[0:00] For almost 20 years, I have completely
[0:02] avoided World of Warcraft. I have no
[0:05] specific nostalgia for it either. I
[0:07] haven't played any of the Warcraft games
[0:09] before, and I can only just vaguely
[0:12] remember my sibling playing Warcraft 3
[0:14] when we were growing up. It was never
[0:16] about a lack of interest. [music]
[0:18] Actually, much to the contrary, it was
[0:20] just one of those things that just never
[0:23] happened for no reason in particular
[0:25] really. And then as the years just kept
[0:27] passing by and I still hadn't played it,
[0:30] I kind of started to make this weird
[0:34] plan where I would just actively choose
[0:37] to avoid everything about it. I didn't
[0:39] watch trailers. I wouldn't listen to the
[0:41] music. I wouldn't even look at
[0:42] promotional artwork at that point so
[0:44] that I could eventually, when the time
[0:47] was right, finally have my satisfying
[0:50] experience of playing it the right way
[0:52] with fresh eyes. And after around two
[0:55] decades in the making, today is that
[0:57] day. So, in the little experience that I
[1:00] do have, I vaguely remember hearing the
[1:03] terms classic and retail being thrown
[1:06] around in conversation. And I always
[1:08] assumed that classic was referring to
[1:10] the beginning of the game prior to all
[1:12] the DLCs and updates and all that fun
[1:15] stuff. And then retail was in reference
[1:17] to the more modern expansions and
[1:20] graphical updates and whatnot. While I
[1:22] was not entirely wrong, what I failed to
[1:25] realize was that during all this time
[1:27] that had passed, like more than 20 years
[1:29] at this point, retail and classic had
[1:32] virtually become two different games and
[1:34] I [music] would have to experience them
[1:36] separately. And this effectively
[1:38] crumbled my entire image of my perfect
[1:42] WoW gaming experience that I had been
[1:44] idealizing for so long. So, I reframed
[1:47] my entire objective because I don't have
[1:50] any experience or preconceived ideas
[1:53] about it. I realized that this would be
[1:55] a great opportunity to take a look at
[1:58] what people fell in love with at this
[2:00] game's birth and then what it evolved
[2:03] into that kept them playing to try and
[2:05] get a somewhat comprehensive
[2:08] understanding on what made and continues
[2:11] to make World of Warcraft the MMO of all
[2:15] time. This video is a bit of a spiritual
[2:18] successor to a previous video of mine,
[2:20] What the Kids Who Didn't Have WoW Played
[2:23] Instead, where I talked about my
[2:24] childhood MMO, Shia, and the lasting
[2:27] impact it left on me. I've seen
[2:29] firsthand just how fondly Warcraft is
[2:31] remembered by its fans. And while I
[2:35] haven't experienced this myself, what I
[2:37] do know is just how emotionally
[2:40] significant an amazing childhood game
[2:42] can be on someone. So today I plan to
[2:45] spend about two and a half hours with
[2:47] both classic and retail, which I think
[2:50] seems like an ample amount of time to
[2:52] get through the beginning portion of a
[2:53] game, and take a look at them with zero
[2:56] nostalgia or experience, and share my
[2:59] thoughts and comparisons I made between
[3:00] the two at the end of it all. So, we're
[3:03] going to be starting off this journey
[3:04] first with retail. At the time of making
[3:07] this, the Midnight expansion had just
[3:09] dropped, and I was really feeling the
[3:12] collective hype, and I really hope that
[3:14] there would be some kind of active
[3:15] player base online that we could engage
[3:17] with in response to this. The first step
[3:19] in any game before you get started is,
[3:21] of course, character creation. And if
[3:24] you're familiar with my channel, you'll
[3:26] know I take my character customization
[3:28] pretty seriously. Okay, so we have the
[3:30] Alliance over here and the Horde over
[3:32] here. The noble races of the Alliance
[3:34] are bound together by proud traditions
[3:36] of nobility, honor, faith, justice, and
[3:38] sacrifice. The many different alliance
[3:40] peoples all contribute their technical,
[3:42] [music] arcane, and spiritual wisdom
[3:43] towards the goal of a peaceful and just
[3:45] world. I am not going to be able to
[3:46] choose a race. This is going to be
[3:48] really hard. Okay. The proud nations of
[3:50] the Horde are loosely joined in an
[3:51] alliance, loosely joined, interesting,
[3:53] of convenience against a hostile world
[3:55] that would see them destroyed. So, I
[3:57] guess it's like a situation of like your
[3:58] enemy is my enemy. We have human, the
[4:01] noble humans of Stormwind, the dwarves,
[4:04] night elves,
[4:06] the gnomes,
[4:08] the dr.
[4:12] They're pretty cool. Oh, that's pretty
[4:14] cool. The the Dra fled from demonic
[4:18] corruption, now lend their might to
[4:19] defend Azeroth. Morgan and the Pandarin.
[4:24] Interesting. That's a cool background.
[4:26] The orcs,
[4:28] the undead. Pretty cool. The torin
[4:33] troll. I like her protruding bottom
[4:37] fangs. That's awesome. Basically, half
[4:39] my time here, which no joke already took
[4:41] me over 20 minutes, was spent just
[4:43] deciding which race and job to choose. I
[4:46] feel like this is an important decision.
[4:48] You know, after you pick these things,
[4:50] you're kind of stuck with them forever,
[4:52] unless there's like an overpriced option
[4:54] to pay for the privilege to change your
[4:56] mind. Okay. So, I think I'm between
[4:58] night elf the drain
[5:02] draani draani draani.
[5:06] I don't know. I'm so bad with names. I
[5:08] don't know anything.
[5:18] I'm just going to go with the D the
[5:20] Drai. Let's uh let's take a look at the
[5:22] classes now. Man, I don't know what
[5:23] decision to make. Um MMOs are not a good
[5:27] game for people with decision paralysis.
[5:29] Jeez. All right. Okay. I think we're
[5:31] going to go with the D the Oh my god,
[5:34] the the Drai after all. And I think
[5:36] we're going to go with Hunter because
[5:37] I'm kind of intrigued by the idea of
[5:40] having your a pet that deals damage. And
[5:44] I like that they have a gun as compared
[5:46] to everybody else that has a bow and
[5:48] arrow. So I think we're going to go with
[5:49] the the dry after all. Okay, the tedious
[5:53] part. You thought that me selecting my
[5:56] race took a long time. The actual
[5:58] character customization is going to go
[5:59] crazy. Okay, unbeknownst to me, the UI
[6:02] here was like completely bugged out and
[6:05] not displaying properly, which in
[6:07] hindsight was probably due to the recent
[6:10] expansion without it being patched yet.
[6:12] And unfortunately, this would not be the
[6:15] last of the minorly infuriating and
[6:18] inconveniencing bugs that I would
[6:20] experience in my time with retail today.
[6:23] After tediously combing through all the
[6:25] available customization options on my
[6:27] favorite races, I decided to go ahead
[6:29] with a drain hunter and we finally
[6:32] embarked on our journey. You are a
[6:34] soldier of the Noble Alliance, a
[6:37] coalition of kingdoms upholding the
[6:40] ideals of valor and justice across
[6:43] Azeroth.
[6:45] Your commanders have learned that an
[6:47] expedition bound for the Dragon Isles
[6:50] has been shipwrecked on a deserted
[6:52] island. As a bold new recruit, you have
[6:56] joined a rescue mission led by the
[6:58] dragons Rathon and Caligos. and D to
[7:01] Okay, I'm an A and D to turn my
[7:03] character kind of person. A and D move
[7:06] your character. That's so strange. I'm
[7:09] I'm Oh, I've never I've never I don't
[7:11] have any experience with that. Why is
[7:12] that the default? That's interesting.
[7:14] Oh, I see. I see. I see. Okay, I'm going
[7:18] to Yeah. Okay, I'll stay with that,
[7:20] actually. Good thing [laughter] Good
[7:21] thing I tried it out. I thought it would
[7:22] just disappear when I selected it. Okay.
[7:24] Ya. Proud. Jamie. Jana. Ya. I I could I
[7:30] don't know if this is like an English
[7:31] speaker's problem or if I'm just stupid,
[7:33] but I can think of like four ways to say
[7:36] one name if I've never heard it spoken
[7:39] before. I don't know if that's just a me
[7:41] thing. I I don't know. We're going to go
[7:43] with Jana. That's probably the the the
[7:46] most likely
[7:49] solution answer to that to that problem.
[7:52] >> Good. Wow. Next.
[7:53] >> That was so much fun.
[7:54] >> It's raining. The skies were supposed to
[7:57] be clear.
[7:58] Uhoh. Her outfit is really cool. Oh, I
[8:02] really appreciate that. Let's Can we get
[8:04] a better look at that?
[8:07] That's awesome. She's got like a layered
[8:10] corset with a belt on top and then this
[8:12] bolero piece. That looks awesome. I
[8:15] really like that. Good. Looks like
[8:16] you've kept up with your hunter training
[8:18] during our voyage. I'm concerned about
[8:19] the sun turned weather. Spar with
[8:20] private coal while I investigate this.
[8:22] Yes, little weakling underling. Go do go
[8:25] busy yourself while I deal with
[8:26] important matters.
[8:28] >> I bet we'll save the expedition in no
[8:29] time.
[8:32] >> So true. Goal.
[8:38] >> I yield.
[8:39] >> Hold on. What's that sound? I think
[8:42] something big is headed our way.
[8:45] >> Captain,
[8:45] >> race for impact.
[8:47] >> Storm belong.
[8:48] >> Everyone below decks now.
[8:50] >> Oh, hell no. I'm out of here.
[8:52] >> What is that? will endure.
[8:55] >> Hello. That's so cute. Okay. Nice little
[8:59] rag tag of uh
[9:02] >> We cannot let fall.
[9:11] >> That does not bode well.
[9:19] >> Oh, what are those little guys? Oh my
[9:22] gosh.
[9:22] >> [laughter]
[9:24] >> They're so cute. After our ship was
[9:27] wrecked in the storm, we got our feet,
[9:29] or I guess Dre and I have hooves, so I
[9:31] guess we we got our metaphorical feet on
[9:33] some land, and I got some time to
[9:35] practice the basics and get familiar
[9:37] with how my class works. Can we fight
[9:40] the crab?
[9:43] Oh. Oh, just one shot the crab. I'm
[9:46] sorry.
[9:48] Oh, I love how I love how the mountain
[9:50] of coins is just a pre-rendered like
[9:52] blob and the coins just get cut off.
[9:55] That's so charming. I love that. These
[9:58] are the kind of things that I love in
[9:59] games, man. Is he dancing?
[10:02] Oh. Oh, he's got moves. Hell yeah,
[10:05] brother. Okay, I'm going to leave him to
[10:07] dance. We're going to head over here. It
[10:09] was genuinely really awesome to see some
[10:11] other players in the beginning areas. I
[10:13] don't know. That just felt really
[10:14] special to me. I'm not really used to
[10:16] playing active MMOs besides like Wizard
[10:19] 101, which is funnily like the most
[10:21] active MMO I've played. It was just cool
[10:24] to see people also starting their
[10:26] journey at the same time. So, it's at
[10:28] this point where we start to encounter
[10:30] our next set of mildly infuriating bugs.
[10:34] My mini map had no markers or character
[10:36] locations whatsoever. So, everything was
[10:39] all just like a shot in the dark here.
[10:42] In some ways, I guess we can say my
[10:44] first playthrough of Retail was a little
[10:47] bit more similar to classic than most
[10:49] people's. Oh my god, it's a goat.
[10:53] Hungry. All right. Yeah, but I'm looking
[10:55] at a goat. Hold on. For our next
[10:57] lifesaving mission, Captain Garrick
[10:59] sends us off to hunt some of the local
[11:01] wildlife on the island and fix up some
[11:03] emergency snacks. I love how in all
[11:06] MMOs, there's always these NPCs that are
[11:09] requesting you, the apparently very
[11:12] special hero, to perform incredibly
[11:14] menial tasks that they could very easily
[11:17] perform themselves. But I guess I kind
[11:20] of understand where Captain Garrick is
[11:22] coming from here. Because if you
[11:23] actually think about it, going out and
[11:25] getting your food, preparing it, and
[11:27] then having to cook it over a live fire
[11:30] would be painstakingly slow and
[11:32] annoying, which is something you
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[11:56] just want to sit down and finally play
[11:58] your game after a long day. But you want
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[12:04] again. Personally, I struggle with some
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[12:11] just can't know the ingredients of what
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[12:32] gut health. But if you're a little bit
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[13:00] see how factor works out for you. After
[13:02] serving Allaria her meats, we push
[13:04] deeper onto the island with Captain
[13:06] Garrick now in tow. What is that?
[13:10] What? What is that? A juggler? A a d
[13:16] jogger? I don't know. I'm not Let's go
[13:19] find out. Actually, I'm incredibly
[13:22] curious.
[13:23] I still can't see. I'm blind. I'm sorry.
[13:27] A Drokar.
[13:29] That's really awesome. Oh, I can talk to
[13:31] him. I'm not messing with that. I don't
[13:33] really know what's going on. I'm not
[13:34] messing around with that just yet. A
[13:36] level 30 elite. Okay, good thing we
[13:38] didn't go over there.
[13:39] >> Over here, the Quillbore are conducting
[13:42] some sort of ritual.
[13:56] What did he just do to that goat? Oh my
[13:59] gosh, he like smooched that goat. What
[14:00] just happened? I've got some good news
[14:02] and some very, very bad news.
[14:04] >> The hunt goat. As a hunter, you need a
[14:05] trustworthy beef at your side, or else
[14:07] Quillborg will slaughter you when you
[14:08] do. I get to kiss my own goat. Oh, hell
[14:11] yes. Oh my god. I think that we get our
[14:14] own goat. That's so awesome.
[14:18] >> I'm out of range.
[14:19] >> No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[14:24] Yes. Okay.
[14:26] Not kill it. We want to be friends. All
[14:28] right. From what I can gather, the
[14:30] cobbore are performing a shadow ritual
[14:32] on one of the expedition members. Slay
[14:34] Greco and save the captive member from
[14:36] the expedition. He may know where the
[14:37] others were taken.
[14:38] >> The expedition is counting on us.
[14:41] >> Whoops. Whoops. Wait, wait, wait. Hold
[14:42] on, I got L. Okay. No, not L. What was
[14:45] it? I
[14:47] It was L. Okay. I thought that was map.
[14:50] Sorry. That brings up the same thing.
[14:51] Okay. Um, Slice 7 within the Quill Brier
[14:56] patch. Okay. Blah blah blah blah. Cool.
[14:59] Can we name Can we name our pet?
[15:03] rename.
[15:05] Oh. Oh. What? What? What's going to be
[15:07] our pet's name? I tried to give our new
[15:09] goat my name of choice, but for some
[15:12] reason, the name Vegeta was classified
[15:14] as reserved. Whatever that means, I
[15:17] don't know. So, we had to settle for
[15:19] second best.
[15:21] How come we could do Goku, but we can't
[15:22] do Vegeta? That's stupid. All right,
[15:25] we'll just deal with this. My first
[15:27] impressions here are really great.
[15:29] Overall, everything has been smooth and
[15:31] easy to understand for players of all
[15:33] different skill levels. And instead of
[15:34] just like being thrown in and expected
[15:36] to figure it out, there's a decent bit
[15:38] of structure, and there's still intrigue
[15:41] there with the little engaging story
[15:43] unfolding in the background. Even early
[15:45] on, I'm appreciating the character
[15:46] design a lot, and the atmospheric
[15:48] design. It's all really whimsical and
[15:51] light-hearted, which surprised me a bit
[15:54] since my impression of the Warcraft
[15:55] games are much more dark and a little
[15:58] bit I think you guys are going to know
[16:00] what I'm talking about here, but a
[16:01] little bit cold. I suppose it's really
[16:04] difficult to describe that early
[16:07] American fantasy RPG style. I'm not
[16:10] really sure what words to use, but I
[16:12] just had a different impression of the
[16:14] series. We next regroup with the
[16:16] recovered expedition leaders and deploy
[16:18] some interesting tools to scope out the
[16:21] commotion ahead of us. From that, we
[16:24] find out that one of our dragon escorts,
[16:26] Rathon, has been captured by ogres. And
[16:29] we begin crafting a kind of silly rescue
[16:32] mission. Oh, they have a baby. Oh my
[16:35] gosh, that's so cute.
[16:38] Oh, I love that. The ambiance here is so
[16:41] amazing. I really love it. It just feels
[16:44] really alive. I found the interactive
[16:46] elements like the resisomatic really
[16:48] engaging and just plain fun and it
[16:51] helped keep everything interesting as
[16:53] compared to the usual get quest do thing
[16:56] turn-in quest repeat cycle of most.
[17:00] After following through with our plan to
[17:01] recover Rathon through some odd methods,
[17:05] we cleared out the area, secured the
[17:07] target, and our objective now changes
[17:09] over to rescuing Caligos. The second
[17:12] dragon still held captive by the ogres.
[17:14] >> Chaotic ogres are trying to start a
[17:16] ritual to gain control of him and his
[17:18] magic.
[17:21] >> And there it is. [snorts] Caligos and
[17:24] his power will be theirs [music] at
[17:25] these rituals finish. I will do what I
[17:29] can to slow down their magic while our
[17:31] forces disrupt these foul rituals.
[17:34] We will not let Caligos fall to such
[17:37] beasts. For the Alliance.
[17:40] I was so excited at this part because
[17:42] another player actually approached me
[17:45] asking for my help with a boss and it
[17:47] was just so awesome that other people
[17:49] were actually online. I kid you not,
[17:52] this was like my first time being
[17:53] approached on an MMO and it made my
[17:55] whole impression of the game even more
[17:57] positive. After finishing up with our
[18:00] friend, which I later realized was for
[18:02] an optional quest I did not accept and
[18:04] then could not finish on my own without
[18:07] help later on, I progressed forward to
[18:09] explore the rest of the island and save
[18:11] the last two remaining expedition
[18:13] members. I find it a little strange that
[18:15] I you don't see yourself on the mini
[18:17] map. That's
[18:20] intriguing.
[18:21] >> Fresh meat.
[18:27] >> [screaming]
[18:29] >> That's a That's a cool design. I like
[18:31] the the purpley colors. That's fun. I
[18:34] like when things are colorful.
[18:37] Yeah.
[18:39] Burn that thing. Burn. Burn that. What
[18:42] was it? What was it called? The totem.
[18:45] Burn that totem.
[18:47] Oh, they are really cool. [screaming]
[18:49] I love humanoid monster enemies.
[18:53] Oh, she's a little bit different.
[18:56] like [screaming] the the goth harpy.
[19:00] [groaning]
[19:01] >> At least
[19:03] I won't starve.
[19:08] >> Oh, that's a little sad, actually. I
[19:10] don't know. This place is magical. We'll
[19:13] get you in a second, Marie. But just
[19:14] look at this. Wow. I love the way that
[19:18] looks.
[19:20] The flat rendered skulls. That's
[19:23] awesome. I love it. I love this.
[19:27] [screaming]
[19:28] [groaning]
[19:38] Got him. All right, cool. Before we were
[19:41] allowed to continue on our rescue
[19:43] mission, I had to complete a couple job
[19:45] related quests that helped teach me how
[19:47] to actually use the skills that I've
[19:49] been learning, which I actually really
[19:51] like that there was some structure here.
[19:53] And it made me feel like I had some
[19:55] concept of what I was supposed to do
[19:56] instead of just guessing around because
[19:58] honestly, I probably would not have
[20:00] understood these things as much without
[20:02] the help of Huxsworth. I have prior
[20:04] experience with games and MMOs, so I can
[20:08] see how this is a little bit of like
[20:10] drawn out handholdiness, but on the flip
[20:12] side, I do see the value in making it
[20:14] accessible for newbies who might not
[20:16] have the same experience. This is just
[20:19] going to be a pet simulator now. That's
[20:21] that's great. This is my new main focus.
[20:24] I wonder what else we can make pets. I
[20:25] think we probably couldn't make uh Oh,
[20:28] let's get a deer. Wait, come on. Oh,
[20:32] can't Oh, I have to make them stop
[20:34] moving.
[20:36] Oh, I can do it.
[20:39] Oh, they don't like me.
[20:41] Oh, they don't like me for that. Oh,
[20:44] they Oh. Oh, they hate me. Oh, they hate
[20:47] me. Oh, wait. Wait. They can faint
[20:49] death right?
[20:52] Okay. Oh, no.
[20:55] Let's move. Let's move. They don't like
[20:58] it. Are they still on me? No. Go away.
[21:02] No, no, no. I'm in I'm in a safe area.
[21:03] Go away. Okay, I think we made it. I
[21:05] think we got it. Okay, you're injured.
[21:07] Recuperate to restore. Okay.
[21:12] Watch as your health recovers. Amazing.
[21:15] Oh, they're just hanging out now. Oh,
[21:21] hello.
[21:23] It's a little family.
[21:26] Oh, he's so cool.
[21:30] I hope they're not coming back to beat
[21:31] me up. I'm just going to avoid them.
[21:35] Okay, so you might notice a bit of an
[21:37] outfit change here. I was a little
[21:39] pressed for time and had to return and
[21:41] finish the next day. So, if you were
[21:43] wondering, that's why. I'm also going to
[21:46] take this as my chance to mention if
[21:48] you're interested in watching a mostly
[21:50] unclipped version of my gameplay
[21:53] experience here that is available on my
[21:55] Patreon along with a whole bunch of
[21:57] other exclusive content. I need a
[22:00] target. Nice area looting. Looting a
[22:04] course will not also loot all nearby
[22:05] enemies. Oh, awesome. Okay, what do we
[22:08] get? A new piece of gear.
[22:18] What? Why does it keep doing this?
[22:26] This seems to be a problem. We finally
[22:28] got rid of that. I don't know what was
[22:29] going on. Run the exiled.
[22:33] Okay,
[22:33] >> you will be
[22:34] >> more like dead the exiled. Got him. Ow.
[22:40] Oh, he's draining my spirit. Can I break
[22:43] that? Okay.
[22:45] I don't like that.
[22:48] >> Is he gonna blow up? Come on.
[22:52] >> I knew it.
[22:53] >> I need to return the favor. Hop on.
[22:56] >> Hop on. Oh,
[22:59] >> you
[22:59] >> He's a druid. That's awesome.
[23:01] >> I guess we just sit around for the ride.
[23:04] >> Man, this kind of makes me regret not
[23:05] being a druid. This seems awesome. These
[23:07] poor creatures. We cannot stop to help
[23:10] them.
[23:12] >> You did a good job saving those people
[23:14] and dealing with those spiders.
[23:16] >> Those spiders were victims, too. They
[23:18] just lost their home.
[23:20] >> Yeah. Well, I guess you could see it
[23:23] that way.
[23:28] >> You should have known better than to say
[23:30] that to a druid.
[23:34] You are just telling me how much you
[23:36] hate spiders.
[23:39] >> The light shines on all creatures. That
[23:42] does not like them. [laughter]
[23:47] >> Together, we'll see our way through
[23:49] this.
[23:49] >> Prepared with our new understanding of
[23:51] our class skills, we were now ready for
[23:53] the final push. Hello.
[23:56] >> Sacrifices.
[23:58] >> Go to cooking pit. Wave at Gorgroth.
[24:02] >> Got it. Ooh,
[24:04] >> that guy
[24:04] >> we have here.
[24:09] >> Take them to the back.
[24:12] >> Dance in the cooking area. Optional.
[24:15] >> THEN ALL WILL BOW before us. This one
[24:19] got some
[24:19] >> Oh, yeah. [laughter]
[24:21] >> You dance good. [clears throat]
[24:24] >> Thank you, brother.
[24:26] >> I think you're taking the ogre act a
[24:27] little too far.
[24:29] Nah, definitely not. See you later,
[24:31] brothers. W
[24:36] >> I really did like these guys. I hate to
[24:38] have to kill them. Unfortunate. They
[24:41] were cool.
[24:42] >> I need to target something first.
[24:47] >> Sorry, W. So far during the time I've
[24:50] spent playing, I've been pretty
[24:51] impressed by the atmospheric design. I
[24:54] noticed a lot of intentional
[24:55] environmental storytelling. Like the way
[24:58] the different areas are designed was
[25:00] more than just your average place assets
[25:02] randomly here kind of setup. And I can
[25:05] tell it was thoughtfully and lovingly
[25:07] done. The ogres had a fun little base
[25:09] and it felt very lived in like the
[25:12] enemies were really using and living in
[25:14] this space. I wanted to mention this
[25:17] because terrain and environmental design
[25:21] I feel like is kind of an aspect of
[25:23] games that often gets overlooked since
[25:25] it's enhancing the [music] experience on
[25:27] a more subconscious level for most
[25:30] players, but it's definitely a major
[25:31] part of the overall enjoyment of
[25:34] everything and retail really delivered
[25:36] here on this front. After dealing with
[25:38] all the ogres, we got to experience a
[25:40] little taste of what dungeons are like.
[25:46] We've almost cleared the room. Keep
[25:48] pushing.
[25:52] >> What' I get? All right. I can't be
[25:54] bothered with this right now. Please
[25:55] leave me alone. Tutorial. Oh my god.
[26:00] What's this new this new gear that I've
[26:02] got? Okay, maybe I'll just go away if we
[26:05] equipped it. Jeez, please. Okay, go
[26:09] away. Hello, Trump.
[26:11] >> One of top lieutenants. A little rat or
[26:14] a spider. Hello, spider. Decaying
[26:16] corpse. Oh.
[26:20] >> Oh, it's our dragon friend. No.
[26:23] Is that an evil dragon? Oh, no. It's our
[26:24] friend. I think we had two dragons in
[26:26] the beginning. All right. I'm a little
[26:28] confused.
[26:31] Okay.
[26:32] >> The bosses are immune to status effects.
[26:36] >> No, he's completing the ritual.
[26:38] >> Nothing happened. I think we stopped it.
[26:41] I think so too. I feel like I should
[26:44] mention here while we fight Caligos that
[26:48] I actually had no idea who Caligos and
[26:51] Ratheon were while playing. Like I was
[26:54] hearing what the NPCs were saying, but I
[26:56] didn't put it together somehow that they
[26:59] were the same dragons that were with us
[27:02] in the beginning of everything.
[27:05] So we Oh, they're the dragons.
[27:10] Okay, that makes a lot more sense now.
[27:12] Okay, okay, this is him the whole time.
[27:15] Okay, cool. He also has an awesome
[27:17] outfit. His feet look like they're
[27:19] clipping into the floor, though. Okay,
[27:21] let's not worry about that.
[27:22] >> How can I help?
[27:23] >> Of course, you can consider aspects to
[27:25] be the leaders of their respective
[27:26] dragon flights. There are blue, red,
[27:28] green, bronze, and black, [music] red,
[27:29] green, blondes. Let me try one more
[27:32] time. There are black, red, green,
[27:34] bronze, and blue. My dragon flight is
[27:36] focused on the preservation of arcane
[27:38] magic. I'm ready to get out of here.
[27:40] Okay, now we can probably see his feet.
[27:42] Ah, little little pointy shoes. I like
[27:44] that. Cool outfit. I also like his hair.
[27:47] Really good designs here. I'm I'm really
[27:48] satisfied. They all feel very like
[27:50] whimsical, and I'm really digging the
[27:52] whimsical, the whimsy. I guess our only
[27:55] option now is to head out.
[28:10] I did not expect to see you again so
[28:13] soon, my friend, after you'd answered
[28:17] the call of the aisles.
[28:20] >> Something has happened, Katgar.
[28:23] Something terrible.
[28:26] >> Galacos,
[28:28] tell me.
[28:30] >> It all happened so quickly. And Ratheon,
[28:34] young as he is, bravely or perhaps
[28:37] foolishly tried to stop it.
[28:43] But he was too late.
[28:47] The Tempest had already been unleashed.
[29:04] That's like the big evil dragon
[29:07] movie
[29:08] >> with a message. They are coming to
[29:11] cleanse the world of the Titans stain.
[29:18] Alexrazza,
[29:20] who is she?
[29:22] >> What is she?
[29:24] She is Razagth,
[29:28] youngest of the primal incarnates.
[29:32] >> Incarnate
[29:34] four dangerous adherence of the
[29:36] elemental forces
[29:39] >> of the aspects.
[29:40] >> That sounds familiar.
[29:41] >> Our flights embraced the Titan's gifts.
[29:44] >> They did not.
[29:48] >> The war that followed was
[29:50] >> They're cool. These
[29:51] >> unimaginable.
[29:53] And it took all of our strength combined
[29:56] to banish them.
[29:58] >> If they were so dangerous, why were they
[30:00] not destroyed?
[30:03] >> I hadn't the heart to do it.
[30:06] We were once as clutch mates.
[30:12] >> Time, it seems, has not quelled their
[30:14] fury. And look at us. Should she free
[30:18] her kin now, we haven't the strength to
[30:21] stop them. And if Irram's hunger is
[30:25] unleashed,
[30:27] >> then we have no choice. If we are to be
[30:31] protectors once more, the aspects of
[30:34] [music] our dragon flights must be made
[30:37] a new.
[30:42] >> Our queen is determined, Kgar, but we've
[30:45] only just begun to find who we are
[30:47] again. And I fear that without help, we
[30:52] may never get the chance to see our
[30:54] future secured.
[30:59] H.
[31:09] Then it seems the mortal races too must
[31:13] answer the call
[31:16] and face the storms ahead.
[31:20] >> That's us.
[31:23] >> Oh, that's cool artwork. Oh my gosh,
[31:26] they look so awesome in this art.
[31:29] Heck yeah. With the island secured and
[31:32] Caliggo safe, he brings us to the Dragon
[31:34] Isles, concluding the little intro area
[31:36] and bringing us to presumably the rest
[31:39] of the game and the end of my initial
[31:41] play session. That's an awesome eagle,
[31:44] Wild Feather. Oh, sweet. Maybe we can
[31:47] make him a pet. What's this one?
[31:51] It's a bunny. Oh my gosh. Earlier I was
[31:53] like, the one thing that's going to make
[31:54] this game better is if there were
[31:56] bunnies. Wait a minute.
[31:58] Can I
[32:00] Can I
[32:03] in No.
[32:05] No.
[32:07] I can't I can't make him my pet. That is
[32:10] tragic. Is there any way that I could
[32:12] have him as a pet in the future? That is
[32:16] devastating. Oh, I have a lot of
[32:19] thoughts. I especially like the
[32:21] structure. It all felt like a purposeful
[32:23] chain of events with a final goal rather
[32:25] than just the average random asks from
[32:28] random NPCs. But I want to save my
[32:31] reflections for the end of the video and
[32:34] hop right into classic now. Okay, it's
[32:37] time for the part of the video where we
[32:40] try out classic now. Let's just go ahead
[32:43] and start making our character because,
[32:45] you know, that's going to take a while.
[32:46] Okay, so there are significantly less
[32:49] race options here than in retail, which
[32:52] I suppose makes sense. This will
[32:54] definitely um make the process here a
[32:57] little bit uh shorter, I hope. So on the
[33:02] alliance, we have humans, the dwarves,
[33:06] night elves, and the gnomes. And then on
[33:09] the horde side, we have the orcs,
[33:11] undead, torin, and the troll. So, I
[33:13] guess that's like our main original
[33:15] eight races. I want to preemptively say
[33:18] that I think I'm just going to go ahead
[33:20] with the Alliance. Again, it's
[33:22] interesting to see the differences
[33:23] between like how the these races have
[33:26] evolved in the retail version with all
[33:28] like the graphical updates and
[33:29] everything. Especially the trolls have
[33:31] really uh had a bit of a a glow up in
[33:34] retail. This one's pretty cool though,
[33:36] actually. I quite like that. If I was
[33:38] going to go for horde, I would probably
[33:40] pick a troll to be honest. Okay, I think
[33:44] I'm deciding between night elf and
[33:47] human. Um, I'm assuming they start off
[33:51] in two different places.
[33:54] You know what? I don't want to overthink
[33:56] it this time. I think we're just going
[33:57] to go right with human. I think that's
[33:59] kind of like the iconic starting place
[34:03] for WoW, if I remember correctly.
[34:06] Honestly, I don't really know, but I
[34:07] think I'm just going to go like pretty
[34:08] basic this time. The first thing I
[34:10] noticed, of course, was that there were
[34:12] a lot less race options here compared to
[34:14] retail. And in general, there were just
[34:17] a lot less options for everything, which
[34:19] is not necessarily a problem. I just
[34:21] personally love character customization.
[34:23] So, more is always better to me, but I
[34:26] wasn't necessarily dissatisfied with any
[34:28] of the options here. What did stick out
[34:30] to me here was the style compared to WoW
[34:33] in its shiny polished state. There were
[34:36] a lot less polygons here and it was just
[34:39] really cozy and homely. Okay, for
[34:41] today's journey, we're going to be
[34:42] accompanied by Clovery, our human
[34:45] warrior. I decided to just go basic with
[34:48] it and not overthink it. I just want to
[34:50] get that like very basic classic WoW
[34:54] experience. I feel like warrior human is
[34:56] like the iconic way to start. So, let's
[34:59] just do it.
[35:14] The noble humans of Stormwind are a
[35:17] proud, tenacious race. Though the recent
[35:20] invasion of the demonic Burning Legion
[35:22] decimated their sister kingdom of Lord
[35:24] Aron, the defenders of Stormwind stand
[35:28] vigilant against any who would threaten
[35:30] the sanctity of their lands.
[35:33] Nestled in the foothills of Elwin
[35:35] Forest, Stormwind City is one of the
[35:38] last bastions of human power in the
[35:40] world. Ruled by the child king Anduin
[35:44] Ren, the people of Stormwind remain
[35:46] steadfast in their commitment to the
[35:49] Grand Alliance.
[35:51] Backed by their stalwart allies, the
[35:53] armies of Stormwind have been called
[35:55] away to fight the savage horde on
[35:57] distant battlefields. With the armies
[36:00] gone, the defense of Stormwind [music]
[36:03] now falls to its proud citizens.
[36:06] You must defend the kingdom against the
[36:08] foul mongrels that encroach upon it and
[36:11] hunt down the subversive traitors who
[36:14] seek to destroy it from within.
[36:17] Now is the time for heroes. Now
[36:20] humanity's greatest chapter can be told.
[36:28] I love how I just like panned into a
[36:30] different player that wasn't me. Okay,
[36:33] welcome to World of Warcraft. When you
[36:35] encounter something new, a help button
[36:36] will appear in the bottom center of your
[36:37] screen. Click the button for a brief
[36:39] explanation of how to interact with that
[36:40] part of the world. These hints will
[36:42] start with the basics and then progress
[36:43] to more advanced topics as you gain an
[36:45] experience. Thank you for playing and
[36:46] good luck in your adventure. I guess
[36:48] we'll just tips. I feel like I could I
[36:50] could probably use that. Okay, so I am
[36:54] already
[36:56] seeing a huge difference between this
[36:58] and retail just like right off the bat.
[37:01] We start this one with an actual setup
[37:03] of a story, which I really appreciate.
[37:05] While I really like the atmosphere of
[37:07] retail, I do feel like we were just kind
[37:09] of thrown in without any kind of
[37:11] explanation on why we should care about
[37:14] anything that's going on. This place is
[37:16] so cool.
[37:18] I love this area. Wow.
[37:22] The style is so great and nostalgic. It
[37:24] makes me nostalgic for something that I
[37:26] didn't even experience. Hello.
[37:29] >> You need something?
[37:31] >> I hope you strapped your belt on tight,
[37:33] young warrior, because there is work to
[37:34] do here in Northshshire. And I don't
[37:36] mean farming. The Strowman guards are
[37:38] hardressed to keep the peace here with
[37:39] so many of us in distant lands and so so
[37:41] many threats pressing close. And so
[37:43] we're enlisting the aid of anyone
[37:44] willing to defend their home and their
[37:46] alliance.
[37:52] Marshall McBride. Hello. Hey, citizen.
[37:55] You look like a step one. We guards are
[37:56] spread a little thin out here and could
[37:58] use your help.
[38:00] I quite like how the quest boxes kind of
[38:03] unveil themselves as they go. It's
[38:05] pretty uh engaging. I I I think it's
[38:07] kind of unique and nice. Your first task
[38:09] is one of cleansing Clovery. A clan of
[38:11] cobalts have invested the woods to the
[38:12] north. Go there and fight the cobalt
[38:14] vermin you find. reduce their numbers
[38:15] that we may one day drive them from
[38:17] Northshshire.
[38:19] >> Okay,
[38:20] our first little bout of action. Let's
[38:22] see how it goes. Before heading off to
[38:25] take care of Marshall McBride's Cobalt
[38:27] issues, I picked up a couple side quests
[38:29] to complete along the way to familiarize
[38:31] myself with the combat system.
[38:33] Everything has been very figure it out
[38:35] yourself, aside from the little tip
[38:37] boxes that pop up here and there, but I
[38:39] don't necessarily view this as a bad
[38:41] thing. Sometimes figuring it out and
[38:42] using just a little bit of your brain
[38:44] can be some of the fun. I encountered a
[38:47] bit of a learning curve when it came to
[38:48] the auto attack, but I think that was
[38:50] genuinely also me just being stupid and
[38:53] having basic comprehension issues. Also
[38:55] not explained was the rage system, which
[38:58] allowed me to use stronger warrior
[39:00] skills when I accumulated enough rage
[39:02] from auto attacking. Warrior abilities
[39:04] require rage. Rage is gained when you
[39:05] cause damage or take damage. In order to
[39:08] use this, we need 15 rage. Okay, got it.
[39:13] So, that used up our rage. Okay, so when
[39:15] I hit the attack thing, it will take me
[39:19] out of attack, it seems like. Yeah. And
[39:23] then after that, I died on the very
[39:26] first quest.
[39:27] >> What?
[39:30] I died already. And very suddenly it
[39:34] dawned on me there were no screen
[39:37] elements or special effects to alert you
[39:39] to your current status. I felt like such
[39:42] a pampered new age gamer here because
[39:44] this is just simply not something I ever
[39:47] really had to worry about much before in
[39:50] other games. After my wakeup call, I
[39:53] started to get into the flow of it and
[39:55] began to really enjoy the ambiance of it
[39:57] all. I noticed a big difference between
[39:58] my energy playing classic compared to
[40:01] the retail starting area. It was
[40:03] definitely less engaging in the way of
[40:06] constant things happening and
[40:07] stimulating you, but it wasn't
[40:09] necessarily boring by any means either.
[40:12] I wasn't really being held to any
[40:14] specific path or direct story here. It
[40:16] was overall less structured, which has
[40:18] its pros and cons for sure. It's just a
[40:20] different experience altogether. This is
[40:23] such a wonderful early gaming
[40:25] environment. Can we equipped any of
[40:27] this? Do we We don't have any gloves.
[40:29] Okay, cool. Um, leather vest. Guess we
[40:33] can put that on, right? What's this?
[40:37] Recruit shirt. Okay, so we have a chest
[40:39] and then we have like a shirt option.
[40:41] Okay, cool. All right, getting a little
[40:44] dripped out. Okay, the starting outfit
[40:46] is really awesome, though. I do really
[40:48] like it. Let's kill some more cobalts.
[40:50] Hopefully, we're a little bit more
[40:51] robust now. Take a little bit less
[40:54] damage.
[40:55] >> [snorts]
[40:56] >> Oh yeah, I think we're already doing a
[40:58] lot better. I continued on to fight the
[41:01] cobalts per request, but I eventually
[41:04] realized that you had to specifically
[41:06] make sure you were fighting the correct
[41:08] enemy, which is something I am also not
[41:10] used to happening. Oh, am I not getting
[41:13] progression from fighting the workers?
[41:15] Do I need to fight only the vermin? I
[41:17] think that I think yes, it does seem
[41:19] that that is true. Okay. Oops. Two armor
[41:23] versus four armor. Don't mind if I do.
[41:26] And a cloak. Is this a ver? Okay,
[41:28] vermin. Good. That's what we need. So, I
[41:31] don't think that the workers were
[41:35] going towards our little quest here.
[41:37] Uh-oh.
[41:44] What is that? Mark of the Wild increases
[41:47] armor by 65 and all attributes by two.
[41:49] That's awesome. Causes three nature
[41:51] damage to attackers. Why? Why' that
[41:54] happen? Okay. I mean, I'm very happy
[41:56] about that, but I'm a little confused
[41:58] where that came from. Oh, we're going so
[42:01] much faster now. Whoa. Okay, let's let's
[42:03] finish up these guys. Hello, Clovery.
[42:05] I'm getting hungry. Did you get that
[42:06] tough wolf meat? Here you go. You've
[42:08] been busy. I can't wait to cook up that
[42:09] wolf meat. I have some things here. You
[42:11] might want to take your pick. Um,
[42:14] to be honest, I think what I have might
[42:16] be better. Maybe the bracers.
[42:19] No. 25 shoes. 34. M.
[42:23] Okay, I'll just take these. Man, the
[42:25] cobalts have better armor than the
[42:26] humans. No wonder we're having a hard
[42:28] time taking care of them. Jeez, who are
[42:29] these guys over here? Godric Rothgar,
[42:32] what's up with you? Is he a shopkeep? We
[42:34] can sell some junk,
[42:35] >> friend.
[42:36] >> Aha.
[42:39] Okay let's
[42:40] >> I supply only the finest goods.
[42:43] >> Oh, why was that oddly sensual? Can we
[42:45] hear that again?
[42:48] >> See you around. What can I do for you?
[42:51] [laughter]
[42:52] Okay, Dermont John's, let's see what
[42:54] you've got. Looking around, I feel like
[42:57] even though retail is like touted as
[42:59] this very like whimsy, Disneyi kind of
[43:02] game, I think that classic has a lot of
[43:05] its own whimsy, it's just in a different
[43:08] font, if that makes sense. It's still
[43:10] very whimsical. It's just done
[43:13] differently. Marshall McBride gave us
[43:15] another cobalt related quest and I got
[43:17] the chance to pick up a new class skill
[43:19] from the warrior trainer Lane along the
[43:21] way. Ah, you got my letter, Clovery.
[43:23] Good. There's been an influx of warriors
[43:26] in Elwin recently, which is good for
[43:27] Stormwind but bad for the cobalts and
[43:29] defas in the area.
[43:32] >> See you around.
[43:32] >> Defas,
[43:34] I don't freaking know. Okay, get
[43:36] yourself squared away, learn the layout
[43:37] of the land, and come back to me
[43:38] whenever you need training. I'll be here
[43:39] night or day. This guy never sleeps.
[43:41] Lain awake 24/7. He's a special kind of
[43:44] breed of man. The knights of the silver
[43:46] hand have done well making this place
[43:47] fairly safe, but as you meet other
[43:48] citizens, I think you'll find they have
[43:50] problems they could use some help with.
[43:51] Help a warrior can give them. Good luck.
[43:54] I don't know why I literally can't read
[43:55] any of these quests today. Jeez. Uh,
[43:57] what level are we? Three. Okay, so when
[44:00] we get up to four, we can come back to
[44:01] Lain and he'll teach us some more tricks
[44:05] of the trade, I suppose. All right, what
[44:07] are we doing now? Cobalts, I believe.
[44:09] Correct. Well, it does not appear that
[44:12] there's anywhere on the map to tell us
[44:15] where to go.
[44:18] Um,
[44:19] so we're just going to have to figure it
[44:21] out, I suppose. I'm going to say, oh,
[44:26] this kind of looks like a cave over
[44:27] there. So, I'm going to head over there.
[44:30] We have to camp to the Echer Ridge Mine
[44:33] to the north, which that is a north.
[44:35] Okay, let's head up over there. I
[44:37] believe that this is the correct Is
[44:40] there an auto walk? No. Cool. Don't know
[44:43] why I tried. So, let's head up over
[44:46] there and see see if my uh instincts are
[44:50] correct. And then I encountered a bit
[44:53] more confusion again about what enemy to
[44:55] kill. The quest specified cobalt workers
[44:58] and I was only finding cobalt laborers
[45:01] within the described area in my quest
[45:03] log. It was really interesting to see
[45:05] how much my brain relied on having some
[45:08] kind of marker on my target enemies to
[45:10] do that mental work for me. These are
[45:13] all laborers. No.
[45:16] What the hell? Am I missing something?
[45:19] After I searched the mine like twice
[45:21] over, I realized that there was just no
[45:23] way the cobalt workers could be here.
[45:25] And I finally came up with the idea to
[45:27] go and check outside instead. Okay, so
[45:30] I'm assuming the next quest is going to
[45:31] kill the laborers. did all that for
[45:33] nothing. All right, it's okay. We were
[45:35] doing a little recon. It's all right.
[45:37] They have little candles on their head.
[45:39] Oh my god. I just noticed. I was like,
[45:41] why are they dropping candles? Is that
[45:43] how they see in the mines? That's That's
[45:46] really cute. Oh my god. This is such a
[45:49] delightful little forest starting area.
[45:53] The little forest areas in every MMO are
[45:55] are just so charming. It's I feel like
[45:57] it's something that I never get sick of.
[45:59] I think a lot of people want something
[46:00] new when it comes to gaming experiences,
[46:02] like a brand new, never-before-seen
[46:04] experience, something different, never
[46:06] done before. Personally, I am very happy
[46:09] and content to just kind of do the same
[46:11] things that I like over and over and
[46:13] over again. It's good for a reason. It's
[46:15] like, oh, that's so cliche. Yeah, it's
[46:17] cliche because people like it. So why
[46:20] why would you reinvent the wheel? Just
[46:22] do the thing that everybody likes. We
[46:24] all just got to stop trying to be so
[46:26] different. Just admit that it's good and
[46:28] enjoy it. Man, I don't like hearing all
[46:30] these coal balls in our mind. No good
[46:31] can come of this. Here, take this as
[46:32] payment. And when you're ready to speak
[46:34] to me again, I'd like you to go back to
[46:35] the mines one more time. All right. I I
[46:37] think I'm pretty sure what we're going
[46:38] to have to do now.
[46:42] Oh my gosh, I love how they're just flat
[46:44] images. It's so charming, though. Like,
[46:46] can you really look at that and tell me
[46:48] that it's bad? I mean, like, I guess it
[46:50] is objectively bad, but doesn't it just
[46:54] like warm your heart? The little
[46:57] onedimensional flower pictures like I
[46:59] don't know. There's just a charm to it,
[47:02] and I can't like I can't see it as bad.
[47:04] I can just see it as charming,
[47:07] personally. I picked up some more side
[47:09] quests from Deputy Willam related to the
[47:11] Defias Brotherhood and got an
[47:13] opportunity to get a new weapon and
[47:15] explore around a bit more. All right,
[47:17] let's figure out let's uh think about
[47:20] where we might need to go. Um
[47:24] there is no more zooming in. I'm just
[47:25] going to
[47:27] follow this path. I suppose it seems
[47:31] like there is a farm. Okay, so here's
[47:34] the river. There's a little bit of a
[47:37] bridge over there.
[47:40] I'm sure we could just walk across a
[47:41] river though, like without a bridge,
[47:44] right? Maybe. I think so. The bandits
[47:47] are somewhere
[47:50] by the Okay, I suppose these are the
[47:51] bandits. Yes. At this point, I was just
[47:54] spending my time enjoying the vibes and
[47:56] the chill back and forth loop while
[47:58] taking in the sights and sounds around
[48:00] me.
[48:00] >> You need something?
[48:02] >> You're no warlock. I have no time for
[48:03] you. But oh jeez. That's okay. I
[48:05] wouldn't trade Lain for the world. I
[48:08] don't need any of their demons. Jeez. So
[48:11] stuck up. All right, Lane. Let's see
[48:13] what you've got. Okay. Charge
[48:17] a deer.
[48:23] Oh my gosh,
[48:25] it's so cute. Hello.
[48:29] Oh,
[48:32] hey buddy.
[48:34] [laughter]
[48:35] What a silly little face. I love him.
[48:37] Hello, friend. He's eating He's eating
[48:40] the grass. Oh. Oh my gosh. This is
[48:43] amazing. Peak game design. Little
[48:45] bunnies and deer. Amazing. This is the
[48:49] best game ever. Now, that is what I call
[48:52] style. That That's a pretty nice set.
[48:54] Something that I also found a little
[48:58] funky. It's just that to be honest, in
[49:01] um retail there weren't a lot of early
[49:03] armor options. Like everything that you
[49:05] would put on would look pretty similar.
[49:07] And not going to lie, the sexiness of
[49:10] this one uh kind of kind of peak design
[49:13] here as well. Garrick Padfoot, a
[49:16] cutthroat who's plagued our farmers and
[49:17] merchants for weeks, was seen at a shack
[49:19] near the vineyards, which lies east of
[49:20] the abbey and across the bridge. Okay, I
[49:23] have to remember that. East of the abbey
[49:25] and across the bridge. Bring me the
[49:27] villain's head and earn his bounty. But
[49:29] be wary, Clovery. Garrick has gathered a
[49:31] gang of thugs around him. He will not be
[49:32] an easy man to reach.
[49:34] >> Okay, so where would that be?
[49:38] east of the abbey
[49:43] and across the bridge. Wouldn't that
[49:45] just be where we came from? Why would he
[49:47] not specify that? That's literally where
[49:49] we were just sent. But oh, a horse.
[49:53] Hello.
[49:54] That is a very nice horse model. I was
[49:59] expecting it to be a lot more janky. A
[50:02] lot of early games for some reason they
[50:04] struggle with the ecquin but um that was
[50:09] impressive. Like the deer was a lot more
[50:11] janky than that. Aren't deer considered
[50:14] like
[50:16] are they in the same family as horses?
[50:21] I don't know.
[50:23] I believe
[50:27] he has to be somewhere. But there's no
[50:28] house here.
[50:36] A shack near the vineyards. Is there a
[50:38] shack
[50:39] here?
[50:41] That's not a shack. That's just
[50:43] containers.
[50:45] Those are Those are portaotties.
[50:51] I feel like if Shaq was around here,
[50:53] we'd definitely see him. There's the
[50:54] Shack. All right.
[50:57] All right. Garrick.
[50:59] Garrick's head. Ew. Let me just take
[51:02] your head and put it in my bag. Ew.
[51:04] After successfully handing over the
[51:06] severed head of Garrick Padfoot that was
[51:08] somehow stored inside our small bag, I
[51:11] picked up a stronger sword and commenced
[51:13] on a couple more side quests before
[51:15] finally venturing forth to Goldshshire.
[51:18] I am not exactly sure how to get there,
[51:20] but I'm sure if we just follow this
[51:22] path, we'll probably probably find our
[51:26] way. A sheep. Why hello. Oh, he's so
[51:31] cute.
[51:33] Little blackheaded sheep. I feel like
[51:36] it's kind of rare for MMOs, at least in
[51:40] my experience. I haven't played every
[51:42] MMO out there, but I feel like I've
[51:43] played my fair share, to be honest, of
[51:45] old and new MMOs. And I don't find, for
[51:48] whatever reason, it seems to be like a
[51:50] very simple and obvious thing that you
[51:51] should just do in an MMO. Many of them
[51:54] don't have just roaming friendly
[51:57] critters and animals around and most
[52:00] things are all just like hostile mobs to
[52:03] fight. And the inclusion of just having
[52:06] wildlife here and critters and little
[52:08] animals is so amazing and I appreciate
[52:11] it so much. Oh, we made it to Golden
[52:14] Shire. Cool. Okay, I knew we would. But
[52:16] the inclusion of like these little
[52:18] environmental
[52:20] assets
[52:22] really makes the game. I think like
[52:25] that's a really big thing. In
[52:27] Goldshshire, Marshall Dugen awarded us
[52:29] acting deputy status and tells us a
[52:31] little bit more about the currently
[52:33] strained political state of Azeroth,
[52:35] which is already way more information
[52:37] about the world than anything I got in
[52:39] the intro to retail. Our next quest is
[52:41] to go and take care of some more cobalts
[52:44] again, except it's different this time
[52:46] because we have to go to a different
[52:48] mine. After checking out some of the
[52:50] shops and the end around Goldshshire,
[52:52] including some suspicious business in
[52:54] the Goldshshire in basement. Oh, hello.
[52:58] I will say though, that is an amazing
[53:00] outfit. A demon trainer. I admit I got a
[53:04] little antsy and I started making my way
[53:06] to Stormwind City to check out the
[53:08] entrance, but then I chickenened out and
[53:10] walked back before taking any real look
[53:12] at the city. I trust that the main story
[53:14] will bring us there in due time. Remy
[53:17] two times. Well, hello there, Remy. The
[53:20] cobalts in these parts sometimes carry
[53:21] gold dust on them. I am very much
[53:23] appreciating like the Skyrim thing where
[53:26] everybody has the same exact voice over.
[53:28] You can find coals in the Fargo. I don't
[53:30] know if I trust this this guy two times.
[53:34] >> I feel like we're about to be scammed. I
[53:36] This is like coercion. I don't know. A
[53:39] chicken.
[53:41] That might be the funkiest chicken I've
[53:43] ever seen in a video game. Look at his
[53:46] big ass feet.
[53:48] Oh,
[53:49] >> he's like waddling. Rest and relaxation.
[53:53] >> That is absolutely
[53:56] disgusting. Oh my god. There's like
[53:58] little bugs just hovering around.
[54:00] William Pestl, you look identical to our
[54:03] friend Farley over here.
[54:05] >> Traveling Baker. See, like that's just a
[54:08] cute little thing to have. Traveling
[54:10] Baker. I don't know. Somebody had to
[54:11] think of that idea, put it in the game.
[54:13] I just love stuff like that.
[54:17] So, if we stay on the path, it's not
[54:19] going to particularly bring us directly
[54:22] south. We might have to
[54:25] kind of stray off.
[54:27] the beaten path for this one. To be
[54:30] honest, I got a little lost trying to
[54:32] figure out where this next cobalt issue
[54:34] was. My mini map was not expanding as
[54:37] quickly as I would have liked as I
[54:39] explored, and the enemies were getting
[54:41] harder than I could handle, and I even
[54:43] died a time or two before finding the
[54:45] right spot.
[54:48] All righty then. I was pretty hesitant
[54:50] here to get off the beaten path since I
[54:52] was used to most games, especially in
[54:54] the beginning, basically directly
[54:56] mapping out where to go. Even though the
[54:58] directions clearly stated to just go
[55:01] directly south [music] and find the
[55:03] landmarks, I hesitated since that would
[55:05] take me off the path and just felt like
[55:08] the wrong decision since the structure
[55:10] would fall away and I would need to
[55:12] venture into the unknown without any
[55:15] quest markers.
[55:17] Billy. Of course, his name is Billy.
[55:20] Billy and his Chad dad over here. Okay,
[55:22] so this is kind of where we need to be.
[55:24] I'm assuming. Okay, it's going to be
[55:26] around right there. I need to scout the
[55:29] Fargo deep mine. Large candles and gold
[55:32] dust. Perhaps they'll have a large
[55:35] candle. Guess we'll find out. Large
[55:38] candle. Splendid. Okay.
[55:46] After a couple more near-death
[55:48] experiences, I slowly collected all the
[55:51] drops we needed for our quest and
[55:52] crawled back to civilization once more.
[55:55] All right, Remy two-timer. We've got
[55:58] your gold dust.
[56:00] >> Let me see your price.
[56:01] >> Have a good one.
[56:02] >> Thanks for the dust, Clovery. Here's
[56:03] your cash. And here's a token of from
[56:05] associates of mine. You might find it
[56:07] useful. Bag of marbles. Decrease targets
[56:10] chance to hit by 25% for Tempra.
[56:13] >> That's nothing. Yeah, for some reason I
[56:15] thought we were like level 10, but we're
[56:17] only six, it seems. What's next?
[56:20] Dragons. Well, do I got news for you,
[56:22] buddy?
[56:23] >> Alliance.
[56:23] >> Back inside the inn, William Pestl had
[56:26] another quest for us that would lead us
[56:28] back to Stormwind. So, I took this as
[56:30] our best chance to explore the iconic
[56:33] city a bit more before hitting the
[56:34] 2-hour mark and logging off for the day.
[56:36] I already know the way. I believe it's
[56:39] this way.
[56:44] No, it's not that way. I believe it's
[56:47] this way. Yes, this is a common
[56:51] experience for me as I am incredibly
[56:53] directionally challenged.
[56:55] Well, okay, that's a lot. I was like,
[57:00] let's try and figure out where we need
[57:01] to go. But I see that there is
[57:04] absolutely no quest marker whatsoever.
[57:08] Okay, let's figure out where we need to
[57:10] go. Um,
[57:13] shipment of candles.
[57:15] Morgan pestles of pockets. Stormwind
[57:17] trade district. Trade disc district.
[57:24] Seems like it's going to be right ahead
[57:26] of us. So,
[57:28] the first step is making it through the
[57:30] gates. Not to very much surprise, even
[57:33] after more than 20 years of its release,
[57:35] I entered the city walls to find a very
[57:38] active player base roaming the
[57:40] cobblestone streets, sitting on the
[57:41] steps of the bank and frequenting the
[57:43] shops. Excited for the future, I held
[57:46] myself back from looking around too much
[57:48] and called it a day. So, I initially set
[57:51] out trying to understand what exactly
[57:53] people loved and remembered about this
[57:55] game so much. And with complete
[57:58] confidence, I can now say I get it. In
[58:01] both retail and classic, there was just
[58:03] this comforting, cozy atmosphere at all
[58:06] times. Retail felt a bit more
[58:09] approachable and standardized with its
[58:12] clearly abundant amount of options and
[58:15] content [music] compared to classic,
[58:17] which was obviously a little bit more
[58:19] rough around the edges. It's kind of
[58:21] hard to put words to, but Classic just
[58:24] felt less cozy in that traditional sense
[58:28] and really felt like a authentic [music]
[58:30] old school MMO experience. Something
[58:32] that left a good impression right from
[58:34] the start is that they both opened up
[58:36] with fully voice acted cut scenes to set
[58:38] the stage. There were bits of voice
[58:40] acting everywhere incorporated into the
[58:42] gameplay loop where NPCs would have
[58:44] little lines when you interacted with
[58:45] them. And sometimes your character would
[58:47] even talk to you, usually when they
[58:49] couldn't do what you wanted them to do.
[58:51] And it felt very alive and engaging and
[58:54] enhanced my experience so much that I am
[58:57] actually fully convinced that this
[58:59] should absolutely be the standard when
[59:00] it comes to MMOs. MMOs by nature just
[59:04] really struggle with feeling like a slog
[59:06] in the gameplay loop. And I feel like
[59:08] this inclusion of voice acting really
[59:11] breaks up the monotony. And at least for
[59:13] me, it really helped keep it alive. But
[59:16] besides being the same [music] core of a
[59:18] game, I think the similarities kind of
[59:21] end there in a weird way for me.
[59:23] Starting off with Retail, the technical
[59:25] older and more established version of
[59:27] WoW. I really enjoyed myself while
[59:30] playing. There was always something to
[59:31] look at, something to react to, and it
[59:34] was definitely the faster paced and
[59:36] perfected version between the two.
[59:38] Traveling is optimized and quick.
[59:40] Gameplay is quite self-explanatory with
[59:42] copious tutorials and built-in support,
[59:44] and there is always something changing
[59:46] and moving around you constantly. If you
[59:48] chose to look for it, there would always
[59:50] be something there to engage with, but
[59:52] you could also diverge from this path
[59:54] [music] and start doing whatever you
[59:55] wanted. There was plenty of room to
[59:57] chill out or be fully engaged [music]
[59:59] depending on what you wanted at the
[60:01] time. And in no way is this a bad thing,
[60:04] but after playing Vanilla Classic and
[60:06] seeing where the game started off, I can
[60:10] understand and see how there could be
[60:12] some dissatisfaction [music]
[60:13] with retail from these early players.
[60:16] The game just grew basically into a
[60:18] completely different game with separate
[60:21] objective and goals. Neither are bad or
[60:25] objectively better than the other, just
[60:27] different. Retail is full of content,
[60:30] almost to an overwhelming point. And it
[60:34] really left me with this grand
[60:36] impression that I was playing an almost
[60:38] 30-year-old game with a vast history,
[60:41] which makes me kind of think back on how
[60:43] much I've heard retail be expressed
[60:45] [music] as the more approachable and
[60:48] beginnerfriendly version of the two,
[60:50] which I do agree with, but only on a
[60:53] accessibility standpoint. When it came
[60:56] to actually understanding World of
[60:58] Warcraft and its story, I find that
[61:00] retail kind of fell short here. In my
[61:03] small time spent with Classic, I already
[61:05] sensed a story unraveling around me.
[61:07] There was some setup and explanation
[61:09] about what was going on in this world
[61:11] and how we're fitting into it all in our
[61:13] own small way. Retail and its updated
[61:15] starting point just throws you in and
[61:18] expects you to either have some kind of
[61:20] prior knowledge or to not really care
[61:23] about the entire history of everything
[61:25] before that point. Next, I tried out
[61:27] classic. The experience of playing
[61:29] retail first left me with a pretty good
[61:31] idea about where the classic [music]
[61:33] experience went and what it evolved into
[61:36] when I approached it. And the main thing
[61:39] that stuck with me was the game's
[61:41] expectations of the player. Retail tells
[61:44] you exactly almost unbearingly where
[61:48] everything you need is. There's rarely
[61:51] any questions or things that require
[61:53] deep thought. In classic, I found that I
[61:55] needed to stop and think a lot more. The
[61:58] map doesn't tell you where you need to
[62:00] go. You have to read the instructions
[62:03] and use context clues to find your way
[62:05] around. And this felt way more
[62:07] explorative. The need to check my map
[62:10] actually became fun and filled the
[62:12] experience with this sense of
[62:13] self-reliance and adventure. As I
[62:16] mentioned earlier while playing, I was
[62:19] kind of surprised at how oddly troubled
[62:22] I was by the lack of structure. I was
[62:25] hesitant to get off the beaten path. It
[62:28] didn't feel like the right thing to do.
[62:30] Like surely they wouldn't send a new
[62:32] player to a key starting area without
[62:34] some kind of pre-established path going
[62:36] there, right? And another thing, none of
[62:38] the enemies I needed to fight had any
[62:41] kind of markers or indications
[62:43] confirming and assuring me that I was
[62:45] doing the right thing. I even fought
[62:47] incorrect enemy types for quite a while
[62:49] before I realized the error in my ways.
[62:51] I continuously struggled with
[62:53] comprehending the auto attack because
[62:55] I'm so used to the one keybind being the
[62:57] first class skill. There was absolutely
[63:00] no handholding here. I know I just went
[63:03] on a long-winded rant about how classic
[63:06] was more complicated than retail, but I
[63:09] also want to mention that despite this,
[63:11] it was also oddly the more chill between
[63:14] the two. The lack of cool but ultimately
[63:18] overstimulating glowing animated armor,
[63:21] lavish dragon mounts, and whimsical
[63:23] alien races made space for this chill
[63:27] kind of focus. As I played, I found
[63:30] myself commenting less and less on
[63:32] things to the camera, and I noticed
[63:34] several minutes at a time when editing
[63:35] where I would just sit there in silence
[63:38] and enjoy the ambiance of Elwin Forest,
[63:41] just completely locked into my task and
[63:43] relaxing. Retail was fun, really fun.
[63:46] I'm even still playing it now, and it
[63:48] has an awesome amount of content to
[63:50] explore. But my time playing classic
[63:52] opened my mind up to a kind of new kind
[63:56] of gaming experience where I needed to
[63:59] think a lot more about basic things that
[64:02] I just was not used to thinking about so
[64:04] much. As of right now, I have continued
[64:06] to play retail since that is the journey
[64:09] that I started first. And even at like
[64:12] level 50 now, I still don't really have
[64:14] a great sense about the world around me
[64:16] or the [music] characters that live in
[64:17] it. And because of this, I feel like the
[64:20] modern retail experience lacks a lot of
[64:23] depth for us new players. After I finish
[64:25] up The Dragon Isles, I'm probably going
[64:27] to take that natural pause and then
[64:29] shift back to classic and see what it
[64:31] has to offer. I don't have any nostalgia
[64:34] for the series. And I think partly
[64:36] because of that, I can't really
[64:38] conclusively say one version is better
[64:40] than the other, nor which one I [music]
[64:43] like better. They both have their
[64:45] strengths and weaknesses and just bring
[64:47] different things to the table. But
[64:49] through this experience, I can now fully
[64:51] see why this [music] game is so deeply
[64:54] beloved by so many. And I'm really glad
[64:57] that I was able to take part of it in my
[64:59] lifetime. I feel like video games never
[65:01] get the respect that they deserve for
[65:03] how culturally significant they really
[65:05] are. And I think that in like hundreds
[65:07] of years from now, historians will look
[65:09] back on video games and finally
[65:11] understand how important they were and
[65:13] how much of a showcase they were of our
[65:15] human nature. And I just know that World
[65:17] of Warcraft will be one of those games
[65:19] that just won't be forgotten. Before we
[65:21] head out, I want to say a quick thank
[65:22] you to my channel members and my Patreon
[65:25] supporters for making these videos
[65:26] possible. And [music] a special big
[65:28] thank you to my Fashion Born tier
[65:30] members Eizen, Hurlchin, Delore, Vile,
[65:33] Daniel, Liam, and Grizzio for their
[65:35] extra love and support. As always, thank
[65:38] you for watching and I will see you next
[65:40] time. Bye.