Should Classic be Free to Play?

[Razion]

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.

Why waste, what, millions in lawyer money and legal fees over something that isn't a problem? They're taking players and potential revenue, right? That doesn't seem like something that isn't competitive - a persisting issue since Vanilla. WoW is how old and this is STILL a problem? Maybe it's time to re-think strategy beyond "uh, maybe if we keep chasing them off the lawn they'll stop eating the grass". Like, gee, the goats are hungry, maybe feed them, give them a real free option, and you won't have to worry about the lawn.

[Deathquoi]

Why waste, what, millions in lawyer money and legal fees over something that isn't a problem? They're taking players and potential revenue, right? That doesn't seem like something that isn't competitive - a persisting issue since Vanilla. WoW is how old and this is STILL a problem? Maybe it's time to re-think strategy beyond "uh, maybe if we keep chasing them off the lawn they'll stop eating the grass". Like, gee, the goats are hungry, maybe feed them, give them a real free option, and you won't have to worry about the lawn.

Sending a letter doesn’t cost millions. The idea that your solution to piracy is to just give the product away for free is moronic.

[Mormolyce]

Considering Hearthstone, Overwatch, and even HotS are doing better than WoW now as F2P/B2P...

Looking forward to WoW loot boxes? :P

[Deathquoi]

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.

You were the one that brought up torrents lmao.

I never said all private servers ever will cease to exist. I said Blizzard will not allow them to dictate the terms of classic server pricing. If they become a competitive force that exerts market pressure on Blizzard’s services, it is trivial to shut them down. Look at sites like Pirate Bay. Have all torrent trackers been shut down? No, but the ones that get popular get shut down, and as far as I know, record companies haven’t started giving music away for free on a mass scale yet.

[Almaric]

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

So much this.

[evogsr]

You were the one that brought up torrents lmao.

I never said all private servers ever will cease to exist. I said Blizzard will not allow them to dictate the terms of classic server pricing. If they become a competitive force that exerts market pressure on Blizzard’s services, it is trivial to shut them down. Look at sites like Pirate Bay. Have all torrent trackers been shut down? No, but the ones that get popular get shut down, and as far as I know, record companies haven’t started giving music away for free on a mass scale yet.

Righto. I never indicated that Blizzard must bend the knee to private servers. I said, they'll likely never get the brunt of people off of private servers unless their own product is free as well. Which is true without any debate to be had. I don't expect Blizzard to do that. I don't want them to do that. And then you started going on some tirade about how easy it is for them to shut them down. Which again, just isn't within the realm of reality. Which, here is where it loops back into another reason why Blizzard will never regain those players.

I get that multiple people are discussing with you, but you could at least go back and reread some posts.

[corebit]

You were the one that brought up torrents lmao.

I never said all private servers ever will cease to exist. I said Blizzard will not allow them to dictate the terms of classic server pricing. If they become a competitive force that exerts market pressure on Blizzard’s services, it is trivial to shut them down. Look at sites like Pirate Bay. Have all torrent trackers been shut down? No, but the ones that get popular get shut down, and as far as I know, record companies haven’t started giving music away for free on a mass scale yet.

Pirate servers will never be competitive. They have to stay small to avoid legal repercussions, and by staying small they cannot bring any meaningful amount of profit and growth. Plus they will always have the negative stigma of not providing any long-term safety for your invested characters. You roll on pirate servers with the knowledge that all your hard work and playtime can be wiped at any minute.

[Razion]

Looking forward to WoW loot boxes? :P

Free with loot-boxes? As long as it doesn't award power.
Works for HotS. Works for Overwatch. And they both make more than WoW now.

If it also helps the issue of private servers, that's just a nice bonus, right?

[Deathquoi]

Righto. I never indicated that Blizzard must bend the knee to private servers. I said, they'll likely never get the brunt of people off of private servers unless their own product is free as well. Which is true without any debate to be had. I don't expect Blizzard to do that. I don't want them to do that. And then you started going on some tirade about how easy it is for them to shut them down. Which again, just isn't within the realm of reality. Which, here is where it loops back into another reason why Blizzard will never regain those players.

I get that multiple people are discussing with you, but you could at least go back and reread some posts.

It is easy to shut them down. I did not go on a tirade. I said it is easy to shut them down and therefore there is no chance that private servers will ever be big enough to compel Blizzard to feel the need to offer classic servers for free. The person I originally responded to was making that claim, that Blizzard would have to offer classic servers for free to “compete” with pirates.

Pirate servers will never be competitive. They have to stay small to avoid legal repercussions, and by staying small they cannot bring any meaningful amount of profit and growth. Plus they will always have the negative stigma of not providing any long-term safety for your invested characters. You roll on pirate servers with the knowledge that all your hard work and playtime can be wiped at any minute.

Exactly my point. Private servers are never going to be a competitive force capable of dictating pricing terms.

[Alcsaar]

Its taking development time and resources away from live wow, so no it shouldn't be free. It should just be a part of the regular sub cost.

[Nihilist74]

I would rather they made retail wow free up to the level that the latest expansion content starts.

[Asotcha]

It should be a subscription. Y'know, the exact same for retail.

I think that it should be included in the retail cost. That way people who are already subbed have access, and people who sub because of vanilla will have equal access to the modern version. Its the best way to make things simple for everyone involved.

- - - Updated - - -

Its taking development time and resources away from live wow, so no it shouldn't be free. It should just be a part of the regular sub cost.

Exactly--this guy gets it

[In Ogres We Trust]

The software that unlocks the servers should have a cost associated with it, but the subscription should remain with the Live version, i.e. your subscription gives you access to the Live version of the game as well as the Classic version of the game.

[darkfire979]

While personally I prefer it to be part of the WoW sub, I'm just surprise that it's the most popular option considering how 'wary' the classic payer crowd of retail players being tourist on the classic servers.

Should Blizzard go that route, if the retails servers ever have downtime or maintenance due to a retail only patch or problems, expect a flood of a few thousand temporary players into classic servers since their sub allows them to go there.

[Kolbjorn]

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.

Blizzard won't price it based on a poll, their strategy team will do it.

To guesstimate out what they'll do, you have to understand Blizzard's overall strategy, not just Warcraft.

When Blizzard merged with Activision, the shareholders got angry that Warcraft has spiky revenue. Every 2 years when an expansion comes out, it's great, less great in between. Many of the things they've done since have been to flatten that out to be more predictable. Part of that strategy involves keeping people in other Blizzard games (e.g., Diablo) so that they'll see in the launcher when a new patch is coming out and re-sub. The question is what role will Progression Servers have. (They won't stop at Vanilla, btw.)

I suspect at first, they'll offer it free if you have an existing Warcraft account. There will be a few things they'll look at:
- Number of people re-subbing (and how many of them are still around 6-12 months later)
- How many current subscribers play progression servers.
-- When do they play progression servers? Is during downtime between patches or not correlated?
-- Does it reduce subscriber churn between patches?
- Are the people that re-subbed for Progression playing live as well?

After a few months of that, they'll probably offer a "re-sub for free for 2 months to try progression!" The intent here will be to determine whether there is any un-tapped market of people. If a sufficient number try this, they might offer a "Progression only" sub at a lower price (which might be free, depending on conversion to paying customers of another game).

The reason they'll likely use existing subs first is that, well... who played the game on day 1 retail? Remember the lag? No reason to open the f2p gates before you figure out how big the servers really need to be.

People like the OP saying it should be free are entirely irrelevant.

[Aldrahan]

I think it should be like $5 separate sub, or free with current sub. Allows for some money to be made from people who might not be interested in the the whole deal, but doesn't punish current live subbed people who want to give it a go.

[Kolbjorn]

Should Blizzard go that route, if the retails servers ever have downtime or maintenance due to a retail only patch or problems, expect a flood of a few thousand temporary players into classic servers since their sub allows them to go there.

That isn't really a risk imo. If they mirror EQ design in terms of having flags in the client denoting server version, and use the phasing technology that Warcraft already has, it should be the same servers, so their downtime would generally be the same.

[Laqweeta]

Oh god please no.

Having a $15 fee per month does its job with not allowing absolute tards on WoW (kinda works). It also helps WoW not turn into micro transaction heaven

[Tethyson]

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.

What a fucking snowflake thing to say. Fucking hell.

[corebit]

The most obvious and simple system Blizzard will use is to require a Retail WoW subscription. Classic players who find out they don't really like the old game will try out Retail, and Retail players who become disillusioned with the new expansion will try out Classic.

Either way both types of players stay subbed, and that is what matters to Blizzard most.