeroth (previous expansion) thing. New players don't even get a choice. New and free players must do the Exile's Reach area and then straight to BfA, but I can't see how they are going to make it there.

I sent a level 10 to Kul Tiras, the Alliance part of BfA, and was shocked to find that everything the local vendors sell is level 45! All the food, the potions, everything you could perhaps craft is 45. So unless you play a class that can heal, you are utterly screwed in BfA. You can only equip quest rewards and what happens to drop as loot and you get 0% healing. I had to relog to a character in another part of the game in order to go buy food, which I could send over to my “stranded” alt.

I get Blizzards idea that this is a good story line for new players, and at least Kul Tiras is incredibly pretty and atmospheric, but why have they left everything at the old top levels? This goes for all other expansion areas as well, but the discrepancy between your character and the local consumables isn't that big, and you can choose where to go. You can get supplies elsewhere as long as you are not new. Blizzard, fix this, please!

It may seem that I'm incredibly negative towards the new changes, but I'm not. It really is a lot of fun and the new systems will be good, when they're properly done. But that's enough rambling for now. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

Big changes

During the last few weeks I've been playing some World of Warcraft, mostly to pass a bit of time during the whole Corona debacle. It helps keep my mind off things and to be honest, it is fun again.

I used to play from vanilla through the Cataclysm expansion, but ultimately quit due to boredom. I popped back a couple of times, but never for more than a week, until now. With the new policy of making the entire game available for just a subscription apart from the newest expansion, I have a ton of stuff to do even without the Battle for Azeroth expansion, which I'll get as soon as the Shadowlands expansion hits in Q4 this year.

Then a lot of interesting news and rumors started surfacing about the upcoming changes in Shadowlands that will transform the entire game from the bottom up. I've been watching quite a few videos on the subject, and I'll link the channels below, but I thought it could be fun to talk about a couple of these changes.

Important Notice: All the information below is Alpha Test info, and or data mined info, which means it can all change. Do not assume this is set in stone, even though I personally believe these changes will happen.

The level squish. Characters that are currently level 120 (max) will be reduced to 50. New level cap is 60.

The 280% flying speed will be scrapped. Basic flying is upgradable to 310%.

Flying will be automatically available in Draenor and Legion areas. Flying in BfA areas will still require unlocking.

Allied races will no longer require reputation. All you need to do to unlock them is to play the required missions and get the achievements.

Apparently all new characters will share a new starting zone until they are level 10. Then they can choose between the regular world, and any expansion areas to level to 50 in. Then it is off to Shadowlands areas to level to 60. I feel like there is something we're missing about this, but time will tell.

A major overhaul is coming to all classes to make them more fun to play. Blizzard has admitted they over-simplified each class and spec which made some too specialized. It's a gigantic list, but it seems to be a very good change.

Tons of new options for making new characters. It seems trolls and orcs will be able to stand up straight. Perhaps this will also affect the Forsaken (undead). The Forsaken will be able to be whole, that is, not have all their bones sticking out. Lots of new eye colors, hairstyles, warpaint, skin colors, face shapes and more.

New profession changes are coming. To be fair there is not a lot of info right now, and what there is makes no sense to me. Keep an eye out if you're interested.

Maybe this is enough for now. Here are couple of good links:

Class changes: https://www.wowhead.com/guides/class-changes-in-shadowlands-covenant-abilities-the-unpruning

Wowcrendors channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/wowcrendor/videos

Hazelnutty's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Hazelnuttygames/videos

These two are where I get a lot of my news. Enjoy if you like.

Here is a dressing room feature on Wowhead where you can preview some of these cosmetic changes.

That's that for this week. Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands and have a fantastic week!

The Adventures of Grundorn

Well, it looks like corona is keeping us all inside a bit longer, so to pass the time, I have some entertainment for you.

A little over a month ago, my wife found this chap on Youtube called Frithgar. He makes gaming videos. He plays different games but it seems the Farming Simulator games are some of his favorites. Not that I really know as I don't care about the farming franchise.

No, what we've been watching is the adventures of Grundorn the Paladin. Another of Frithgar's passions is World of Warcraft and the idea is that in Episode 1, he creates Grundorn and then he starts leveling up until he is 120. For all the faults and sins of Blizzard these days, wow is still a great game and it's been a blast watching the (mis)adventures of Grundorn the Insane.

I have tried to watch different people play wow through the years and this is the first time it has worked for me. Probably because Frithgar is so nice. He's charming in a natural and relaxed way and he's not cocky and he doesn't brag. Not even when he has pulled seven enemies at once and he managed to kill them all. No, he celebrates with genuine happiness and pride but never arrogance.

I have seen others (who shall remain nameless) who sit there on camera and go “I'm the best F-ing tank on the server. Did you see my timing? Pure art, I'm that awesome!”

Not Frithgar. This doesn't mean he is perfect however. If you play wow or similar games and you are fastidious in keeping your inventory clean and organized, well, content warning for you my friend. Grundorn's bags are eternally messy and he loves to carry around a lot of stuff that belongs in his bank. It can be infuriating but it is still worth it!

So if you need something to watch and relax with, I highly recommend this series. The adventures of Grundorn are complete and he has just recently started a new series with a dwarf hunter, but I know nothing about that. I'm somewhere in the 80's in this 319 episode series, so there is much left to enjoy.

Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um0yo9jbYI4&list=PLqoVoLidYTf0OpqEGJw7wwscut2egiYoU

Join me again next time, and until we meet again, stay safe, wash your hands and have a great week!

WoW Classic and Beyond

Blizzard has finally released World of Warcraft Classic and I want to talk about it.

A bit of background first. I started playing WoW in 2004, two weeks after launch. I played all the way through the first expansion, The Burning Crusade in 2007, the second expansion Wrath of the Lich King in 2008 and through the third, Cataclysm in 2010. That was when I finally burned out.

I had taken breaks from the game, sure, but I always came back, until I couldn't do it anymore. The game had changed too much while at the same time it was too much of the same old. I canceled my subscription and moved on with no regrets after 6-7 years of playing.

When the fifth expansion Warlords of Draenor was released in 2014, Blizzard gave away the fourth expansion Mists of Pandaria (2012) for a fiver, and I went back, but quit again after a few days. It completely failed to excite me. Since then Legion (2016) and Battle for Azeroth (2018) have been released. I basically know nothing about them, but Blizzard changed things around and now you get the entire game sans the newest expansion, in this case BfA, if you subscribe.

So, Classic. When they announced it I was a bit excited and then I lost interest. Then I got some interest back and lost it again, so on and so forth. Classic went live on August 26^th, and the day before, Sunday the 25^th I was still feeling pretty cold towards it. As the launch timer slowly ticked down towards zero, I went to Twitch.tv to have a little look. It turns out that I wasn't the only one. 1.2 million people watched Classic go live, which was pretty crazy. I watched as my chosen streamers intro camera zoomed across the undead starting area and we could see a literal army of undead swarming across Deathknell (undead starting area).

Most of the starting quests are either 1. Kill X amount of Y monsters, or 2. Collect X amount of things that drop off Y monsters, or 3. Find and gather X amount of Y items that spawn around the map. There must have been ten players per monster. It was a glorious madhouse, a cacophony of chaos and I do not understand how anyone could stand to play like that.

The following day however, I subbed and jumped into World of Warcraft Classic. It wasn't as bad as day 1, but it was pretty rough. It has since evened out.

I've played a week now, and to be perfectly honest, it's a mixed bag. It is a lot of fun, but it is so insanely old school in design.

It's hard to find where you need to go as the map is little help. I rely on memory more than anything else.

It's hard to make any money, and you pay for everything. Hitting a new even level and having to train four new spells at 15 silver a piece when you have just managed to get two gold together is rough. Want to fly from Orgrimmar to Stonetalon? 5 silver please... it's hard. Add to that the fact that on level 40 you get to pay a total of 100 gold to get a mount and the money troubles are real.

The combat is slow, you have a lot of downtime getting health and mana back. My undead mage must have died a dozen times before level 20. The slowness is also compounded by the amount of players. Blizzard have put up a ton of PVP servers, but only three PVE servers so it is hard to find all the mobs you need, especially named boss mobs. Some areas are lousy with players desperately trying to grab that named guy to complete the quest. Luckily the players are so nice.

Seriously, the player base on my PVE server at least are super friendly. People are helpful, polite almost to a fault, and even generous. A warlock gave me a wand for free, just because I gave him an intellect buff. So while the game is slow and grindy, the players are great. Sure, I've run across a couple of jerks, but nowhere near how it used to be.

So what are the good parts? Well to be honest it's mostly nostalgia, but there is a kind of purity in it as well. It feels clean and all the things that annoyed me about Cataclysm and forward are not there. It's how it used to be and in a sense how it should be – but only in a sense.

On Saturday, my wife and I became curious and wanted to know what regular WoW is like now. So we jumped over to retail and rolled up a couple of characters. After all, it's all included in the subscription.

I have to say it's weird and intimidating as hell. Everything has changed since I played last and I understand nothing. But in order to be fair, we actually played a bit and it's super fun. At least on low levels. My paladin is almost level 20 out of 120, so I make no comments about what the later game is like. It might be awful for all I know.

The thing is though, without playing Classic with no rose tinted glasses on, I wouldn't be able to see retail for what it really is. It also helps that I'm on a brand new account so all the emotional baggage that my old characters have is not there.

All the things my wife an I complained about when playing Classic are gone in retail. The map shows you where to go, there is no competition to kill named mobs, training is free and automatic, but the server economy is insane. Inflation rules the roost and even low level green items go for hundreds of gold a piece.

I'm glad I played Classic, and I'm going to play some more but to be honest, I'm having more fun in retail (at least on low levels).

I've gone on seriously long enough so until next time, have a great week!