Open Letter to Blizzard Entertainment from Mark Kern

[Pengalor]

Yep becouse realmhopping totaly isnt issue what Blizzard completly ignores.

Not really. The benefits of CRZ far outweigh the issues, it's just the implementation that needs a little work.

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That's still more then any of us have, i kinda feel he should know better then to just say "14m viewers! 200k signatures! millions would come back!" without offering something to substantiate that, waste of the leverage he seems to think he has.

Barely more. And it's all outdated information. He has very little of anything to say that is worthwhile, he mostly just regurgitates the same wishful bullshit the community does.

[Deleted]

Crazy that I managed to raid with the same community of people for cata, mop and wod. Where did they come from!

When we talk about community we dont talk about your guild or automated matchmade raid group. We talk about all palyers playing on realm. Oh wait there isnt even realm identity anymore thanks crossrealm.

[Deleted]

Actually, I'll be fine, my server is still high-pop, even now. Then again, I'm guessing you're one of those people who think CRZ somehow ruined the game. That's the way it comes off at least, you seem bitter.

Not bitter at all. I am playing retail and if a legacy server is released, I will play on that too.

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Two things:
One: resources aren't infinite; and
Two: acquiring new resources takes time and money.

If there is one game developer that has the money to acquire new resources, it is Blizzard. And it is not as if legacy servers are going to happen overnight, so they have time as well.

[a little Kappa]

If it wasn't for him, WoW might have not even existed. Yeah, definitely a moron.

When was the last time you spoke to someone who were'nt your parents?

[chrisnumbers]

Because the game needs to move forward not backwards.

When's the last time it moved forward?
More specifically, when's the last time WoW saw an increase in subscribers for any significant length of time?

[AngelovV]

I for one would like a legacy server, but man... my life wouldn't. Vanilla is endless grind... you have to play 24/7 to be competitive (at least the first 3-4 months) ;(

[Eliseus]

Sure you are. You don't even consider the possibility that having multiple versions of the same game splits the community. You think current servers will be completely unaffected by this, despite the fact that one player can't be playing both on a Live server and a Legacy at the same time. If someone is dedicating themselves to playing Legacy, that's one less person populating Live, making the already-dying live servers even more empty.

So no, current servers wouldn't continue, they would be split by the community.

The current servers will continue.

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No. They are saying that the game is already dying. Taking any population away from the live servers only hurts the game. Will the legacy be more popular? Not a chance. But if some servers already feel empty and even a small percentage choose to play legacy more then the live server ends up in an even worse spot.

The current servers will continue.

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You would think someone this familiar with blizz and wow would use at least one different argument then all the stuff everybody online says.

If the stuff is correct, there is no reason.

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Actually, I'll be fine, my server is still high-pop, even now. Then again, I'm guessing you're one of those people who think CRZ somehow ruined the game. That's the way it comes off at least, you seem bitter.

The current servers will continue.

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Two things:
One: resources aren't infinite; and
Two: acquiring new resources takes time and money.

More money equals more resources.

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He's not really 'familiar' with it at all anymore. He hasn't worked on WoW for years. In fact, I don't think the modern version Battle.net even existed when he worked on the game.

Familiar with classic WoW and expectations Blizzard had.

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That's still more then any of us have, i kinda feel he should know better then to just say "14m viewers! 200k signatures! millions would come back!" without offering something to substantiate that, waste of the leverage he seems to think he has.

Low current pop indicates a plethora of possibility.

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Crazy that I managed to raid with the same community of people for cata, mop and wod. Where did they come from!

No you didn't. You had new people join and old ones leave all the time.

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Not really. The benefits of CRZ far outweigh the issues, it's just the implementation that needs a little work.

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Barely more. And it's all outdated information. He has very little of anything to say that is worthwhile, he mostly just regurgitates the same wishful bullshit the community does.

WoW numbers at all time low.

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When was the last time you spoke to someone who were'nt your parents?

Never ever.

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When's the last time it moved forward?
More specifically, when's the last time WoW saw an increase in subscribers for any significant length of time?

The game is moving forward.

[rda]

I will say just one thing:

Wrong time. They are struggling to release Legion, even if vanilla servers are worth it (not saying they are, that's a different big topic), trying to do them now would be a disaster. They should release Legion first and they should make it great, because if it isn't great, vanilla servers won't save it. And that's already pretty damn hard, they have their hands full.

They can talk and think [about old expansion servers], though.

[chrisnumbers]

The game is moving forward.

In what way is it moving forward?

[ls-]

In what way is it moving forward?

It moves forward back to 2005

[Eliseus]

I will say just one thing:

Wrong time. They are struggling to release Legion, even if vanilla servers are worth it (not saying they are, that's a different big topic), trying to do them now would be a disaster. They should release Legion first and they should make it great, because if it isn't great, vanilla servers won't save it. And that's already pretty damn hard, they have their hands full.

They can talk and think [about old expansion servers], though.

Time is irrelevant for a confirmation.

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In what way is it moving forward?

Expansions and patches.

[Paperfox]

It is the design team that came in after Pandaria was released. I remember the lead guy wondering what good valor was? and why was it still in the game.

It was that design philosophy (or lack thereof) that really hurt the game.

At least imho.

Besides, if they released a Wrath server wouldn't they be seen to be agreeing with everybody who says the game sucks?

[ls-]

It is the design team that came in after Pandaria was released. I remember the lead guy wondering what good valor was? and why was it still in the game.

It was that design philosophy (or lack thereof) that really hurt the game.

At least imho.

Besides, if they released a Wrath server wouldn't they be seen to be agreeing with everybody who says the game sucks?

That's why legacy realms are referred to as a can of worms.

[chrisnumbers]

Expansions and patches.

Oh. I thought moving forward meant business increases. My mistake.

[Rilas13]

This video does insinuate some misleading information, such as counting up each streamers audience as avid individual supporters. But I don't want to dwell on that.

I largely don't care if there are old versions of the game from any period available. I probably wouldn't play any of them, and if I did it would probably be out of short lived nostalgia. So I would get to level 5 and log off.

However I don't want to further splinter the wow team for nostalgia's sake, or more importantly split up how much they have to pour resources into and support. It is taking longer and longer to get content then it did in the past. There are a few reasons for this, but it would take a lot longer if blizz started supporting what could be many different versions of this game.

Lets say they make a vanilla server. Do they need more then one? Do they make a PvE, PvP, or RP realm? Do we have one for EU, Asia, ect? People will ask for them. Do they make versions with different patches? How long does the game feel fun before nothing ever gets updated? Do these servers cycle through the patches or sit static at the last patch they had available? Do you make them exact copies with all of the balance flaws that was in them at that time? Or do you create a new more balanced version?

This all adds up to a huge number of variables. And if they add in vanilla, they are going to be pressured to put in BC, Wrath, Cata, anything that is no longer current. Why do we spend literally a year in content drought and then ask blizz to send us to another time of perpetual content drought? Further slowing down the speed of any future content.

I don't pet battle much, it's a feature I think a lot of people ignore. That certainly doesn't mean we should remove an optional mini game . It is a feature some players enjoy. But this wouldn't be a feature, this would be a massive endeavor that at its best would be nearly impossible to please all of those 200k that want this implemented.

Meanwhile we have 5+ million(Not counting current subs, but realistic estimation of people that are probably going to try Legion at some point) people that want new content sooner than later.

TL;DR: If they can have different versions of the game without making future updates even slower then sure lets do it. But in all likelihood that wouldn't be the case. Is satisfying 1/25th of the last known size of the subscriber base(obviously unknown numbers, lots of people signed those petitions many times and many that aren't currently subbed) worth slowing down current/future content?

*Edited for clarification, bad spelling & such.

[SLSAMG]

That was awesome. Thank you, Mark Kern for helping to create Vanilla WoW.

Hope Blizzard listens.

Why the hell would they? This topic has been beaten to death.

[Bitterra]

Is satisfying 1/25th of the last known size of the subscriber base(obviously unknown numbers, lots of people signed those petitions many times and many that aren't currently subbed) worth slowing down current content?

That's probably one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Are you going to tell me that you're enjoying the current amount of "new" content in WoD? literally months on end of NO new content? And you're supporting that as "current content"? How is that any different? That literally makes no sense.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Ya this guy is a jackass straight up. He has ABSOLUTELY no reason to be trying to make this plea, now should any one.
Stop living in the past.
If you don't enjoy wow as it is not, I understand that for sure but other than leveling, there is absolutely nothing to do in Classic wow.
There were a lot of social reasons to enjoy Classic, but the game itself is absolutely crap compared to literally any other expansion - yes even WoD and Cata.

The "Pristine server" is actually what people should want.
You should like classic because it was more RPG focused, people were out in the world doing things because they wanted to, and you enjoy leveling and exploring more than end game competition.

Instead, people asking for these servers seem to actually like having 1/3rd of the specs be viable, have Paladins/Shamans not both available to both factions, and the complete lack of incentive to do five mans for any reason other than you were RPing as some one playing TBC.
If there was just a way to channel the social and RPG elements of Classic into a modern version of the game, it would be amazing.

But as much as it SOUNDS cool to go back to those days, you soon realize how much its smoke and mirrors and so much of the "content" is centered around just leveling up.

[gcsmith]

That's probably one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Are you going to tell me that you're enjoying the current amount of "new" content in WoD? literally months on end of NO new content? And you're supporting that as "current content"? How is that any different? That literally makes no sense.

Right and if developing old servers, it would slow down even more... His argument makes perfect sense to anyone with a) a brain and b) not biased

[judgementofantonidas]

What the fuck would that have to do with anything? A bunch of crybabies like the non flying crowd trying to block content that they aren't forced to use? If you would quit wow because someone else could play on a legit legacy server, you should also quit life.

who said anything about quiting because a bunch of evolutionary throw backs want to play irrelevant content that was destroyed by players 12 years ago?