I run into this mindset with Ultima Online players as well. There is a small population of people that think that the early days of UO were the best and the game has been ruined over time. One example is when Age of Shadows came out and some of the original players hated the change. I think this often times comes from complexity of the game that wasn't welcome to the original players. They were used to mages or dexxers...and they were used to simple choices like silver or vanquishing weapons. Then all of a sudden there were more options for character types and varying weapon attributes that just forced them to change their play style and it pissed them off.
EQ is no different, and that is why you have P99 being as popular as it is. I run a personal EQ server on my laptop for me to play single player, and although there are many modern mechanics and options in it...I still play it like I did back in the late 90's.
I know your subject is covering WoW...but I just wanted to point out some parallels with other old MMOs.
Some say they play free shards because some have settings that feel like the late 90's...and if EA would have a server that was like 1997, they would totally play on that. Face it, that is all bullshit because we are hooked on not paying monthly fees for a game. We enjoy what emulation provides for us along with the fact that 15-20$ isn't being drained from our bank accounts on a monthly basis.
So if this is an attempt to get the audience from the emulated WoW vanilla days...I don't see it happening.
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