Just a quick question for my readers today. Do you think that playing Vanilla WoW on a private server counts as "playing WoW"?
What I mean is this: If someone else asks you "Do you play WoW?", do you say yes or no? Or do you launch into a lengthy explanation?
It's just something that I've been thinking about, since in the past couple of weeks there were several occasions where this happened to me and I automatically made it very clear that I wasn't playing WoW anymore and hadn't done so in a long time. Yet strictly speaking that's not true, because I've been playing Vanilla WoW on Kronos for months (if very casually)!
It just seems to me that Vanilla WoW on a private server is such a different and niche activity compared to Blizzard's World of Warcraft as people currently know it that to talk about it as if they were one and the same would be even more misleading.
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The Numbers Don't Lie
41 minutes ago
Quick answer for a quick question: I play Classic WoW. Those few interested in an expansion, rather than mere "trolling" attempts, can find out that I've stopped visiting the official servers in an even remotely serious manner back in early 2009 and I had no real incentives to get back ever since. Can find out that I've been playing Classic WoW on private servers since early 2007, on and off, on this server and on that server, and I still enjoy doing that despite the implicit, and at times very explicit, shortcomings and limitations of private servers. Can find out that I am a rara avis and I laugh in the face of all those transient players, the hordes which identify themselves as "gamers" and yet still jump from pond to pond in the relentless pursuit of new shinies. And so forth...
ReplyDeleteI still play HoMM3, at least one game (session) per month. Been doing so in the past 17 years, without exception. Many will call me a lunatic, or equivalents. I call myself an enthusiast. :P
Seems like a situational question. There are times when "Yes" is all the answer that is needed, because the person you are speaking with won't know or care about the subtleties.
ReplyDeleteAnd there will be times when you are speaking to somebody who will care. You will say, "Yes" and they will want to know what server or whatever, and you'll be able to launch into a tale about classic with somebody who might appreciate the distinction.
The real question will be, how do you justify playing on what one might call a pirate server? When I played for a bit on Emerald Dream, I remained subscribed to WoW so that I could at least say that Blizzard wasn't losing any money due to my actions. It was, however, a gray area even with that.
I suppose I'm asking more about the person who won't know about the subtleties then.
DeleteNot sure if your last question was meant to be a rhetorical one or actually directed at me, but I'll answer it anyway. The legality of these things is definitely dubious, but morally I have no qualms about it since classic servers are not something Blizzard offers. If they had their own version, I'd be happy to pay for access, but they don't. And without this classic option, I wouldn't play WoW at all, so Blizzard wouldn't have me as a customer either way.
For me, if I was answering a general inquiry from someone I would say I was playing WoW when I'm playing the current game from Blizzard. That's a reasonable answer no matter what the knowledge level of the asker.
ReplyDeleteNow, if the person understands about game emulation then I would say that I play on a private server because I wanted the feel of Vanilla. I would assume that the asker understood that the private server was a variant of Vanilla, not a total/complete/exact recreation of Vanilla. (Being a variant isn't bad, per se, as only Blizzard _may_ have all the information needed to recreate a Vanilla server.)
But what would you say if you don't know the knowledge level of the asker and you're not playing the current game from Blizzard? :)
DeleteI'd probably say I was playing on a private server that was trying to recreate the original version of the game. That it was a nice bit of nostalgia for me to go back and see what the game used to be like because the existing game had changed quite a bit.
DeleteAssuming their eyes hadn't glazed over already ;) I would go into more details if they indicated any interest. Otherwise I would probably leave it there. I can be wordy in my answers so I would attempt to be reasonably succinct.
If someone asks you if you play WoW, or any other game. Do you also automatically specify if you've reach max level? If you play on a PvE or PvP realm? If you mainly play PvP or PvE endgame? If you enjoy alts? Which trinity role you're able to fulfill?
ReplyDeleteThere are many parameters who completely change the experience you get from playing an MMO. But if someone asks you if you play WoW, it doesn't matter if you're a gladiator, a raider or if you enjoy pet battle. In the end, you just play WoW. The same is true regardless on if you've installed the latest patches or not.
Playing vanilla WoW is just playing WoW, nothing else.
If someone asked me if I liked football, I would want to be sure whether we're talking about what Americans call football or what the rest of the world calls football - just because two games share a name that doesn't mean that they are even close to being the same thing.
DeleteBased on your previous comments on this and other blogs, I'm genuinely surprised that it seems to be all the same to you!
There is, of course, a huge difference between vanilla and warlords but both are still WoW. (I don't really know of a thing that becomes something different by not changing and only stays what it is by changing. :-)
DeleteA Jaguar is also different from a Tesla but both qualify as a car. If you own a Jaguar and someone asks you if you own a car would you answer "no" just because you don't own a Tesla?
If someone asks you "Do you play WoW?", either answer "yes" or answer "on a private server". Answering "no" is not correct. And if the person who asks you doesn't know what a private server is, they would expect you to answer yes, not no, for your situation. They clearly don't have a deep understanding of WoW and just want to know if you play with "these elves and orks things".
Yes, of course. Not even a question, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteI'd say "no" if it's a stranger simply because they're probably asking to see if they have a common frame of reference for further conversation.
ReplyDeleteOr I'd go with "I used to, but I quit a few years ago and now I play casually on a vanilla server." If you wanted to have that conversation.