DnT died in vanilla and Napster joined during the reorganization led by Kiberian and a few other old DnT on Blackrock, yeah.
It was an interesting time for many reasons, like you said the first waves of casualitis (lol) were sweeping through, it was becoming harder to fill raids, many people who were thought to be good players in naxx were the same types that were letting scorch fall off but they were still demanding gear like they were rockstars, the game finally hit that sorta cultural moment around TBC too so we had everyone in guild chat from porn stars like Mia Rose to guys like Napster. Just wild times.
One day I'm going to write a book on that era, I think I'm one of the few people who got into Death and Taxes, Aurora, Exodus, Vigil and Premonition and I have many many stories from all the bleeding at on the bleeding edge of the US raiding scene.
Please write that book! Vanilla WoW was a unique (to my experience) social creation / culture, that I've not seen duplicated nor properly articulated. A server was a village, and you recognized (and were recognized for) competence and generosity. There was a great deal of silliness, and drama, but also real human connection, validated by the currency of time.
There were people on my friends list for whom I'd drop anything to go and help, and vice versa. I had deep, deep late-night conversations with strangers who'd become anonymous friends. I remember sitting on Southshore and typing back and forth with a guy who'd never told anyone in RL he was gay, but felt safe to share that with us. I had a guild-mate who stayed online until the very last moment before he deployed to Afghanistan - and I remember our jubilation when he logged back in nine months later, and how every raid thereafter, for a time, was built around gearing him back up. WoW was how I maintained a connection with distant friends; it's how I got to know my brother-in-law; it sustained a romantic partner and I while we were apart for a while (our guild became her family as well: she never logged in without expressions of support, and invitations to go do [whatever]).
Anyway, that was my experience in a non-elite guild, on a non-special server (we did eventually kill every boss, though - except Naxx; bloody Naxx). I could go on for ages.
Oh! One more thing: PvP was never really my thing, but I appreciated the sense of honor that developed (at least on a our low-pop server) once people realized that too-blatant kill-farming would mean the other side would stop signing back up to a battleground. Most people had toons and friends on both sides, anyway, so PvP stayed a game (though, oh, what a dreadful grind) and not the pissing contest it turned into when they put in cross-realm combat. It was a village, and that turned it into arbitrage.
I watched a lot of DnT videos, and "Puresin" rings a bell. I'd love to read your recollections of that time.
Exactly, it was such a unique time... I can't even wrap my mind around all the trends that cascaded together to create that magic but from today's vantage point it doesn't look like anything will ever compare to what we had going.
Lol, Kiberian, the GM of the new DnT was a gay 20-something immigrant from Spain that would bring back 50 year old dudes back from the club and put them on ventrillo for us. You had the libertarians, fascists, leftists, anarchists and commies all there, united for progression and hating each other outside of it, but while it lasted the purest sense of e pluribus unum prevailed and we transcended the pettiness for a while.
It was an interesting time for many reasons, like you said the first waves of casualitis (lol) were sweeping through, it was becoming harder to fill raids, many people who were thought to be good players in naxx were the same types that were letting scorch fall off but they were still demanding gear like they were rockstars, the game finally hit that sorta cultural moment around TBC too so we had everyone in guild chat from porn stars like Mia Rose to guys like Napster. Just wild times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJoNZJW8jpw
One day I'm going to write a book on that era, I think I'm one of the few people who got into Death and Taxes, Aurora, Exodus, Vigil and Premonition and I have many many stories from all the bleeding at on the bleeding edge of the US raiding scene.
Perls/Puresin was my character for reference