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

[Lollis]

Stop telling people what they'd enjoy. Because private vanilla servers didn't seem to have a problem with stagnation among its players.

Private servers do not equate with the vanilla experience. Just for starters there is absolutely no obligation or barrier to play because it is completely free.
Stop comparing Private with Vanilla retail, they are not the same.

[MoanaLisa]

It's boring having to say this all the time but discussion about specific private servers, either alive or history is against the site rules and from this point out will be infracted which can lead to suspended posting privileges. In addition the thread will be closed if it continues.

[Pandragon]

I started in TBC, so I'd play it just to see what vanilla was exactly like. But I remember how things were in TBC, and since the game is much better now, I wouldn't play for long.

[Coffeh]

This is bullshit and you know it. Do you know how many people played on Nostalrius?

He's coming from the vantage point of how current WoW is designed: burn through the content incredibly quickly. Vanilla WoW did not work that way. Things took time. A LOT of time. If Legacy servers came about it would take people many, many years to actually do all the content...with a single character. Expand that exponentially if you want to play multiple.

[Queen of Hamsters]

How is that any different than today?

The concept of optimization and knowing what goes where and why has trickled down through expansions. And no matter how one spins it, LFR-heroes today face more complex mechanics than top raiders of Classic which also has an effect on the evolution.

[Deleted]

Funny thing is that if people played Vanilla in a casual way it would take them what? 2-3 years to have a character with full raid tier set and offpieces?

[Byleth]

I would play but not as my primary way of playing the game. It all sounds good but there would be no new content released, nothing would improve or evolve. It would be fun for a few months, maybe even a year but then the magic feeling would just disappear.

Pretty much this, unless you're asking for a legacy server with 'new' new content patches?

[Charge me Doctor]

The legacy hype train only ever formed due to WoD being what it was.

"legacy hype train" is an inevitability, since new players come to WoW and want to experience stuff that isn't available and will never be

[Pantalaimon]

Personally I love Legion, but let's face it, the game has become a lot more cookie cutter with each and every year...

A lot of people might scream "Rose tinted glasses", but I've played on vanilla private servers, and there is enjoyment to be found in going back to the basics. Back when you didn't just rush through the levelling, back when the levelling content was one of the main focuses of the game, and not just a hurdle you have to go through to get to max level. I miss the old zones, I feel like Cataclysm destroyed (literally) a lot of them. Stranglethorn Vale and The Barrens were incredible because they were fucking huge. Duskwood was genuinely scary because if you ventured too far into the woods, you would find a gigantic dragon. Even walking along the path you would have to be careful, before you know it a huge lumbering abomination was chasing you down... Certain quests required you to actually make groups. Not quickly refresh the group finder and join a random auto invite group, but actual people you interacted with.

I'm not saying it should replace or stand in the way of WoW's progression. But why can't it exist alongside it? Give everyone what they want.

The main flaw of most private servers is that the population is not very high. But if Blizzard made official legacy servers, I'm sure a lot of people would play them. Hell, they might even get players who quit the game to come back.

What do you think? Would you play on official vanilla legacy servers if they announced them at Blizzcon?

The problem is that you can't just stop at vanilla WoW when talking about legacy servers and call it good. Plenty of people hated vanilla & if they wanted a legacy experience they would gladly choose anything but vanilla. Is it feasible to expect legacy servers of every expansion to be created and maintained? If not, then why would vanilla only be given special treatment?

What would legacy servers turn into after characters 'win the game' and have BiS gear with full progression in every raid? Does it merely become an oversized pvp queue at that point, or a 'sit in trade and spam troll convos all day'?

[Queen of Hamsters]

how long did these people play? like 2-3 weeks before they got bored?

Pretty much.

And lots of their time spent on said servers, was spent in cities bitching about retail in /trade.

More than a few actual Private server players are quite bitter about the whole thing, I learned.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Funny thing is that if people played Vanilla in a casual way it would take them what? 2-3 years to have a character with full raid tier set and offpieces?

Lol, no.

Plenty of players play Private servers casually, and they got Naxx on farm within a couple months.
Players don't automatically forget 13 years worth of accumulated knowledge because they roll a character on a private server.

An entirely new player rolling his first ever WoW experience on a Classic server on the other hand? But then again, they're slow on retail too...

[Lollis]

I started in TBC, so I'd play it just to see what vanilla was exactly like. But I remember how things were in TBC, and since the game is much better now, I wouldn't play for long.

Honestly the differences between TBC and Vanilla are not huge but TBC was certainly the better experience in many ways, even if my most favourite experience was a raid night in Vanilla. People that started in TBC really haven't missed all that much.

[thunterman]

Pretty much.

And lots of their time spent on said servers, was spent in cities bitching about retail in /trade.

More than a few actual Private server players are quite bitter about the whole thing, I learned.

This. Nostalrius was proof of concept of "you think you do but you don't" They released their blog post when they closed containing player count. They had 1MILLION unique accounts and 20 thousand active players. Over the 1 year, they retained a measly 2% of their players. That's terrible, and shows just how short lived a legacy server would be.

[Deleted]

Lol, no.

Plenty of players play Private servers casually, and they got Naxx on farm within a couple months.
Players don't automatically forget 13 years worth of accumulated knowledge because they roll a character on a private server.

The leveling alone would take between 2-6 Months playing casually (depending on knowledge of the quests)
Than you would need to be "raid worthy" god knows how. Probably farming dungeons or something.

And then getting raid tier sets...LOL...good luck with that without a guild with bosses droping 2 items at a time.

[clevin]

Because, get this, people enjoy the game! There's a reason people replay single player games dozens of times.

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EQ did well with their vanilla servers. All this is just lazy excuses from blizzard and its legions of fanboys really.

Stop telling people what they'd enjoy. Because private vanilla servers didn't seem to have a problem with stagnation among its players.

You dont pay for single player games monthly and the vast majority of private servers were free too. Yeah some people will do shit when it free. Now... if they have to pay? Most of them wouldn't.

Here's the thing - IT'S NOT FUCKING HAPPENING. EVER.

Mods - I get that this is traffic and revenue but start closing this shit. it's practically spam at this point.

[Primohastat]

They will announce Pubg like "survival-style" patch for Destiny 2. Because this is what gamers want now. They will not make legacy servers for WoW.

[Camthur]

Heck no I wouldn't play them. In fact, I'd be majorly ticked off that they wasted valuable time and resources that could be better spent improving WoW, Overwatch, HotS, Hearthstone or some other existing or newly created franchise.

[JustRob]

You dont pay for single player games monthly and the vast majority of private servers were free too. Yeah some people will do shit when it free. Now... if they have to pay? Most of them wouldn't.

Here's the thing - IT'S NOT FUCKING HAPPENING. EVER.

Mods - I get that this is traffic and revenue but start closing this shit. it's practically spam at this point.

Stop derailing the thread and appealing for a valid discussion to be closed, or I will report your posts from now on.

[Lollis]

It's boring having to say this all the time but discussion about specific private servers, either alive or history is against the site rules and from this point out will be infracted which can lead to suspended posting privileges. In addition the thread will be closed if it continues.

Any chance we could have the actual site rules updated so that we are not looking for rules on a mod edit inside the link of a post on a general topic 'read first' thread?
i.e. mmo-champion.com/faq

[Magistrate]

I'd play them a couple months if they didn't require any additional fee, get bored, and play the regular game from there out.