Playing the World of Warcraft 2003 Alpha!

/ discord (WoW 0.5.3 alpha community)
#wow #worldofwarcraft #wowclassic

[@azamous2]

discord.gg/8VQ25kmzuK (WoW 0.5.3 alpha community) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ next video will be in 4:3 - after watching the footage back properly it doesn't look too great in widescreen lol

[@darkswarm13]

my uncle played like this for years before he set the proper aspect ratio lolo

[@lucamckenn5932]

I would recommend recording on unregistered hypercam, and instead of having commentary just play down with the sickness by disturbed while you auto attack murlocs. Skillet if disturbed is a bit too edge for ya.

[@glofuss]

when is the next vid? cant wait =)

[@FunkyPyramid]

i always wonder why wow background look so lil for me like chrunked now i get it cos in the alpha the world was biger shame they cahanged that .... wow background is hella to small sometime

[@dailyblunts3935]

I'm sure you know this by now but half the stuff you're mentioning wasn't in the game at launch either lol. I remember them adding most of it in patches.

[@markj.a351]

it's insane how advanced this game was. Made by people with a true passion for making a game.

[@kerenton5897]

A lot of the main people were high-end raiders from EQ (Not just raiders, they ran the guilds too), they knew all about the UI problems and other issues that EQ had at a base level.

[@sweetfry]

I dunno dude.. EQ2 was in development before WoW and most of WoWs innovation were lifted straight from EQ2... Blizz has always stolen ideas from other people. Theres literally a zone in EQ2 called Wailing Caves... in a desert area. With a quest... called 999 year old port...

[@gollese]

@@sweetfry Stolen? Do you know they had a warcraft world before those names you mentioned. They didnt have to steal anything. And the game become goated.

[@Ripototo]

The world is based on w40k, the gameplay of the first warcraft was based on dune 2 what's your point ?

[@csharpbest4085]

While Lineage 2 was 1000x better graphically ... still cannot understand how did they manage to make such beautiful game in that year.

[@Daily93]

The cube you found is called a Shane cube. He was their main technical support guy - instead of green boxes to show models that haven't been implemented they used his photo instead because it would prompt Shane to fix issues as soon as possible.

[@sofakingdom3076]

Brilliant.

[@bariscanbilgin]

amazing lmao

[@danielengel4593]

The classic WoW team and old Blizzard were amazing artists and fun people to be with. We all were willing to wait years for their games, knowing it will blow our minds. Sadly these days are long gone.

[@faveli6369]

Thottbot

[@ShaneyYbohh]

You’re all welcome

[@Simply_Helen]

I love how Azeroth started as a continent and ended as an entire planet.

[@AizensPlan]

The kingdom of Stormwind was originally called the kingdom of Azeroth. It wasn't until WoW's release that Azeroth was used to describe the world as a whole.

[@Simply_Helen]

@@AizensPlan That was kind of my point 🤷‍♀️

[@AizensPlan]

@@Simply_Helen oh, sorry

[@bamagrad99]

Neat! I first really learned about WoW from a 2003ish forum post made by an alpha tester when the NDA was lifted. I was so impressed by what he had to say that I started following the game myself and started playing on launch day. Wizbang Dustyboots from Graffe's Wizard Compilation, if you're still out there, thank you for your post "I was a Teenage Alpha Tester" that led me to many, many great memories in Azeroth!

[@red3784]

This game was truly one of the best of all time. At one point it was immersive and social, it really was easy to lose yourself to the world..

[@TheHolladiewaldfeee]

yeah. WoW Vanilla is still the best mmo ever created

[@oeheaven]

Yes and people were less dicks and actually were nice and playing the game as intended as a journey instead of hit max level go raid/pvp then reset each expansion.

[@JasonLuther1]

Yes.

[@flipdiesel9652]

Damn we need more Alpha exploration videos ASAP man. I could watch you explore the whole fucking world for hours

[@mkl4705]

Jesus. Hours?

[@flipdiesel9652]

@@mkl4705 yeah?

[@chaoticwaffle5325]

Lord Daval Prestor is deathwings human identity, so it kinda makes sense that he’s there instead of onyxia

[@azamous2]

OOOOOOOOOH LOL

[@jeremiahgottwald1280]

And considering that the NPC was named "Lord Daval Prestor II", it would probably suggest that Nefarian (Being Deathwing's son) was supposed to play the role that Onyxia got in release.

[@Vanished584]

@@jeremiahgottwald1280 your brain is so big its crowding the stadium

[@michael5045]

Damn, Old Ironforge was awesome. Wish they had more large scale cities like that.

[@ivanmonahhov2314]

There are also vids of cancelled dungeons. One of those was Old Ironforge

[@xplicitmike]

@@ivanmonahhov2314 oh yeah I forgot about that dungeon!

[@SwedetasticGames]

Ironforge having more buildings higher up is really cool and something I wish they had stuck with. We need a proper city the size of Suramar at some point, but with convenient ways to move around.

[@darkjak224]

"convenient ways to move around" = flying = 90% of immersive content being ignored

[@Turbotef]

@@darkjak224 You say that, but I have 5000+ hours of MMO time pre WoW and that shit got old real fast even back then. That being said, I agree with you because the FFXIV cities all have that old school trick where its bigger than it appears to be but still impressive looking! Even with the portals, I still run around proper sometimes.

[@Toastybees]

@@darkjak224 "Immersive content" AKA fighting your way through the same groups of trash mobs for the 10th time. No thanks.

[@Shiirow]

@@darkjak224 Im sorry but your idea of 'immersion' is not the same as everyone elses it seems. having to wade through swathes of mobs to get anywhere doesnt sound fun nor immersive. the word you are really looking for is _"annoying"_

[@Sanguivore]

I've heard that Valdrakken in Dragonflight is supposed to be a main city around the size of Suramar; and of course we'll have Dragonriding from very early on in the expansion making it fairly convenient to get around. I'm excited to see it!

[@uglax2]

If you think about it.. The graphic in 2003 of WoW was insane. It was infront by so many years

[@worldofwarpool5379]

And retail WoW is so many years back

[@TrueScandinavia]

Amazingly, some of the animations look quite realistic and even better than the released game. Also, when you attacked the wolf, there was blood dripping onto the ground. Pretty impressive all in all.

[@kerimalpalt]

tbh the blood was in the game as far as i remember im the relseasaed version

[@rogerstalder7184]

Mostly the walking animation 🤣

[@Shiirow]

you stab a guy, and ten gallons of blood falls on the ground. it is impressive since the amount of blood spilling out is probably more than the wolf has inside its body.

[@sharpshooter_Aus]

This was awesome to watch, please make more of these, I also love the longer style videos. Keep it up mate.

[@slipknotfan2358]

I absolutely loved Ironforge! Wish they would have kept those multi level walkways/bridges… super cool and definitely fits! Really cool vid!

[@jinglemyberries866]

Same man why didnt they keep that?? It looks so much cooler. Also, why did they make it so we cant access the upper level walkways and area in undercity.

[@Animalalpha]

I didn’t want the video to end, please explore the alpha even more

[@frank93217]

I've recently read the book WoW Diary, written by the main WoW Dungeon designer. He explains really well the process they went into at that time, as creating a MMO is really complex. You can also learn about what features were in each alpha or beta builds!!

[@Ryan_hey]

Yeah, any wow fan should read the book, especially those who love vanilla. John Staats is the author and the book was actually the top kickstarter nonfiction booker in the world (at least at the time).

[@mrh8509]

How did you get the book? Was it just a download you buy, or a proper print?

[@karstenkunneman5219]

@@mrh8509 Its a hardcover book, highly reccommend

[@mrh8509]

@@karstenkunneman5219 Where'd you get it? I've been looking for it for ages!

[@karstenkunneman5219]

@@mrh8509 I think I found it on Amazon

[@MrFluffytheTurtle]

WoW Alpha HYPE! WoW Alpha HYPE!

[@phosphorusdaemon7]

I can see that happening

[@GastonIronMaiden]

Loved this!! Brought back soooo many good memories! ❤️❤️❤️ thank you!

[@d.s.8227]

Man this is amazing! I'll be looking out for each and every video of yours!

[@scoob1551]

This was amazing!! I can't wait to see the rest of this series!!

[@bikespj22]

This is one of my favorite wow videos in a very long time. Please keep at this!

[@Hurakion]

Awesome video, very interesting to see how it used to look. I think some things look better than in the release, like some of the spots in Iron Forge looked very cool.

[@desanbg4461]

I love your channels brotha,may god bless you so you can provide us with this lovely content.Many greetings from Bulgaria.

[@azamous2]

[@Gunshow0]

@@azamous2 any way to play this also?

[@Distrax]

I know the moment when a couple of friends start to talk about WoW, it was going to be a killer in MMORPG world and they going to release a closed alpha in months, i was like meh what ever, MMORPG is and has always been games i play for a week and then it dies, until the alpha of WoW, this was a game changer and it got me hooked on for years, what a grind and what a time.

[@david_a_sanchez]

13:00 you can clearly see the human face on the original skin tents. Not sure they were this clear in the released version....but they were there.

[@madliv21]

old answer, but clearly to make it more child friendly and less gore-ish

[@gallie_]

28:30 Daval Prestor II is Deathwing. He was supposed to manipulate Stormwind exactly like Onyxia did but they changed in development.

[@hatchetmaggot515]

you sir brought me immense joy an happiness by doing this video i really hope you do more

[@jaycencaliber6861]

For 2003 this was revolutionary graphics and gameplay mechanics

[@vibesmagma8451]

I would love to see a play through of the other classes and zones

[@Clamen]

This game was way ahead of its time, no wonder it was so big. Fantastic development in all fronts, a true masterpiece.

[@eliteclasswarrior94]

There's always something so special about these alpha or pre alpha of huge games. It's almost cozy to sit back and watch how different everything was

[@JabbarTV1]

this gotta become a full series, where you push the alpha to its limit on different classes, locations and if possible group content and dungeons

[@John_Conner222]

Wow this is great. Surprised to get this into my feed as I don't subscribe to wow content anymore. I actually got to play the alpha and beta for wow. I got to play for free for over a year while my guildmates played Dark Age of Camelot lol. Truly takes me back. They did a good job. I hate to say it but the time the game was in beta was when the game was at its best. They cut way too much and changed alot of stuff for release and beyond. Good times back then. The end of beta burning legion event was one of the cooling things in gaming history that I got to be apart of. Nothing like it since. **EDIT** There were no raids in the alpha and I believe Molten Core was added just in time for release. Most of the end game content were the end game blue dungeons. There was a big focus on crafting to get your first epics so that you could raid molten core. Those vendors were important if you were not lucky on a drop in a dungeon you could buy a level appropriate weapon and armor. While not as good it kept you from dying until you got some better stuff. There was NO pvp stuff in the game. No counters, no merchants, no BGs, NOTHING. Players would often form large bands of players (100s at a time) and just do a zombie horde run at the other faction. At any given time there was a massive battle going on somewhere along the road from Auberdene in Ashenvale Forest to Crossroads in the Barrens. Also in Hillsbrad, in the fields between Tarren Mill and Southshore. The battles would continue until one faction pushed into the opposing factions town and would fall back (signifying a win) or everyone would just get tired and go to bed. The forums would constantly be updated with sh*ttalkers and people posting pics for confirmed kills of popular players. I know my guild, a hardcore guild from DAoC, attacked a 40 man molten core raid one time and won with only 15 people. Back when skill meant more than gear.

[@knightofjustice5475]

Started seeing LCD monitors about 2002 at net cafes, but I first brought mine at about 2007. Broadband would have been pretty common when WoW was release, I got it myself a few years before.

[@SPZ909]

Yup Dwarf Mage was supposed to be a thing. The blink icon is a dwarf mage blinking. They scrapped the class but didn’t bother changing the icon.

[@leobovine]

It's not really set in stone it's a dwarf. There are some artwork for Archmage Antonidas where he has a very similar face compared to the blink ícone.

[@liamashton645]

I was a hardcore Planetside player back in 2003. I didn't start wow until late 2004. Such good memories.

[@General12th]

Nobody started WoW until late 2004 unless you were in the beta.

[@foee]

very interesting! please make more of this, it's amazing

[@Thomas-bl5fl]

good stuff hope you do more of the alpha videos

[@sageosaka]

Really looking forward to more of this alpha content

[@NateSkoolx]

Thank you for sharing that dude. Was really cosy. I enjoyed it a lot

[@Kudeghraw]

2 min read - I believe I was playing everquest at the time. Was introduced to WOW in 2005. EQ was, and still is a great game, but it is designed for folks with the patience to adhere to strict D&D rules as well as not being into PvP. WOW, while lighter in lore and content in general, blew EQ out of the water with graphics and action. Instead of text based combat, you got graphics for spells and numbers for damage on the screen. You had to move around and actually "fight" other people for a lump of copper. Every class had their own cheese factor to get out of tough spots. I mean, 40 person BGs like AV. This and you rarely suffered link-death, which plagued EQ at the time. The only thing that sucked moving to WOW was a lack of certain classes. The Bard. Just jams instruments or sings. Can "cast" on the run. Can be evil (Dirge) and cause negative effects or good (Troubador) to buff your allies. The Enchanter. Mana regen, best debuffs, , Mesmerize (frozen for a minute, like Rogue sap or being sheeped) charms nearly everything as pets, even other players... You can focus on mastering charming (Coercer) or Illusions (Illusionist) while having an average nuke (that crits) and reasonable DoTs to accompany your pet's dps. And my favorite, the Necromancer. They have the most potent DoTs as well as the greatest amount of DoTs to attack with. Strongest fear. Strong skeleton pet (for Fear kiting). Snares. Vampire-like healing with LifeTap which heals as much as it damages. Can charm only undead. Uses HP for mana. Thankfully WOW gave us the Warlock, who was the closest thing to a necro. WOW doesn't realize (or maybe they do!) they also brought EQs Shadowknight (Anti-Paladin in generic lore) over with the Unholy DK build. The only thing the UHDK is missing is the Harm Touch spell which is the counter to a Paladin's Lay on Hands. Harm touch instantly takes a huge amount of HP in melee range and has a long cooldown. Shadowknights were warriors with a few Necromancer spells in addition to nukes. Unholy DKs are like warriors with a few Necromancer spells without the nukes, but more melee capability. Close enough.

[@wdyvideos1110]

Love your videos man!!! So good!! So entertaining hahaha!! Keep it up!

[@jtwilt610]

Really enjoyed this vid thanks az

[@Tyelkormoko]

wow what a sight to be hold. I feel like alice taking a gander at the looking glass. Thank you for the video, hope for a lot more

[@cvanims]

I'm pretty sure I played this back in the day. I remember playing pre-release via a CD from a PC Gamer magazine. I thought it was a demo then, but now that I'm older, I think we got the alpha. Anyways, running up to Ironforge for the first time blew my freakin mind.

[@FriedChairs]

Enjoyed watching this. I hope part 2 is on the way.

[@angrycupra8636]

i love abes odesey play station one.. nostalgia or what.. i have still have a copy of it for my play station 1!!

[@ununhexiumununoctium9024]

all I remember from this game is mind controlling enemies and making them explode....fun times

[@youidiotsnvrquit4369]

wait... odd world? holy shit i havnt even thought of that in a decade or more. lol

[@Odseus]

I was invited to one of the last betas before launch. I couldn't believe how polished the game was for a beta at the time. Great memories.

[@FalconPaladin]

Back when Blizzard's beta releases were better than most gaming companies' released products. I miss those days.

[@krauz111]

really liked this, keep em coming

[@37Kilo2]

The music for Goldshire immediately brings me back to 2004. I spent so many hours playing this game. I genuinely had no idea WTF I was doing for a long while, but I still loved every second.

[@WTP_1776]

i get a kick out of these little nostalgia shots. thanks

[@BarrickMacready]

9:29 Thats a pretty dope map, John stats talked about how they figured the mini map out and thats just a larger version of it

[@christianhatch7842]

I need to see you get Max level on both alliance and horde in this please. This great content!

[@honokakousaka5742]

Can't wait for PT2!!

[@chiefavagef0x837]

The moment you started running Abe immediately popped in my head too 😂

[@kos_]

This was actually a sick video, would love to see you play this game with people in dungeons and quests. Would honestly love to play it myself, but I'll take watching you play instead since you're p entertaining, especially exploring things that have changed.

[@gregorcarlin1768]

Remember playing WoW for the first time in like 2006, going from Runescape to WoW was insane, was so advanced

[@fatihzirek7440]

Alpha WoW completely feels like different game . It's amazing that how long was development time of WoW .

[@Jon-uo4gf]

Very interesting! Old school Ironforge looks so cool, wonder why they trimmed it down so much.

[@RM-bg5cd]

Is darkshire dark like the inn? I remember reading they were thinking of forcing players to use lamps, wondering if this client also features that idea. Great video though, super interesting.

[@azamous2]

I'll write this down for a future video!

[@RM-bg5cd]

@@azamous2 Cool! Looking foward to it, cheers!

[@christianhatch7842]

Can't wait!!!

[@sharpshooter_Aus]

@@azamous2 I’m also keen to see this future video.

[@janakipejov3667]

It should. Theres a dark nights mod on turtle wow server, and its pitch fucking black. Darkshire is S P O O K Y

[@MrVegard999]

please make more. this was genualy enjoing :)

[@McconneIIRet]

You should do a full playthrough of the alpha, love watching you explore!

[@reezy1999]

30:30 - Damn I miss those good old times.. vanilla wow was a blast first time, learning the game, exploring it etc

[@literallynobody9769]

Funny thing to see Eastern Kingdoms listed as Azeroth, more funny that a lot of readable quest items even in the release version would actually still refer to EK as Azeroth still.

[@darkjak224]

EK is Azeroth since Kalimdor is nothing but savage races and purple elves

[@thefreakisnear752]

In Warcraft 3 they referred to EK as Azeroth. That's what it was until they retconed it... as they do nowadays

[@DenasKnight]

In lore, the southern part of the Eastern Kingdoms is still called Azeroth. Eastern Kingdoms is the name for 3 continents very close to each other: Azeroth, Khaz Modan, and Lordaeron.

[@literallynobody9769]

In some of the readable quest items I've seen alterac mountains refered to as azeroth, fairly sure it's a quest from thunder bluff that sends you around the world killing rare creatures

[@redbu11]

This Northshire Abbey music gives me nostalgia so hard that I want to play wow classic instanly again (which is what I'm gonna do now after seeing this)

[@therabbits69]

I kinda wish they kept the "binding" npc to the areas. Makes more sense than just going through an INN. Like you have to go to an actual person with the magic to be linked to an area.

[@General12th]

But the innkeeper is that actual person with the magic.

[@AngusWd]

Dude I would love to see more alpha content

[@Daniel_KS]

I've always looked at pictures of old IF and found it to be really dwarven and not a simple round city, might be a bit complicated but I miss having the levels. Thanks for the video

[@moradin84]

Things just needed some getting used to... in-house testers would even get lost in Stormwind when there was no working minimap yet. Discarding the original version of Ironforge was really a weak (in the most literal sense of the term) design choice imho

[@Infernal_Elf]

amazing stuff :D

[@azante4528]

What a fantastic look into the past of WoW, cannot wait to see more of this kind of content! Definitely interested to see how the lamps work in Darkshire

[@pB-ri6su]

Death animation at 15:08 still in classic but only for the two Defias ads on the ogre boss in deadmines. I noticed it will farming mining because it stuck out so much. Those mobs probably straight from the alpha

[@voo7210]

Interesting

[@TheZeitheizt]

That defias model is also laying on the ground at Hogger's place, probably post-cataclysm, and it even provides a quest.

[@Daevus]

Sick intro bro holy moly

[@Purriah]

The only thing more comfortable, and protective against both cold and heat that a mail cloak, is a plate cloak

[@doublem7709]

I felt the nostalgic moment when you logged in the word..thanks

[@MJ-264]

Love the intro ❤️❤️

[@Freakyboss]

Are you planning on a Orgrimmar episode, too? That would be cool. Honestly this video was more amazing than I thought. keep it up. :)

[@jplayer073]

Man, what a blast from the past. I remember playing the alpha back then. Good times. Funniest thing watching this is every time he says "oh wow, this is different" and I'm like "wait, it's different now?", because that's such a core memory for me.

[@FalconPaladin]

I started playing in 2006, and I remember health regen being bad and having to carry food around as a non-healing class. Also dying a lot as a rogue at low level. Maybe AzAMOuS started playing later, around WOTLK, when things got easier.

[@whoopsie321]

It's not weird at all man this is a dream for every OG vanilla player seeing the differences and whats changed. Man old school IF looks awesome. I think I remember exploring underground IF back in the day using a program called mountain climber? Basically it would let you scale any vertical surface so you could pretty much go anywhere. Maybe I just watched videos on old IF but I for sure explored CoT using that program and IF airport. Funny story 2 of my friends also used the program and they got a week ban but I didn't lmao.

[@GreenGamingGalaxy]

Damn nostalgia hits me hard on this😅Thx!

[@invalid_user_handle]

I mean, it seems like by December 2003 they had pretty-much finalized WoW's design, they just needed more time to flesh it out and polish it for release.

[@renragged]

Very cool. I played Beta before the game was released and the main thing I remember being different was when I died there was no headstone on the map to show where to find my corpse. I had to wander around to find my body because I didn't know the area. That was wild.

[@Fruxaq]

since then... no other could build such a satisfying game like world of warcraft... world of warcraft is the the zenith of video game creation

[@placeholdername3206]

I got a private server hidden away on some old disc drive somewhere. It was a massive undertaking getting it to work. Don't remember the exact year, but i think it was 2008 or 2009 or something like that. There wasn't a lot of information online on how to get it to work and KZbin was barely a thing. Was always facinated by what "could have been", and what was behind the curtain. I remember there were many videos back in the day (10+ years) that showcased the alpha, but it was mostly just showing how much some cities had changed, like Ironforge and The Undercity. There was no gameplay it was just flying around with GM tools.

[@NnoitraJiiruga18]

Daval Prestor was Deathwing's Human disguise, and Daval Prestor II was a placeholder for Onyxia at the time.

[@Charlie121296]

i look forward to part 2 :)

[@kapone2k]

One reason that city's are big AF is due that they had it planned to have housing in the game and wanted to have IF as the biggest city due to the action house that came a bit later. But yeah housing was planned but didn't get prio.. and the team that worked on it got fired in the midd of Vanilla and they went on to make a game called Wildstar that featured housing and much more that blizz lacked.

[@alexkm4484]

we want the rest, total exploration, up to the maximum level. Thanks man

[@DIDeusIratus]

I've played since a little after Classic OG release not the alpha but I don't remember the meeting stones, binder NPC or the TP vendor in particular. Either this was indeed only in the really early alpha or it's on the server that hosts it. It's still amazing to see how advanced the technology was on Blizzard's old WoW compared to other games and MMO's there, this was probably a leap in games back in the day and showed their passion compared to now, nostalgic to see

[@jaydee1352]

Cool look into how things used to be, seems near to release level, funny how popular it was.

[@samdolman9130]

Really enjoyed that one. Would love to see undercity. Undead mage perhaps

[@allbies]

Your understated humour goes very underappreciated 😂

[@Drothen-]

Best wow KZbinr!! Keep it up

[@Nutcracker6294]

Not going to lie, this looks good and like some of the ideas like stationary through standup while eating lol

[@xplicitmike]

Ironforge looks totally badass with that 2nd floor! It looks better than release wow. Really cool footage! I'd totally play the crap out of this in 03/04!!

[@madcat789]

If I remember, Daval Prestor was suppose to actually _be_ Deathwing in disguise. Bolvar though? Dude that model is awesome.

[@EviLReN3]

You got a nice voice! I was dwelled to sleep within 5 minutes

[@Ayayron_e3]

dope new intro !!

[@Olli-Tech]

I myself played the beta back in 2004 / 2005, amazing memories

[@levih.2158]

20:38 "If I can do it I'm gonna do it" is the essence of what can challenge immersion.

[@azamous2]

I only saved 2 minutes of running up the road - but yeah, I don't plan on teleporting around the entire map as I want to explore everything

[@levih.2158]

@@azamous2 Oh I didn't mean it as a critique of you, just thought it was a good summation of the issue in general. But in retrospect I see how my comment reads. Sorry for the confusion, love your videos :)

[@SvendleBerries]

13:00 its nice to see the Human faces were still a part of the tents lol