I'm an old player, and sometimes I reminisce.

[Makoes]

I do not miss leveling pets...Actually the whole leveling low level pets is the reason I just can't seem to bond with the ghost saber...I tried so hard to get that kitty leveled, took so long to get it to...but in the end I released it because the leveling was so slow going. Maybe with the larger stables I'll give it another try.

[Kalliope]

I sometimes wonder if things would have gone differently if I'd gotten to tame my first choice for the original Orpheus....

Scorpids were The Pet for PvP and PvE back in the tier 5 days of BC. I had always had a fondness for the pink ones in Tanaris, but when it came time to actually tame one, I couldn't bring myself to level one up that far. So I ended up with one from Terokkar. And thus the original Orpheus was born. Would I have been able to morph him if I'd gotten my first choice scorpid? I can't say. I have no regrets about how Orpheus turned out (Chatter is better! <3), but I do harbor some wistfulness regarding the pink scorpids of Tanaris. Unfortunately, I do believe that ship has sailed, but the feeling lingers.

[Valfreya]

LOL I remember the days of being so excited when I was able to go to stranglethorn and tame a cat to learn dash, I was like CHARGE! I remember being so excited when I was finally able to bye the ice arrows from the Alterac Valley vendor in Vanilla, I think I still have a screenie somewhere of my hunter shooting ice arrows at Ragnaros in MC back in vanilla raiding days. I remember when I was excited that I was the first hunter in my guild to get the book of tranq shot haha. But Waaaaay back when I first started, there was no AH in Darnassus, you had to make a long run to buy anything, and really complaining when 'inflation' hit and everything started costing 1gold and not 22copper haha. When there was no autoshot and you had to spam the buttons. Having to click every single flight master to remount to fly to the next location. My month camp of Broken tooth.........ugh. I could go on and on haha.

[Valfreya]

Haha I found it! See my ice arrows going right for his heart! Screenshot has a 2006 date, jeez its been a loong time...

[Zhuge]

Some fond, and not so fond memories!

I started playing about 6 months after vanilla launched (yeah really old school!) and one thing I was thinking about when I recently levelled a new toon was...I remember when the Barrens felt like its own BIG world. My 1st ever character was a troll warrior, and I seemed to spend FOREVER in the Barrens. You would meet people on your travels around the place who you had seen and spoken to for the past few weeks. When someone left because they were high enough level it felt like some sort of rite of passage ....and ofc Barrens chat!! When the alliance used to come raid Xroads, it used to be exciting and dangerous. Now you feel grief'd xD

There was no map markers for quests....you had to either READ the quest text and figure out the answer - Mankrik's wife anyone? - or ask someone who had finished the quest.

Oh and...you spent months levelling only to find that you couldn't afford to buy your mount Your normal mount at lvl 40 (!) totally made you bankrupt (if you could afford it at lvl 40, and the epic mount at lvl 60 had to be saved for I was level 60 for months before I could afford that mount, and it was the mount itself that was the most expensive - so you had to make the right choice

Then BC hit and everyone - and I mean everyone on our server rolled a BE. There seemed to be millions of them, and the toil and sweat began again. Flying mounts?!? I'm still selling the armour I'm wearing for ammo and pet food!!!

Today, I finished the Barrens (north and south) in a day. It has certainly lost its epic feel, there was no sense of achievement even though I got the completed quest achieve

[Edanna]

Aww you made me remember my first moments in the barrens = epic!

It was huge back than and I could imagine I got lost several times hehe if only I could remember that much, all I really remember is that I went exploring and ran into dustwallow and died so I tried to find some water to enter from a different angle... And I did but I got killed by the spiders and that is the first time I wanted a hunter right there!

The tarantula was absolutely stunning to me haha I wanted it so badly that I went and made a hunter got it to lvl 10 maybe more and set out to tame it!
Only one problem it was a lot higher level than me and when I tried to tame it, it did not work broke my heart I think I asked general chat why it didnt work but I can't be sure, but heck that was also an epic time.

Eventually I reached the level to tame the tarans and got myself several spiders before choosing chatter to be my main spider for quiet awhile before moving onto the lava spider which was the last spider I tamed and kept for awhile also, don't remember anything after that >.>

Edit: And as much as I used to love my older pets I just can't seem to bond with any of them anymore, I was just looking up all the taran colors and behold major nostalgia haha but yeah I've tried many times to re tame pets I used to love and no such luck with any of them, completely ruins the nostalgia for me cause I was sure I'd still like them and well I don't >.<

[Hatari]

Today, I finished the Barrens (north and south) in a day. It has certainly lost its epic feel, there was no sense of achievement even though I got the completed quest achieve

I completely understand this feeling. I had the same experiences. Barrens chat, hahahaha!
But then again, I'm glad of the changes. As much as I like to reminisce, the idea of having to play the old way makes me shudder. This way, I can spend a day or three in the Barrens and enjoy the good memories, and not have to spend months and months there enduring the bad ones as well. It may not be as epic. But who knows. Maybe new players still do get that feeling. After all, a lot of that epic feeling came from the wonderment of seeing/doing something for the first time.