Will you wait?

[tratra]

I will say he is an ex wow dev for a reason. 4 years to release an improved version of older code? I don't think Blizzard has so shit developers that they don't know how to use revision version control systems.

I am not waiting for classics. I just don't care if it's released or not.

You jelly bro? Bet you you aint even close to his skillset, but anyways I'll lay it out for you since you seem like a youngster that doesn't get it. Game started being developed at around 1999 the tools for version control out there were minimal and yes a lot of things have changed since then.

You can't even imagine what kind of transition they'll need to change the DB structure to what it was in 2005 into todays DB system which should be scalable and on the cloud. Also intergrading that old engine into their bnet wow... you just cant imagine how much of a job that can be for a big dev team.

You shouldn't try to judge a very successful person, and also saying he is a shitty dev, he wansnt even a coder and he has made quite some money to not worry about working for the rest of his life.

- - - Updated - - -

A few things: first of all I find the dismissive attitude towards Staats (whom we are obviously speaking about here) kinda dumb. He was instrumental in creating wow (he made WSG, for example, based on a quake 3 map of his, because he felt we needed smaller scale PvP than AV in the game), although he and blizzard parted ways a long time ago. It was reported as him being laid off back when Titan, a project he was working on, was cancelled. It seems quite likely his health-issues had something to do with them not finding a new place in the company for him: apparently he has some sort of arthritic situation in his hands that severely limits his ability to work with computers in any capacity. I find it unlikely that there was any sort of falling out between him and the company, considering Blizzard has given their blessing to his book.

He has no insider-information about classic, which is something he was very clear about in the interviews I've read and heard from him. He is just speculating based on his intimate understanding of the original project. I think his view represents the reasons Blizzard were originally so very reluctant to provide legacy servers and is illuminating as such. However, the company has clearly had a change of heart and also figured things out: after all, they are now very publicly going ahead with the project. Failing to deliver at this point would be a PR catastrophe. I do think there's some value in Staats' insight into what a massive project it will be to recreate classic, however, and I don't think we should expect it to launch in 2019 or anything like that.

That person that is dismissive about Staats has no clue... just another person with a github account, programmed a small calculator for his CS course and coming off saying that translating that DB and codebase is easy and that people that originally coded wow which Staats was a designer for and not a coder are shit and dont know programming lol, funny people on the interwebz.

[Deleted]

I'm happily waiting, I'm in a critical point of my career (MD, resident) and have two children in diapers at home so I don't even have 2 minutes to play WoW per day at this point in my life.

I'm hoping it takes as long as possible so my life can calm down a bit and I don't fall behind and miss out on the fun! I want to be there on launch.

[Bigby]

I'm sure when BfA's sub numbers nosedive and/or there's a content glut in 8.3 they'll very conveniently have most of the work done.

[crusadernero]

Yeah, I was thinking exactly the same. Total silence, to me, it will sound like they announced the whole vanilla thing just to quiet all the mess community (or rather private consumer/some vanilla streamer) created about shutting down Nostalrius

Yup. Soon almost 1 year has passed and we have nothing. They are pretty much forced to say something this year. Cant imagine they will announce big stuff in retail wow anyway so they will atleast have classic news to cover that part up :P

[zmp]

I will probably wait while playing on PServers, as i have zero interests in current retail WoW anyway.

[Detheavn]

Will you wait?

Do I have a choice? I'm not about to roll a character on a private server which can go tits up any day.
I'll just be patient.

[dlhak]

I wouldn't be surprised if they announced 2087 as the release year ...

[Worgoblin]

I appreciate the ex devs input, but I'm not buying his 2021 guess. I believe it will launch in 2019. But either way, I'll continue doing the same thing... playing other games and I'll play Classic the first moment it launches, whenever that is.

[Deficineiron]

A few things: first of all I find the dismissive attitude towards Staats (whom we are obviously speaking about here) kinda dumb. He was instrumental in creating wow (he made WSG, for example, based on a quake 3 map of his, because he felt we needed smaller scale PvP than AV in the game), although he and blizzard parted ways a long time ago. It was reported as him being laid off back when Titan, a project he was working on, was cancelled. It seems quite likely his health-issues had something to do with them not finding a new place in the company for him: apparently he has some sort of arthritic situation in his hands that severely limits his ability to work with computers in any capacity. I find it unlikely that there was any sort of falling out between him and the company, considering Blizzard has given their blessing to his book.

He has no insider-information about classic, which is something he was very clear about in the interviews I've read and heard from him. He is just speculating based on his intimate understanding of the original project. I think his view represents the reasons Blizzard were originally so very reluctant to provide legacy servers and is illuminating as such. However, the company has clearly had a change of heart and also figured things out: after all, they are now very publicly going ahead with the project. Failing to deliver at this point would be a PR catastrophe. I do think there's some value in Staats' insight into what a massive project it will be to recreate classic, however, and I don't think we should expect it to launch in 2019 or anything like that.

It is likely most of the people calling him names etc. have no idea who he was or what he did in wow, despite likely considering some of the instances HE designed from the ground up among the best in the game at some point in their wow lives if not still now.

Another issue is a sub-set of posters simply attack anyone who says anything they don't like. They would attack rob pardo if given the chance in this context. Once you figure out who these folks are you can just ignore them, it saves time.

Have a favorite instance from classic? This guy imagined it, modeled the structure of it, and built it.

I have listed to about a third of his podcast (the 3-hour one), it is quite interesting.

[Hottage]

It would pretty embarrasing imo if they cant push a release 2019. Its not as if blizzard is a small indie company, oh wait...

Except that regardless how big the company is the World of Warcraft: Classic development is practically a skunkworks project, being done by a very small team of specially assigned developers.

The number of developers at Blizzard as a whole is irrelevant.

Assuming that a big company can complete a specific project quicker because they are big just highlights how completely unqualified you are to make statements regarding the development timescale.

[schwank05]

Honestly if it does not Release in the first part of 2019, Im out. FFS the damn game is already done and designed. Just release it already.

[Hottage]

FFS the damn game is already done and designed. Just release it already.

Your ignorance is astounding.

They are rebuilding it from scratch in the new Battle.net engine and infrastructure.

- All the old code for mechanics which were removed will need to be reimplemented.
- UI elements for integrations like Battle.net will need to be ported to the Classic interface style.
- All the old pre-Cataclysm server (quests/spells) and client (maps) data will need to be ported to the new data structures.
- Designers were specifically hired in for reimplementing previously removed lighting and shader effects into the new engine.

The game is by no means "done".

[Aphrel]

Except that regardless how big the company is the World of Warcraft: Classic development is practically a skunkworks project, being done by a very small team of specially assigned developers.

The number of developers at Blizzard as a whole is irrelevant.

Assuming that a big company can complete a specific project quicker because they are big just highlights how completely unqualified you are to make statements regarding the development timescale.

Are you honestly suggesting that regardless of resources it takes 3 years to patch a already completed game to be playable on blizzard servers?

If they dont release in 2019 its just proof of how little commitment they have to the project.

[Hottage]

Are you honestly suggesting that regardless of resources it takes 3 years to patch a already completed game to be playable on blizzard servers?

If they dont release in 2019 its just proof of how little commitment they have to the project.

Blizzard have no intention to "just patch an already completed game to be playable". That's not how they work.

They already stated they intent for it to be "Blizzard Quality", not a mom-and-pop private server host.

That means it's being rebuilt on the new engine with Battle.net integration for patching, social and security features.

I don't understand that people who claim to have a vested interest in the release of Classic seem to have taken so little interest in the mechanisms of it's development...

[schwank05]

Your ignorance is astounding.

They are rebuilding it from scratch in the new Battle.net engine and infrastructure.

- All the old code for mechanics which were removed will need to be reimplemented.
- UI elements for integrations like Battle.net will need to be ported to the Classic interface style.
- All the old pre-Cataclysm server (quests/spells) and client (maps) data will need to be ported to the new data structures.
- Designers were specifically hired in for reimplementing previously removed lighting and shader effects into the new engine.

The game is by no means "done".

Why? just roll out a server or 3 with the old code and be done with it, don't care how it gets out just get it out. Don't make people wait past their point of patience. Then they will have wasted their time if they take too long as the people interested in classic are more than likely not interested in Live version of WOW. and will get to the age or time in their life where they will not care about the game.

[munkeyinorbit]

If they cant release it within the next year I will be selling my Activision stock as I will see them as out of touch with the market.

As someone who also lies on the Internet I will also sell my Activision stock.

[Deficineiron]

Why? just roll out a server or 3 with the old code and be done with it, don't care how it gets out just get it out. Don't make people wait past their point of patience. Then they will have wasted their time if they take too long as the people interested in classic are more than likely not interested in Live version of WOW. and will get to the age or time in their life where they will not care about the game.

there likely is (and a/b knows it) an exhaustion point where more and more of the vocal classic crowd will begin to 'give up' on it getting done and make ps's their primary focus again, and I think if blizz doesn't put a hard date or at least a working date range at blizzcon it will begin to cross that line. no hard date would be interpreted as no classic in 2019, in essence.

BUT, blizzard is looking at a much bigger market for the product overall, and will get the product in shape to meet that target audience no matter how long it takes. if they decide 4 years is idea (3 years from now) then that is what they will do (which would suggest a lot of the intent of the reveal last year was to shut the classic community up for now without actually deploying significant assets towards making classic work.)

1-year post-bfa-release certainly could make sense, if they can pull it off. there can be argued to be benefit for blizzard - the sooner classic is ready and released, the sooner blizz can start making money on it. Money is important!

If blizzard wants to drag out the release, I am sure they know they need to throw a bone to the classic folks at blizzcon. Their marketing folks are genius, so this shouldn't be a problem.

[Kyphael]

That would be absurd. I expect it no later than after the final patch of BfA to keep us subbed while we wait for the following expansion, then they can really take their time with it and not rush while we enjoy Classic for an year or so. So when is the last patch of BfA expected? Summer of 2019? If so, I'm betting fall of 2019 for Classic, maybe spring 2020 latest.

[Aphrel]

Blizzard have no intention to "just patch an already completed game to be playable". That's not how they work.

They already stated they intent for it to be "Blizzard Quality", not a mom-and-pop private server host.

That means it's being rebuilt on the new engine with Battle.net integration for patching, social and security features.

I don't understand that people who claim to have a vested interest in the release of Classic seem to have taken so little interest in the mechanisms of it's development...

Sounds like a boatload of waste of time. Who even wants it to be on a new graphic engine?

The only reason they would have to restructure the game would be if they plan to build on it with modern features and the like, WICH NO1 EVEN WANTS...

I dont see why the don't just realease it as it is. The only thing they need is authenticator, login server compatability and battlnet chat integration.
Who cares if the old version doesnt handle data in an effctive way. Surely thats gonna be small potatoes compared to years of development and years of waiting/losing intrest for fans.

[Hottage]

Sounds like a boatload of waste of time. Who even wants it to be on a new graphic engine?

The only reason they would have to restructure the game would be if they plan to build on it with modern features and the like, WICH NO1 EVEN WANTS...

I dont see why the don't just realease it as it is. The only thing they need is authenticator, login server compatability and battlnet chat integration.
Who cares if the old version doesnt handle data in an effctive way. Surely thats gonna be small potatoes compared to years of development and years of waiting/losing intrest for fans.

If only from an account management and security point of view, they will want Battle.net integration.

Porting the old data into the modern server architecture and adding shaders to reimplement "Classic graphics" will likely be orders of magnitude easier than finding the original client source code and attempting to hack in Battle.net integration.

They also stated that the original server code was optimized to run on hardware they don't even own and isn't made or supported anymore. They won't use emulated server code either, for legal reasons.

From their point of view, implementing Classic as a server-region (similar to Tournament Realms) in the modern engine with an "Old School" graphics layer on top is by fare the most logical solution.

- - - Updated - - -

Why? just roll out a server or 3 with the old code and be done with it, don't care how it gets out just get it out. Don't make people wait past their point of patience. Then they will have wasted their time if they take too long as the people interested in classic are more than likely not interested in Live version of WOW. and will get to the age or time in their life where they will not care about the game.

For the reasons I just stated:

Because they want Battle.net integration, for account management and security (as well as, but less importantly social feature) integration.