No news?

[hulkgor]

Because if they rushed it out the door, it wouldn't be even close to their standard of quality, not to mention the classic client needs to have battle.net integration and a host of other security features that didn't exist in 2004. There are large parts of the back end that are going to have to be rebuilt to work with blizzards modern servers.

They're going to do this right, and its going to take time.

There's a difference between taking time, and taking 2 years.

AAA games are done in 2 years. Adapting Vanilla to today's hardware and blizzard platforms is not the case. Unless they purposely delay it. Let's be honest.

[Thimagryn]

There's a difference between taking time, and taking 2 years.

AAA games are done in 2 years. Adapting Vanilla to today's hardware and blizzard platforms is not the case. Unless they purposely delay it. Let's be honest.

Yes, they could do that and release the game immediately with absolutely no one to support it because there's no time given to hire a team of GM's that can sufficiently answer any problems regarding the Classic servers. There's more to it than just the technical aspects of releasing this game. And it's not so simple as 'only the Vanilla players will come back so they already know everything about Vanilla and don't need GMs!'

[Riistov]

There's a difference between taking time, and taking 2 years.

AAA games are done in 2 years. Adapting Vanilla to today's hardware and blizzard platforms is not the case. Unless they purposely delay it. Let's be honest.

AAA games are done in 2 years, AAA MMOs take more like 5. Even if they don't have to build an entire game, its going to take time. I see far too many people on here acting like it's supposed to be coming out this spring and thats just not going to happen.

[hulkgor]

AAA games are done in 2 years, AAA MMOs take more like 5. Even if they don't have to build an entire game, its going to take time. I see far too many people on here acting like it's supposed to be coming out this spring and thats just not going to happen.

Yes, a AAA MMO takes 5 years to make, but considering the engine, the scripting, the world, the art, the models, the textures, the quests, the npcs, the pcs, the dungeons, the raids, EVERY SINGLE ASPECT IS ALREADY DONE, which take 99% of those ~5 years.

So, again, since it seems you're just being stubborn.

There is no way, shape or form, where adapting a existing vanilla patch (be it 1.1 or 1.12) to current hardware, battle.net platforms (client and website), tweaking whatever they desire, and fix the - to be expected - bugs, would ever take 2 years. Even 1 year is already a very generous time frame.

That being said, it's in their interest to delay it to coincide with BFA content draught, with the 15th anniversary, etc.

So, in conclusion, it will only take that long because they so desire. It's perfectly legitimate form them to take it slow, that's besides the point, but stop parroting the idiocy that this endeavor should normally take those 2 years.

- - - Updated - - -

Yes, they could do that and release the game immediately with absolutely no one to support it because there's no time given to hire a team of GM's that can sufficiently answer any problems regarding the Classic servers. There's more to it than just the technical aspects of releasing this game. And it's not so simple as 'only the Vanilla players will come back so they already know everything about Vanilla and don't need GMs!'

Yea, hiring a bunch of dudes to answer tickets or act as GMs for vanilla and giving them a week long 'tutorial' on how to do so, or just preparing the predetermined answers\solutions (which they most certainly already have in place in an efficient manner) is certainly a mammoth task.

That alone would take a year, for sure!

/s

[Thimagryn]

Yea, hiring a bunch of dudes to answer tickets or act as GMs for vanilla and giving them a week long 'tutorial' on how to do so, or just preparing the predetermined answers\solutions (which they most certainly already have in place in an efficient manner) is certainly a mammoth task.

That alone would take a year, for sure!

/s

Training them, no. Finding all the data and known issues specific to running new servers and Classic that they need to train GMs to address, yes.

[Deleted]

There is no way, shape or form, where adapting a existing vanilla patch (be it 1.1 or 1.12) to current hardware, battle.net platforms (client and website), tweaking whatever they desire, and fix the - to be expected - bugs, would ever take 2 years. Even 1 year is already a very generous time frame.

oh look another arm chair developer who exactly knows how long it takes to make classic without working for blizzard ....

[Deleted]

This just in: classic servers arent blizzard's top priority. Probably won't hear much of anything until gamescon

You realise the people working on/going to work on classic and the people working on retail arent the same right?

[FireVoodoo]

No news is good news.

This!

Hopefully, the only news will be the release date.

I do not want any news, if you catch my drift.

[ComputerNerd]

If blizzard talk about something at too early a stage, after which it experiences changes then there will be complaints about how "promises" were broken.
Is it any wonder they aren't showing us much that isn't thought to be near-final.

[Deletedaccount1]

oh look another arm chair developer who exactly knows how long it takes to make classic without working for blizzard ....

Developing vanilla servers has been done hundreds of times. I don't know why people spread misinformation by saying that the game only entered the early stages of development at Blizzcon when J Allen Brack clearly stated they already had playable internal versions of the game by that point.

Most people in the vanilla/classic community think 1 year and change (from Blizzcon last year) is the most reasonable estimate for release but with how silent Blizzard has been, that can always change.

[Deleted]

Developing vanilla servers has been done hundreds of times.

WRONG!
its has been done ONCE nearly 20 years ago and the tech changed.
What YOU silly mean is some people ran a sandbox with an Emu which is NOT the same.
(Oh and are you REALLY ignoring the fact that a 64bit client is needed for classic release?)

[Deletedaccount1]

WRONG!
its has been done ONCE nearly 20 years ago and the tech changed.
What YOU silly mean is some people ran a sandbox with an Emu which is NOT the same.
(Oh and are you REALLY ignoring the fact that a 64bit client is needed for classic release?)

I never said it's the same but however you develop it, it won't take more than a year even from the ground up with a 64 bit client. If it does, well then Blizzard are the ones who suffer for it because hype can only last so long.

[Arbs]

Do people seriously think Classic will be out in 2018? If anything come out at the end of 2019/2020.

At the end of BFA.

[Deleted]

You do realize that has little to nothing to do with my statement right?

It has everything to do with it. The classic servers has its own team that focusses on nothing but it.

[Projectmars]

Yes, a AAA MMO takes 5 years to make, but considering the engine, the scripting, the world, the art, the models, the textures, the quests, the npcs, the pcs, the dungeons, the raids, EVERY SINGLE ASPECT IS ALREADY DONE, which take 99% of those ~5 years.

Yes, but the problem is that there are essentially two different engines, the one Vanilla ran on and the one Retail runs on, and they have to update the latter to work with the former. That is where a lot of the time will be taken up. No, considering they'll be digging through millions of lines of coding and rewriting a bunch of it will take quite a bit of time.

EDIT:

Developing vanilla servers has been done hundreds of times. I don't know why people spread misinformation by saying that the game only entered the early stages of development at Blizzcon when J Allen Brack clearly stated they already had playable internal versions of the game by that point.

Most people in the vanilla/classic community think 1 year and change (from Blizzcon last year) is the most reasonable estimate for release but with how silent Blizzard has been, that can always change.

He's stated they had an internal build for reference. Singular. Additionally, it is likely the version they used to show the higher ups that it could be done before the project got greenlit (i.e. very bare bones) So even if they copy it and work on the copy they still have 95% of the way to go, at least.

[Maudib]

They haven't said anything, because there isn't anything to be said. They are standing up existing code and will run a beta very soon. The work is already done, it's just the infrastructure being setup.

Expect a May/June 2018 launch.

[Deleted]

They haven't said anything, because there isn't anything to be said. They are standing up existing code and will run a beta very soon. The work is already done, it's just the infrastructure being setup.

Expect a May/June 2018 launch.

Where are you getting this info?

[Maudib]

You should apply at blizzard. Clearly you know better then them and can do a better job.

Sigh. Common sense simply doesn't exist anymore. Standing up Classic is a walk in the park. Private servers did so fairly quickly after doing manual scripting of the game. Blizz has all this stuff archived.

[Deleted]

Sigh. Common sense simply doesn't exist anymore. Standing up Classic is a walk in the park. Private servers did so fairly quickly after doing manual scripting of the game. Blizz has all this stuff archived.

We dont know how far they are collecting the team or how far they are in the descision making process of what to do with the game. We dont even know what they are gonna change.

Please dont spout your opinion as fact in the future. It makes people on this forum confused enough to think "But Blizzard promised beta soon"

[Projectmars]

Sigh. Common sense simply doesn't exist anymore. Standing up Classic is a walk in the park. Private servers did so fairly quickly after doing manual scripting of the game. Blizz has all this stuff archived.

Private servers were also No where near as concerned with quality like Blizzard will be, and it shows. It will take time to do Classic right.

I mean, if Blizzard did want to shovel crappy classic servers on us, then sure they could do what the private servers do.