Wow: Cataclysm question

[G-Max]

The Cataclysm expansion pack for World of Warcraft radically changed a bunch of the original game's content. I'm just wondering... if I only get WoW, Burning Crusade, and Wrath, and not Cataclysm, do I get access to the original, un-screwed-with zones and quests? Or have these changes been implemented regardless of what expansions you have or don't have, and getting Cataclysm just gives you access to new items and stuff?

 

[Rub'Rum]

The Cataclysm expansion pack for World of Warcraft radically changed a bunch of the original game's content. I'm just wondering... if I only get WoW, Burning Crusade, and Wrath, and not Cataclysm, do I get access to the original, un-screwed-with zones and quests? Or have these changes been implemented regardless of what expansions you have or don't have, and getting Cataclysm just gives you access to new items and stuff?

As far as I know (not played WoW in ages), you'll still get the same world as everybody (maybe except access to the expansion areas for the expansions you don't have, but that doesn't matter since you won't really be able to level up enough to do anything in these new areas). But the level 0-60 original areas are gonna be the same for you as they are for everybody else (modified by Cataclysm).

The truth is, in an MMO like WoW, "expansions" aren't really optional... It'd be really weird to be playing WoW with only the original box right now. You'd be playing the same game as everybody else without some of the things literally everybody else takes for granted.

 

[Thrawn]

Yes, the changes have been implemented regardless of anything else. The old 1-60 leveling experience no longer exists. Some of the quests in each zone, or variations of them, still exist, but that's about it. If you were to not purchase the game and all expansions except cataclysm, you'd only be missing out on the 80-85 content, including access to the worgen and goblin races.

 

[Disgustipated]

yeah what he said. You can't expect there to be 2 different worlds. That would be silly. The world was changed during the cataclysm, so of course that affects everyone. It's supposed to be a "living" world in a way. So it has to change for everyone.

I would imagine you can't access the worgen and goblin starting areas (I don't think you can get back into them anyways after you leave, but I have never tried). Just like if you didn't have BC you couldn't access Blood Elf and Dranei starting areas (they were instanced in a way). If you swim around the continent to the BC starting area you can't actually get onto it. the only way in is to use the instance portal in the Eastern Plaguelands (note: I'm not sure if any of this changed with cata), or use the Undercity portal.

I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to get into the 80 to 85 areas. I don't think they are instances like the BC starting area. It's possible you could get access to them maybe with a flying mount? Although I would think you wouldn't be able to progress past 80 of course. I'm not entirely sure about that.

The real question is why buy all those expansions, and not cataclysm. That would be kind of weird. Unless you liked the world how it was. I admit, there are some things I missed. They are gone forever. This may sound strange, but I missed some of the annoying quests that had you go from continent to continent wasting gobs of time using various transport methods. I remember one Undercity quest that took you all the way to Ashara and back to do some kind of testing. Anyone ever do that sword quest that takes you to UnGoro Crater and Feralis, and Winterspring? It's a very involved quest.

 

[G-Max]

The reason why I ask is that, as much as I love some of the Cataclysm content ("Yes, my horse IS made of stars"), I got into the game only recently, and I'd like to experience the story from the beginning instead of being thrust into the middle of it. It wouldn't be too hard to implement, either. There isn't just one huge world that everybody plays on; there are dozens of realms, so it would make perfect sense to have both pre-Shattering and post-Shattering realms. Players without Cat would be restricted to the pre-Shattering realms, whereas players with Cat could choose between the two, though they'd experience the same restrictions on the pre-Shattering realms as everyone else (like being capped at level 80). This would give players a much greater incentive to buy Cat; as things currently stand, the only reason to buy Cat is for the Worgen and Goblin races, because you're getting everything else for free. Also, because Bliz allows players to transfer their characters from one realm to another, they could transfer characters from pre- to post-Shattering realms, but not vice versa, just like you could convert Diablo II Classic characters to LoD characters but not vice versa.

Also, there are plenty of players who genuinely hate the post-Shattering content, and they're contributing to an explosive growth in the popularity of illegal private servers.

 

[Disgustipated]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3797710370?page=1

Blizz has stated they will never do Vanilla only servers (I'd assume that also applies to pre-cataclysm only servers). They don't want to invest the money into it if people will get bored of it in a week. In short, they won't invest money into anything that won't increase subscriptions.

And you lose more than just Goblin and Worgen races. You lose all 80 to 85 content. Which for most people the game doesn't really start until you reach level 85. I'm not a big fan of that philosophy, but it's true that the best content of the game does tend to be raiding content. And you'd never be able to find anyone to run the pre-cataclysm raids.

I do think there are a small subset of people that would be into that. But like you mentioned, it would have to be on private servers.