Do you remember the wall of NO?

[huth]

No. "Source control". The data is here and untouched. The main problem is probably rather that it needs an old version to run, and this version needs some specific hardware. But you can be sure that each version of the game is entirely saved somewhere in Blizzard archives.

The "untouched" part is pretty much the entire problem they need to fix now. QC isn't going to pass what counted as good code 14 years ago.

[Akka]

The "untouched" part is pretty much the entire problem they need to fix now. QC isn't going to pass what counted as good code 14 years ago.

Yep, that's probably the whole reason it even need programmers.
But it's a completely different problem than "we don't have the data", and one which is fixable.

[Armourboy]

Having the data has never been then problem, making old data work with new architecture has been the bulk of the problem.

[Powerogue]

A lot of this stuff is still accurate, like it being a logistical nightmare, but they're just convinced there's enough demand for it to deal with it. They're sifting through the ancient code trying to figure out how to get it to work with modern anti-botting measures and battle.net integration as we speak. That is why it's taking so long.

And it's still accurate that people will not be satisfied with this. When OSRS came out using the game from 2007, people immediately swapped to begging to a version from 2011, a whine that persists to this day. Minecraft lets you play literally every snapshot of every patch whenever you want and yet you still get people going "blur blur 1.9's combat ruined the game I quit."

[therealbowser]

1. Blizz does not believe there are enough people interested in utilizing this idea long term to justify the various costs necessary to bring it about.

2. Blizz feels this idea is counter to the nature of MMO’s; non-progression equates to stagnation and eventual boredom.

3. The original game code does not exist in that form anymore. All the old data has been replaced, with the newer data which was not saved (archived) for later reuse. It was over-written and destroyed. “There is no switch to flip on the realms to roll back years of patches and changes…” In keeping with the sentiment in expressed in #2, above, it’s gone, never to return. Even if it were “recoverable” by other means it would still require lengthy and expensive rewrite.

4. They have no plans or desire to recreate the original version from scratch. They refer to the notion of attempting to do so as “a logistical nightmare,”… and in keeping with their stance in #1, above the time, money and resources required are prohibitive and unjustified.

All of these things except for #1 are true (#3 is only partially true). #1 is no longer true, and frankly, that's all it took for Blizzard to decide it was worth reimplementing Classic servers. #4 is especially true, and I fear we may soon find that #2 could ruin classic before it really has a chance to thrive (I hope I'm wrong).

I wouldn't be surprised if half the reason Blizzard was implementing classic realms was just to show that the game isn't the perfect world people are making it out to be. Classic had a ton of issues and was not WoW's highest point... IMHO, that honor goes to WotLK, but TBC had the biggest changes -- that was where the game truly started growing into the amazing game that people admire to this day.

I would be more excited about "TBC realms" or "WotLK realms" than I am about "Classic realms", but for the sake of nostalgia, any and all of them would interest me.

[Deficineiron]

I meant it from the perspective of that if that was the only thing that was added I'd be happy to still call it vanilla. Of course what they release is probably going to be some horrible amalgamation. We will see.

I call them Frankenstein servers, though another poster suggested Abomination servers as the imagery works quite well with them (cobbled together from parts, guts hanging out, etc).

Blizzard is trying to talk the talk without getting explicit in details of what they are NOT going to change at this point, but this is early pre-release buzz/perception mgmt and the target market of it is mainly true believers (people that really are interested in classic) - as a release date is set and details begin to emerge, I think we will see positive messages about some of the improvements they have implemented, and absolute silence on some hard number issues (i.e. tuning/pacing).

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They never said 'no, never' to a cash shop. They said you would never be able to buy player power items (like weapons and tier sets) in a shop and they've stuck to that. Say what you will about the boost, but getting a bunch of shitty greens that don't even get you to the ilevel needed for running heroic dungeons isn't really 'player power'.

Pardo was quite explicit on this in 2008.

Q: Have you considered micro-transacrtions in WoW?
A: We chose to go with the subscription-based model instead of that approach. We've taken the approach that we want players to feel like it's a level playing field once they're in WoW. Outside resources don't play into it -- no gold buying, etc. We take a hard line stance against it. What you get out of microtransactions is kind of the same thing and I think our player base would feel betrayed by it. I think that's something else you have to decide on up-front instead of implementing later.
Q: But it might make it easier for the casuals to catch up....
A: They aren't going to be the ones spending the money.

one can get picky and say that he never used the word 'never' but that seems like a pretty definitive statement to me.

as far as saying instant-max-level toons (and buying gold) isn't in any way an in-game advantage, that is just moving the goalposts of defining pay-to-win outside of the stadium, into the parking lot.

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Yep, that's probably the whole reason it even need programmers.
But it's a completely different problem than "we don't have the data", and one which is fixable.

I call this the 'the dog ate my server code' excuse and it was bandied about here for quite a while, even after the nost folks reported differently after their meeting, until blizzard reversed its comments on this.

essentially, the old premise was a AAA company did not use a secure version backup system on server code, or forgot to pay the bill, or the place burned down, or they forgot and erased their old drive, or.?

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Not sure either. You know,. when people mentioned private servers, it seemed to me they were happy on them, no matter what they offered. The moment Blizzard does them, the demands how they "should be" started.

I think the people demanding things are mostly not current ps players. I use demanding as a different term from discussing/suggesting. I have specifically seen some of the more prominent NO names from the megathread in this forum wanting changes to what they adamantly were against in the first place.

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You haven't boosted a character in awhile have you? You're way over the ilevel for heroic dungeons, you get epic flight, you get pretty large bags. That aside, any time they've ever said no never to a feature they've ended up caving and doing it. Whether it was early on like faction swaps in Wrath or it was much later like classic servers.

actually, I suspect that race changes/faction changes were encouraged via changes to racials/new race racials.

humans got the trinket racial, suddenly changing their viability for pvp. pandas had a food racial which seemed like a great pve one (I think, going from memory here) and mop somewhere also added a new pvp racial to something that altered the min/max best option too, iirc. a pvp min-maxer pretty much had to race change/faction-change both with release of cataclysm/pandalanda. I don't recall if this applied in wotlk (when did humans get EMFH?)

[Donald Hellscream]

Yes however not it is zealots that use it everytime someone dare to even suggest that some changes wouln't kill classic and lead to the introduction of LFR.

[Projectmars]

Yep, that's probably the whole reason it even need programmers.
But it's a completely different problem than "we don't have the data", and one which is fixable.

“We don’t have the data in a usable form” is different from “we don’t have the data”, sure... but until they managed to find out how to effectively convert it the results were the same.

[Nnyco]

i mean if you can take money of idiots who desperately want nostalgia, why not

[sopeonaroap]

Companies like to experiment at times, who knew?!

Everyone but white knight fanbois and blizzard it seems like.....

that's kind of EXACTLY OP'S POINT smh

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i mean if you can take money of idiots who desperately want nostalgia, why not

you seriously calling people who want classic servers idiots while you do the exact same thing (only easier/quicker) on live? the base idea of the game is no different, they just milk the whales more now with their exclusive mounts that you can't get in game (cash shop, something they were against 10 years ago) and gold selling (something they said they were against but we all know they owned susanexpress, the #1 gold seller in bc and wotlk)

if one is stupid, both are stupid, and they both probably are but who gives a shit

[Nnyco]

you seriously calling people who want classic servers idiots while you do the exact same thing (only easier/quicker) on live? the base idea of the game is no different, they just milk the whales more now with their exclusive mounts that you can't get in game (cash shop, something they were against 10 years ago) and gold selling (something they said they were against but we all know they owned susanexpress, the #1 gold seller in bc and wotlk)

if one is stupid, both are stupid, and they both probably are but who gives a shit

somebody got triggered fast, but you know, atleast on live i get new shit while classic will be classic forever and ever

who cares about cash shop, oh look you bought a fancy helm better go mental and big lol at your claim that they owned susaneexpress

[huth]

as far as saying instant-max-level toons (and buying gold) isn't in any way an in-game advantage, that is just moving the goalposts of defining pay-to-win outside of the stadium, into the parking lot.

Advantage over whom? It's more "paying to skip the qualifications".

[Soon-TM]

Advantage over whom? It's more "paying to skip the qualifications".

It is P2W, albeit in a light form. You get to skip all the mind numbing boring leveling process and jump straight to the endgame fun. You can twist it all you want saying it's just "convenience", but in the end, any form of P2W could be considered "just convenience".

[Deficineiron]

It is P2W, albeit in a light form. You get to skip all the mind numbing boring leveling process and jump straight to the endgame fun. You can twist it all you want saying it's just "convenience", but in the end, any form of P2W could be considered "just convenience".

I see on the forum often that it has been necessary to contort the definition of pay-to-win to almost literally be limited to BIS gear for sale for cash, since both gold and max level characters are now sold by blizzard.

[Projectmars]

i mean if you can take money of idiots who desperately want nostalgia, why not

It’s a lucrative market. Look at all the idiots excited for FF7.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

It was a magical time and I will mourn it's death.

[Kudos]

People vehemently argued the same points against these things too:
1. Oceanic servers.
2. Server transfers.
3. Race changes.

[Deficineiron]

People vehemently argued the same points against these things too:
1. Oceanic servers.
2. Server transfers.
3. Race changes.

blizzard actually used the 'never' word about pve to pvp xfers at one point....

[Gavll]

The thing about these reasons is that they were all bullshit to begin with. The market was always there, Blizzard just refused to acknowledge it and all their fanboys were just fapping over it

[Soon-TM]

It’s a lucrative market. Look at all the idiots excited for FF7.

There must be a lot of idiots then, for remastered old games are selling like freshly baked bread. And Blizz is no stranger to it, with its (very successful) remaster of SC1.