Should Blizzard release Vanilla servers?

[Rizon909]

I feel resources would be better spent on the live/current expansions, rather then catering to people who want a Vanilla, TBC, WotLK, ect... servers. Since if they do Vanilla, then the cry will be for another server locked in a different expansion.

[Sosoulsu]

I'd rather play on BC or Wrath servers, but I would play a Vanilla server as well. As would 6 of my friends.We've been playing private servers for years.

[Xandrigity]

I would play a BC server for sure, I however wouldn't step foot in a vanilla server.

[Daffan]

It was not hard. It was slow, I'll give you that but it was not hard.

What TBC lacked was a catch up system though so if you came into the game late in the expantion you wern't going anywhere near the end game but that also help drive away a lot of people.
Thats the rason catch up mechanics are in the game.

Now, I've always played at a high level so these systems never affected med at all but I can see how it was bad for the casuals that never got to see most of the content. It wasn't becase of difficulty though, it was becase no one was intrested in doing the old stuff, just like now.

And the only reason it was hard to get near the endgame was that you needed 25 players minimum, casual guilds stalled at Karazhan because of this. There was no flexible/crz/premade/b.net/account-wide or anything to help this process.

Catchup mechanics remove more relevant content then they grant access too. TBC had a lot of good content for casuals, relevant dungeons, professions, world quest and everything for a long time - instead of afking in a battleground/baleful for 1 day and skipping 90% of the content with "needed" catchup and then complaining there is no content to do - content drought.

I was a Casual in TBC and it was fine. Content to do every day forever. Even long quest chains provided good itemized stuff pre-raid and was actually worth doing for a casual and the Heroics lasted a very, very long time.

[Aggrophobic]

And the only reason it was hard to get near the endgame was that you needed 25 players minimum, casual guilds stalled at Karazhan because of this. There was no flexible/crz/premade/b.net/account-wide or anything to help this process.

Catchup mechanics remove more relevant content then they grant access too. TBC had a lot of good content for casuals, relevant dungeons, professions, world quest and everything for a long time - instead of afking in a battleground/baleful for 1 day and skipping 90% of the content with "needed" catchup and then complaining there is no content to do - content drought.

I was a Casual in TBC and it was fine. Content to do every day forever. Even long quest chains provided good itemized stuff pre-raid and was actually worth doing for a casual and the Heroics lasted a very, very long time.

Then don't use the catch up mechanics and you don't have a problem.
It's that easy.

You're right though. Getting people was hard if you wanted to do outdated content and you know why? Becase no one wanted to do it. Just like today.

Also, there was not that much more content. As terrible as WoD is, it still has more content than TBC. Just becase stuff took time to do doesn't mean there is more of it.

[Echocho]

I'm amazed how angry a big chunk of the community get if someone just mentions vanilla servers.

[Daffan]

Then don't use the catch up mechanics and you don't have a problem.
It's that easy.

You're right though. Getting people was hard if you wanted to do outdated content and you know why? Becase no one wanted to do it. Just like today.

1) Your joking right? Ok, I don't use catchup mechanics. Now what? Nobody is running normal/heroic/mythic BRF/Highmaul and any group you join for fun is super over geared and just makes a mockery of the place - boring.

2) In TBC, no content was ever outdated. T4 and T5 was relevant the whole way through - it wasn't outdated. Outdated content did not even exist in old WoW.

[Atherius]

My guess is they'll release it somewhere in between Q1-Q2 in 2017 regardless of how Legion performs. They confirmed that they have the source code, and they're setting up a meeting with the Nostalirus devs to ask them how they overcame technical difficulties. I'm no expert, but it goes without saying that there are a lot of technical challenges since the source code is for a 10 year old game running on 10 year old hardware.

[Sierra85]

there are a lot of technical challenges since the source code is for a 10 year old game running on 10 year old hardware.

Can't we just use emulators? i mean u can run SNES games on a super computer, u can run wow on a modern server platform.

[Atherius]

Can't we just use emulators? i mean u can run SNES games on a super computer, u can run wow on a modern server platform.

Honestly? I have no idea.. But i'm guessing they'd have to implement legacy versions into the battle.net launcher, and that'll require quite a bit of work. I'm just repeating what blizzard have said. The easiest way to release it would probably be to just let the Nostalrius devs work on it (which might happen) since they've already hosted a server which could handle 13k players (Yes, the view distance was low etc etc, but it was still playable)

EDIT: http://archive.is/U7OGb recap of meeting with Blizzard CEO. I think it's safe to say that their stance on Legacy servers have changed since the "you think you do, but you don't" thing

[McNeil]

I don't see why they shouldn't release classic servers, there's actually quite some interest and a lot of famous streamers willing to stream it. Its not like the current game can be called that great, I'd actually rather play vanilla than WoD. Playing on Nostalrius for about 2 weeks was actually the most fun I had in WoW since Cata, and I continued to have a lot of fun till I heard the announcement and didn't continue playing. Didn't stop me from finding another server though.

[Deleted]

My guess is they'll release it somewhere in between Q1-Q2 in 2017 regardless of how Legion performs. They confirmed that they have the source code, and they're setting up a meeting with the Nostalirus devs to ask them how they overcame technical difficulties. I'm no expert, but it goes without saying that there are a lot of technical challenges since the source code is for a 10 year old game running on 10 year old hardware.

Where did they confirm the source code? I mean it was obvious that they had it, but havent seen anything offical regarding to it?

[Aggrophobic]

1) Your joking right? Ok, I don't use catchup mechanics. Now what? Nobody is running normal/heroic/mythic BRF/Highmaul and any group you join for fun is super over geared and just makes a mockery of the place - boring.

2) In TBC, no content was ever outdated. T4 and T5 was relevant the whole way through - it wasn't outdated. Outdated content did not even exist in old WoW.

Find others that think like you. If you can't then maybe the old ways were not as great as you make it out to be.

Oh, the content was outdated just like now. It was still there and you could do it but anyone that actually played the game had no intrest in doing the old stuff, just like now.
Why would you ever go back there if you had better gear? I never did Molten Core after we moved on to Blackwing Lair and why would I?

Like your "old wow" if you want but making stuff up just to fit your agenda is silly.

[Deleted]

Find others that think like you. If you can't then maybe the old ways were not as great as you make it out to be.

Oh, the content was outdated just like now. It was still there and you could do it but anyone that actually played the game had no intrest in doing the old stuff, just like now.
Why would you ever go back there if you had better gear? I never did Molten Core after we moved on to Blackwing Lair and why would I?

Like your "old wow" if you want but making stuff up just to fit your agenda is silly.

Well in tbc gearing was much slower progression. There was no 4 versions of one raid. So at least our guild ran old raids while Black temple was our progression as gear was needed from those too.
And i can assure u that guilds did molten core after they moved to blackwing. Gearing huge raids required u to run old raids. These days there is zero point to go to older raids as better gear is so much easier to aquire. Like tanaan jungle and other catch ups.

[T18Z]

Find others that think like you. If you can't then maybe the old ways were not as great as you make it out to be.

Oh, the content was outdated just like now. It was still there and you could do it but anyone that actually played the game had no intrest in doing the old stuff, just like now.
Why would you ever go back there if you had better gear? I never did Molten Core after we moved on to Blackwing Lair and why would I?

Like your "old wow" if you want but making stuff up just to fit your agenda is silly.

You sound like you never experienced what you seem to be attempting to discuss. If you had a clue you'd realize gearing took much longer back then, bosses dropped 2 items per kill not 6-8, tier sets consisted of 8 items, not 5 and bosses like Ragnaros, Geddon and Garr all dropped valuable items, in particular legendaries that would be very useful throughout the whole of raiding.

You appear to be the one making stuff up to fit your agenda, really.

[Aggrophobic]

Well in tbc gearing was much slower progression. There was no 4 versions of one raid. So at least our guild ran old raids while Black temple was our progression as gear was needed from those too.
And i can assure u that guilds did molten core after they moved to blackwing. Gearing huge raids required u to run old raids. These days there is zero point to go to older raids as better gear is so much easier to aquire. Like tanaan jungle and other catch ups.

Yes and this system was implemented so that people that got in late actually could raid.
As I said befor, you you joined late in TBC then you didn't raid at all.
It was even worse in vanilla and thats why a very small % of all players actually even saw any raids back then.

Making everything slow will not get more people into raidning and it won't make old raids more fun to do late in the expantion.

If you like to do old raids though, they are right there. Just do them.

- - - Updated - - -

You sound like you never experienced what you seem to be attempting to discuss. If you had a clue you'd realize gearing took much longer back then, bosses dropped 2 items per kill not 6-8, tier sets consisted of 8 items, not 5 and bosses like Ragnaros, Geddon and Garr all dropped valuable items, in particular legendaries that would be very useful throughout the whole of raiding.

You appear to be the one making stuff up to fit your agenda, really.

Nope, cleared them all.
Only raid I missed when it was current was ToT due to new job and less time to play during the time.

It might have been slower but you still had time to gear up your raid. My guild never went back. If you still needed gear you pugged or got it in some other way.

[Deleted]

Me and lots of acquintances would pounce on that version of the game. Definitely, yes.

It's not likely to happen soon though. My fingers remain crossed.

[Daffan]

Find others that think like you. If you can't then maybe the old ways were not as great as you make it out to be.

Oh, the content was outdated just like now. It was still there and you could do it but anyone that actually played the game had no intrest in doing the old stuff, just like now.
Why would you ever go back there if you had better gear? I never did Molten Core after we moved on to Blackwing Lair and why would I?

Like your "old wow" if you want but making stuff up just to fit your agenda is silly.

How the hell is the content outdated if people still needed it. Under your stupid logic, Blackwing lair would be obsolete and outdated when Naxx 40 came out, did you kill KT too? oh wait, you were prob doing "outdated' content like BWL/AQ

outdated would mean nobody is doing it.

[Atherius]

Where did they confirm the source code? I mean it was obvious that they had it, but havent seen anything offical regarding to it?

http://archive.is/U7OGb Middle of the page. From meeting between vanilla team leader and Blizzard CEO
Edit: Not the mid of the page, but I copied it anyway.
"I can confirm: They have NOT LOST THE SOURCE CODE. But the technical issues are more complicated than that"

[Eleccybubb]

Tbh if they want to do it fair enough and if they don't then it's their decision. Would piss people off if they didn't I can imagine but when it comes to legacy related stuff for me I would be after a Wrath one.