loved my time in Classic but in retrospect, my fondness was just for my guild.
The social aspect and the game being slower are intrinsically tied together. Having to run to the dungeon and then wait 15 min til a straggler shows up lets you know the people you are playing with in ways that modern MMOs and their gogogo playstyle just don’t allow.
Classic was full of systems that intentionally put the social aspect of the game front and center.
But I got that on my retail guild, too, we just weren’t waiting for the zeppelin while we did it. By far the biggest social loss of the modernization is that so much of it is cross-server now - you’ll probably never see the people in your group again after the dungeon. I do miss knowing nearly everyone on the server. The time our whole faction rallied to stop this one guild from getting scarab lord after they griefed another guild by mass reporting them is one of my favorite gaming moments of any game.
But really, it’s the LACK of systems that put the social aspect front and center. There was very little to do outside of pvp and leveling alts - two things I didn’t enjoy. Non-raid nights were usually extremely boring, Classic became a chat room I’d keep on my second monitor. As fun as guild chat might have been, the lockdown is long over and I don’t find that to be a great use of time.
As a kid I’d sit my favorite tfc server just to chat so I get the appeal but with so many options out there, I guess nowadays when I log on I want to play more than socialize
