Dev Watercooler: Inside the World of Warcraft Classic BlizzCon Demo
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hello World of Warcraft community! With BlizzCon 2018 getting closer every day, we wanted to give you an update on what you’ll be experiencing at BlizzCon around WoW Classic. We’ve been hard at work on bringing the original Azeroth back to life, and we’re excited that you’ll be able to get your hands on the demo we’re creating for the show—both at BlizzCon and at home with the Virtual Ticket.

What to Expect
From the beginning of this project, the team’s mission has been to be as faithful as possible to World of Warcraft as it existed back in 2005 and 2006, before Cataclysm altered the world as we knew it—and we wanted to make sure the demo we built for the show was a clear reflection of that. The focus of the demo is on outdoor questing, and we’ve selected two iconic zones that most original WoW players will no doubt be familiar with—Barrens for the Horde and Westfall for the Alliance—so you can step back in time and experience these zones as they were originally designed. You’ll be able to search for Mankrik’s wife, curse at Ornery Plainstriders for not having beaks, and make a group to kill Defias Pillagers in Moonbrook. You might even get to improvise a new rotation against the Harvest Golems in Farmer Saldean’s farm, since in this era, mechanical creatures may be immune to some of your abilities. We brought all of that back, and we’re as excited about it as you are.

Because it’s a demo, there’ll will be some limitations on the content: the Deadmines and Wailing Caverns dungeons won’t be available, the only PvP will be dueling, and you won’t be able to visit zones other than Westfall and the Barrens. We also typically limit the time our BlizzCon attendees can play a demo, and that will be the case for BlizzCon WoW Classic Demo players at home. In order to maximize the number of people who can try out the demo, initially you’ll be logged off after playing for a certain amount of time to give somebody else a turn. We haven’t determined exactly how long this time limit will be yet, but we’re also planning some flexibility, so if we’re able to relax the restriction and still give everyone who wants to play a great experience, then we’ll do that. If you do find your session has ended before you’ve done everything you wanted to, don’t worry—your character will be there when you get back in for your next session, and all your progress will be saved.

You’ll start the demo at level 15. While we know that starting at level 1 holds a lot of nostalgia, you’re also limited in what you can do when you’re first starting out. Given the time constraints of a BlizzCon demo, we wanted to give players some freedom to explore and experiment with core systems like talents or professions, which are unavailable at level 1. We also wanted you to be able to get a good sense of the original class played. At Level 15, warriors have Defensive Stance, priests have Psychic Scream, hunters have their pet, and so on—so at this level you really start to feel like your class has some of the key tools that make the class distinct. Additionally, all characters will be capped at Level 19. But you can create multiple characters, so you can try out as many different classes and races as you’d like!

What’s “New”
As we mentioned in our original Dev Watercooler blog we posted in June, we’re building WoW Classic on the foundation of our modern code base. That means you’ll be able to download the demo through the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app and use Battle.net chat integration in-game to ask your friend to come check out the Barrens with you. You’ll also find there’s improved support for widescreen monitors—so instead of the world looking stretched and distorted in widescreen, it’ll look like it did on your old 4:3 monitor. Only bigger!

All of the current game’s tools that help ensure World of Warcraft is a welcoming and fair environment, such as right-click player reporting, will also be in the BlizzCon WoW Classic Demo. Cheats, bots, and other exploitive behavior will also not be allowed, and the modern engine no longer permits some behaviors that could be used to get out of bounds. Support for 32-bit clients has also been removed. One of our core values is “Play nice; play fair,” and we want to do everything we can to ensure a few bad apples don’t ruin the experience for others.

You’ll also find that post-launch accessibility options such as colorblind mode are in the demo—though as we were working on it, we realized some words and images used in the current Accessibility panel come from the modern game. So we replaced the modern icons with some classic icons, and removed the term “Heirloom” since it doesn’t appear anywhere else in WoW Classic. It’s important to us that in situations like this we blend the old and the new in such a way that it still looks and feels like the game you remember.

See You in November!
We’re really excited about the BlizzCon WoW Classic Demo, and hope you are too! But we definitely don’t want to send the message that we’re done, because we’re not. There’s still lots of work left do, and the BlizzCon demo is an important step in the process of bringing the original WoW back to life as authentically as we can. This is a great chance for you to see the direction we’re heading and give us some early feedback, so be sure to leave your thoughts in the Classic section of the WoW forums.

Thanks for playing, and we’ll see you in Azeroth!
This article was originally published in forum thread: Dev Watercooler: Inside the World of Warcraft Classic BlizzCon Demo started by chaud View original post
Comments 332 Comments
  1. Sildor's Avatar
    I'm a little disappointed that they are talking this down. I realise they are probably further along than designing these two zones (heck, there isn't much to design, just making it work on the current infrastructure is all they need), but I was still hoping for more.

    A 2019 release is probably still very much on the table, and if they get the infrastructure working then there's not much left to do since all quests, dungeons and classes are done since 14 years...
  1. Projectmars's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Addiena View Post
    I still dont get why the Alliance are in Uldir, nothing in the game would even suggest the Alliance should have had any reason to be there, Alliance should have gotten their own raid in Stormsong against the Stormsages and the Corrupt King.
    Maybe that's what the 8.1 mini-raid is? Or they'll save that for 8.2 and roll Azshara into it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Arafal View Post
    how dare they even think of a 64 bit client!
    Lemme piggyback off that with a question: Aren't most companies phasing out 32 bit stuff anyways?
  1. TheWorkingTitle's Avatar
    It's a real travesty if they're intending to not have wall-climbing. It's one of the integral parts of Classic WoW's sense of exploration. Being able to see the corpse of Archimonde in Hyjal after defeating him years prior in Warcraft 3 was one of the greatest WoW moments for me. Dancing Troll Village, Ironforge Airport, Greymane Wall, Caverns of Time, Secret Deadmines, under Stormwind, on top of Orgrimmar, etc., the list rolls on with many interesting areas that were there to experience. All potential players are truly losing out big time if this is the intended course.

    Another problem I foresee if they do not allow mobs to be kited. Some classes such as Hunter and Mage are kiting classes at their cores. If mobs are tethered to their spots like BFA, this will not be anywhere near an authentic Classic WoW.

    These 2 changes, coupled with any other alterations, will make or break Classic WoW.

    And to anyone saying "good riddance" to Wall-jumping. You have ousted yourself. I'd wager 99% of the people against it were not even there to have an opinion on it, or were so bad at it that they couldn't even get on top of the water fountain in Stormwind. In other words, feeble-minded trash-tier players.
  1. Bhanzai's Avatar
    Cool! I liked Westfall. Will enjoy escorting that Defias traitor to their lair! I'll be doing this all from the comfort of my home so will get to play several classes at 15. Yippee!!
  1. damonskye's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pieterman View Post
    Thats exactly what a lot of is want though. All of those things were changes that many of us opposed for a variety of reasons. Its not the content that made vanilla great, but it was the way you played through it.
    Yes, and that was fine. For 2008. Tastes change over time. Audiences become more sophisticated. If you were launching vanilla WoW today it wouldn't go anywhere... the market has changed, people are used to certain things (like dungeon finders and transmog) that we take for granted these days. The problem is that everyone looking forward to Classic WoW also has to contend with the fact that this has to be SELF-SUSTAINING as a product for Blizzard to want to keep investing money in its infrastructure, and most people who try it (not all, but most) are going to find the things that they took for granted, instead nowhere to be found.

    I mean, honestly, just wait until you have to get 40 people attuned to Molten Core again... yeah, have fun with that. (Wildstar died because a lot of people left when they realized that the raid design was just like vanilla WoW: large groups and attunements and metric tons of grinding.)
  1. Projectmars's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hexian View Post
    I dont honestly care about the wall jumping, but what bothers me is the being logged off after so much time playing. If I am going to throw $50 towards trying out this demo then I should be able play the hell out of it, not have a cute little session to maybe duel and kill a zebra.
    Eh, that just tells me it's literally the same demo they'll have running at the stations on Blizzcon though. Also may mean you'll be playing with people there. They could clarify more how it'll work for those playing from home since you can just hop back in, but odds are it'll be in a blue post.
  1. Animalhouse's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aquinan View Post
    They said it doesn't exist as it did, I'd be inclined to believe them.
    Interesting, because it exists on the thumb drive in my pocket. As well as working WC1, 2 and 3
  1. Gadzooks's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sildor View Post
    I'm a little disappointed that they are talking this down. I realise they are probably further along than designing these two zones (heck, there isn't much to design, just making it work on the current infrastructure is all they need), but I was still hoping for more.

    A 2019 release is probably still very much on the table, and if they get the infrastructure working then there's not much left to do since all quests, dungeons and classes are done since 14 years...

    The work for a Classic version was never the design. The devs stated pretty clearly that the issue was recreating the databases. The entire game runs on databases, from spell power, to stats, to what's in your bags, to what loot drops off a mob. And, the structure of the data from back then doesn't work anymore, and they need to import it into modern DB software - if they have the numbers from that era of the game, they've said many times, they just change the databases with updates and tweaks, and they didn't back everything up. Again, this is stuff the actual devs have spoken about. (And, no, you can't get a 14 year old copy of the database software, they don't sell it or support it.)

    I won't even begin to guess how close they are to release, but to hand wave it off as "Not much left to do" is wishful thinking on your part.
  1. Adramalech's Avatar
    People are actually complaining about about them fixing exploits and bugs for Classic?

    You cannot make this shit up.
  1. Mazinger-Z's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kaintk View Post
    1: different story telling
    2: different world
    3: different way to be : like more gore and bloody than WoW, because diablo is ..well.. a bloody carnage everywhere if done correctly like diablo 1 et 2 was
    4: better and different infrastructure , making a game with tehcnology from let say 2013 and more is better than starting from 2004, so gameplay could be better, graphic too , everything

    its where i see major change than a diablo mmo could do vs WoW
    Those are differences. My point would be how would it be as popular as WoW currently is. You're not going to be able to transplant the playerbases. Unless their goal is to make an initial profit from Diablo and reduce the WoW subs to a point to justify finally sunsetting the product, there's no point in creating a competing MMO.

    Unless we're looknig at a deep fundamental change like B2P instead of sub with more grinding and lootboxes ala Korean MMOs. Something the WoW playerbase wouldn't and current isn't falling for, but a new game might accept.
  1. Cazmosis's Avatar
    Classic will be great for Blizzard

    They need to remind people of a time so catastrophically shitty in order to make people appreciate the current product
  1. Darkguyver2020's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by smityx View Post
    It's probably hard for a lot of these devs to figure out early WoW since some of them were still watching Blues Clues or Sesame Street at the time. So all they can really do is interpret what the older devs tell them about the experience. So what we'll get is a re-imagining of what WoW was.
    Funny that you say the developers are watching childrens TV shows when it's the entitled playerbase who are the ones acting like spoiled whiny little children.
  1. SinR's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jibjub View Post
    Tinfoil Hat:

    They have only developed this demo so far and it is all they ever plan on developing. They will claim this demo got horrible reviews and participation and that there isn't enough interest to continue developing classic wow. It will then get shuttered.

    Fucking

    Genius
  1. Unholyground's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Addiena View Post
    Its classic reinterpreted for the BFA engine, shrugs Im suddenly totally not interested in it now, give me proper classic or GTFO with this trash.
    "Proper" classic will never happen, you will have to use a private server.
  1. Projectmars's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Animalhouse View Post
    Interesting, because it exists on the thumb drive in my pocket. As well as working WC1, 2 and 3
    Which has all the coding on the client side of things. Now what about the server side of things with all the actual numbers and stuff?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Unholyground View Post
    "Proper" classic will never happen, you will have to use a private server.
    Even that isn't proper.
  1. Pieterman's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by damonskye View Post
    Yes, and that was fine. For 2008. Tastes change over time. Audiences become more sophisticated. If you were launching vanilla WoW today it wouldn't go anywhere... the market has changed, people are used to certain things (like dungeon finders and transmog) that we take for granted these days. The problem is that everyone looking forward to Classic WoW also has to contend with the fact that this has to be SELF-SUSTAINING as a product for Blizzard to want to keep investing money in its infrastructure, and most people who try it (not all, but most) are going to find the things that they took for granted, instead nowhere to be found.

    I mean, honestly, just wait until you have to get 40 people attuned to Molten Core again... yeah, have fun with that. (Wildstar died because a lot of people left when they realized that the raid design was just like vanilla WoW: large groups and attunements and metric tons of grinding.)
    In a couple months you'll see how wrong you are. Plenty of people still love the old style and philosophy. That part of the playerbase just left over time because Blizzard wanted to appeal to a broader audience and make a more streamlined game. Vanilla WoW is like a book that got turned into a movie. The book's still great, and many people prefer it .

    I've done the MC attunement at least 20 times, and the onyxia attunement 4 times in the past few years. It's enjoyable and rewarding every time.
  1. HuxNeva's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Glorious Warrior View Post
    My Childhood is ruined once again.
    This has to be one for the T&E Weekly, right?
  1. McFuu's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Frank the Tank View Post
    That’s not how businesses operate. Making a game bad to encourage players to play their newer game? Doesn’t work like that. I for one have zero interest in a diablo mmo. If I quit because I don’t like bfa, blizzard loses a customer that has literally spent thousands of dollars on this game.

    The story in bfa feels disjointed because they split up its presentation between different media formats. And what they did present is just poorly written anyway. (From my Alliance perception.) If I didn’t have friends playing, I would have all ready quit over the story alone.

    At blizzcon, I hope someone asks the devs why the Alliance are in Uldir just to stump them.
    I don't think they are properly trying to torpedo the game, but they are experimenting to see what they can do.
    I also think the game has taken a big turn to be more like Diablo and demon hunters are right there in design language for the future. Less abilities, but more overlap in those abilities, DH plays precisely as I imagine a Diablo character being imported into wow would play.
    And I mean the story feels disjointed as in we didn't arrive here naturally, it feels last minute. The add-in story that links to BfA from Legion was all added in the last few patches with antorus.
    This isn't to say I hate BfA, I don't. I just feel this is what they are doing. I'm looking forward more to classic than retail announcements. As someone said on Twitter I believe, In classic I felt like a normal character doing heroic things, now I feel like a hero doing boring things.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mazinger-Z View Post
    The only flaw I can see in this is how would the Diablo MMO be any different or better?

    You're not going to transplant the WoW playerbase into Diablo. The standard is too high and the fantasy would be less light-hearted. Diablo is basically a hellscape world with a lot of throwaway lore, most of it dealing with how bad guys became bad guys.

    Never mind that, but how would it be mechanically any different than WoW?

    If anything, WoW seems to be heading down a Diablo-like rabbit hole with tons of throwaway gear and pruning of abilities to the point where you've got maybe five relevant skills for combat. Lots of movement too.
    They can reverse what they've done with a new ip and get back to the roots. Or they can keep going thwir direction, because BfA feels more Diabloish then ever before.

    And the player base would play a Diablo mmo, even if it's more BfA, it's still the only option. Everything else out doesn't compare.
  1. Animalhouse's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Projectmars View Post
    Which has all the coding on the client side of things. Now what about the server side of things with all the actual numbers and stuff?

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    Even that isn't proper.
    I don't believe it at all. But that is not to say it isn't possible, I mean if Nasa can erase some of the most important historical data of the modern age, why not right?
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-n...56F5MK20090716
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Arafal View Post
    walljumping isnt cheating, its exploiting a bug.


    obviously that doesnt make it any less of an issue, but still.
    *Exploiting a bug.*
    *exploiting*
    *bug*
    *not cheating*
    Ok.

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