The Last Remnants of Vanilla WoW Are Being Swept Away

If you create a new gnome warlock today, March 29th 2010, you will watch the same video I watched five years ago, spawn in Dun Morogh on the same spot I spawned on, and do the same beginner quest I did.  You'll do most of the quests I did, actually.  At level 15 you'll use the brand new random dungeon finder to quickly get a group for the same dungeon I ran five years ago.

Your spells and talents will have changed, though.  They've been changing, getting better, for almost all of the five years.  Once you hit level eleven you'll be eligible for battlegrounds, a refinement of PvP which didn't exist when Azeroth first measured Boat.  You'll zip through level 1-59, thanks to an adjusted level curve, and when you hit 60 you won't stop to play the broken end game I had.  Instead you'll level to 80, to a bright shiny new end-game, brimming with instances and raids and epics.

When Cataclysm launches a new gnome warlock will probably not start watch the same video I did, or do the same quest I did, or even spawn in Dun Morogh.  The quests and world will have changed.  Made better, like all those other things before it.  The instances will be better. The gnome might even spawn as a priest instead of a warlock, which is what I would have done if I'd been given the chance five years ago.

When Cataclysm launches there will be only one remnant of vanilla left.  One little cup of misery for new players to drink.

Professions.

The first 300 levels of professions have changed little since launch.  You still make most of the same useless crap as you did five years ago.  You still level up by making items, which you usually make by buying mats from the auction house and then pressing a button.  You learn to make new items from a trainer, or from a recipe from a vendor.  It's all mechanical, all boring, and almost always useless.  When you've spent enough money to get to Wrath levels of professions they become more useful, but they are not really better by any other measure.

Professions are due for an overhaul.  I'm guessing we'll get them in the fourth expansion, whatever comes after Cataclysm.