New players will go to play on classic wow instead of live wow?

[Queen of Hamsters]

The vocal minority of private server vanilla WoW players feel that they have had their views momentarily validated and are using this sugar high to voice their opinions about the current state of WoW and prognosticate about how classic will be the second coming of Jesus.

I surmise the attitude of the WoW community at large hasn't particularly shifted. Some people are elated, some people despise the idea, while the majority of the people probably don't care in the slightest.

Hear hear, he speaks sense and truth.

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This is a lie, since Blizzard doesn't release sub numbers and they will probably not release sub numbers for WoW classic. I could claim that the sub numbers are at 100k right now and would be just as correct as your claim. Since the sub numbers trend for the last 6 years that was reported was downward, the only logical conclusion is a continuation of that trend which would put it at under 2 million subs which would fit the indicators set by pvp activity and warcraftrealms.com.

No, the only logical conclusion would be based on metrics they DO use now, which are all showing upward trends. And why shouldn't they? Legion's been a resounding success critically and as a result, financially, with constant regular additions of content whereas WoD didn't have shit past release until Tanaan came...

Wishful thinking is behind the "the downward trend wasn't halted with Legion's release and constant additions of patches!"-fallacy, not logic and common sense.

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Wow has new players?

Always did, always will.

I regularly enjoy walking around in starter zones, licking the forehead of any new player I meet.

[Trend]

The majority however, stopped playing because they think WoW got worse and are now interested in Classic.

There is zero support for that notion. People move on, they grow out of things and get tired of games or gaming in general. There are tens of millions of people who played WoW at some point and quit. There are a few hundred thousand people playing on private vanilla servers.

I could claim that the sub numbers are at 100k right now and would be just as correct as your claim.

No, you actually couldn't. You can claim whatever you want, but being correct is quite another matter. Given that over 100k characters are at least 3/9M ToS, you would be obviously wrong even to suggest there are 100k total subs. Without Blizz reporting numbers, nobody can be exact, but it's still possible to extrapolate a reasonable range.

I really hope that this whole classic thing is great and that it fulfills the basic desire of the community that has been pushing for it. However, the fate of the project concerns me when I see how aggressively stupid and illogical so much of the vanilla fanboy club is.

[Deleted]

There is zero support for that notion. People move on, they grow out of things and get tired of games or gaming in general. There are tens of millions of people who played WoW at some point and quit. There are a few hundred thousand people playing on private vanilla servers.

There's zero support for the notion that those who quit aren't coming back, and you saying people "grow up" doesn't cut it, the only thing we know is that they got tired of WoW. In fact looking at the forums at the moment, many who don't play on private servers are at least considering it.

[Trend]

There's zero support for the notion that those who quit aren't coming back, and you saying people "grow up" doesn't cut it, the only thing we know is that they got tired of WoW. In fact looking at the forums at the moment, many who don't play on private servers are at least considering it.

You're the one making a claim that is contrary to anything that normally happens in the video game industry. Producers don't re-release old games to get a majority of their former customer back. I don't really care, you can think obviously stupid things if you want, but a majority of people who have quit WoW are not coming back to play Classic. That would be hundreds and hundreds of servers.

Sure it's anecdotal, but I work in the software industry, i.e., I work with pretty much all nerds who play games. Pretty much all of them have played WoW at some point or another in its history. And out of the ~50 people that I know well enough to know they've played WoW (and these discussions have come up over the years since I'm a bit of a WoW evangelist), maybe 1 or 2 would play classic and one of those is playing retail right now and would do classic in addition to that. The people I know that quit playing didn't do so because they were pining for the way it use to be, they just got tired of it or didn't want to make the time anymore or however you want to put it. MMO's are huge time sink. This really should be that surprising.

There are hundreds of things I enjoyed doing in the past and wouldn't do again, even if someone tried to reproduce the exact things.

[khazmodan]

There is zero support for that notion. People move on, they grow out of things and get tired of games or gaming in general. There are tens of millions of people who played WoW at some point and quit. There are a few hundred thousand people playing on private vanilla servers.



No, you actually couldn't. You can claim whatever you want, but being correct is quite another matter. Given that over 100k characters are at least 3/9M ToS, you would be obviously wrong even to suggest there are 100k total subs. Without Blizz reporting numbers, nobody can be exact, but it's still possible to extrapolate a reasonable range.

I really hope that this whole classic thing is great and that it fulfills the basic desire of the community that has been pushing for it. However, the fate of the project concerns me when I see how aggressively stupid and illogical so much of the vanilla fanboy club is.

you do know that part of those at 3/9M ToS could be alts?. There were over 700k registered users on Nostalrius alone and that is just the people that were willing to deal with the risks of using a private server.

[Queen of Hamsters]

you do know that part of those at 3/9M ToS could be alts?. There were over 700k registered users on Nostalrius alone and that is just the people that were willing to deal with the risks of using a private server.

800k+ accounts made, 150k active users at its peak.

And that was during the absolute highest hype, when Live was doing very badly due to WoD but still retaining 4+ million subs...

Not sure what the count for the currently biggest private realms is, but I imagine it's a far cry from 150k on each server.

[khazmodan]

800k+ accounts made, 150k active users at its peak.

And that was during the absolute highest hype, when Live was doing very badly due to WoD but still retaining 4+ million subs...

Not sure what the count for the currently biggest private realms is, but I imagine it's a far cry from 150k on each server.

when was the last time you saw this many people in Ironforge?



or for that matter...anywhere in game...

[Deleted]

when was the last time you saw this many people in Ironforge?

or for that matter...anywhere in game...

He never has, but I'm sure he'll come up with some argument about how he and his group of friends had a small gathering in his Garrison and he much preferred that anyway or how some other feature added to retail makes up for it...lol

End of the day he never played Vanilla so no-one is going to take his opinion seriously on what classic should be like.

[Thimagryn]

This is a lie, since Blizzard doesn't release sub numbers and they will probably not release sub numbers for WoW classic. I could claim that the sub numbers are at 100k right now and would be just as correct as your claim. Since the sub numbers trend for the last 6 years that was reported was downward, the only logical conclusion is a continuation of that trend which would put it at under 2 million subs which would fit the indicators set by pvp activity and warcraftrealms.com.

The problem with those trends and the curve is that at some point, the extrapolation will go into the negatives. The curve isn't a good indicator of current trends considering the data we have stops prematurely. Just look at a hot water cooling curve. Cut the curve short and you could extrapolate that the temperature would go to freezing at some point, even when in reality it would never go below room temperature. We simply don't know what the 'Room temperature' number of players is that is currently sustaining WoW.

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when was the last time you saw this many people in Ironforge?

Aren't major cities sharded to prevent that?

[munkeyinorbit]

When vanilla releases the hype will bring a ton of fucking people. New, old and retail.

However, vanilla is a very very time consuming and demanding game. It’s very grindy with a fuckload of farming. Some classes will be completely useless while others will be near mandatory. Some specs will dominate (pvp) while others will get destroyed.

So, over time as the dust settles I don’t see anyone but the hardcore vanilla crowd staying tbh. A lot of that especially the balance issues and time requirement will turn a lot of people away very easily. Even asmongold says the same thing and he’s a huge advocate for legacy.

That’s not a bad thing at all though. Having just the hardcore vanilla crowd means the community will be tight. Will probably be about 100,000 or so that stay.

Fixed that for you buddy. The biggest gate to huge numbers on Classic is that you will have to pay for it. That's 93% of the private server guys gone already. You know its a true statistic because it isn't rounded to a 10 and it isn't 99%.

[khazmodan]

The problem with those trends and the curve is that at some point, the extrapolation will go into the negatives. The curve isn't a good indicator of current trends considering the data we have stops prematurely. Just look at a hot water cooling curve. Cut the curve short and you could extrapolate that the temperature would go to freezing at some point, even when in reality it would never go below room temperature. We simply don't know what the 'Room temperature' number of players is that is currently sustaining WoW.

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Aren't major cities sharded to prevent that?

Everybody knows that they are sharded to make it look like there is more activity than there really is because main cities would be ghost towns on most realms right now. Just another tactic by Blizz to obscure the drops in sub numbers that is obvious to guilds and pvp'ers.

[munkeyinorbit]

when was the last time you saw this many people in Ironforge?



or for that matter...anywhere in game...

That's because they have shit tech that doesn't shard. "Oooooohhhh, look at all the people. Pity I can't move or do anything". While on a game that has legitimately had over 2000 more accounts, there is no more lag. Not because there are not 300 people online. That's all there is on each screenshot. There are thousands online on some servers. Blizzard uses tech to make sure that every person has as best game experience as possible.

[Thimagryn]

Everybody knows that they are sharded to make it look like there is more activity than there really is because main cities would be ghost towns on most realms right now. Just another tactic by Blizz to obscure the drops in sub numbers that is obvious to guilds and pvp'ers.

Yes, you are correct about that. /tinfoilhat

[khazmodan]

Fixed that for you buddy. The biggest gate to huge numbers on Classic is that you will have to pay for it. That's 93% of the private server guys gone already. You know its a true statistic because it isn't rounded to a 10 and it isn't 99%.

the biggest gates to playing on a private server for me would be the loss of characters when Blizz shut them down and whatever malware possibilities there were. Also most people with a job at all thinks of 15 dollars as throwaway cash when it comes to entertainment.

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Yes, you are correct about that. /tinfoilhat

obviously you should believe the company that stops reporting sub numbers, because time played is so much more honest to report to investors.

[Ielenia]

There's zero support for the notion that those who quit aren't coming back,

There are. People move on. People form families they have to support. Sometimes they find themselves in financial hard times and what little free time they have they decide to spend on something less time-consuming. Or maybe they found a different activity they find more enjoyable. Or they just simply lost interest in WoW altogether. Lots of reasons why someone who left WoW might not come back.

and you saying people "grow up" doesn't cut it, the only thing we know is that they got tired of WoW.

Yes, it does "cut it", because it's true. People do "grow up." People do move on.

[Deleted]

There are. People move on. People form families they have to support. Sometimes they find themselves in financial hard times and what little free time they have they decide to spend on something less time-consuming. Or maybe they found a different activity they find more enjoyable. Or they just simply lost interest in WoW altogether. Lots of reasons why someone who left WoW might not come back.


Yes, it does "cut it", because it's true. People do "grow up." People do move on.

Don't really see your point apart from the obvious that not everyone will come back. A portion of those who quit will come back and guess what... they might have even "grown up" in the mean time and shock! some might even have families.

[Ielenia]

when was the last time you saw this many people in Ironforge?

I am willing to bet we'd see countless more on retail servers if Blizzard announced the shutdown of WoW. Because I sincerely doubt Ironforge was that packed, in that illegal server. They only "rallied" in an attempt to show support for their illegal server of choice.

Case in point: I played City of Heroes since its inception, and Atlas Park (the first main zone of the game) was never too packed. But when they announced the game's shutdown, my FPS would go to shit with how many, many players were in that zone, doing a "holding torch" emote.

Posting those pictures is meaningless.

[Deleted]

Fixed that for you buddy. The biggest gate to huge numbers on Classic is that you will have to pay for it. That's 93% of the private server guys gone already. You know its a true statistic because it isn't rounded to a 10 and it isn't 99%.

You've got to be the most toxic and inaccurate anti Classic poster on this forum.

[Ielenia]

Don't really see your point apart from the obvious that not everyone will come back. A portion of those who quit will come back and guess what... they might have even "grown up" in the mean time and shock! some might even have families.

Your claim implied that everyone who left would come back, since you said, and I quote "there's zero support for the notion that those who quit aren't coming back", which implies everyone who left will return for classic WoW.

[Deleted]

Your claim implied that everyone who left would come back, since you said, and I quote "there's zero support for the notion that those who quit aren't coming back", which implies everyone who left will return for classic WoW.

No, it implies that anyone who left could come back and there is zero evidence for the notion that any of them wouldn't. All we know, as I said was, they didn't want to play WoW anymore.