I appreciate the idea of preserving games, but I don’t see how we’d ever thoroughly preserve some of these online spaces. WOW Classic might be one of the best efforts, but most people agree it’s not going to replicate the same non-guided experience that existed back in that time, or the playerbase you’d be working around.
It is, in some ways, a reason for people to spend time in these places - knowing that, like all empires, they don’t exist infinitely.
There’s also the part where preserving the game doesn’t actually preserve, you know, the game.
Early WoW wasn’t special because WotLK+ hadn’t released yet. Classic showed that amiably. It was the gamespace around it and the shared experience that was World of Warcraft. Not the code and the engine and the executable and the server.
I really want to get into FFXI but with the majority of people at endgame content I’m not sure I would get the same experience anyways?
I tried FFXIV and it felt oddly lonely. There wasn’t enough content that supported group play aside from the dungeons.
I think one day I’ll just have to set aside all other hobbies and gorge myself on both until I finish them/they click for me.