If Blizzard brings Vanilla WoW server, how would you like them to do it?

[Deleted]

Like this:

Wall of text inc.

Dear Blizzard, dear WoW Community.

I am a long time WoW player, and I feel the pull to nostalgia. I have always played on the official Servers because I value Blizzards Server stability,
maintenance and customer support highly and Blizzard has always done a great job in running their Servers, "The Blizzard Security" as I like to call it.
This is one of the reasons why i never joined a third party Server.
And I don't want to join a "private" server any time soon because of these reasons, but since Cataclysm i really feel the pull to the old game.
The game i first started in 2004, the burning crusade afterwards, and then the wrath of our beloved lich king.
I feel the urge to play the old versions and to be clear, I am willing to pay to be able to play them. Of course on Blizzards part,
there is some work to be done, in fact a lot of work to be done. But it's worth it, not all players playing on live will ditch live because of Legacy, they will play both, as new content is always a reason to come back, it's something Legacy can NOT provide.
As we have seen in the recent days, it looks like a lot of other WoW veterans or newcomers want to experience the same as I stated above
and if we could have that WITH "The Blizzard Security" man that'd be as great as can be.

So I present to Blizzard a -Legacy- Server concept.

This concept tries to provide a "Blizzard Security" experience for players over a long period of time, all while paying for itself. Yay.

Let's get to the core values:

3 Different Realms, Classic, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King
All realms on the latest patch for their "expansion".
You can start a new character on any Realm.
You need at least a "Battle Chest" to play Legacy. (Another model would be, that you would need to have the latest expansion
to play on the Legacy realms. So when a new Expansion launches [i.e. Legion] you need to purchase Legion to continue playing. I'd be fine with that.)
Subscription fees are the same as live.
If you have a running subscription you don't need another one.
For the beginning get rid of all "new" out of the game features, like mount shop, game time tokens, etc.. (This could maybe be brought in at a later stage, if the community wants it this is a point where Blizzard should do what it did best in the early years: Listen to the community, just like Mr. Kaplan and his team does with Overwatch all the time.)


So with this out of the way, let's go deeper.

First of all, just a few days ago we saw the confirmation that a vanilla Server on its own, with a running subscription would be able to maintain itself,
regarding running costs and maintenance fees, I think this is pretty clear to all of us.

So what makes -Legacy- special?

-Legacy- evolves. How? Every 6 Months, players get the chance to advance to the next expansion. Every 6 Months if you login with a character on your realm, you get to
choose, with each character if you want to advance to the next expansion. This option is available for ALL characters on a realm at the same time, every 6 Months, to secure
a seamless experience with other players in the starting zones.

Yes, you can start a fresh level 1 on each respective expansion realm to experience your favorite game, but advancing like this gives the special feeling of going further
with YOUR character. Feel like you've accomplished everything in Vanilla? Go further with YOUR character. You've defeated Kil'Jaeden multiple times and the Burning Crusade is over? You can go on!
You value YOUR character higher, you more or less bond with it, creating a sense of story progression, character progression, etc. We all love new expansions launches of course
for the new content, but I believe also for advancing further, to get to the next chapter.
And that's what it is about in an RPG right? Feeling and identifying yourself with your characters.


So advancing is of course possible from Classic to TBC and from TBC to WotLK, you can not go back, advancing is a final decision.

Every expansion after Legion adds another expansion to Legacy. So with the expansion after Legion, Cataclysm will be added and so on.

I think that basically sums it up pretty much, I have some more ideas floating in my head, but the baseline is written down and it's already a wall of text.

What do you guys think? Any improvements? More ideas?

On a final note:

We don't want to harm you Blizzard, we want to experience something we loved so many years ago legally with your advantages and most important of all: with your support.
Not against each other, but with each other.


TL;DR: Add an Advancement system to progress through expansions with your character. Read core values. We love you Blizzard, WoW dev Team, listen to your community again please.

[Azgraal]

I'd rather they focused on the current product instead of pandering to those who cannot let go.

But they absolutely had to do it, I'd say release raids over time, taking the exact time it took in the past, and once people get fed up with that and only a couple thousand play it, can the thing.

[Flurryfang]

While i prefer for blizzard to focus all their WoW work on the new patches and Expansions, i will give my five feet note here.

I would prefer, that they split Vanilla WoW up in 2-3 chunks. One, where Molten Core and BlackWing lair is open. And another part where AQ opens, people battle the invaders, open the gates and have 2-3 months to clear AQ. After the 2-3 months, the invasion changes to Naxx, and there is given 3-4 months with that. After these months, The Burning Crusade starts! Now a repeat of that, untill we hit Legion, which comes with a new raid patch. After 5-6 months of that, new expansion hits. Perfect tempo, you get to feel the rush of having to clear content, before new content comes out. If you don't get on with 1 patch, you just wait for the next wave to come and you can start fresh as everybody else.

This will make it so that the "Vanilla" servers will not hit a stillstand, and so it will connect into the rest of the game. Will give us an opportunity to see each expansion with new eyes, and see what was really good and what was not.

[Santoryu]

I believe the best option would be to start with the game already patched at 1.12. and then release dungeons and raids in the same sequence as they were brought in originally, because otherwise people would know which abilities would be changed and when.

[Desparil]

I would prefer no new threads about it and I would prefer them concentrating on Legion. Not on Classic servers. copy/pasted

[Deleted]

I would like them to bring them back only to can them instantly because they know they wasted time and effort on a worthless idea.

[Cæli]

I want them on live so I can experience past content without losing my main char progression.

[Tart]

Like this:



3 Different Realms, Classic, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King

So it would be 4 realms including the current up to date one?

I get what your saying and would love that, but don't you think having that many options would result in 1 or 2 of those realms being dead? I suggest just pretty much letting us start from fresh then update the servers all the way to WOTLK. But then what worries me again is the people who would just want Vanilla and then your once again forced to play an expac you may not want to.

[Vlyse]

If Blizzard caves in and makes Vanilla servers, I won't care about progression there. Instead I will start rioting about creating MoP server. If someone can officially relive their "glory days", I want to relive wow in ere which I consider the best...

Just do a progression server. It makes everyone happy. Server-wide vote every 3 or 6 months to unlock the next expansion, overall life cycle of the server would be 2-3 years until it catches up to the current expansion. Then launch another progression server (round of servers?)

[Incendere]

They could do something like seasons in Diablo,instead of every 6ish months, more on a 1 year plan. Leaderboards, vanity awards on live. Vanilla servers released, people start at level 1 and work their way through content, blah blah. 1 year later, BC servers start... I'm too tired to explain this, but it would give added incentive to the player and could add the much wanted E-sport feel blizzard seems to want wow to have... Plus, they've already taken quite a few ideas from diablo. :0 just my two cents!

[Deleted]

Just do a progression server. It makes everyone happy. Server-wide vote every 3 or 6 months to unlock the next expansion, overall life cycle of the server would be 2-3 years until it catches up to the current expansion. Then launch another progression server (round of servers?)

But then what about players who don't want to move to next expansion? If most players voted yes, there still would be vocal minority (as today) that doesn't want next expansion. The forums would be flooded with "I paid for vanilla ten years ago and now Blizzard wants to take it from me again" and similar posts as today. My point was partially ironical in pointing out that there is not only demand for vanilla. The other part is that I personally consider MoP vastly superior to any other version of WoW. I don't support retro servers, but you can bet that the moment blizzard announces vanilla servers, I will fight for MoP server... And because I suspect that blizzard will actually create retro servers in +-10 years, MoP can be new vanilla in that time .

Well, I could go even more off-topic, but I won't . I could play vanilla if the game mechanics were adjusted to modern standards. Current class balance and relevant abilities (that means current rotations), mount/pet/toy/tabard collections. Possibility to take current 100 character and scale it down for lvl 60 visit. And mostly - create easier difficulty or endgame raids and connect it to WoD-like RaidFinder/LFR system. Note that I don't want current roflstomp LFR difficulty, but just the same system where I can easilty go into raid and experience the content in more relaxed atmosphere...

[lightofdawn]

I would prefer them concentrating on Legion. Not on Classic servers.

agreed... /10

[xChurch]

Throwing them into an incinerator?

[Queen of Hamsters]

Not at all, the community doesn't need even more splits wedged into it.

[Deleted]

I am against a vanilla server but if they do it then full Sub fee.

Just release the last version of vanilla so with naxx dont spend any dev time on it past that point (with or without bugs) and use the subs money for the future of WoW (so exp. packs after Legion)

[Molis]

Three servers (PVP PVE RP)

1.12 with everything open

No TBC no WotLK

Stand alone game with no progression to the new expansion.

[Deleted]

I would prefer them concentrating on Legion. Not on Classic servers.

I would prefer no new threads about it.

Amen to that brothers.

- - - Updated - - -

If they do classic servers of any kind then they need to be progression servers going from one expansion to the next till it eventually catches up to current WoW and just becomes a normal server, wait a month or two then start another new one.

they allread did that. It was called the year 2004.

- - - Updated - - -

Ideally release everything but with modern graphics.

I think it's obvious it would come with patch 1.12.x

I'd say just a cycle of patches, then after Naxx has been out for a while, reset.

progression based however, having leveled up a few toons (of course, not in private vanilla servers) , wouldnt mind a bit higher drop rate and xp gain rate

That aside, I'd like them to do it with the fixes that were made throughout Vanilla, but on a release schedule similar to Vanilla as a whole. We don't need things like racial traits, weather, the pvp system,balance items, or bug fixes added as they were in Vanilla, they can be in from the start.

Hillarious if you see that someone claimed in the nost thread it would be so easy to for blizzard.

I'd like them to hook it up with the Wardrobe and other collections (one way only, Classic => Current), so that I can unlock things on the current version when I get them on the classic server. That way it would have a real use!

Ofc we all want things we missed, but you cant be serious, are you?

I would prefer them concentrating on Legion. Not on Classic servers.

That's like saying you would prefer them to work on WoW exclusively, not Diablo, Warcraft, Overwatch, HoTS, or Starcraft.

What you just wrote is the biggest Bullshit in the pserver history lately.
What have the teams of diablo, overwatch hots and sc to do with legacy servers/legion? right, nothing
he doesnt wont the wow ressources pulled for something thats just NOT worth the money.

[Rumred]

I would like them to do it progression based that way you can live through the AQ opening event and what not and go through it in a natural way. I would also like them to tweak it tho so the raids work with Flex raid size but not a deal breaker but would let the guild i am in do the old school stuff on off nights without needing to recruit 25 more people.

Edit: If they do this i would hope they do it in a way that do it on the side as once the have the flex system and any other technical issues dealt with the game would need no more dev time devoted to it just GM's and maintenance.

[A dot Ham]

By taking down threads like these. You don't spend money on a lawsuit just to turn around and provide the very thing you just spanked someone else for.

[Lotus Victoria]

Do it from the start, without bugs.