People that say 'classic will nosedive after a few months'

[Spookysheep]

Ok. We need to inform blizzard about this, so they wont waste money and resources to this! Thanks for the info

We already have, they are not listening

[Flarelaine]

Wow has been losing subs so much blizz resorted to classic. years back when they said there would never be classic servers they thought current subs would keep the game alive then they saw legion numbers and started to panic.

I must have missed the official announcement about sub numbers, would you mind linking the source? Your ass does not count.

[Armourboy]

This would be my guess too. The thing is though, you really cant predict how it will go down, Blizzard has no fucking clue how popular it will be. I can imagine casual players not worrying about getting to 60 and just playing multiple alts with friends and doing dungeons and stuff.

TBH this is where the biggest core of the classic players will be. They will take their time leveling and just having fun because they know the content is limited to begin with. Yes there will be groups that get in a big hurry to clear everything first, but they will be the few, just like they were in the original.

I think this is where Classic will split from live in mind set. There is absolutely zero reason to get in a massive hurry. What you are going to do, zoom as fast as you can just so you can clear Naxx 40 for 5 years? Level, do some dungeons, try and get some gear, make some gold, work on professions, once you get to max do Baron, Strat, etc for a while and then maybe step into MC, Ony, and ZG.

People will have years to work towards the ending, because unlike live you know going in there is an ending. Those that last the longest and enjoy it the most will probably be those that take their time and just do what they can do. My guild in Vanilla was like this and while I didn't get to Naxx40 I saw everything else ( although not always with my guild ).

[Craaazyyy]

Ask yourself why numbers in retail go down. Usually its because of content droughts. The second legacy goes live it is on a content drought. Not to mention how they release the limited content is going to be interesting. For example, if its a patch cycle, there would be no BG's in wow for months.

with the last 2 expansion it went down regardless of droughts.. in wod it went down almost immediately.. same happened with Legion if you check the activity graphs

[Deleted]

Only if you play with your nose.

Stop with this bullshit, it didnt take us 2 years to clear Vanilla , it took us 2 years because stuff werent released yet and unbalanced as fuck, it was 2005, now everyone knows where everything is, it will be roflstomped by the people already roflstomping it in private servers and that roflstomped it in 2005.

With the difference, there is no searching involved, or bypassing shit, we know where everything is.

Everyone knows what the Hounds in MC do now, everyone knows who to dispel in Lucifron, everyone knows everything, those bosses were cleared in shit ass gear, and they will be cleared again, this time much faster cause people know what to do, no surprises, no "wtf"

It didnt take "us" 2 years to clear Vanilla. <1% of players even entered Naxx. And you can bet your ass blizz will gate the content. I doubt you will even get to enter Naxx within 9 months - 1 year of release.

[Mormolyce]

Does the same not happen with the current retail version?

Yes, in fact it happens with everything. Especially something with a big name like "Blizzard" or "WoW" behind it.

How many players Classic will have is total speculation on everyone's part though.

[Auxora]

It's still going to be a niche. But whether it's something that nosedives or really persists will depend what Blizz ends up putting out as classic. If it's as close as possible to 1.x or 2.x wow, it will do fine. On the other hand, if Blizz goes the other direction and classic is just put out as 7.x code with level caps (i.e. dumbed down skill trees, no having to visit classic trainers to learn spells, and everything else that made old wow a different game) at 60 or 70 and minus The Sundering changes then I think it will flop quickly. So until we get a better picture of the direction Blizz is going to go with classic we have to wait and see.

[GreenJesus]

Does the same not happen with the current retail version?

Classic will always have plenty of players.

There will always be players; I would imagine at least a similar number to the current WoW.

The difference is that retail has new content to offset that. Classic is the same game it was back in 2004-5. and will stay that way.. until servers go down...

Back in BC I had no idea what the fuck I was doing. I didn't even know it was possible to turn your character without keyboard turning. On my warlock while questing I applied every single debuff and dot before DPSing because I liked seeing the buff bar on enemy.

[Super Kami Dende]

People that truly believe Classic will somehow outpopulate Retail especially after the the first few months of nostalgia wear off are pretty delusional to be honest.

Funnily enough most people I see that are both Pro-Vanilla and Retail-haters on this Forum are the people I see complaining "OMFG WoW DOESN'T HAVE CONTENT RAWR!! CONTENT DROUGHTS!!!" yet think a server that will be released with Stale content from 12+ years ago will be popular.

[Eurhetemec]

Does the same not happen with the current retail version?

Classic will always have plenty of players.

There will always be players; I would imagine at least a similar number to the current WoW.

People who say that are basing it on the history of Classic-style servers in MMOs in general.

It's not the same as with the current retail version - that drops, then goes back up when new content comes out, and back up hugely when a new expansion does.

Classic doesn't have that, and this has always been the problem with Classic servers in other MMOs. They start huge. People are super-excited, but a lot of people give up pretty quickly for various reasons - usually that their friends are still playing the other servers, or they find they don't have time to play. In particularly people coming back to WoW having quit entirely are unlikely to last long.

Maybe it'll be different with WoW's Classic servers, but history suggests it won't, unless Blizzard have some terribly clever trick up their collective sleeve.

[Deleted]

Still plenty of content for at least 2-3 years.

But OLD content. What took months to kill back then won't even take a week today, you underestimate how bad people actually was back then.

[Deleted]

Does the same not happen with the current retail version?

Classic will always have plenty of players.

There will always be players; I would imagine at least a similar number to the current WoW.

difference is the live game has new content that brigs the numbers back each time. classic has what ? perpetual nax ? i couldnt think of a worse thing that running naxx 40 over and over and over for years. the months of progress in AQ40 were enough to make me done with vanilla.

[Eurhetemec]

By gating the content do you mean with the attunements that originally existed or gated behind needing a certain level of gear? I doubt they'll do some kind of gating where they just don't release it right away.

I think he means that precisely that last one, and he's almost certainly correct. They're not going to launch Classic servers, and have AQ40 etc. available at launch, let alone Naxx. They'll have MC/Ony, then they'll open up BWL and ZG, then after the whole big event, AQ20/40, then, later still, they'll open Naxx.

You can believe otherwise, but it's a very obvious scheme that would both make Classic players happy, and would give the servers longer lives than they might otherwise have.

[Deleted]

People that truly believe Classic will somehow outpopulate Retail especially after the the first few months of nostalgia wear off are pretty delusional to be honest.

Funnily enough most people I see that are both Pro-Vanilla and Retail-haters on this Forum are the people I see complaining "OMFG WoW DOESN'T HAVE CONTENT RAWR!! CONTENT DROUGHTS!!!" yet think a server that will be released with Stale content from 12+ years ago will be popular.

there is certainly a type of person that most pushes for vanilla. i have also noticed that there previous experience of vanilla when it was live was sitting about in IF getting rejected by raiding guilds and admiring those who had epics whilst talking shit in /2

[pateuvasiliu]

I have a hard time believing that vanilla wow will be more popular than retail long term.

It'll have more players at launch than the new expansion.

[Deleted]

I think he means that precisely that last one, and he's almost certainly correct. They're not going to launch Classic servers, and have AQ40 etc. available at launch, let alone Naxx. They'll have MC/Ony, then they'll open up BWL and ZG, then after the whole big event, AQ20/40, then, later still, they'll open Naxx.

You can believe otherwise, but it's a very obvious scheme that would both make Classic players happy, and would give the servers longer lives than they might otherwise have.

but thats not life, thats just a stay of execution. idk im one of those that if i know the ending im not interested and i dont do things twice once somethings done its done and i like to move on so this whole lets replay vanilla phenomonon is just weird and i feel there's an alternate motive probably tied to ego from the pro vanilla crowed.

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It'll have more players at launch than the new expansion.

evean if every one from nost joined it would still be a tiny fraction of the wow player base. you over estimate the popularity of the concept.

[Armourboy]

It'll have more players at launch than the new expansion.

I seriously doubt it. Classic is not going to launch with 5-7 million players.

[hrugner]

I have to admit, I didn't think I'd try it before it was announced, but now that it's coming I'll probably resub just to play it old school again. But no, I don't think it will keep people's attention for very long. Hopefully it will give the team some good data on what players like and engage with on the vanilla server so that old aspects can be reincorporated into the current game.

[Deleted]

It's still going to be a niche. But whether it's something that nosedives or really persists will depend what Blizz ends up putting out as classic. If it's as close as possible to 1.x or 2.x wow, it will do fine. On the other hand, if Blizz goes the other direction and classic is just put out as 7.x code with level caps (i.e. dumbed down skill trees, no having to visit classic trainers to learn spells, and everything else that made old wow a different game) at 60 or 70 and minus The Sundering changes then I think it will flop quickly. So until we get a better picture of the direction Blizz is going to go with classic we have to wait and see.

id say the opposite. personaly i think a classic like experience would sell better to today's gamers than literally vanilla relaunched.

[pateuvasiliu]

but thats not life, thats just a stay of execution. idk im one of those that if i know the ending im not interested and i dont do things twice once somethings done its done and i like to move on so this whole lets replay vanilla phenomonon is just weird and i feel there's an alternate motive probably tied to ego from the pro vanilla crowed.

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evean if every one from nost joined it would still be a tiny fraction of the wow player base. you over estimate the popularity of the concept.

Lol Nost was a shitty private server no one heard about. We're talking about Blizzard advertising the product, millions of former WoW players seeing that it's coming back and resubbing.

It's going to be huge.

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I seriously doubt it. Classic is not going to launch with 5-7 million players.

Who said the new expansion will have 5-7 million players?

You forget that if say 5 million play Retail right now a part of them will go to Classic.