(Someday?) Serving Pure Vanilla WOW

I’m watching the  War for Vanilla Servers and the blog posts about these “legacy” servers with interest.  One of the fascinating things to me is that there doesn’t seem to be a standard for what Vanilla is. 

For me, all MMO experiences are shadows of my first online experience Star Wars Galaxies.  The changes there are precisely dated.    Released June 26, 2003.   April 27, 2005, the Combat Upgrade.   November 1, 2005 The New Game Experience.    Both brought devastating changes to the game, from which the game and its players never recovered.

World of Warcraft was released November 23, 2004.  The first expansion, The Burning Crusade wasn’t released until January 16, 2007.   The expansion was well received.   I can’t recall anyone ever saying anything negative about it, with the small exception of some who regret the addition of player flight to the game.

Is the Vanilla era from launch to the date of the Burning Crusade?  It seems to be the case. 

From Vanilla Gaming.org     What is VanillaGaming?

VanillaGaming is a 2009 founded World of Warcraft private server project and the oldest still existing classic server. With almost 5 years of experience we can offer you the feeling of the original World of Warcraft as it was back in the days of Patch 1.12. With the same main developer over all those years we have a huge knowledge about how to script (and sometimes even show so with new Wings 😛 )

From Vanilla WOW Wiki    

WoW patch news

World of Warcraft version — Final “vanilla” patch (1.12.1)

Patch 1.12.1 – Drums of War

• Cross-Realm Battlegrounds
• New API Changes
• New World PvP Objectives
• New API Changes
• Full patch notes: 1.1.0 (1.1.1 • 1.1.2) – 1.2.0 (1.2.1 • 1.2.2 • 1.2.3 • 1.2.4) – 1.3.0 (1.3.1 • 1.3.2) – 1.4.0 (1.4.1 • 1.4.2) – 1.5.0 (1.5.1) – 1.6.0 (1.6.1) – 1.7.0 (1.7.1) – 1.8.0 (1.8.1 • 1.8.2 • 1.8.3 • 1.8.4) – 1.9.0 (1.9.1 • 1.9.2 • 1.9.3 • 1.9.4) – 1.10.0 (1.10.1 • 1.10.2) – 1.11.0 (1.11.1 • 1.11.2) – 1.12.0 (1.12.1 • 1.12.2)
  

The expansion did not bring devastating changes to the game, nor (except for many physical changes to the world in Cataclysm) have any of the changes to the game been abrupt.  From my perspective, having played mostly from 2008, onward, and not in the Vanilla era at all, it has been a reasonable series of developments over the course of a now 11 year old game.

Despite that, I do completely respect the desire of players to play the game as it originally was, before any large changes were made to the world.  Just as I never believed Sony when they said it was “technically impossible” to offer Pre-CU servers, I don’t believe Blizzard when they say:

We explored options for developing classic servers and none could be executed without great difficulty. If we could push a button and all of this would be created, we would. However, there are tremendous operational challenges to integrating classic servers, not to mention the ongoing support of multiple live versions for every aspect of WoW.

Tell me there is no backup of previous versions.

You don’t need to integrate classic servers, just fire them up.

You don’t need to do “progression servers” just put up the “pristine”, “classic” “pure vanilla” version whatever that may be.

To do so takes nothing away from the current game.

 

You don’t need to patch and develop it, just say here it is.

Having it up there with old and new players trying it out could only be a positive thing, and maybe something can be learned from the original by all parties.

One other note – we’ve recently been in contact with some of the folks who operated Nostalrius. They obviously care deeply about the game, and we look forward to more conversations with them in the coming weeks.

This is encouraging to me.  Yeah, talk to these guys, bring em’ on board, let them help you.  They understand every pixel of the old game and what it takes to bring that beloved older version to life.

Comfy Gaming

I purchased a new laptop recently. The primary requirement was that it would have to comfortably play World of Warcraft.  If I can only play one game, that’s the one.

I didn’t change any graphical settings, but it looks pretty good as is.

I find the ambient music to be more varied and pervasive on the laptop than on my gaming pic with its mongo speakers.  Anytime I’m playing a game and I find myself stopping and listening to the music, I love it.  Truthfully, there aren’t many areas in WOW where I like the music.

It isn’t like Lord Of The Rings Online or SWG where you’re surrounded by really beautiful music at every turn.

I sent my Druid to Tanaan for a daily quest because she was out of oil.  The Daily went pretty well, but I almost died a couple of times due to lag? Or perhaps the keyboard isn’t as familiar so I’m not hitting the keys I think I am.  I certainly won’t be doing any dungeons on the laptop.  Can’t have any distractions, or anything going awry for some technical reason.

It is really nice to do garrison chores during commercials.  

I also have characters gathering herbs and other materials mindlessly in various areas.  That is certainly doable while doing something else.

I was wondering what else I would want available for quickie play.  

I’m unable to load my character tonight in WOW, so I’m writing this on my iPad while Guild Wars 2 is loading.

Those two are my mainstays now.

I’d like Galaxies, but the emu people are pretty strict about installations.

Rift would be nice.

LOTRO, I’m enjoying that again.

Better stick with WOW and GW2, right.