Should Classic be Free to Play?

[Super Kami Dende]

Should it be free to play?

God no, Blizzard is wasting resources they could be putting into other games, just to appease the crying idiots that have been in these threads for years. Hopefully they have to pay the same cost as retail WoW.

[jackofwind]

Well actually it is.

Nope, it's actually not at all. I don't even disagree with you regarding when Classic will be released, but you have no insider information and are speculating just like everyone else who thinks they're right.

Everyone thinks they're right but someone has to be wrong, even if they all swear it won't be them.

[ls-]

They don’t have to compete with private servers, because most private servers will simply shut down as there will be no point in running free fucking servers when they can pay blizzard to play on the official classic servers. Even if there were private servers that they had to “compete with”, they would just shut them down because Blizzard owns the IP and the private server operators don’t.

Thing is, some PSes will shut down, but most won't. PSes have been around since WoW beta, people were playing on Vanilla servers when Vanilla was current, people were playing on TBC servers when TBC was current and so forth.

Thinking that for some reason people will willingly shut down all PS is naive. Blizz reach is limited, it depends on who and where is hosting their PS.

[Alvito]

Why the hell would Blizzard spend any time making it if they were just going to give it away?

[evogsr]

And Blizzard will keep shutting them down because all it takes is a letter. There will be no competition, because actual competition is impossible when only one party owns their own product.

It's a lengthy process to get even said letter to have any impact. If it was as easy as you make it out to be, private servers would have been a thing of the past. Classic's release won't necessarily change that unless Classic is free (I don't want it to be) to attract the brunt of those players who choose private for no other reason but that. Otherwise, for every one that Blizzard does manage to get shut down, several more spawn into being.

Private servers getting shut down enmasse won't be a thing simply because Blizzard lawyers up. Here we are in 2017, and torrenting is anything but dead. No one can possibly believe that Blizzard is more powerful than Hollywood in that regard with issuing take downs.

[Deathquoi]

Thing is, pretty much no PS will shut down, PSes have been around since WoW beta, people were playing on Vanilla servers when Vanilla was current, people were playing on TBC servers when TBC was current and so forth.

Thinking that for some reason people will willingly shut down all PS is naive. Blizz reach is limited, it depends on who and where is hosting their PS.

A lot of private server operators have said that they are relieved that Blizzard is starting their own classic servers. The idea that Blizzard will need to “compete” with private servers when they can literally shut them down with a piece of paper is utterly idiotic. And your post pretty much proves that they won’t need to compete because Blizz has been charging a sub fee since launch even though as you noted private servers have always existed.

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It's a lengthy process to get even said letter to have any impact. If was as easy as you make it out to be, private servers would have been a thing of the past. Classic's release won't necessarily change that unless Classic is free (I don't want it to be) to attract the brunt of those players who choose private for no other reason but that. Otherwise, for every one that Blizzard does manage to get shut down, several more spawn into being.

Private servers getting shut down enmasse won't be a thing simply because Blizzard lawyers up. Here we are in 2017, and torrenting is anything but dead. No one can possibly believe that Blizzard is more powerful than Hollywood in that regard with issuing take downs.

Private servers were a thing because they weren’t a competitive threat. If they were, Blizzard would have been much more aggressive in shutting them down. If, as a previous poster claimed, Blizzard would have to “compete” with free servers, they would absolutely shut them down en masse. All it takes is a cease and desist letter, just like they did with Nostalrius. Nobody wants to face a lawsuit over a project they make zero money from, and there’s no chance Blizzard is going to run servers they can’t make any money off of.

Your comparison to torrenting is nonsense, because torrenting is P2P. There is no central server, just easily replicated seeding databases.

[Deleted]

I've always said that people who played on private servers were freeloaders first and foremost.

Even if we wanted to pay a sub fee, we diddent get that option did we?
Some might be freeloaders but for the most part we just wanted vanilla.

[evogsr]

Private servers were a thing because they weren’t a competitive threat. If they were, Blizzard would have been much more aggressive in shutting them down. If, as a previous poster claimed, Blizzard would have to “compete” with free servers, they would absolutely shut them down en masse. All it takes is a cease and desist letter, just like they did with Nostalrius. Nobody wants to face a lawsuit over a project they make zero money from, and there’s no chance Blizzard is going to run servers they can’t make any money off of.

So somehow Nostalrius was a threat, but the dozens upon dozens of private servers from any expansion of your choosing, ranging from "Blizzlike" to not, with several thousand concurrent players on anyone of them, most of which do have some kind of revenue being generated - aren't a threat? I mean, come on.

Again, if it was just so easy as getting that snail mail out, these places that are indeed making a profit would be gone. But they're not.

[ls-]

A lot of private server operators have said that they are relieved that Blizzard is starting their own classic servers. The idea that Blizzard will need to “compete” with private servers when they can literally shut them down with a piece of paper is utterly idiotic. And your post pretty much proves that they won’t need to compete because Blizz has been charging a sub fee since launch even though as you noted private servers have always existed.

Well, I'm just saying that PS won't disappear. I'm not saying that Blizz will need to compete w/ PS or anything like that because it's impossible, if it's impossible there's no point in doing so

[Meow]

There is no option about paying once. It would bring enough population to pay and will not make retail players hesitate to try.

[Deathquoi]

So somehow Nostalrius was a threat, but the dozens upon dozens of private servers from any expansion of your choosing, ranging from "Blizzlike" to not, with several thousand concurrent players on anyone of them, most of which do have some kind of revenue being generated - aren't a threat? I mean, come on.

Again, if it was just so easy as getting that snail mail out, these places that are indeed making a profit would be gone. But they're not.

Nostalrius was the biggest. It’s possible that Blizzard had already begun thinking about classic servers and made the decision to begin taking a more active role in defending the classic IP. It is absolutely as easy as sending out a letter. That’s literally just what they did for Nostalrius. Again, please explain why Blizzard would ever run servers they can’t make money from because they need to “compete” with a party that has no claim to their IP? It makes no sense at all.

[Ozyorkbourne]

Ofc it should be free. And while we're at it, Blizz also need to transfer $15 every month to my account. They're a charity after all. /s

On a more serious note, I picked "separate from current WoW sub and cheaper", it needs a sub, otherwise other methods to earn money will be used, for example, freemium p2w stuff, but I think it should come at a lower price ($10 instead of $15) because it's a "stale" product, forever 1.12.2, however, if they choose to develop it further, they should use full sub price.

I think maybe a reduced price if you have an active live account, but if you don't then you have to buy a full sub to access it. I dunno how that'd work and it sounded better in my head, but who knows.

[Deathquoi]

Well, I'm just saying that PS won't disappear. I'm not saying that Blizz will need to compete w/ PS or anything like that because it's impossible, if it's impossible there's no point in doing so

Private servers will always exist, but they will never be allowed to become enough of a factor that Blizz feels the need to compete with them. I think we agree on this.

[Scottyjscizzle]

I'm sure most of us who enjoy playing Vanilla aren't quite used to paying for it, I'm curious to see how much people will be willing to pay for Vanilla before we go back to our pirate ways.

So you not only want Blizzard to make snowflake servers for you, but to make them for free? fuck off.

[evogsr]

Nostalrius was the biggest. It’s possible that Blizzard had already begun thinking about classic servers and made the decision to begin taking a more active role in defending the classic IP. It is absolutely as easy as sending out a letter. That’s literally just what they did for Nostalrius. Again, please explain why Blizzard would ever run servers they can’t make money from because they need to “compete” with a party that has no claim to their IP? It makes no sense at all.

You're right, it does make no sense at all. They went after Nostalrius, who as far as we know, wasn't commanding any sort of profit. Yet, there are hundreds of private servers that are. Some of them have been up and running for years. And not a peep.

Again, it's not as simple as you think it is. The countries that some of these servers are based out of, first have to even give two shits about what Activision Blizzard want to pursue legally. You can't sit here and say "well they just haven't gone after all of these other servers". You don't know that, and of course I don't know that they have. But again, it makes far less sense that they wouldn't go after ones actually profiteering versus a single one that isn't. Maybe, just maybe, because the legal process isn't what you think it is.

Again. Refer to torrenting.

[ls-]

Private servers will always exist, but they will never be allowed to become enough of a factor that Blizz feels the need to compete with them. I think we agree on this.

Sure, that's how they've been handling PS for years, Nost isn't the first big PS to shut down, it's simply the latest, we had big PS shutdowns even during TBC, it's also huge news everywhere.

As soon as PS grows too big and its playerbase becomes obnoxiously loud and starts spamming official forums w/ "come play on our PS, retail is dead", Blizz lawyers start sending out letters and stuff.

[Deathquoi]

You're right, it does make no sense at all. They went after Nostalrius, who as far as we know, wasn't commanding any sort of profit. Yet, there are hundreds of private servers that are. Some of them have been up and running for years. And not a peep.

Again, it's not as simple as you think it is. The countries that some of these servers are based out of, first have to even give two shits about what Activision Blizzard want to pursue legally. You can't sit here and say "well they just haven't gone after all of these other servers". You don't know that, and of course I don't know that they have. But again, it makes far less sense that they wouldn't go after ones actually profiteering versus a single one that isn't. Maybe, just maybe, because the legal process isn't what you think it is.

Again. Refer to torrenting.

I already explained why it’s completely different than torrenting. Again, please explain why Blizzard would ever allow anyone to use their IP to dictate their pricing on their own product.

[evogsr]

I already explained why it’s completely different than torrenting. Again, please explain why Blizzard would ever allow anyone to use their IP to dictate their pricing on their own product.

Define what a tracker is. Explain what happens when a tracker gets shut down.

I really don't have to explain that since that wasn't ever what was being discussed or brought up.

However, you're welcome to explain why there are so many private servers still up and running, despite it supposedly being easy as pie to have them go offline. Since that was what was actually being discussed.

[shadowmatrix]

It should be part of the $15 sub, they should use a model similar to the one Daybreak Games uses which includes DC Universe Online, Everquest, Everquest 2, and Planetside 2.

[ZazuuPriest]

on top of live sub?
Id resub next expansion for a full year probbaly to have access to live + vanilla

yes on top of my live sub