Should Blizzard release Vanilla servers?

[Daffan]

Should they? No. It is bad for business. In more ways than one.

I don't want a world where I quest solo as a ret paladin with 1 ability for 30 levels on a 15 second CD while I transverse in the worst community gaming has to offer. All the while once I hit cap to be told I can't raid unless I heal because balance is so bad that entire specs of the game are entirely useless for end game. Then when I heal it costs a fortune and a week to farm 1 nights raid mats as a healer for Molten Core only to watch 15 people AFK while the other half of the dps auto attacks to avoid pulling threat on a boss that does 1 thing every 2 minutes.

While I might actually be put in back and told to res those that die and if I enter combat I'm getting kicked for timmy sitting on the bench.

Or I could just pvp and get 1 shot by warriors and mages who actually get to raid. While I try to gain anything in a 3 day AV run. With little to no reward. Maybe I'll ransack Hillsbrad and get some honor for my shitty welfare gear.

That's cool, because you don't have to play it.

[Leithz]

Some of the answers in this thread are really interesting. I thought people being so (passive) agressive towards those not sharing their opinion was only a thing on YouTube, but oh well it's the Internet after all.

Anything is better than this crap game experience. The only reason I'm still around is because I somehow still enjoy PvPing.

Having everything handed on a plate is terrible. Feed me muffins, I like muffins. When you give me a muffin sometimes I appreciate it.
However, if you feed me muffins every hour of the day for a week, a month, a year, I'll feel done with muffins and sick. That's exactly what's happening with the Epicz and rewards Blizzard is handing us constantly.
And because everything is handed to us, we don't have to communicate as players being part of a MMO. It feels terrible to do stuff and have nobody talk to me. Back in the days things were tougher, so we had to interact with one another, thus creating and enjoyable multiplayer experience. In the past months the only whispers I got was a guy trashtalking me in russian after a BG and someone asking where I got my mount. That's nothing compared to how much I used to talk back in BC/Wotlk (With good people or fags, the community also had a bad side. I'm not wearin these tinted glasses.). Some people were annoying, some were cool, some other were horrible, but it was part of a MMO experience, thing that pretty much all modern games fail to understand.
Also, WoD. I've never complained about an xpac in the past because all of them had some good or excellent sides, but this one felt just horrible. From the very first minute when it was introduced with Bollywood level writing.

And the reason I'd love a Vanilla server is, well, because it might happen. Maybe after WoW dies, maybe in a year or two, but it might happen, while introducing "Vanilla" elements to the current version of the game sounds inconceivable with that entitled, good for nothin' playerbase Blizzard managed to develop.

Bring me back my MMORPG experience.

[Sarugaul]

I vote no - A level 70 server without the wotlk pre-patch would allow both 60s and 70s to play as per vanilla for the most part but increase the player pool significantly.

[HuxNeva]

There would be no need for a 'vanilla' server if the current game hadn't become so dissatisfying to a large part of the (potential) player base. I play both current retail (on a break, since I realy couldn't face garrisons any longer, but will be back for Legion) and Vanilla on private. I don't play it for the 'nostalgia', even though I like some of the pre-cata zones way better than what they have become. I like it for the engagement (no AoE zerg leveling), and the social interaction that was both required for doing (elite) quests and instances, as well as not completely killed of by inherent a-social mechanisms (server-transfers, cheap rerolls, LFG, ...). ('Pristine' is a step forward, but not enough as we would be missing so much depth (remember the talent trees, the relevance of professions, the uniqueness of classes, ...) and inevitably end up in Garissonville, but that is another story). So for me, 'Vanilla' is a way of saying 'Blizz, you seriously went of the rials, probably somewhere aloud the late WoTLK era, lets rewind, put you back on track, and be more careful this time with where you are taking us'.

[Celenthian]

Personally I feel that vanilla servers would be fun for a week or so, then die.

[MoonTiger]

Sure. I mean I wouldn't play on it, because I remember Vanilla for what it was, and it's not what I would want to play now, with limited amount of time, but why not open one? People evidently want it, and some would even come back and pay a sub for it.

[HuxNeva]

All these threads prove that the player-base has bifurcated. Both sides love the World of Warcraft, they both want different, irreconcilable things from it. Blizzard is trying to shoehorn them both into the same game, thereby alienating a lot of people who are/were passionate fans of the game. I personally can't see why the need for the highlander mentality (There can be only one!). Give each there own different alternate universe timeline. Start with Vanilla, make it a game for those who rather trade of 'convenience and streamline' for depth, social engagement etc. Evolve into a world in which the Cataclysm never happens. Make 2 WoW games (there were plenty D&D universes), each aiming at a different side of the spectrum, non of them needs to be the 'one' wow.

[HeiAggra]

did you enjoy the experience though? The wow of the golden days is totally different game to what it is like today, I still wear my scarlet crusade tabard with pride and most of the playerbase just do not understand what it means to see how much this game has changed over the years, they take it for what it is in the current age.but fail to realise just how good this game used to be. That is what is so annoying about it, blizzard have allowed companies like activision to take over and tell blizzard to make the game as casual as possible, and look at the state of the game now, it is dying and there is no one that will deny that fact

I understand what you mean, i do have that tabard well stored! But it was back then, the reality now many ppl don't have the time to sick in WOW like 10 years ago. I still play, i raid mythic (old HC), i miss the profession and the talent trees from back then, i miss the no flying and going with your guild to do dungeons and raids where you cross half world but now ppl don't have time for that. I don't love wow now but i still like to pvp and raid, classes are more polished, new models are great and still have the WOW felling. I don't want to go back in time. I want blizz to bring back some of the stuff that worked and make semi-casual the game not like before it was HARDCORE not like now witch is CASUAL 200%.
But this is my personal opinion! Peace guys

[Gurluas]

It worked well for Runescape, they released Legacy servers and it helped revitalize their game.
If Blizzard can get a few servers running, and have a few people on board doing maintenance on those servers, it could work.

[Eon Drache]

That's cool, because you don't have to play it.

Oh I won't unless they give a reward for some shitty achievement. But it would still be a bad decision for Blizzard.

[Lilija]

Yes attunements were sooooo hard. Keep the quest version out of raid or make them account-wide. gg

It isn't about them being hard. It was having to go back to old content that everyone is already bored with just to get a new person into your raid group. Alternativly you would go and steal an attuned person from another guild - and this was what most guilds did because people didn't want to do that old content so much.

And you know why nowadays it seems as you "can't" do old group content anymore? Because hardly anyone is interested in doing so. That's why Blizzard made old stuff soloable so people who like farming old mounts, pets, legendaries can do that on their own. For the old content that isn't soloable yet there are plenty OpenRaid groups farming mounts (for example Mythic BRF)

So this whole concept as for how content didn't become obsolete back in the day is a big pile of crap. Old things are always obsolete - you can't beat human nature.

[NickCageFanatic]

AFAIK, Vanilla WoW was horribly balanced.

1) Shamans were the god class upon release.
2) A warrior tank's best (only) chance at securing threat was...sunder armor.
3) If you had a healing ability, you were a healer, end of discussion. So no Druid/Pally tanks and dpsing.
4) At the end of nearly every fight (and I mean EVERY fight including just leveling) you had to sit down and drink/eat to recoup health and mana.
5) Raid attunements took a VERY LONG TIME. Casuals these days have no clue what raiding actually entailed.
6) Healing was convoluted as SH%$ Seriously, as a healer you would purposefully use lesser rank spells because your highest ranking spells cost too much mana!
7) Raid boss down? Here are a whopping TWO item drops for your FORTY MAN RAID (occasionally you got 3-4).
8) PvP? Sure have fun, but if you want any of the highest tier titles you NEED to play this game like it's your job (and I'm not being sarcastic) and all you do is PvP, playing WSG, AB, and AV that's it.
9) Want leveling to be harder? Vanilla WoW was were it was at. The idea behind Blizzard was to get the player to visit EVERY SINGLE zone. So they purposefully didn't put enough quests per zone to get you to get through your level bracket so you were stuck every now and then having to travel back and forth in some cases, w/o a mount mind you, from Eastern Kingdoms to Kalimdor again and again in hopes that the one grey quest giver will turn yellow!

For more of this I suggest people watch Preach Gaming's 3 part series on what Vanilla WoW really was all about.

The Legacy of Vanilla WoW - Leveling and Questing
The Legacy of Vanilla WoW - PVP
The Legacy of Vanilla WoW - Raiding

To my point here, I doubt we will see true Vanilla WoW on legacy servers, but instead a very heavily modified version that at the very least meets some higher standards in gaming than did back in '04. So I doubt we will see 40 man raids again, I doubt bosses will drop minimal loot, I think attunements will come back but they shouldn't take as long, PVP will never be like Vanilla again.

[Pull My Finger]

All these threads prove that the player-base has bifurcated. Both sides love the World of Warcraft, they both want different, irreconcilable things from it. Blizzard is trying to shoehorn them both into the same game, thereby alienating a lot of people who are/were passionate fans of the game. I personally can't see why the need for the highlander mentality (There can be only one!). Give each there own different alternate universe timeline. Start with Vanilla, make it a game for those who rather trade of 'convenience and streamline' for depth, social engagement etc. Evolve into a world in which the Cataclysm never happens. Make 2 WoW games (there were plenty D&D universes), each aiming at a different side of the spectrum, non of them needs to be the 'one' wow.

What a bright idea. They can't even keep up making one WoW.

Also, lol@Vanilla = "depth"

[Zephre]

No they shouldn't. They've proven time and time again they suck at working on multiple things at once when it comes to WoW. If they did it'd almost certainly effect the live game negatively and it's a big risk to take for something people might not devote attention to in the long run.

[Mornic]

I think they should. they would get a ton of subs back and blizz loves dem $$

[deniter]

No one is asking if Blizz should release Overwatch. They already have World of Warcraft, why would they release another game that competes with one of their most popular game?

I tell you why. Because they're different games, just like vanilla WoW and WoD/Legion.

Currently, no company provides better alternative for gamers who love vanilla WoW kind of MMOs. We've tried 'em all, as soon as they come out we buy them, play them, disappoint with them, and uninstall them.

For ten years i've been waiting on a game that does the same trick than vanilla WoW did. Looks like nothing is coming in near future, so i could very well play the old one, even tho i know almost everything in that game already.

[upirlikhyi]

I wouldn't. While yes some fantastic things were in there but so we..reagents for portals not one kind but 2. There are other examples I had but I forgot them

[Daffan]

It isn't about them being hard. It was having to go back to old content that everyone is already bored with just to get a new person into your raid group. Alternativly you would go and steal an attuned person from another guild - and this was what most guilds did because people didn't want to do that old content so much.

And you know why nowadays it seems as you "can't" do old group content anymore? Because hardly anyone is interested in doing so. That's why Blizzard made old stuff soloable so people who like farming old mounts, pets, legendaries can do that on their own. For the old content that isn't soloable yet there are plenty OpenRaid groups farming mounts (for example Mythic BRF)

So this whole concept as for how content didn't become obsolete back in the day is a big pile of crap. Old things are always obsolete - you can't beat human nature.

People aren't interested in Highmaul or BRF, or dungeons, world content, quest content and other stuff because you can get 10x better gear just by afking in a battleground.

I'm sorry but HM/BRF is new content to people who have never done it before, and it's stupid to make it obsolete/outdated with catchup.

[Morbownz]

AFAIK, Vanilla WoW was horribly balanced.

I am responding to you entire msg, I just don't see the point of creating a huge wall of text.


Firstly Preach played at a high level, so instantly everything he experienced in endgame didn't reflect what the other 7 million experienced.

1) The God class didn't end with Vanilla so I don't know what this proves.
2) In raids yes, in 5 mans this wasn't the case at all.
3) I could nitpick and bring up locks siphon/drains but generally you're talking about raiding, outside of raiding this wasn't at all true.
4) This is not true. Mana users had the option to work out how to be efficient, casting your 2 most expesive spells might kill a mob quicker
but it could also incur more downtime, whereas being convservative allowed you to keep going which usually turned out to be quicker.
5) No they did not. BWL took 1 UBRS raid. MC took 1 BRD run which you could short cut. Onyxia started at level 52 in the Burning Steppes with 1 quest, it then took you to the beginning of BRD (which you would most likely be running anyway because of all the quests available). It would then require you to go back to BRD entrance and kill a few more bosses (all close to the start and very easy to access) and then a rendevezvous at SW and a UBRS run.It took a few days to complete. AQ didn't have a personal attunement and Naxx required Rep to cut the cost down.
6) You gear allowed you to improve the rank of healing spells, it was important to understand your limitations but it was also an engaging way to see your character improve. This didn't mean it was broke, ask a healer today which is more important, how much they crit for? or how long they can last?
7) Yep, so time to upgrade that Blue item you've had for the last 6 months, or perhaps set up 2 ZG raids (not on a weekly reset) with your guild and get double the loot for your guild, not to mention the tokens you could hand in for tier sets.
8) That's providing you want to play for titles, which most of the players on my realm that were very good didn't do. They raided and PvP'ed on the weekend, or they'd look for world PvP. But absolutely, if you wanted a title beyond rank 11 it had to become your job.
9) If you payed absolutely no attention to what you were doing I could see this being a problem. Only beyond level 40 did leveling really become a problem for running out of quests, but that didn't mean style of questing just didn't work at all, it could have easily been tweaked. The only real gripe I ever had with leveling was playing in groups would incur an XP penalty, this was such a bad idea.


As for balance, watch any old PvP movie and you will see awful players being destroyed by players that knew what they were doing. The moment any of them face a good player it's a completely different story.

The point I generally try to make is it's only bad depending on how you look a the game, except where I think you're research is pretty thin. Yes I love to play a class with powerful gear and see huge numbers, but not at the cost of class depth. If a mana user doesn't have to pay any attention to his mana, why even have mana?

[TheFuse]

Nope, how would decide which patch was 'vanilla enough'? The patch before they introduced battlegrounds? The Burning Crusade pre-launch patch?