Classic World of Warcraft Discussion [Megathread]

[Jewsco]

That's almost fair. How about those that would only play if it was legal? I agree with you on that we can't know for sure what would happen, but biased or not I lean toward a good outcome for Blizzard and the fans of Vanilla. Maybe they have done the research. What most people seem to want is a proper response from Blizzard.

Some more might play if legal but everyone that assumes it would be a good mine forget people get funny with money. Easy to say you would do it and pay for it but when the time comes to pay up people tend to get fishy. I could see some claiming they don't want to give blizz any money,claim blizz charging to much, or blizz is to greedy etc... When the truth is they don't want to pay for it. People do it all the time. So to assume people would gladly pay for it is taking a big leap.

[Tuesdays]

You know, I hope Blizzard at least learns something from this. Honestly, WoW is an old game and if anything it needs some user-created content to bring some life back into this. User created scenarios, dungeons and the like could only benefit WoW. If they truly want to protect their IP, why not open up the IP in an official way?

It doesn't, doing fine as we speak.

[Deficineiron]

It is quite obvious to me that they underestimated the demand. I think a conservative estimate of the active players an official vanilla server would have is 5 to 1 of what Nostalrius had. 150,000 x 5 = 750,000. 750,000 x $15 = $11,250,000 per month. That is just for vanilla. Where do I get the 5 to 1? Blizzard marketing is very powerful, something like this would be shown at Blizzcon and would spread through the internet like wildfire. Everyone that has been wanting to play vanilla for all these years would hear about it. The simple fact that it is official would bring in a lot of people that weren't willing to play on private servers. Also, the latency would be way better for a lot of people, and there would be less bugs. If they offer it WITH the current game; they aren't even competing with themselves. Vanilla and current WoW together for $15/ month would be a great deal, and people would be a lot less likely to unsub. Not to mention if they added BC, WotLK etc at some point.

good arguments for a multiple like you use.

1) some folks just aren't going to play on a private server, period. long-time histories of hijinx, broken talents, crappy instance scripting, shutdown risk. that F one had all kinds of problems.
2) some folks like pvp and really don't like lag and give up. this describes me.
3) apparently some folks hadn't even heard of this server, based on comments here.

so as a possible exercise, lets think of how the game has been designed the last few years, and ask ourselves what that team and its bosses would think of a game like classic wow, and how they would modernize it. Not what the devs want to play but what the suits who make the broader decisions would think needs to be changed in classic to make it right. don't forget the folks in accounting want to make sure the gamestore has a place, and the folks who review in-game metrics want to make sure all content has high participation.completion metrics.

my answer doesn't include anything recognizable as classic. for starters it is almost certainly based on a 3.4 engine, with achievements among other things, and probably tuned like 3.4 was too (by 3.2-3.3 you could level toons by SOLOING instances while still within xp range, at least with paladins and druids. and yes I can provide links).

[corebit]

right. also require the latest expansion box purchased to access the classic server, etc. lots of ways to set it up as a premium service.

But we live in an era where sub MMOs are dying left and right, and even $15/month is considered a huge commitment these days. Yeah good luck with that. The whole gaming world would scream bloody murder if Blizzard ever came up with such a plan.

[MoanaLisa]

i am a bit surprised at your reply. that is a HIGHLY selective quotation used in contrary sense from a post that pretty much said what you said, but in more detail and with more specifics.

Well, I didn't mean it to be like that but I'm trying to zero in on a very specific point. For a company with Blizzard's revenue, this would be a project that would never get out of the weeds. A lot of people are trying to make the case that "It was successful at Nost so of course it would be worth doing and they would make a lot of money." I get where you're coming from. Just pointing out that it's really not worth doing from their perspective. Sorry if you misunderstood.

[Barkloud]

this reminds me of when Metallica sued because people were downloading for free. I get it, but it is always a little sad when a creator wholly shifts to profiteer.

blizzard has shown time and time again profit is all that matters now. how anybody at blizzard working on wow can hold their head high with pride is beyond me. really sad for them to go out like this.
Nostralius was a shit ton of fun. much more fun than live.

[Micronetic]

Why aren't the other private servers shut down which are longer than 2 or 3 years playable and available?

--

this reminds me of when Metallica sued because people were downloading for free.

this is something complete different.

[Jewsco]

It is quite obvious to me that they underestimated the demand. I think a conservative estimate of the active players an official vanilla server would have is 5 to 1 of what Nostalrius had. 150,000 x 5 = 750,000. 750,000 x $15 = $11,250,000 per month. That is just for vanilla. Where do I get the 5 to 1? Blizzard marketing is very powerful, something like this would be shown at Blizzcon and would spread through the internet like wildfire. Everyone that has been wanting to play vanilla for all these years would hear about it. The simple fact that it is official would bring in a lot of people that weren't willing to play on private servers. Also, the latency would be way better for a lot of people, and there would be less bugs. If they offer it WITH the current game; they aren't even competing with themselves. Vanilla and current WoW together for $15/ month would be a great deal, and people would be a lot less likely to unsub. Not to mention if they added BC, WotLK etc at some point.

So then more work and money needling to be spent for tbc, wrath, cata etc.. Servers. Nevermind then which patch are they all on? Do they go progress thru he patches of the expansion of are they set to one patch? Can toons move from vanilla to tbc to wotlk or does one have to start new one each of them? Do mounts, pets, titles and achievements get shared to main accounts? How much support to these servers have?

So many things they would have to work on. We can't even get new patches or expansions at good intervals but they will be able to do all that for old ones?
Come in think abut it for a minute before just spouting things you want.

[8bithamster]

Don't forget wannabe morally superior posters being unable to have even the slightest of sympathy of someone else's thought of the game(play).

And here's the first one! the butthurt player that can't grasp the concept that something illegal was shut down. Hint, illegal, look it up. Might help!

A lotta people have no concept of legal rights or wrongs because to them piracy is normal. It's the stereotypical spoiled millennial, that just wants wants wants.

Jep.. pretty much, sadly this is becoming the norm it seems.

[zorkuus]

this reminds me of when Metallica sued because people were downloading for free.

The right thing to do.

[Deleted]

Good for Blizzard. I resubscribed on both of my accounts on retail simply because they shut down Nostalrius and re-affirmed their stance on no legacy servers. You steal, you're eventually going to get burned. All those pirates are whining because their FREE game got taken away.

Amazing, do you aslo donate to the local police everytime they charge a guy with having smoked weed to? That illegal junkie little bitch got whats coming to him. Are you american? They tend to see everything black and white, jesus christ dude the discussion/problem is alot bigger than that. You're a sheep dude.

[Kuja]

Wonder why now and not years ago? There has been soo many moves lately from Blizzard that all try to grow the sub amounts, or hide the current sub amounts suddenly that it makes it look like the current sub amounts are at record low.

[Toxigen]

Good for Blizzard. I resubscribed on both of my accounts on retail simply because they shut down Nostalrius and re-affirmed their stance on no legacy servers. You steal, you're eventually going to get burned. All those pirates are whining because their FREE game got taken away.

You're not very bright, are you?

[Deleted]

That's presuming that you could find 150000 people to pay a $10 dollar a month subscription fee. So about $18 million a year. OK.

Activision/Blizzard's revenue for 2015 was something like 4 and a half billion dollars which roughly calculates out to ~500k an hour. So $18m a year in revenue is basically a day-and-a-half of Activision/Blizzards revenue, 36 hours.

As I've been saying, that looks like a lot of money to us but it really isn't to a company with high fixed costs.

Assuming retention losses of 50% over the first year (optimistic) that's less than a day's revenue after 12 months ($9 million). It's too small. And that is assuming there's no cost at all for servers, development at startup, maintenance, GM's and support.

That's why they won't do it. It's a charity project for them.

I think you are not accounting good exposure Blizzard would get as a company if they made "charity" project like this. You can't count that in money.
I am bit confused about your phrase: " It's too small. And that is assuming there's no cost at all for servers, development at startup, maintenance, GM's and support. ", those things would actually increase their total revenue. Revenue != Net income ok?

[Deficineiron]

Well, I didn't mean it to be like that but I'm trying to zero in on a very specific point. For a company with Blizzard's revenue, this would be a project that would never get out of the weeds. A lot of people are trying to make the case that "It was successful at Nost so of course it would be worth doing and they would make a lot of money." I get where you're coming from. Just pointing out that it's really not worth doing from their perspective. Sorry if you misunderstood.

right.

kotick wont greenlight a project without 9-digit annual rev. potential. he killed some vivendi projects after the merger and said that in plain english.

that alone is a game-stopper.

[zorkuus]

Amazing, do you aslo donate to the local police everytime they charge a guy with having smoked weed to? That illegal junkie little bitch got whats coming to him. Are you american? They tend to see everything black and white, jesus christ dude the discussion/problem is alot bigger than that. You're a sheep dude.

This guy's going places.

[Barkloud]

The right thing to do.

alienating your player base? I pay a monthly subscription and do not use it because there is no content no reason to play. I actually play on the private server. I just cancelled my account.

kind of crappie blizzard doesn't support wow and continues to let it collectively go years without adding anything is ridiculous.

[Ghier]

So then more work and money needling to be spent for tbc, wrath, cata etc.. Servers. Nevermind then which patch are they all on? Do they go progress thru he patches of the expansion of are they set to one patch? Can toons move from vanilla to tbc to wotlk or does one have to start new one each of them? Do mounts, pets, titles and achievements get shared to main accounts? How much support to these servers have?

So many things they would have to work on. We can't even get new patches or expansions at good intervals but they will be able to do all that for old ones?
Come in think abut it for a minute before just spouting things you want.

There is a lot of veteran video game developers at Blizzard who are paid a lot of money. I am 100% sure they can figure it out. It would HAVE to be a lot easier than doing completely new content, because all of the art assets and scripts already exist.

There are basically 2 large groups of people that are interested in WoW: The ones who want to play the current game, and the ones who miss the old days. Why not gather them both under the same subscription fee? It makes so much sense.

[Mhyroth]

So then more work and money needling to be spent for tbc, wrath, cata etc.. Servers. Nevermind then which patch are they all on? Do they go progress thru he patches of the expansion of are they set to one patch? Can toons move from vanilla to tbc to wotlk or does one have to start new one each of them? Do mounts, pets, titles and achievements get shared to main accounts? How much support to these servers have?

So many things they would have to work on. We can't even get new patches or expansions at good intervals but they will be able to do all that for old ones?
Come in think abut it for a minute before just spouting things you want.

So 20 motivated people can do it for free, why can't 20 Blizzard employees do it and get paid with sub money ? What's the difference ?

[zorkuus]

alienating your player base?

You're not the playerbase, just one of them. What's up with all these people thinking they're speaking for everyone?