I'm not talking about quests, or the way important NPC talk about us. I'm talking about what we contributed to the community.
Let's look back at vanilla and see what made us heroes.
It was the small things; like in the case of Bob.
Bob was a decent player, he didn't have enough time to pvp to get to high warlord, or enough time to raid hardcore in a BWL guild. But he had other qualities that made him needed on the server. Bob had the ring to open the UBRS door, and made him essential for many parties. This played out in Bob's favour, since blue gear was actually good back then, and he wanted the Draconian Deflector from the final boss in UBRS. He was a hero to the raid group, because not only could he open the door, he was also be able to summon a dragon during the Rend fight, which was always met with "Wow, that's cool" from players that hadn't seen it before. And even when Bob got all the gear, he could still earn gold (1 gold coin per raid member) to be summoned and open the door. Even if it was just for opening a door, and not being part of the instance, Bob was still a hero, because Bob had taken the time to do this long quest.
Or Jane. Jane was also a hero for a different reason. Jane got lucky and got the Blacksmith plans for Lionheart helm. That's a super rare blacksmith plan, and a helmet almost every warrior sought after. Now Jane could make it for others, and the warriors would have an unofficial quest themselves, gathering the materials, alone or with the help of their guild to get a helmet that would mean a world of difference for their dps. Jane's lucky drop, was a great benefit for the entire server.
We also had Joe. The pvp king. Joe had a lot of spare time for whatever reason. So Joe used that to pvp a lot, and become one of the highest ranking pvper in the server. When Joe was in your match, you were sure to win or at least give the other faction a bloody nose and a hard won victory. Healers would start healing Joe, without being told and the rest would assist him. Joe made the day there. His high ranking allowed him to buy amazing epic (back when epic deserved to be called epic) gear that made him stand out. Joe eventually made pvp videos, and became a small legend on the server. He'd had his detractors, calling him a no lifer, but those were far and in between. Most would compliment him on his cool armourset, or his title.
Then there was Jill. Jill was one GM out of many, who ran a large social guild. That guild because of the community feel of the server, felt like a family. Always someone to help each other out. Hell it wasn't too far off, that people would donate money or items to each to help a guildie out. Eventually some would leave to join a raiding guild, but it was always with a nice heartfelt goodbye message before leaving. Jill also made sure that trolls or nasty players were not tolerated in the guild. Someone who ninja looted a lot would be booted, and people would know who was the ninja looter. In Jill's guild you could be sure you could always find someone to do Wailing Caverns with you.
Jack and his hardcore raiding guild. They were viewed as heroes too, for wearing exotic never before seen tier 2 armour. Downing dragons and conquering a very hard raid for many (remember it was 40man back then). To join Jack's guild was a big stepping stone. That meant you had to be a good player in your previous guild, not one of the many who slacked in Molten Core. A trial run in Scholomance, or in Stratholme would be done, to see how you played. If you understood your class, and you if you performed well, Jack and his guild would make sure you got the gear needed from Molten Core so you could pull your weight in BWL without having to worry about your lack of DPS, or Healing.
Sometimes Jack and his friends would join a pvp match too, and their exotic armour would win the matches in a premade or turn the tide in the hour long AV matches.
Almost all of us had a role, small or big. We worked together, and the lack of dungeon finder or other looking for group tools, made our communities feel special and tight knit. Today? Nothing. Unless you're in a good guild, you're stuck with pugs and part of the great machine where we just join a dungeon/raid no one says anything and then you leave.. it's cold, and soulless, and the garrison's doesn't help either.
Professions don't have the prestige anymore either. Why gather materials for something, when you can just grind a bit of pvp or pve, or do dailies in a zone, and boom you have an item better than what a blacksmith or a leatherworker can make.
No attunement, or special items required for dungeons. No difficult quests either that required hunters for example to speak to each other, on how other hunters did it.
WoW has become... sterile. We're no longer heroes in our own right, we're just part of a machine and we're replaceable.
Let us become heroes again. Let our servers become communities again.
Thank you for reading.
Author: Demirgen