Legacy Realms - What's your verdict

[Seegtease]

Though it might get old, I think a kind of "gated" progress would be cool. As in, you can start out on a vanilla realm and complete the raid content until you're bored with it, then move on to a BC realm and continue that way all the way to current.

I just think that would be nice for people who joined late to experience old content. The game would have to be balanced differently in each server. I mean yeah, you can raid old content now, but you only need like 1/3rd a raid since the game is balanced totally differently at those levels.

However, I would pay to play on legacy realms. I don't know how long, but how much can it possibly cost them to maintain? They don't even have to release updates for it.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

If they ever add old expansion realms then it's the day I quit.

[Deleted]

Where is the "I would stop to play cause it would shatter the community and servs would all become ghost towns" option ?

+ It would take more work to Blizz to handle all expansions together, they would have to keep equilibrating the game at 5 different levels.

[Norjak]

Well if there was only ONE big Classic, ONE big TBC and ONE big Wotlk Realm i would probably give it a try. Without any Xrealm features i could imagine a nice community to form. Maybe even just ONE Classic realm... its not a long time since woltk and you can basically still experience the whole content in MoP.
I personally really miss the old 1-60 zones, maybe pure nostalgia but i would level a char just to see it again. So much good memories.

Agreed - I'm not going to "switch" to a legacy realm but I'd maintain toons on Vanilla & BC realms just to muck around and have fun with content that's not relevant to the live game. The old content is still fun, and a lot of new players haven't experienced it, so it would be new to them. It's just not the same kind of game experience you get in the live game, for better or for worse it's just...different.
At the same time, I can see where Blizzard as a company wouldn't want to support multiple versions of their product. There are a number of private servers out there, some of them offer Blizz-like game experience very close to the original game, and from what I hear they have a steady player base. I think there is a place for Vanilla or BC (or Wrath) servers, as long as there is interest out there...but maybe it's better that Blizzard is not involved in the effort to keep the older versions of the game alive.

[Ferocity]

If they ever add old expansion realms then it's the day I quit.

Why? Do you hate preCata/MoP WoW so much? What would it change for you, if some people would get access to it again?

First of all, it's a waste of time and resources that could be better spend on future stuff.

I, alone, configured home server in couple hours. Then never touched configuring it at all. I don't see how it can be a waste of time and resources, but I am spoiled by having nice IT-friends and knowledge about how it works, so argument "it's a waste of time and resources" looks like ROFLMAO to me.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

There are already old expansion servers ... How does it affect you?

Those are private servers that are not supported by Blizzard.

[Nutty]

Think only ting atm thats wrong is the time it takes to maxout lvl is way to fast.if you had option to do it the old way then you would get so many more
ppl to play the game. With old way i mean ofc ppl had comeplete Vanilla to get to play BC, and comeplete BC to play Wotlk ,you get the picture.
And yes no BOOSTING. After you finish Vanilla you get transfar to a BC realm and when you finish BC you get transfar to a Wotlk ream.
And yes blizzard every time ppl needed a transfar ofc you can charge them 20euro or someting like that.
This way ppl would get to se all the fun stuff.not just hear it from ppl like me that have played the game since vanilla.

[Norjak]

No need.

Plenty of people disagree. Just like there's a need for LFR, Normal and Heroic to support different styles of raiding. Legacy servers are just a different style of gameplay that focuses on a different aspect of the game. The fact that Blizzard "officially" pooh pooh's the notion of legacy servers doesn't mean they shouldn't exist, as long as there's a demand for them.

[Linkedblade]

Perhaps only one for each non-current expasion?

[Vuljatar]

Well if there was only ONE big Classic, ONE big TBC and ONE big Wotlk Realm i would probably give it a try.

This is what I'd like to see.

Picking which specific patch to go with would be more difficult, but in general I would go with the last patch before the pre-expansion "X.0" patch.

[Zoma]

Subscribed - Would not switch

If Blizzard made legacy realms, I might make an alt on the BC servers to see where all the "BC was the best expansion" hubbub comes from, but I'd keep my main attention on current WoW.

[Kiea]

I don't understand why people are so much against it, in every other game genre, you can play almost whatever version you want (And easily play each expansion).

Lets look at some of blizzard titles.

I can go play Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos whenever I want to, yet Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne is already out?

How about we turn this a bit away from Blizzard, let's look at Counter-strike, now I'm not very into it, I will play some every now and again but that's it.

A lot of people think CS 1,6 is the best version of the game,, and they can play it whenever they want to, because the way server hosting works there is any individual can setup a server, and while that is true in WoW, it's not "allowed" by Blizzard, and if you want to get into one, you run the risk of getting your account stolen, because Blizzard doesn't allow it.


Next point.

Would people play vanilla, TBC, WotLK or Cata servers? Yes, how many? We don't know.

I would personally play through vanilla, I never played it and it would be interesting, same thing with TBC, even though I played the game during TBC, I never reached max level, and at that point I had no clue of what to expect at max level, I didn't even think about it.


Next problem with "legacy realms" is what patch should the game be on? Should it progress linear and then restart over? or should there be a realm dedicated to each patch, and then you realm transfered to get to the next patch, or even jump ahead in patches.

I think it would have to be linear and restart, but should it then be on the same time schedule? There is a lot of logistical problems setting these up from Blizzards PoV, what they should just allow is for people to setup their own servers for ONLY old patches, and provide us with the resources for it, however I have no idea how that would affect them.

At the end of the day, some may be nostalgia, when you compare today with vanilla, today is better in a lot of aspects, but there is also aspects that were better in the past, and not to mention the raiding content is no longer "available", while technicly you could level up to 60, 70 or 80 and go through the content that way, the talents and classes are very different, and generally way more powerful than it was before.

[loki504]

Actually I think that might be coming as a feature.
Challenge Modes feature scaling down to a given item level, so I propose that it would not be unrealistic to allow such scaling down to any level.
Blizzard even discussed, and hinted at the plans for a "mentoring" capability in WotLK where a player could down-level so that they can assist their friends with level appropriate content in a way that is actually far more conducive towards better play in a way that boosting is not.
The battleground scaling of pushing the stats of a player up to the top end of the bracket is not too different from levelling someone down in the same way.
Now the two core mechanism are both present in-game in some form, I would say it is very feasible to be a big upcoming feature

but with all the changes to classes simple scaling down in ilvl will never feel the same. alot of 60 twink guilds clear bwl with not even 20 lvl 60ish because a lvl 60 in vanilla has less power then a lvl 50 in MoP.

---------- Post added 2013-05-13 at 07:41 AM ----------

I don't understand why people are so much against it, in every other game genre, you can play almost whatever version you want (And easily play each expansion).

Lets look at some of blizzard titles.

I can go play Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos whenever I want to, yet Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne is already out?

How about we turn this a bit away from Blizzard, let's look at Counter-strike, now I'm not very into it, I will play some every now and again but that's it.

A lot of people think CS 1,6 is the best version of the game,, and they can play it whenever they want to, because the way server hosting works there is any individual can setup a server, and while that is true in WoW, it's not "allowed" by Blizzard, and if you want to get into one, you run the risk of getting your account stolen, because Blizzard doesn't allow it.


Next point.

Would people play vanilla, TBC, WotLK or Cata servers? Yes, how many? We don't know.

I would personally play through vanilla, I never played it and it would be interesting, same thing with TBC, even though I played the game during TBC, I never reached max level, and at that point I had no clue of what to expect at max level, I didn't even think about it.


Next problem with "legacy realms" is what patch should the game be on? Should it progress linear and then restart over? or should there be a realm dedicated to each patch, and then you realm transfered to get to the next patch, or even jump ahead in patches.

I think it would have to be linear and restart, but should it then be on the same time schedule? There is a lot of logistical problems setting these up from Blizzards PoV, what they should just allow is for people to setup their own servers for ONLY old patches, and provide us with the resources for it, however I have no idea how that would affect them.

At the end of the day, some may be nostalgia, when you compare today with vanilla, today is better in a lot of aspects, but there is also aspects that were better in the past, and not to mention the raiding content is no longer "available", while technicly you could level up to 60, 70 or 80 and go through the content that way, the talents and classes are very different, and generally way more powerful than it was before.

oke now name a mmo that allows you to play what ever version you want. because both games you mention can run a server on a normal home pc. and i hope your talking about private servers right? and it is indeed not allowed by blizzard because private servers make money from there game. and they changed the code. thats why it is against the rules. and your account being stole if you make us of a private server? how would they even know you play on a private server? are people really that stupid to use the same usename and password for a official and private server?

---------- Post added 2013-05-13 at 07:46 AM ----------

Plenty of people disagree. Just like there's a need for LFR, Normal and Heroic to support different styles of raiding. Legacy servers are just a different style of gameplay that focuses on a different aspect of the game. The fact that Blizzard "officially" pooh pooh's the notion of legacy servers doesn't mean they shouldn't exist, as long as there's a demand for them.

but that demand cost blizzard money every day its running. lfr cost some starting money but that it. and plenty of people? like maybe a few hunder who say they want a vanilla server but find out it sucks like hell and would be back to there main realm in now time leaving a vanilla only realm with 100 players yea lets raid someting. hope the whole server wants to come now otherwise we don't have the people for it

[Deleted]

For what ? Logging in, ripping my eyeballs out because the only thing I see would be maniacs stroking their nostalgia while they wipe on Karazhan trash and simultaneously crying about the fact that they have to farm 10000000 nethervortex thingies to get the good craft stuff.

I'll happily pass.

[Asics]

Currently not subscribed. I would come back and try vanilla realms and may play the BC and WotLK realms for the nostalgia. That being said, as with most games that are resurrected, I can't see myself dedicating a large amount of time to them, let alone three.

Maybe I would be further coerced if a premade character option was available. Think of the PTR for instance. You could make a new character if you so chose.

[Glorious Leader]

Sure why not. Keep throwing shit at the wall until something sticks right?.

[Sturmbringe]

I started playing in Dec 2005. I have quit since January 2013. I only played MoP for 2 months. I currently play SW:TOR, but I would re-sub for either Vanilla or TBC Blizzard realms.

[khalltusk]

There is a few things I would like to see personally.

Old raid bosses coming back. World ones. Azuregos, level 60 Kazzak (or at least his underling who shared similar abilities) emerald dragons. Re-releasing the old hunter quest/priest quest for those epic items too. Just ensure the items required dropped from MC/BWL.

As for an entire server as others have said it would die off fairly quick. It does cost a lot to maintain these servers and with other live realms being fairly dead they could come to a compromise.

[Deleted]

I would create a character on a vanilla and bc realm mostly out of curiosity, I didn't raid during those patches so I'd find it interesting, but I'd likely only roll one character and I doubt I'd play more than a few months.

[PuppetShowJustice]

I, alone, configured home server in couple hours. Then never touched configuring it at all. I don't see how it can be a waste of time and resources, but I am spoiled by having nice IT-friends and knowledge about how it works, so argument "it's a waste of time and resources" looks like ROFLMAO to me.

Except the way that the game works has been altered so severely since the old expansions that you'd have to have to work on some majorly difficult specifics of running multiple versions of the game.

The achievement system is largely account wide but it didn't exist pre WotLK. So are achievements disabled completely on a vanilla server? Are mounts cast out of your bag again? Can you not summon minipets that didn't exist in vanilla? Those are account wide.

A lot of the under-the-hood things would have to either be altered or disabled and those add up to man hours.