World of Warcraft

How hard is it to set up a single-player private server, both in terms of computer power and skill?
There's a decent faq right here

You don't need anything powerful, but you do need the right version of the official client which I think the zip files now include.

 
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Apparently a couple of guys made their own little server and fine tuned the bots enough to out dps players and clear raids NP. Wild be nice if at some point they make a release of that to incorporate into personal servers.
 
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There's a decent faq right here

You don't need anything powerful, but you do need the right version of the official client which I think the zip files now include.

I'm definitely doing this. I have a huge nostalgia boner for Elwynn Forest and Westfall vanilla questing, but I don't want to play Classic.

My wife didn't get to play during release so it would be a fun experience to show her around the old zones. If there was a way to "timewalk" old zones from pre cata I would probably try retail again honestly.
 
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My wife didn't get to play during release so it would be a fun experience to show her around the old zones. If there was a way to "timewalk" old zones from pre cata I would probably try retail again honestly.
I really would not be surprised if they added this eventually. You'd probably have to lock your character to the old world for levels 1-60 because of quest chains, but I bet a lot of people would love to do it.
 
that is only part of it. depending how long you've played you can't (and most people don't want to) quit cold turkey, cutting of contact with your "friends" ingame and suddenly have to fill evenings actually communicating with your SO or maybe even reflect on your life or whatever. lot of people simply can't handle not doing the ritual they've been doing for years logging into the game and grinding stuff; suddenly they got hours of free time to fill, how are they gonna do it if they even remember how?
it's the same reason they get back into it because there isn't anything replacing the timewasting/escapism, for most of them you'd need something of a similar caliber to keep them busy and distracted, like ff14, after that you'd have to compete with sunken cost. why do you think everybody was suddenly jerking themself raw over classic? it was the best of both worlds, still WoW and a whole new old game to grind shit in. didn't matter how simple and "solved" vanilla was.

the best thing for those people would unironically be WoW dying for good so they have to do something else, but most likely they'd just pick up something else as a substitute.
True, but if they're really your friends, you can find other ways to keep in touch. Everybody has Discord these days, after all. If they quit talking to you because you're no longer playing the game, then you probably need to reconsider whether they were ever friends to begin with.

That's another fallacy that keeps people attached to WoW long after they should have quit, the "it's fun with friends!" fallacy. As I remember anons pointing out constantly back when I was still going to /v/, anything can be fun with friends, but that doesn't mean it's good. You and your friends can go play literally any other game and still have fun because of your friendship, and you'll also help along the continued decline of Blizzard in the process.

It would probably be healthier for them to come back to the real world and quit spending so much time on video games (no judgment here because I have no room to talk), but if they want to replace WoW with another grind, there are plenty out there that are cheaper and/or better, as the exodus to FF14 has shown. I mean, even fucking Runescape can be played for free, and it's got enough grindan to last the average player for years.

So to reiterate, if you're dissatisfied with WoW, it's okay to quit. You also don't have to resub every patch "just to see what's new." It's the same shit you left last time, Blizzard isn't competent enough to actually make improvements. Don't let pixels and numbers keep you tethered to a game you don't enjoy.
 
True, but if they're really your friends, you can find other ways to keep in touch. Everybody has Discord these days, after all. If they quit talking to you because you're no longer playing the game, then you probably need to reconsider whether they were ever friends to begin with.

That's another fallacy that keeps people attached to WoW long after they should have quit, the "it's fun with friends!" fallacy. As I remember anons pointing out constantly back when I was still going to /v/, anything can be fun with friends, but that doesn't mean it's good. You and your friends can go play literally any other game and still have fun because of your friendship, and you'll also help along the continued decline of Blizzard in the process.

It would probably be healthier for them to come back to the real world and quit spending so much time on video games (no judgment here because I have no room to talk), but if they want to replace WoW with another grind, there are plenty out there that are cheaper and/or better, as the exodus to FF14 has shown. I mean, even fucking Runescape can be played for free, and it's got enough grindan to last the average player for years.
and back then you had instant messengers and vent, discord isn't anything new, that's how I still communicate with people I met during vanilla.
there's a big difference between staying in contact and being part of the "group". if you don't have WoW as a common vehicle to interact, lot of people simple can't or don't know how otherwise.
which leads to the "fun with friends" - it's like movie night where 3 people can't agree on a movie, good luck trying to do that for something that takes a lot more time investment and also meaning leaving everything behind so far (that's where the sunken cost comes in again). so you settle on WoW because it's the compromise everyone can agree on, no matter the quality.

So to reiterate, if you're dissatisfied with WoW, it's okay to quit. You also don't have to resub every patch "just to see what's new." It's the same shit you left last time, Blizzard isn't competent enough to actually make improvements. Don't let pixels and numbers keep you tethered to a game you don't enjoy.
but that's the problem. they might hate the game and I'd bet quite a lot actually do, but what's the alternative? drop the game and start another one on your own? drop games completely and suddenly have to void of free time you have to fill somehow? that hit me hard when I dropped it and surprised the fuck out of me, but I doubt lot of people are that self-aware and reflective, and even if they are the question is if they're willing to not cave and try to rationalize the reason they quit in the first place. imo that's probably the reason people go back, because it's simply easier going back to something you know even if it's just to fill the time instead of taking the risk of doing something else, which is worse when you start it with the shortsighted "this isn't WoW" mindset (people are rarely objective), of course nothing else can compare in this case. heck how many people who are willing to try something new and judge it on it's own in general?
that's why I have at least some respect for people who just delete everything if they think that's what they need to do to cut the habit and to move on.
 
They are going a bit overboard censoring the game, changing paintings with classical-esque art, even the love rocket's icon got changed for looking like a dildo and 0.03% of players have it.

also it's confirmed, the t20 recolors are the rewards and you only need to do one, doing all the challenges gives the flying book mount that lost in the mount contest, bears get a felbear appearance for doing theirs.
 
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The lounging lady could be found in Ravenholdt, while the robed woman's portrait is located in Stormwind's SI:7.

WoW contains a lot of paintings which were added in the original (vanilla) versions of the game, and while some of seem out of place with WoW's fantasy aesthetic, many are actually references to real life works of art. For example, the history behind the lounging lady was broken down in this helpful Reddit comment from 2016:

This is called a "reclining nude" - made famous by Renaissance Master Titian. Nearly every famous painter after him has had their own rendition of a reclining nude, it's almost a right of passage.

That being said, this is not a strictly erotic painting. Note the faint Harem pants covering her legs, and the cloth covering her face and lower arms. More than likely this would be a painting of the lady of the house. Although she is sexualized, it is more to display the power of her husband - he has the money and strength to not only have a babe, but also hire a painter to paint her beautiful figure.

Also note the craqueleur of the painting - literally the cracks on the surface of the oil paint (almost always happens to oil paintings). Although craqueleur can happen nearly immediately (as oil never technically 'dries') for it to be this extent would require a good deal of age of the painting. This furthers my belief that the painting has remained in the possession of the manor for a rather long time, helping me understand its a member of the household.

Lastly paintings were brought to lords of various noble women to marry (like tinder in the Middle Ages), and they would pick the best babe - this could be her betrothal painting. This isn't very likely however, because these paintings would be very non-erotic, dressed in full court regalia usually. Just another possible thought.

While the only images changed so far are these two very obscure paintings found in Ravenholdt and Stormwind's SI:7, it would seem that Blizzard is making an attempt to reduce the amount of sexualization within the game, similar to the change to Jaina Proudmoore's hero art in Hearthstone. There aren't a whole lot of pictures like this within the game, so it's unlikely that players would even notice the change if not for datamining, though it does raise questions as to whether other sexualized content such as the demonic Succubus model or Steamy Romance Novels might also be changed at some point. Combined with other changes such as rewriting the infamous dialogue between Garrosh and Sylvanas in Cataclysm, it all points to a slow but gradual shift within WoW.

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Apparently a couple of guys made their own little server and fine tuned the bots enough to out dps players and clear raids NP. Wild be nice if at some point they make a release of that to incorporate into personal servers.
This is the feature that killed Guild Wars 1; turning your alts into AI to grind dungeons solo
 
Fair enough. Sounds great for something you plan on playing solo/ couple of people anyways.
I think it's a technically impressive thing to do, and even moreso to implement it into the game; turning your characters you've lost interest in or don't play as much into powerhouse NPCs that actually help you clear content is really cool on paper. Unfortunately it's absolutely community-crushing and encourages people to not play together. In an alternate universe there's some implementation of this that actually helps small groups stay together, but in practice it turned the cooler endgame segments into solo farms.
 
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The lounging lady could be found in Ravenholdt, while the robed woman's portrait is located in Stormwind's SI:7.

WoW contains a lot of paintings which were added in the original (vanilla) versions of the game, and while some of seem out of place with WoW's fantasy aesthetic, many are actually references to real life works of art. For example, the history behind the lounging lady was broken down in this helpful Reddit comment from 2016:



While the only images changed so far are these two very obscure paintings found in Ravenholdt and Stormwind's SI:7, it would seem that Blizzard is making an attempt to reduce the amount of sexualization within the game, similar to the change to Jaina Proudmoore's hero art in Hearthstone. There aren't a whole lot of pictures like this within the game, so it's unlikely that players would even notice the change if not for datamining, though it does raise questions as to whether other sexualized content such as the demonic Succubus model or Steamy Romance Novels might also be changed at some point. Combined with other changes such as rewriting the infamous dialogue between Garrosh and Sylvanas in Cataclysm, it all points to a slow but gradual shift within WoW.

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This is the feature that killed Guild Wars 1; turning your alts into AI to grind dungeons solo
I love how the Blizzard's response to being probed for sexual misconduct is to make their game into an even more bland mess, compared to doing actual work like changing their company culture for the better.

Really makes you think on their priorities.
 
I love how the Blizzard's response to being probed for sexual misconduct is to make their game into an even more bland mess, compared to doing actual work like changing their company culture for the better.

Really makes you think on their priorities.
when even asmongold can see your bullshit and calls you out on it, you think they would atleast try something else like, i dunno, make the games fun to play again?
 
when even asmongold can see your bullshit and calls you out on it, you think they would atleast try something else like, i dunno, make the games fun to play again?
To be fair they actually have been trying to do that too, mostly by finally taking feedback that was fucking obvious a literal year ago and throwing it into 9.1.5. They are making it really, really quick to change covenants with no penalty, nerfing the shitty M+ affixes no one likes like necrotic, massively pulling back on the AoE caps that everyone hated, pulling back on most of the stupid time wasting and time gating BS that made no one want to play an alt, etcetera.

You know, just basic things that any dev that actually played the game and didn't have their head up their own ass would have done in beta a year ago.
 
To be fair they actually have been trying to do that too, mostly by finally taking feedback that was fucking obvious a literal year ago and throwing it into 9.1.5. They are making it really, really quick to change covenants with no penalty, nerfing the shitty M+ affixes no one likes like necrotic, massively pulling back on the AoE caps that everyone hated, pulling back on most of the stupid time wasting and time gating BS that made no one want to play an alt, etcetera.

You know, just basic things that any dev that actually played the game and didn't have their head up their own ass would have done in beta a year ago.
That might help keep people who still want to play WoW in it's current state where practically the only gameplay is "funnel players to raiding asap". Still doesn't do anything to grow the player base out.
 
That might help keep people who still want to play WoW in it's current state where practically the only gameplay is "funnel players to raiding asap". Still doesn't do anything to grow the player base out.
Sure but these are people that needed 7 months to release a raid tier, add a few story quest and dailies to a landmass that was already there and come up with a few balance changes... while they were trapped in their houses with nothing to do in a global pandemic in a state that takes that seriously.

Expecting anything worth mentioning to anyone not subbed before 10.0 at the earliest is very optimistic. It's a good start to not actively waste as much time of the player base with their "you think you don't want to spend your entire weekend grinding content to change a single active ability but you do" big brain character choice design. I'd like to say that they won't do it again, but considering they released with a bunch of asinine restrictions they slowly lifted in Legion and BFA too I'm doubtful.
 
To be fair they actually have been trying to do that too, mostly by finally taking feedback that was fucking obvious a literal year ago and throwing it into 9.1.5. They are making it really, really quick to change covenants with no penalty, nerfing the shitty M+ affixes no one likes like necrotic, massively pulling back on the AoE caps that everyone hated, pulling back on most of the stupid time wasting and time gating BS that made no one want to play an alt, etcetera.

You know, just basic things that any dev that actually played the game and didn't have their head up their own ass would have done in beta a year ago.
except that's the same shit that always happens in the last patch before the content drought followed by an expansion "omg they finally listened look at all this improvements! the next xpac is gonna be even greater! gonna preorder now!!!!1"
 
except that's the same shit that always happens in the last patch before the content drought followed by an expansion "omg they finally listened look at all this improvements! the next xpac is gonna be even greater! gonna preorder now!!!!1"

FWIW I've never seen them get shit on this hard on official content. There was never any shortage of complaints on the forums and discussion boards, but the videos on the official channels were usually where all the positivity aggregated. If that's turning negative Blizzard is doing even worse than I thought. The mediocre new voice for Kael'Thas is salt on the wounds given that they fired and unpersoned the previous guy due to demonstrably false allegations.
 
FWIW I've never seen them get shit on this hard on official content. There was never any shortage of complaints on the forums and discussion boards, but the videos on the official channels were usually where all the positivity aggregated. If that's turning negative Blizzard is doing even worse than I thought. The mediocre new voice for Kael'Thas is salt on the wounds given that they fired and unpersoned the previous guy due to demonstrably false allegations.
They're getting shit on because people can smell horseshit from a mile away.

Previously Blizzard would stand behind bad design decisions and would actively defend them (see - BFA, Legion, etc) and then eventually roll them back over two years until the next expansion landed. Although players generally hate this approach, it was generally received as a "Blizzard feels this way, so it is what it is" or "They are going to make the changes but can't right now because of <reason> (pvp season in progress, raid progression, whatever).

This time around, Blizzard caved super hard and super fast on their design decisions in 9.1.5 - which sounds good on paper but in reality isn't. Most players are smart enough to realize this is Blizzard having a snap reaction to all of the really bad publicity they've been having recently, but it opens up the question of "If you can make all these changes this fast for 9.1.5 - what was the fucking wait in 8.X, 7.X, and so on?". To which there isn't a good answer besides Blizzard not giving a shit unless they are forced to for some reason - which makes all the players who are still supporting Blizzard feel even dumber.

For years (or decades) some players really thought Blizzard was doing the absolute, 100% effort they could do only for it to spill out that Blizzard is actually capable of listening to feedback but only when they're getting bad press.
 
, while the robed woman's portrait is located in Stormwind's SI:7
Which makes sense in universe because I think that's meant to be Katrana Prestor aka Onyxia, one of SI:7's biggest fuck ups. It would be a nice little reminded to be humble and ever vigilant when you've had a literal Black Dragonflight dragon sitting in your throne room after deposing the king and taking control of half of the nobles.
the comments. its good to know not all are brainless sheep.
The like/dislike ratio:
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I don't expect it to last but that's pretty fucking funny.
 
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