If they announce legacy servers at Blizzcon, would you play them?

[Deleted]

So you honestly think that people play Vanilla primarily because it's free? Why then are those Vanilla realms far more populated than any other version of WoW that is also free? There are FREE Cata servers, MoP servers, Wrath servers, BC servers, WoD and Legion servers. Far and away the highest number of players on realms are Vanilla. The server that shall not be named had ridiculous concurrent players and a thriving community who could have played any free version of WoW. Why then do they flock to the vanilla realms over the others? I mean they are all free and why are the Legion realms not filled to the absolute brim when so many people are playing retail? Surely if it's primarily about the money and Legion is objectively a better version of the game the majority of people playing Warcraft would be playing Legion on a free server instead.

Obviously the money isn't really the issue. Retail versions provide a better experience. Less bugs, faster fixes, balances, content, support, etc. So I'd stop using that argument, chief.

You asked, this is my opinon:
I say again: money (mostly). Vanilla realms require the cheapest hardware to play on them. They are the most simple version of WoW in all terms, you can literally play it on a toaster. Think about it how many ppl use that cheap hardware. There are so many of them, you can't even imagine, and you can't expect them to even pay a dime for anything on the Internet.

There is an other portion however: trend. Millennials (I use this term again, because that age group started this crusade, not the ones who actually played vanilla) tend to pick up the stupidest trends and they do it and fight for it in the name of popularity, like their life would depend on it. This is a much deeper social aspect, but you have to understand what social media brought to the life of these youngsters. It's the compliance constraint they face, not just at school or at home, but on the Internet too. They feel the urge to stay in the curve, keep up their popularity, be cool, belong to a specific community. If they can't keep it up they become seriously depressed, burned out that can even lead to suicide in extreme cases.

That's why we are at more than 66 pages of this thread, and this is only one of many. These youngsters feel that they must fight for their "trend" in order to keep up the "coolness", despite they have no idea how life works, how a private company works, they don't accept the answer "no". This is also because of an other social aspect, making it simple: they get everything on a silver plate. They can cry and whine at home for mommy and even mommy can't say "no". They get used to it, completely washing away the limits and borders of real life and family life and they think this is normal. It's not, just no one taught it to them what is life about: compromises, priorities and resposibility.

This is my answer for it. They make this trend their crusade, they even end up on private servers, just to protect their pride on any way.

(p.s.: Dear moderator, I'm not intended to talk about private servers, but it can't be untouched, because it comes up all the time regarding to vanilla or other servers where the youngsters above collect their experience and "fuel" for this thread. Thank you.)

[Kyanion]

Legacy servers would have progression. Retail WoW has handheld mechanics that pull you into every new raid. Catch-up mechanics negate progression.

So I suppose to you doing LFR is your version of 'progression raiding'?

[Charge me Doctor]

That’s bullshit. It’s about accessability.

A couple years ago nobody was buying CD’s anymore and music piracy was getting out of hand. And then Spotify came along, and it became super popular. Suddenly a lot more people were paying for their music.

That's so stupid on so many levels...

[Kyanion]

That's so stupid on so many levels...

No kidding, if anything it is even easier to rip off music now because youtube has a fucking massive catalog you can rip them from directly.

[Santoryu]

That's why we are at more than 66 pages of this thread, and this is only one of many. These youngsters feel that they must fight for their "trend" in order to keep up the "coolness", despite they have no idea how life works, how a private company works, they don't accept the answer "no". This is also because of an other social aspect, making it simple: they get everything on a silver plate. They can cry and whine at home for mommy and even mommy can't say "no". They get used to it, completely washing away the limits and borders of real life and family life and they think this is normal. It's not, just no one taught it to them what is life about: compromises, priorities and resposibility.

You just provided the perfect description of the entitled casual, who Blizz kept catering to waaaay too much, which is why the game
is not nearly as good as it was in the past.

[Arnoux]

You just provided the perfect description of the entitled casual, who Blizz kept catering to waaaay too much, which is why the game
is not nearly as good as it was in the past.

The game is better than ever. I have played with every iteration of WoW.

[Deleted]

You just provided the perfect description of the entitled casual, who Blizz kept catering to waaaay too much, which is why the game
is not nearly as good as it was in the past.

What? I hit you on the weak spot, kiddo? You just throw random words at me, bashing me, getting personal at once. By the way how are you better than any of the ppl you are just referring to? What makes you better? You have no life and have plenty of time to play a video game? Pathetic. I would like to see your reasons, not just random bash. That would make you better.

[HuxNeva]

How many people are going to play on legacy servers and pay monthly fee? Remember, all the private servers are free.

Right idea, wrong question. Getting people that exclusively play on private back to retail, even for free is a win as you go from 0 potential for revenue to more than zero ar extremely low marginal cost, and because of 'network effects' in MMO games. Besides, box sales and sub revenues are the 'old' models, in-game monetization is the name of he modern game. So the 'right' question to ask is: How would you get a current wow player to spend more whilst playing on a legacy realm than he would be spending while on 8.x, without having the other players in that mode abandoning ship.

[Cryptoriana]

Right idea, wrong question. Getting people that exclusively play on private back to retail, even for free is a win as you go from 0 potential for revenue to more than zero ar extremely low marginal cost, and because of 'network effects' in MMO games. Besides, box sales and sub revenues are the 'old' models, in-game monetization is the name of he modern game. So the 'right' question to ask is: How would you get a current wow player to spend more whilst playing on a legacy realm than he would be spending while on 8.x, without having the other players in that mode abandoning ship.

I think the profits made from wow and other games is more than enough to provide a smaller sized Classic server hosted

[ls-]

I think the profits made from wow and other games is more than enough to provide a smaller sized Classic server hosted

That's the point, it has to provide for itself.

Releasing a product, well, re-releasing a product that can't earn money for its maintenance is not a good idea.

[Cryptoriana]

That's the point, it has to provide for itself.

Implying revenue from other IP's cant be shifted?

[ls-]

Implying revenue from other IP's cant be shifted?

Ofc they can do so, but it's normally done during product's initial dev/life cycle, but if it can't earn money after that it's normally set to maintenance mode and then phased out which, BTW, is quite bad for a company.

Normally dept that does market research and analysis makes sure that such products aren't even released.

[MoanaLisa]

(p.s.: Dear moderator, I'm not intended to talk about private servers, but it can't be untouched, because it comes up all the time regarding to vanilla or other servers where the youngsters above collect their experience and "fuel" for this thread. Thank you.)

Dear Sonol,

Please read the title of the thread and feel free to send me a PM as to how a discussion of whether or not you will play on a Blizzard-sponsored server requires discussion of private servers. Please send a PM, not continue to talk about it in this thread because that's just more problems for everyone.

Best regards

ML

[Blamblam41]

Literally only if 'legacy servers' only included a working version of every expansion+patch content. A vanilla, a TBC, a WotLK, a Cata, a MoP and EVEN A WOD (fuck me in the ass).

But if it was just vaniller? You can fuck right off.

[Cryptoriana]

Ofc they can do so, but it's normally done during product's initial dev/life cycle, but if it can't earn money after that it's normally set to maintenance mode and then phased out which, BTW, is quite bad for a company.

Normally dept that does market research and analysis makes sure that such products aren't even released.

Test the waters and see how it feels. In the end it could be a bad thing they didnt try

I do hope at some point they do decide to give it a fair shot

[Charge me Doctor]

Implying revenue from other IP's cant be shifted?

There should be a reason for that. Exact reason that can answer this kind of question on a meeting: "why would we, working on Diablo give money to new branch of WoW Legacy? Can they guarantee when we'll get our money back? Because we kinda need them for development and maintenance"

- - - Updated - - -

Test the waters and see how it feels. In the end it could be a bad thing they didnt try

I do hope at some point they do decide to give it a fair shot

It's too expensive to "test the water", and they kinda used data taken from Nostrazmodan server and apparently wasn't very satisfied with it

[MoanaLisa]

Implying revenue from other IP's cant be shifted?

Of course they can be shifted if Blizzard decides that a legacy server is fine if it loses money. I doubt that that decision is likely. As to how many people will try it out I would imagine a lot of people would. That's not really the question when considering whether or not to invest in getting that version of the game up and running with modern development tools, modern graphics drivers, modern operating systems, whatever. The real question is how many people will stay. How many people will restart an existing subscription to the current game if the legacy version comes with it. It's not going to be free for any and all. That's just not what Blizzard does. If a legacy server is truly to stay true to its roots the only way it can pay for itself or even come close is by leveraging it with a separate subscription or adding it on as an inexpensive or free option with a current subscription. Blizzard respects that version of the game, I think that's evident. It's their history and pardon the phrase a big piece of Blizzard's legacy. A store is out of the question even though cynics would disagree.

I don't think that cynics would disagree though that a legacy server with a store would destroy the whole idea of doing a legacy server so revenue for it's upkeep and support would either have to come through subscriptions or some sort of B2P model. If you're a believer that sounds great. If you've watched this drama play out over the years it's pretty difficult to imagine. Blizzard doesn't make games for 120,000 people. They just don't.

My own personal stance on whether or not I would play: I would keep a character there, play the shit out of it for a couple of weeks or until I leveled something and then probably drop in on it to play for an hour or so every few weeks. That's assuming that it comes free with my current game subscription. I wouldn't put any of my own money into it as an extra on my subscription or buying it. It's interesting but not that interesting that I would stay with it for more than a month or so. I don't think that profile is terribly unique and it's likely a major roadblock for Blizzard to do it if there are lots of people like that.

[JustRob]

No kidding, if anything it is even easier to rip off music now because youtube has a fucking massive catalog you can rip them from directly.

If you want tin can quality, sure. Plus if you wanna do a lot of songs it takes fucking forever. It’s so much easier to shell out 10 bucks a month and have your music available anywhere, on any device. And the people who play WoW can afford that. We’re all old enough to have jobs now.

[Santoryu]

What? I hit you on the weak spot, kiddo? You just throw random words at me, bashing me, getting personal at once. By the way how are you better than any of the ppl you are just referring to? What makes you better? You have no life and have plenty of time to play a video game? Pathetic. I would like to see your reasons, not just random bash. That would make you better.

What are you talking about? I was merely saying that you described the concept of an entitled casual well with your post. I wasn’t saying you were one. Seems you have a temper.

[Kyanion]

If you want tin can quality, sure. Plus if you wanna do a lot of songs it takes fucking forever. It’s so much easier to shell out 10 bucks a month and have your music available anywhere, on any device. And the people who play WoW can afford that. We’re all old enough to have jobs now.

I don't plan on going into detail but the quality is exactly the same as listening to it on youtube and it is simple to get the song from youtube onto your phone/computer/whatever.

Despite people having jobs and whatever that does NOT mean people will shell out 10 bucks a month for music. And why are you making the leap of faith into saying "if you can afford wow you can afford another bill of 10 bucks a month" because that isn't fucking reality for everyone. You love making statements of facts that are actually just opinions. And yes, you can be wrong on your opinion. You can believe it all you want, still wrong though.