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Ohhh, I'd love some rant!
Also, I think that starting with Dragonflight, they kinda started going back on track. Didn't play enough The War Within to make any conclusions yet, I'm a bit of a patient gamer.
There are some questionable mechanics, there are some things borrowed from other MMOs, there is a bit of uncomfortable pacing here and there, but that's pretty much how it's always been, and overall my impression of the new direction of the game is positive.
(Also, we're finally back with talent trees, whew!)
Rant/ I never got past 3.3.5a due to pirate servers not being really well made for Cata at release and afaik still today they are poorly developed.
I really dig the idea of seamless and stitch-less world map that Cata has introduced. But I also don't dig what WotLK was at the end of the expansion. I think TBC was the last epic time to play WoW. Maybe early WotLK. To me, dungeon finder and easy battlegrounds queue is what made the game less fun. Yeah, now you do not need to /yell in town square looking for some low level dweebs for them to join your party and travel to a far dungeon for half an hour. But that was the fun part, even tho it took time and effort. Mindless parties from queue killed fun. I remember in TBC looking for a party to go to Deadmines and it was an effort. Joining dungeon finder took me a second, but fun was not there.
My cousin began on private servers and then went to official during Cata I believe. Not sure, but I think he is still playing retail as of today. From his words, game became quite fast paced and you can level up really quick in a day. The whole game play was toned down to dungeons, raids and PVP. From outside sources I got the idea that it became like what happened to Diablo 3. Gameplay during story line was nice. But once first expansion dropped with endless rifts, game became - farm better gear in order to be able to farm even more better gear. Mindless farm simulator.
I am nostalgic for the times when players were friendly with each other. Moments like high levels coming to starter zones and giving out gold and gear to newbies. Contacting local chat or guild to find some payers that will help you with a quest. Asking for tips about certain quests. Actual team-play on battlegrounds. But the thing that will never come back is the sense of discovery. It only can be experienced once.
Even as of right now, playing AzerothCore singleplayer mode, I find best time was during leveling lvl1 to 40. Even alone, with bots. Nothing can beat that Elwyn Forest - Westfall - Redridge Mountain - Duskwood zone combo. I got this tearing up/shivers/inner peace feeling every time I hear Elwyn Forest theme. The Barrens are also speaking to me, but I was mostly an Alliance player.
/Rant
I played both official and private (pirate) servers, and from all I have experienced, Firestorm offered the best private server experience. It's actually very smooth on the newest expansions, although some of them (like Mists of Pandaria) sure need some love.
I share your concerns about dungeon finder etc., and I believe it could be fun to have some kind of private server with newest content, but also some features removed specifically to make people experience more real human connection, like in the Classic era. I wasn't there back then in the 00's, but even just World of Warcraft Classic and WoW Classic TBC definitely made me experience the game differently. There's just...no rush, and more human element. I like it.
Questing element is still there, and it can be fun, but something about game's pace makes you skip it over rather quickly. Many folks just try to level up real quick and go through dungeons to see the numbers go up - but it's not that every player has to do so.
But, on the other end, the game just became more of everything, and a lot that has changed about it has rather changed about the player base. Nothing stops you from walking out to the Elwynn Forest with your friends and go to the Deadmines, like you always did. On the other end, nothing stops you from racing dragons, either. The content is still there, the core mechanics unaltered, and with the right people wishing exactly the same kind of playthrough you can get all of the old joys yet again.
Maybe more people started playing the game a certain (arguably killjoy) way. But you don't have to, and the game as you know it is still there, waiting.