New high end content in classic after Naxx

[HuxNeva]

So basically you want yet another Retail WoW that is simply running several expansions late, with a weird twist of not including expansions you didn't like.

Classic from Blizzard will be 'retail' ofc.
But yes, an alternate version of the game where some disastrous gamechanges don't happen, and that receives new content patches is a pretty sweet prospect.

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Be a bit late for that outrage considering WoW subs have funded other Blizzard endeavors for over a decade now.

Wait till he finds out that the bulk of his sub fee went to lining the pockets of shareholders.

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Blizzard is not going to open with anything other than straight vanilla. Why? Because i'd bet good bottom dollar that half the reason they're doing this is to convert a reasonable chunk of those playing on private servers to actual subscribers. It's a good model too, the Wow token has by all counts devastated the gold farming business and converted a a good portion of it to company revenue.
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So you are saying that if Classic is a raging success, Blizzard will just go 'oh well, was nice while it lasted, thanks for stopping by guys, now you can go away again' after a year or so?

[corebit]

Classic from Blizzard will be 'retail' ofc.
But yes, an alternate version of the game where some disastrous gamechanges don't happen, and that receives new content patches is a pretty sweet prospect.

People can't even agree on what Vanilla is or is not as evidenced by this forum, and yet you want to repeat that with every expansion? never mind that you don't hold a consensus on what "disastrous gamechanges" mean.

[HuxNeva]

People can't even agree on what Vanilla is or is not as evidenced by this forum and yet you want to repeat that with every expansion?

People have never agreed on anything in any game. Has that ever stopped a company from developing and releasing games?

never mind that you don't hold a consensus on what "disastrous gamechanges" mean.

So what? since when is 'consensus' required? No game in the whole of history would have ever been released if it required consensus from the players. I'm sure there will be some future mistakes, and some people will quit over them (again), but I'm also sure that none of that will stop the developments if they think there is serious money to be made.

[Lyvefire]

So you are saying that if Classic is a raging success, Blizzard will just go 'oh well, was nice while it lasted, thanks for stopping by guys, now you can go away again' after a year or so?

How about you read the entire post before you selectively quote me?
Let me help:

Therefore they will start with what vanilla was at an absolute baseline. From then on it will be up to the community they create to decide its course.

If the community that has formed on said classic server has chosen to continue down the "no changes" path then so be it. So it shall be. But it may decide it wants quality of life changes/more content eventually. The entire point was that the only people making that decision should be the people actually playing on said server. Not all the armchair warriors making all these sensationalist, clickbaity threads along the lines of "Classic will FAIL because its lacking X feature I personally cannot live without".

[hakujinbakasama]

FOR THE 55TH THOUSANDTH TIME: If you want anything added/buffed/altered/changed in any way shape or form...you don't want and aren't getting classic wow. /thread

And for those thinking they will eventually upgrade it to TBC and onward. I highly doubt it. If fact, in one of the interviews done during blizzcon one of the reps from blizzard flat out said, "At this time that isn't something we are even discussing. The plan is bring back the classic 1-60 experience and leave it at that." I'd personally be willing to bet my right leg it never goes past the vanilla content. And TBH, it shouldn't.

And I mean.... why should it?

[RobertMugabe]

There's no need for new content... Blizz can just keep on releasing fresh vanilla realms at different times (nothing's holding them back to have realms at different progressions) and let these progress from 1.1 and 1.12.. and if Classic turns out be any good, they're most likely gonna release tbc, wotlk servers and so on

[Hunterwep]

Man these “we want classic servers!!!!” Posts that then want changes are laughable. This is exactly why Blizzard did not want to do this crap.

Don't confuse person (A) wanting something with person (B) wanting to change it...

[Cyanu]

ehm, no obviously? are they supposed to be developing two 'wows' forever just because they added a classic realm?

classic is classic period, anything added will make it some kind of modernized hybrid

[SilverCoin]

And I mean.... why should it?

And this graphic should imply what exactly?

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And I mean.... why should it?

And this graphic should imply what exactly?

[hakujinbakasama]

Don't confuse person (A) wanting something with person (B) wanting to change it...

Especially when it is heavily predicated upon person (C) who didn't want to pay subscription fees.

[hakujinbakasama]

And this graphic should imply what exactly?

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And this graphic should imply what exactly?

I charge an exorbitant amount per hour for common sense education.

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I mean if we would like TBC to be part of Vanilla, that is an implicit admission that we want gear that makes sense and some degree of class balance. Both are largely denied by the people who originally asked for Vanilla and triggered the creation of the Classic product. Ergo, it makes no sense to progress Classic to TBC at any point.

Again, there is this assumption that any amount over the might sum of 10 people actually asked for classic Vanilla. What I see is people who got mad that their free servers got closed down and then nagged blizzard when they were going to make classic servers then if Blizzard was going to be jerks and close their illegal fun zones.

[Pickynerd]

I think I am a way better player than I was in Vanilla and I raided everything in Vanilla...what people don't realize is it was the time sink that was the thing that made or break how good you were in Vanilla...

You're not a better player, the game is just easier now, actually you're probably a worse player, it comes with age, don't worry.

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And I mean.... why should it?

If anything classic is a great way to get old subscribers to buy/renew the game again. Simply put vanilla isn't something adults have time for, other than nostalgia. Live WoW is much more manageable for those who have gone to college and started a family; who miss the game, and have a little time to themselves.

I don't think Classic servers will be that popular because of these reasons:

1: It isn't going to be free. A lot of people think 15 is to much to pay, those people would gladly play the game if it were free - private servers fit that perfectly.

2: It takes too much time, to do ANYTHING.

3: The drama; guild drama, loot drama, streamer-cliques.

4: More toxic than ever! I mean people were pretty nice in vanilla to wrath, taking the time to explain anything, help others all day if need be. Now it will be the Live crowd vs the new crowd and newb hunters will be going to Silithus 1 graveyard at a time to find the paper doll vendor so they can pewpew.

5: The race to endgame, no more being social, go-go gotta git gud, gotta raid, gotta end the game, gotta look cool standing in faction city trolling new players.

[Thimagryn]

And I mean.... why should it?

If we extend the graph to 2017, does that mean WoW has negative players?

[HuxNeva]

ehm, no obviously? are they supposed to be developing two 'wows' forever just because they added a classic realm?

classic is classic period, anything added will make it some kind of modernized hybrid

In the words of Chomie: You are just lacking imagination.

[crusadernero]

You would figure with 3.0.2 the writing was on the wall.

I keep going over the possible scenarios and I keep coming up with a game tuned like 3.x in leveling content with possibly multiple raid difficulties.

I don't see how a/b can NOT make Frankenstein servers. To just make classic wow as/was as far as tuning and pacing would violate their design philosophy and core values. I assume they have the helpful people that have homogenized classes ready to help out on class balance, right?

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that was part of classic wow. whether it is going to be part of the 'classic game experience' is a totally different matter.

What? No its not. People have been moaning about Blizzard making a classic(or vanilla) server for many years. Now Blizzard say they will do it, and you say it will be something else? I dont think Blizzard will do that.

[Deficineiron]

What? No its not. People have been moaning about Blizzard making a classic(or vanilla) server for many years. Now Blizzard say they will do it, and you say it will be something else? I dont think Blizzard will do that.

well we may be looking at this from very different viewpoints.

my only viewpoint is 'what is good for activision-blizzard, and how are they most likely to handle any given market opportunity, in terms of best making the product for their target market?'

it is the ONLY thing that matters. This is a very well-run publicly traded company with a CEO with a very clear track record on making his games for the biggest market he can make them for. A sentimentally-tuned classic wow is unlikely, particularly given blizzard's own track record since the merger.

[Deleted]

My dream is after Naxx that they dust of the old Karazhan plane, and make the lower part Molten core difficulty and in loot lv but 20 man, but the gear is "optimized" for odd spec like defence on chainmail for Shaman tank, plate spellpower for Retribution paladin, leather spellpower for Balance druids etc ofcourse its a attunement quest to get the key to the lower part... like collect the heads of all of the last lv 60 dungeon bosses.... hence the player who enter lower Karazhan have some gear and som experience.

The upper part is a 40 man raid and super hard and drop better gear then Naxx and you need atlest one player who have the Atiesh legendary to make a portal so the raid can reach the upper part.

[Ryuda]

I don't think "post-Naxx" will be a relevant issue for some time, even with the harder vanilla raids being downright tame by today's standards (mechanically speaking, that is.)

For one thing: the logistics of even getting 40 people online at the same time 2-3 times a weeks for 3-4 hours (and I think that's being stingy given that 2-3 hour raid nights are not likely to cut it in a world where 1/3 to 1/2 of that time is likely to be corpse running during progression) is going to be a beast of a task.

Second thing: Making sure at least a chunk of those players have the basic mechanical skills to carry the rest of the warm bodies that tend to have been the "meat" of those old 40 player guilds. This may be a little easier actually on Classic servers vs. actual Vanilla, assuming you can meet the first hurdle, since most of the nostalgists that are partaking in this seem to be at least semi-competent raiders.

Third thing: Hoping that your 40 semi-competent raiders are willing to sink the necessary time into Classic servers to actually attune themselves to the raids, farm the materials for raiding, and basically just log in enough to keep themselves competitive. This is also going to be a hell of a task given that, (Shocker!) it's 2017, and not 2004. The community as a whole is older now, while in Vanilla, most of us were probably in our teens (if that, I've seen people in my Live guilds that were raiding vanilla at 10 and 11 years old! I can't fathom raiding with someone that young in this day and age.) Now, most of us have jobs, families, school, or just, you know, lives outside of the house. On top of that, it's quite likely that some of your roster may also have Live characters as well ("Purists" can like it or lump it, but the "Retailers" are going to be part of the server too) and will want to spend time devoted to those characters as well.

Fourth hurdle: Keeping your 40 people motivated through the absolutely brutal gear grind that was vanilla raiding. Abyssmal boss drops, a roster that will probably rotate faster that a rotary saw, loot tables poisoned with "vendor spec" loot. Imagine if on Live, farming until everyone had TF +20 or so gear in every slot and you might have some idea of what it was like.

Fifth and final hurdle: When you're actually on progression, trying to have your Raid Leader (or more likely, one of your Raid leaders) actually find the one of your massive, constantly shifting roster is actually causing wipes. Especially in some of the larger boss rooms.

Combine all those with the time to actually clear Naxx, and you'll probably have a task lasting a significant amount of time and frustration.

That said, if all that does come together and lead to a bunch of people having Naxx on farm, there's probably a handful of things they could do, given that the "Classic" team is completely separate from the Live team (i.e. maybe "Vanilla-izing" some of the later expacs, or as OP mentions, adding things that were (supposedly) cut from vanilla). Either way, it's just one of those things that the two super polarized "factions" (since, I guess it's 2017 and polarizing the shit out of everything is the only thing we're good at any more ) are going to have to find middle ground on.

[pateuvasiliu]

I have an idea for content after Naxx. Let's say... half a year or a year after Naxx launches.

It's gonna be set on Draenor, which got blown up.

Illidan probably went back there to lick his wounds, no?

[Deleted]

If the classic servers are really popular I can see Blizz creating some new content.

sorry the did that already 12 years ago its called TBC....
classic servers will stale at naxx cause otherwise it AINT classic