Classic World of Warcraft Discussion [Megathread]

[Deleted]

Now, this I agree with. However, then you run into this problem.

Player 1 : "Man, I love this classic legacy server!"
Player 2 : "I didn't like classic. I'm unsubbing from the current game and I'll come back if they make a BC server."
Player 3 : "I didn't like classic. I'm unsubbing from the game and I'll come back if they make a Wrath server."
Player 4 : "I didn't like classic. I'm unsubbing from the game and I'll come back if they make a Cataclysm server."
Player 5 : "I didn't like classic. I'm unsubbing from the game and I'll come back if they make a Pandaria server."

So, what did we learn from this? We learned quite a few things. One, not everybody likes classic original World of Warcraft. Two, making a server exclusively for only classic original WoW has only retained one subscription out of five players. Three, to regain those other four players will either a. require a new expansion (which will get them to come back in a best case scenario) or building four additional servers. Each requiring manpower, coding, maintenance, ect.

Now, you tell me this, in absolute honesty. If you're a multi-billion dollar gaming company...are you looking at all of that data and thinking this is a good idea? Is it cost effective? Is it profitable?

The answer to all of this, if you're using analytics and your brain, is absolutely, positively, NO. As much as I agree it'd be a great idea for that one in five players (I'd even think of resubbing since I'd have a little side game I could jump into, which is all a vanilla server would be to me), from a business standpoint, it's a waste of resources. Which is what Blizzard has said to players time and time and time again when this dead horse gets dragged out by somebody, and which is why it has not, and will never, happen.

So let's just stop, already. It's literally pointless to even dream about it.

I learnt noting from that, thats not data...

I can speculate that players 2-5 think "man i think its really cool that blizzad delivered what people were asking for, im gonna keep playing WOD because thats what i enjoy and reasonably expect that the expac im looking forward too wil lbe realeased in time".

Additionally players 5-10 which are currently not even playing WoW think, "wow they are releasing a legacy server? id love to try that out", 5-8 enjoy the legacy server and keep playing, players 8-10 dont enjoy it and start playing WOD again and find that they enjoy it.

And looking through all that data all i see is $$$.

You cant just make shit up like that call it data and make descisions basesd of it lmfao.

It basically went like this:

Community: could you make a legacy server.
Blizzard: there isnt enough demand for it, and additionally we lost the code so even if we wanted to we couldnt.
Community: well ok, well make our own.
the server becomes extremely popular and functional and enjoyable to those who are playing it.
Blizzard: you cant do that, deletes server.

Some people take issue to "well make our own", some people take issue to "enjoyable and popular".

Others take issue to "theres no demand and its not possible", and the stance of "we wont make it but neither can you".

[Charge me Doctor]

Yeah and they got the crowd from EQ. Then they tried to get more people in by making the game even more accessible. The EQ people were like "Well shit... this game is too easy now." and peaced out.

Or they grew up and got their shit together? There is way more reasons to quit WoW than you imply.

[Aehl]

I still own the Vanilla discs and I can't play it.

You own the physical discs,

What is ON those discs is NOT your property

You purchased a LICENCE. The game and all in it belong to Blizzard.

[Tart]

I think in reality, Blizzard catered to the wrong crowd. They oversimplified the game to bring in the (For a lack of a better word) casual gamer. The problem is, the casual gamer doesn't stick around. There's not enough content at end game, their favourite class isn't as powerful anymore, their friends leave, etc. They up and leave. Blizzard should've catering to the people who were okay with putting that effort in, because those are the ones that stick around.

Well thats exactly what i wanted to say but was in danger of being lambasted and called a special snowflake, i tried to spoon feed my point across.

The bottom line is Blizzard followed every fat cat corporations way by trying to get as much money as possible by appealing to as many as possible, and in the process they turned their backs on those that made the game popular.

[Kyanion]

I answered that in my video, the crew of Nostalrius (a small crew of 30) have volunteered to do it for Blizzard for free via this petition (which is now about 80k signatures asking for for legacy servers fyi)

First of all Blizzard wouldn't hire people hosting an illegal server. That would set a horrible precedent and you'd see plenty of other illegal servers pop up trying to get tired or Blizzard or some shit. Second of all those people were hosting an emulated WoW and it wouldn't even be the same kind of technical aspects as what Blizzard could run. Third of all some of those '30' people might not even be eligible to get hired based on various factors. And the more important 4th of all is that 80k signatures is kind of...shitty. Why? You had 150k or so 'active' players in a 10 day span. You have had a couple E-celebs shit out a video about it and people can sign up using fake emails. And the BEST you guys have is about 80k signatures? Know what that shows? The interest isn't there. Shocker.

- - - Updated - - -

It's not a case of overtaking it.

It's a case of it being more appealing to enough people that there was a real risk of people unsubbing from WoD to go and play it. That is still a "threat" and it is still damaging to "current" WoW.

And really, interest in Nost was only just starting to get exponential (admittedly the shutdown increased their publicity x10e50) so you can't say that given another 6mo it wouldn't have been 300k. In a year it could have been 1million.

By all means laugh that away, but you know inside you have 0 evidence it couldn't have happened...

And considering their retention rate I don't think I'd be too worried. But it does not matter, they started advertising, asking for donations publicly and had streamers talking about it. They ended themselves.

[Pua]

I actually read it, and yeah - it was the same crap. Cute try though.

(Also, can't really talk about laziness when not even being original, pumpkin.)

Toodles.

Ooh, passive aggressive names to obfuscate the lack of a lucid argument (yep, I'm up on your commentary here). It's as if you're going from a bingo sheet; but there's already too much of that around to be impressive, or "original".

Shame, that.

[Kyanion]

If that is true then why not all the other servers that do much much more than brazenly ask for donations

Because *that* part of the reason is false.

Because not every server is easy to shut down. I'm sure Blizzard has a limited amount of people working on things too and has to build up a lot of evidence/information before sending out a cease and desist letter or preparing for a lawsuit. That is one of the problems with having a game in so many countries.

[samus]

Or they grew up and got their shit together? There is way more reasons to quit WoW than you imply.

Yeah everyone grows up but if the game was that good, people would still find the time to play it. There's always people who don't have the commitment to raiding. There's also people who will make time for raiding. I'm just saying. Look at all the times blizzard implemented things to make the game more accessible, then look at the sub numbers.

You're telling me that it's 100% coincidence? that they all left because they "Grew up"? All 6.5 million of them?

[AeneasBK]

It is, because (I'm not saying anyone at nost did) a handful making bank off the server at the expense of 100's of volunteers isn't viable for blizzard. They'd have to pay everyone involved.

Yes. I'm still not particularly convinced it would take a lot of imagination and brainstorming to figure out a way it could make money. So far the best argument against is "It would have to be too high a standard to do it cheaply" which has merit but I disagree, especially considering the half-baked condition of some of their more recent AAA releases; but ultimately, people can decide for themselves. I also think there are several pricing methods that could be explored to make it work. But thats a different topic anyway

[Kyanion]

Ironically, blizzard made WoW to bring in casual players from EQ, your argument doesn't have any ground to stand on

Yeah that argument cracked me up. Considering it was made by EQ players who wanted a more casual friendly version of EQ. That is the main reason why EQ didn't explode in popularity because it was pretty damn difficult and not friendly to the casual gamer. EQ was aimed at the hardcore, the gamer nerd, the D&D player, the person playing on MUDs or playing Ultima Online.

[Deleted]

Guys lets just all accept that we think we want it, but we don't.

[Charge me Doctor]

Yeah everyone grows up but if the game was that good, people would still find the time to play it. There's always people who don't have the commitment to raiding. There's also people who will make time for raiding. I'm just saying. Look at all the times blizzard implemented things to make the game more accessible, then look at the sub numbers.

You're telling me that it's 100% coincidence? that they all left because they "Grew up"? All 6.5 million of them?

Someone already speculated here that 95% of original players already gone over 10 years span, so... yeah, these people left are just "grew up" and stopped playing for, actually, various reasons.

[Kyanion]

Yeah and they got the crowd from EQ. Then they tried to get more people in by making the game even more accessible. The EQ people were like "Well shit... this game is too easy now." and peaced out.

I'm just saying, the subs started dropping when they started doing things that meant less social interaction was needed and loot was coming easy. I remember the days of Random HC spam for tokens to trade for epic gear.

You mean how subs in Vanilla weren't the highest point of popularity of the game? Oops? They hit the sweet spots AFTER Vanilla and then failed to maintain the sweet spot.

[Deleted]

First of all Blizzard wouldn't hire people hosting an illegal server. That would set a horrible precedent and you'd see plenty of other illegal servers pop up trying to get tired or Blizzard or some shit. Second of all those people were hosting an emulated WoW and it wouldn't even be the same kind of technical aspects as what Blizzard could run. Third of all some of those '30' people might not even be eligible to get hired based on various factors. And the more important 4th of all is that 80k signatures is kind of...shitty. Why? You had 150k or so 'active' players in a 10 day span. You have had a couple E-celebs shit out a video about it and people can sign up using fake emails. And the BEST you guys have is about 80k signatures? Know what that shows? The interest isn't there. Shocker.

A website that is so untrustworthy it even accepts fake emails. And it's supposed to be a metric of interest to you? Or to anyone to even bother to sign it themselves?
All we can say is enough people played on an illegal version many already profitable f2p games can only dream of. It's up to blizzard if it's within their margins or not and what will they think of the future.

I like how so many anti-prealm people here seem so mad just because trolls came and said "My game is better than yours". Maybe those trolls weren't even playing it, if they bother to brag about it all the time.

[AeneasBK]

Nah, casual > hardcore. That's what made WoW so popular in the first place.

Sorry I didn't mean that as a "Greater than" thing just on an "x-axis" of Hardcorest to least hardcore, against a "Y-axis" of "popularity" the line drawn would be a bell curve. EQ was too hardcore, WoW Vanilla was "just right", more recent iterations are "Too casual". (Note that was just opinion, everyone will be sat at a different point on the graph, obviously)

[samus]

Yeah that argument cracked me up. Considering it was made by EQ players who wanted a more casual friendly version of EQ. That is the main reason why EQ didn't explode in popularity because it was pretty damn difficult and not friendly to the casual gamer. EQ was aimed at the hardcore, the gamer nerd, the D&D player, the person playing on MUDs or playing Ultima Online.

I think the thing was blizz is they actually found that sweet spot. Then they went too far the other way. 3.1 / 3.2 was the sweet spot for sure.

[Kyanion]

Or they grew up and got their shit together? There is way more reasons to quit WoW than you imply.

Haha yeah if the eq people peaced out you'd think they'd have went back to EQ but that most def did not happen. EQ was crushed really quickly.

[Deleted]

Yeah boy! 683 pages, keep up the posting, get more attention to this thread and others like it. Keep up the work also anti-vanilla posters, keep making the same arguments so we can keep going around in never ending circles.

[AeneasBK]

Someone already speculated here that 95% of original players already gone over 10 years span, so... yeah, these people left are just "grew up" and stopped playing for, actually, various reasons.

It's not speculation, if we accept Blizzards figures

[Aehl]

The only way anyone is going to convince Blizzard that legacy servers are indeed sustainable is if people put their money where their collective mouth is.

No they want the Vanilla server using SOMEONE ELSE'S money and resources, it is always someone else to do the work and the financing

If they want Vanilla servers that bad they they shoulds stump up the money

THE raw entitlement that Blizzard should throw millions of dollars away on a potential black hole is beyond belief.