Started retail WoW day 1 of Vanilla launch. Quit sometime in early Cataclysm. Though for me WoW was going downhill after Vanilla. TBC was decent, but still I preferred Vanilla. WotLK wasn't all bad, but things like RDF were a sign of end times for me. Then Cataclysm, I was happy to finally be able to play as my fav race (Worgen), but it wasn't worth putting up with all the changes I did not like in Cata, and the destruction of the old world so that they could redo it in their new "streamlined" way, was all I could take.
I dabbled in MoP and WoD and neither of them appeal to me in the least bit. All those X-packs did was confirm WoW is going in a direction I'm not willing to follow.
Vanilla feels like an adventure, a living world, and it's incredibly immersive to me. All the expansions have been "streamlining" and casualizing the game, which is great if you're a granny who enjoys facebook games and wants to make the transition into MMO's. But for me, it's a big fat NOPE.
So thank you, Nostalrius, for letting me play the best version of the best MMO ever made
