However, shouldn't it be the other way around. Technology wise game improved, gameplay also improved. Retail looks crispier and plays smoother than it was at its launch. Why players, me included, prefer Classic?
There are several reasons.
Story and World
Plot, story and worldbuilding is often an underestimated aspect of gaming. Unlike polygons in models or quality of life features, story cannot be effectively measured. Yet it is story that is probably the most important aspect of the video game, particularly a fantasy one.
Experience shows that people would brave cumbersome mechanics of the game to indulge in the game world they find compelling. If that was not true, then original Fallout, Legacy of Kain series or even Nier Gestalt would have never succeeded.
At the same time, games with uninteresting world and story cannot be salvaged by game mechanics alone. Age of Wonders series is a good example of that. You can play as any fantasy race there, what not to like. However story and world are just lacking, and it does not work.
Yes, John Carmack from id Software once said that story in video games are like plot in a porn move, necessary but unimportant. However, while that works in Doom and Quake, but they are more of an exception than a rule. In fact, lack of meaningful story in Doom actually adds to building character of a Doomslayer as someone who does not care for anything and goes straight to killing.
To begin with, before video games and movies, there were only books. Good writers could depict huge, wonderful worlds using words alone and people enjoyed and still enjoy reading about them. Yes, movies and games add more tools to paint the world with but one should not neglect the basics. Not matter how crisp your hi-poly models are, the lackluster story and world will eventually see people leaving.
In the past Blizzard actually was very good at building world. Possibly their experience with tabletop games like Warhammer and Dungeons and Dragons. Back then Blizz could make their world tangible and compelling with something as simple as floating text before every mission and a few hand-drawn maps to help people visualise where everything is located.
After Warcraft II came Warcraft III and by WoW time there was deep history behind every corner and every stone. This allows for continuity between original Warcraft games and WoW. People who played older titles can visit the locations from these games in WoW and see how things changed since they led their armies in Warcraft II and III.
It is small things like that that add these intangible things such as atmosphere to the game. Without story and lore, it's just bunch of polygons and numbers, with lore it's a world that people can love and would want to come back to.
Yes, actual players often talk in abbreviation and technical language, many do not read quest descriptions, but that does not mean they do not care about lore. Not everyone has patience to role play on a RP server, but people actually care about lore. The fact that RP servers exist and has people on them shows that.
Fantasy and Lord of the Rings
WoW came out within several years of release of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy movie. Even if WoW was not officially based on LotR, it became de-facto video game adaptation for the latter.
Parallels between WoW and LotR are many. In LotR Frodo began his journey in safety of familiar Shire, then travelled through woods, rivers and mountains, visited towns of elves and dwarfs and ended up in the dark lands of Mordor where in the heart of Mount Doom he was to destroy the One Ring and save the world from Sauron. In WoW you start in safety of (North)shire, visit Redridge Mountains, Duskwood, meet elves and dwarfs as you gradually make your way towards end game content in Black Rock Mountain in between Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes, both of which looks much like Mordor and full of orks. There are even two kings' statues in Loch Modan that seems inspired by the kings on Anduin River.
There are other more in-depth similarities as well. For example, unlike Warhammer and other later fantasy titles in LotR orks are not a separate race per-se, but a de-evolution of elves, engineered by Morgoth. While orks are separate race in WoW, there are devolved forms of elves: satyrs and nagas. A nice story touch that links WoW back to the LotR. Sargeras corruption and role in the world is also broadly similar to that of Morgoth in LotR.
Lord of the Rings and JRR Tolkien are very important names in a fantasy community. Most fantasy fans would name LotR as their favorite book or a masterpiece. Because of similarities between LotR and WoW, a lot of fantasy fans went on to play WoW. Together with veteran players of other Blizzard titles, they made up the core player base of early WoW.
However not everyone finds LotR or fantasy in general so compelling. Screen Junkies for example criticised LotR as too long and boring. Some do not find long immersive stories compelling.
It's that kind of people who did not like LotR would also find Classic WoW boring. Not sure if it's because of money or other consideration, but Blizzard decided to listen to them.
However, by catering to this non-fantasy demographic, Blizzard ended up destroying the game for the veterans. The threshold expansion was even aptly named Cataclysm. Ever since internet is full of angry former Blizz fans who decry "what Blizzard has become", often blaming it on corporate greed and Bobby Kotick.
For me it's hard to tell if it's indeed a corporate greed, some sort of internal politics and power struggle between executives or Blizzard themselves do not understand where and how it all went wrong. Nonetheless the result is what it is. Here I this article I outlined general principles that made and broke the WoW. In part two I will outline individual parts that contributed to this outcome. Stay tuned.
