Adding to that: this was back when a lot of people were getting high speed internet for the first time, which allowed them to play for much longer periods. While messaging programs already existed, the social aspect was super important and the artificial difficulty of certain enemies was an attempt to force people to socialize, before dungeon/raid finder killed a significant part of that.
“You don’t miss spamming LFG with need tank, need tank, need tank, nowadays you just press a button and wait!” - from the “you think you do, but you don’t” guy
Many things killed it off. I’d add external databases and addons.
It is not that I hate external databases and addons. They are great and help a ton. But they also did remove the “exploration” part of the game. If you know exactly where to go and addon also plans out the optimal route +if you do not know what to do, external database will tell you in details - this kills exploration and player interactions on top of dungeon-finder and auction damage.
Adding to that: this was back when a lot of people were getting high speed internet for the first time, which allowed them to play for much longer periods. While messaging programs already existed, the social aspect was super important and the artificial difficulty of certain enemies was an attempt to force people to socialize, before dungeon/raid finder killed a significant part of that.
“You don’t miss spamming LFG with need tank, need tank, need tank, nowadays you just press a button and wait!” - from the “you think you do, but you don’t” guy
Many things killed it off. I’d add external databases and addons.
It is not that I hate external databases and addons. They are great and help a ton. But they also did remove the “exploration” part of the game. If you know exactly where to go and addon also plans out the optimal route +if you do not know what to do, external database will tell you in details - this kills exploration and player interactions on top of dungeon-finder and auction damage.