Why does Blizzard Release WoW Classic?

[chooi]

As for blizzard, why do they even make classic servers? We have different versions of the same game because there are some vanilla fans? And what is next? TBC servers for BC fans and wrath servers for wrath fans in the future?

If people think artifact power grinding is blizzard trying to prolong people's game playing time and milking more money from subscribers, this classic server idea sounds like an even more desperate way.

Yes, please.

Also, I don't mind paying my sub when the game is fun to play. Of course, they make games for profit. Who would have thought?

Lootboxes, layers and layers of RNG and forcing players on a single path to play the game how and when Blizzard wants them to play is not my definition of a fun game. Classic & TBC gave a lot more freedom to play the game how and when you wanted. At the same time you had linear progression with a clear direction and goal for each aspect of the game but you could choose how to follow that path. Overall, superiour RPG design.

[Holy Godiva]

I think for some people it's a very similar experience to twinks. There is a certain appeal to having some stability/finality to something. To be able to play without the fear of your class changing, or needing to constantly climb the ilvl treadmill.

[Deleted]

Please keep going, I almost came.

Same

[ashblond]

I think for some people it's a very similar experience to twinks. There is a certain appeal to having some stability/finality to something. To be able to play without the fear of your class changing, or needing to constantly climb the ilvl treadmill.

Yes, and the players who mainly play twinks are definitely a minority, just like classic will only appeal an extreme minority player base.

[Ujimasa Hojo]

Blizzard wants all of that sweet cash some people were willing to throw around at private servers hosting Vanilla.

[Zemuron]

Blizzard is a public corporation. The ultimate goal of a corporation and its CEO is to maximize shareholder value. Blizzard doesn't make these games to keep the fans happy despite what many of you think, blizzard provides a product that will maximize return on investment and ultimately maximize shareholder wealth. Classic isn't being released to fulfill some ones nostalgia, or to find out what went wrong, or for any of the other many reasons players tell themselves, classic is being released because there is demand for a product, and blizzard sees an opportunity to make money.

[Deficineiron]

Blizzard is a public corporation. The ultimate goal of a corporation and its CEO is to maximize shareholder value. Blizzard doesn't make these games to keep the fans happy despite what many of you think, blizzard provides a product that will maximize return on investment and ultimately maximize shareholder wealth. Classic isn't being released to fulfill some ones nostalgia, or to find out what went wrong, or for any of the other many reasons players tell themselves, classic is being released because there is demand for a product, and blizzard sees an opportunity to make money.

citing corporation's fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value is conspiracy talk here

[Deleted]

What you said may be right for players back in the days.

But if we look back at it, most of the features you listed won't be considered "FUN" for today's players.

EXACTLY! TODAY'S players.

But blizzard already has today's players, they're sat happily at retail giving them the monies.

What they have lost is people like me, who much prefer the gamestyle that was present up to TBC and started to get shat on in WOTLK and beyond, they want to bring us back in.
Great if you cannot stand Classic, you have Retail that's tailored for you, the only difference is me, who's sat in the camp polar opposite to yours now get that same luxury. I get my prefered version, and can happily ignore retail.

[Kaver]

I think WoW Classic was not originally a Blizzard idea, but rather a request from a lot of players and fans.

I have played since Vanilla, and the game has evolved so much over the years. The gameplay has greatly improved.

Vanilla had so many quality of life issues if we look back at it today:

No pet/mount/toy collection tab
No LFR/LFG
No transmog/reforge
Weapon skills
Spell ranks
Key rings
Reagent for buffs
Arrows, bullets, poisons, etc
No in-game quest helper (not even quest helper addon, check thottbot or whatever)
Compared to today, raid boss mechanics were crazily simple, and class rotation were almost non-existant
and ofc vastly inferior graphics
..........
the list can go on and on

For old players, the only reason to play classic is for nostalgia, as the only thing better we had back then was probably the community, which will never come back again. You liked classic back then because it was new, but classic servers will never give you that feeling because it was a 10+ years old stuff you have played again and again.

For new players, I don't even see why you would like to play an old game that is inferior in almost every way compared to today's wow.

As for blizzard, why do they even make classic servers? We have different versions of the same game because there are some vanilla fans? And what is next? TBC servers for BC fans and wrath servers for wrath fans in the future?

If people think artifact power grinding is blizzard trying to prolong people's game playing time and milking more money from subscribers, this classic server idea sounds like an even more desperate way.

It’s just a completely different game. Simple. In classic many things that we take for granted actually matters. Like having a max level character. Many people never got a max level character in Vanilla, but they still enjoyed the immersive travel through the game. Now most people have 10+ max level character and the game is really only about Raiding and Mythic+. There is not an immersive travel anymore. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it’s just another type of game.

[crusadernero]

I was skeptical and didnt see any reason for Blizzard to release classic when they first announced it. Didnt really care about it. Now? Cant wait!

Yes it will be slower.
Yes everything will be more "annoying".
Yes the QoL stuff is not there like on retail.
Yes, I dont have time to play classic as much as I did when it first came out.

But I will play it as much as I can. I will enjoy ever level and zone I complete. I will take my sweet time. Exploring the old zones and quests. Work on proffs. Run the good old dungeons with meaning beyond zerging and collect loot at end.

I will enjoy raiding MC, ZG and maybe BWL/AQ and happily know there is more raiding content if I want to. And if I do, I step up my game.

[riptal]

Yes, please.

Also, I don't mind paying my sub when the game is fun to play. Of course, they make games for profit. Who would have thought?

Lootboxes, layers and layers of RNG and forcing players on a single path to play the game how and when Blizzard wants them to play is not my definition of a fun game. Classic & TBC gave a lot more freedom to play the game how and when you wanted. At the same time you had linear progression with a clear direction and goal for each aspect of the game but you could choose how to follow that path. Overall, superiour RPG design.

Exactly this! WoTLK was sadly the beginning of the end of Wow as we knew it! What was very impressive in Classic and TBC was the number of people still doing dungeons and the first tier content even at the end of those expac cycles. You don't see this today. Once a patch come out, nobody care anymore about previous content. In fact, there's no reason to return to pre patch content...

[Eosia]

Section 1201 of the DMCA

[Unholyground]

Exactly this! WoTLK was sadly the beginning of the end of Wow as we knew it! What was very impressive in Classic and TBC was the number of people still doing dungeons and the first tier content even at the end of those expac cycles. You don't see this today. Once a patch come out, nobody care anymore about previous content. In fact, there's no reason to return to pre patch content...

That is just poor game design which is easily fixed, however Blizzard don't give 2 fucks anymore.

[Coldfrostzero]

Epics being epic

Let me stop you right there by saying there were for the longest time blues that were VASTLY superior to some epics. It also wasn't that hard to get epics in classic as long as you actually raided or PVPed. Not to mention, they did have epics on last bosses in lvl 60 dungeons and Tribute run of Dire Maul as I got the extremely rare Treant's Bane on my warrior and the chest off Gandaling in Scholomance on my priest. The only thing that changed today is what would be blues from a dungeon are now purple. They tried to go back to that idea in Cataclysm and it sadly didn't pan out too well, but that might be largely due to the fact that dungeons were tuned around having people you know and not LFG garbage players that developed from the late WOTLK laziness of dungeon nerfs.

[Raelbo]

What was very impressive in Classic and TBC was the number of people still doing dungeons and the first tier content even at the end of those expac cycles.

No, it wasn't "impressive", it was simply part of the paradigm of a playerbase who didn't yet understand what it meant to be playing an MMO and were operating under the old concept of buying a game and playing through it until the end, taking as long as you like. Once people start to understand the nature of an MMO which is to keep progressing, then the idea of being stuck on old content becomes undesirable. By the end of TBC people who were still stuck doing Karazhan were not in a good place.

You don't see this today. Once a patch come out, nobody care anymore about previous content. In fact, there's no reason to return to pre patch content...

Because playing old content when other players are busy with new content is just not something that most players really want to do unless they're still really new to the game.

[MORGATH99]

blizz is doing so the freaking whinners and ppl who never played vanilla but think the game was so much better back then ( have no idea at all ) would shut the hell up already
but when they realize theres no content and the game is hella slow than live they will start with " wheres the BC servers and then wheres the WOTLK servers shit " and the cicle will start anew

[Bibliomaniac]

I think WoW Classic was not originally a Blizzard idea, but rather a request from a lot of players and fans.

I have played since Vanilla, and the game has evolved so much over the years. The gameplay has greatly improved.

Vanilla had so many quality of life issues if we look back at it today:

No pet/mount/toy collection tab
No LFR/LFG
No transmog/reforge
Weapon skills
Spell ranks
Key rings
Reagent for buffs
Arrows, bullets, poisons, etc
No in-game quest helper (not even quest helper addon, check thottbot or whatever)
Compared to today, raid boss mechanics were crazily simple, and class rotation were almost non-existant
and ofc vastly inferior graphics
..........
the list can go on and on

For old players, the only reason to play classic is for nostalgia, as the only thing better we had back then was probably the community, which will never come back again. You liked classic back then because it was new, but classic servers will never give you that feeling because it was a 10+ years old stuff you have played again and again.

For new players, I don't even see why you would like to play an old game that is inferior in almost every way compared to today's wow.

As for blizzard, why do they even make classic servers? We have different versions of the same game because there are some vanilla fans? And what is next? TBC servers for BC fans and wrath servers for wrath fans in the future?

If people think artifact power grinding is blizzard trying to prolong people's game playing time and milking more money from subscribers, this classic server idea sounds like an even more desperate way.

How is it you have such an incredible skill of intuition? Or is it that you can read minds? Clearly you are the greatest expert to tell us all how we actually feel about the game. Clearly the only reason I want to play classic WoW is for nostalgia, not for relevant professions, and a healthy community in a game world that isn't on fast forward to shallow end game content, rather the whole leveling process being an important part of the game. I totally don't want to play classic because it's a game I legitimately enjoy, no it's nostalgia. Please keep educating us all on exactly how we feel about classic, we need more individuals like you with such amazing skills of clairvoyance.

[FelPlague]

That was one part of it, CRZ also played a part in this.

There is still community in the game, you just need to find it and try to be part of it instead of literally not talking to people.
as someone from an rp realm, we still very much have a massive community where you know everyone.
and hell like 60% of these people i have literally never seen ingame.

[riptal]

No, it wasn't "impressive", it was simply part of the paradigm of a playerbase who didn't yet understand what it meant to be playing an MMO and were operating under the old concept of buying a game and playing through it until the end, taking as long as you like. Once people start to understand the nature of an MMO which is to keep progressing, then the idea of being stuck on old content becomes undesirable. By the end of TBC people who were still stuck doing Karazhan were not in a good place.



Because playing old content when other players are busy with new content is just not something that most players really want to do unless they're still really new to the game.

I don't agree! There's always a way to make older content still useful or rewarding for many. I can agree that alot of people will always focus on new content but in a mmo kind of game there's always alot of people who wants to go back to older content if they have a reason to go there, even for a small reward. Remember Badges of justice?

[Antility]

blizz is doing so the freaking whinners and ppl who never played vanilla but think the game was so much better back then ( have no idea at all ) would shut the hell up already
but when they realize theres no content and the game is hella slow than live they will start with " wheres the BC servers and then wheres the WOTLK servers shit " and the cicle will start anew

Molten Core

Blackwing Lair

ZG

AQ20

AQ40

Naxxramas

Kazzak

Azurgos

Lethon

Taerar

Emeriss

Ysondre

PvP ranking

Leveling 1-60

Relevant professions

World PvP

blizz is doing so the freaking whinners and ppl who never played vanilla but think the game was so much better back then ( have no idea at all ) would shut the hell up already
but when they realize theres no content

LUL