We keep on hearing the line: "Vanilla is better," but why exactly do players keep on comparing expansion after expansion to the original version - which is far more inferior when it comes to features and contents from the current existing installments? Well, Eurogamer has revisited World of Warcraft vanilla and had taken things in retrospect - including why many people call it "better."
World of Warcraft Vanilla Server: Elysium
In a short 6-minute video, Chris Bratt of Eurogamer has revisited World of Warcraft vanilla through the newly launched legacy server, Project Elysium. A Nostalrius-Elysium merged server that was conceived as a result of the desperate pleas of many fans for the establishment of a vanilla server.
At the beginning of the video, Chriss Bratt was welcomed by an astounding amount of queue (12,000+) as he fall in line to the thousands of players wanting to try out the freshly released server, Elysium PVP Realm which was launched last Saturday. After successfully entering the game, it is already visible how hyped the commentators are by simply moving around and re-experiencing the beauty of the legacy server. So is there anything special?
If you've tried playing Elysium out, one of the first things you'll notice is that, life back then was hard; complicated and overwhelming. But believe it or not, it's one of the endearing characteristic of the game that made it even more enticing to the fans. The fact that almost all of the people are moving through ground, exploring the new world on foot, made the game even more fun and enjoyable.
Not only that, professions, achievements and even weapons back then was a thing as they play a vital role in your overall game experience and strength of your character. When players refer to vanilla, it meant the experience they've had exploring the game with their peers - failing and learning along the process. This was insinuated in the video but to make things clearer, what makes vanilla better than the current expansion is the nostalgic experience that one basks as he plays the legacy server. It's like reliving the past that was once great but can no longer be relived.
A lot of players are saying that class were more balanced in the past but this isn't actually true as throughout the expansion, there are always classes that are more powerful than the others and talents that are more preferred than the rest . This reality will always hold true even after the franchise will end as there exist no "equal" and true balance update - only the people that keep on playing.
So what makes vanilla better? Well, it's simply because we're enthralled to reminisce the nostalgic experience of the past and that playing the version that started it all will always be bigger and better in everyone's hearts.
