How big is WoW classic going to be? Are the retail devs worried about their jobs?

[arkanon]

The most unbelievable part of this story is that you have a friend

"hmmm, argument destroyed, better resort to personal attacks, that should help me win!"

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beucase classic is leaaaaaaaaagues better than retail wow

Classic aint even out. That was quick. cya.

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How many of the 10 million people who bought Starcraft over its lifespan came back for Starcraft remastered?

This is the truth right here. Fans are blinded by their own excitement for the game, and cannot see logic or reason. They assign their personal feelings for the game to everyone who ever played it. Completely crazy to be honest.

[Fascinate]

I think some will get hooked, but there will be quite a few that will realize that the game wasn't all the great in some ways.

I was way more addicted to EverQuest and Ultima Online than WoW personally. Doesn't mean I want to go back and play those games though. (EverQuest being in first person, at least initially, was way more immersive than WoW... kind of miss that)

Just curious, what "wasnt so great" about classic WoW? I ask because when i try and think of stuff i didnt like about classic compared to retail (ive been subbed since 06 straight to now) the only things i can come up with are small stuff like auto bag sort lol. Literally everything else for me classic did better, i cannot think of one game system from BFA that i would like to see in classic.

RNG legendaries=awesome
Talent trees=amazing
Imbalanced specs=good for the game (drove alt character creation)
Slower game pacing=rewards felt that much sweeter, every upgrade matters

List could literally go on and on for me.

[MatadorMedia]

I'm sure Classic will have large initial traffic then slow down to a steady cult following. It will in no way be higher numbers than Retail.

[Khaza-R]

I think it will have a strong cult following.

But Classic is way too time-consuming for the modern gamer and will never be as popular as mainstream titles. Not that there's anything wrong with that anyway. Popularity doesn't correlate with being good.

[docterfreeze]

"hmmm, argument destroyed, better resort to personal attacks, that should help me win!"

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Classic aint even out. That was quick. cya.

Tit for tat. Just because my personal experience goes against your argument doesn't make me a notorious fibber. Just call it anecdotal.

Luckily my friend was streaming when he met him https://www.twitch.tv/videos/329460147?t=00h56m57s

[Kaleredar]

So you're asking if a game that requires little to no upkeep, that people have to pay a normal sub fee for; money that can and very easily CAN be folded into the budget for retail WoW, will cause retail WoW to... shrink?

Because it sounds to me like they just found a new, easy cash source to add to financing retail. Even when it inevitably peters out, that bit of money will likely have allowed them to expand the dev team of real WoW.

Even in your fever dream scenario when everyone creams themselves over the opportunity to play a 14 year old game with busted class balance and no updates for the foreseable future and classic has 8 million subscribers, there's practically no dev upkeep required. Meaning they aren't really paying anyone to oversee it. So those millions of subs you predict? All of that money goes straight into retail WoW, where actual development work is happening and requires resources to maintain.

This is why they will probably cycle into other expansions. Not that I wouldn't prefer repeating good content compared to playing new garbage.

Mm hmm and how long until people are asking for classic 2.0 because the classic servers have caught back up to the point WoW is at now?

This right here proves why classic wont last; people not interested in the nostalgia wont play it and the people who have bitched and moaned about getting it for years already expect it to move beyond what was promised. They'll always be wanting more.

Just wait until the "we want original content for classic!" crowd crops up.

[Deleted]

"hmmm, argument destroyed, better resort to personal attacks, that should help me win!"

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Classic aint even out. That was quick. cya.

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This is the truth right here. Fans are blinded by their own excitement for the game, and cannot see logic or reason. They assign their personal feelings for the game to everyone who ever played it. Completely crazy to be honest.

it doent matter if classic is out or not. It was out at one point in time and we know what it includes... lol?

[Shaderas]

Just curious, what "wasnt so great" about classic WoW? I ask because when i try and think of stuff i didnt like about classic compared to retail (ive been subbed since 06 straight to now) the only things i can come up with are small stuff like auto bag sort lol. Literally everything else for me classic did better, i cannot think of one game system from BFA that i would like to see in classic.

RNG legendaries=awesome
Talent trees=amazing
Imbalanced specs=good for the game (drove alt character creation)
Slower game pacing=rewards felt that much sweeter, every upgrade matters

List could literally go on and on for me.

RNG Legendaries is awesome... until you've tried to get one for multiple thousands of hours and still don't have it.

I loved the old talent trees personally, I will agree with this.

Imbalanced specs... yes and no. There were some specs (IIRC) that were not good for anything. Some classes, if you wanted to raid, you didn't get to choose your spec, it was chosen for you. Wouldn't be fun if that class/spec combo that you've always loved playing turns out to be one that isn't wanted in old Classic. And PVP imbalance could be pretty horrible in Classic. They hadn't quite perfected the rock, paper, scissors of balance spec/classes vs eachother, and there were some classes that were just GOD at Pvp.

Slower game pacing... this is a mixed bag for me. I'm older now, and don't devote as much of my free time to gaming as I used to, due to responsibilities. So this is something that for me now, I wouldn't want to have to spend that much time on game. And this is coming from someone who played EverQuest original to level 50, which probably, on average, took twice as long as WoW to 60, maybe more. And WoW... well it never had the greatest "every upgrade matters" to me ... EverQuest you could get upgrades in gear that would last more than an expansion.

Ninja looting - much bigger problem back in classic than it is nowadays obviously... not saying current systems are perfect though.

Raids... a lot of the older raids felt tedious to me. Too much trash pulls? I think this has gone back and forth as we got new expansions but some of the really old ones were quite tedious, again IIRC.

That's just a few of the things I can remember off the top of my head. I will say that back when the game was new, things did feel a bit more "epic", but again, I'm not certain how much of that is nostalgia...

[Fascinate]

That's why i love rng stuff, not everyone should have a legendary item. Id much rather never get a thunderfury even after years of farming than everyone having one.

[Shaderas]

That's why i love rng stuff, not everyone should have a legendary item. Id much rather never get a thunderfury even after years of farming than everyone having one.

Disagree with this. You could be the best player that ever played WoW ever, put in 10 to 20 thousand hours and not get that legendary. Then you can have some other guys who constantly F***s up and gets carried by his crew and they got it ... or worse, maybe they ninja'ed the vital piece.

[Fascinate]

Disagree with this. You could be the best player that ever played WoW ever, put in 10 to 20 thousand hours and not get that legendary. Then you can have some other guys who constantly F***s up and gets carried by his crew and they got it ... or worse, maybe they ninja'ed the vital piece.

Ya see this is one thing i think blizzard got way wrong over the years, sure it sucks for that guy who has been farming forever but the alternative is way worse, legendaries should be rare and exclusive items.

[Pickynerd]

I think everyone at Blizzard is worried about their job by now.

[Shaderas]

Ya see this is one thing i think blizzard got way wrong over the years, sure it sucks for that guy who has been farming forever but the alternative is way worse, legendaries should be rare and exclusive items.

I'm trying to remember... Thunderfury and Sulfuras were the only legendaries in Classic right?

[Fascinate]

I'm trying to remember... Thunderfury and Sulfuras were the only legendaries in Classic right?

Was a staff as well, but i saw that one a lot less frequently.

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I think everyone at Blizzard is worried about their job by now.

I am not one of the doomsayers but i have never seen WoW this dead, ive had a sub since 06 and i cant even remember the end of warlords being this empty.

Classic really is going to have to save WoW.

[ashblond]

Retail as a term doesn't make sense.

You are right. It doesn't. It is just wow.

[Fascinate]

I’m a mythic tank in a high end guild, and I can speak for myself and half my guild personally that we know what wow classic is and can’t wait

There’s no rpg left in the current game. It appeals more to the instant gratification and Facebook generation than the crowd that played wow vanilla originally.

Not only will wow classic be wildly successful but it WILL be the death sentence for BFA. BFA population is already plummeting at a rate no expansion has previously seen. Splitting the player base between wow classic and current poopy wow will decimate BfA population beyond repair.

As to those doubting wow classics longevity... I argue it will have more. You will always have to beat A to get to B. B to C. Etc all the way through naxx. 99% of players will never reach that but there’s a clear path of progression with an ending to it.

Unlike current wow where everyone is always at step 1 patch by patch to keep up with conten, and it has the opposite effect as intended and gives less content to do than ever.

A good rpg is structured in a way that you have to build yourself up through the steps and levels. Current wow lacks that depth. Classic wow, even with an ending, has it in spades in a way BFA can never match.

Cool if you wanna stay in BfA, but here’s one mythic tank who can’t wait to go back to classic full time

/highfive

I can't wait to be a scrub again grinding my way up the ladder and meeting like minded people along the way, cya there

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I came to the game about 6 months into Wrath, I often wonder if they will take the vanilla version to that point, the point we can all agree was the pinnacle of the game. I myself would love to enjoy TBC launch, and then Wrath launch, and if able would surely play the game at a healthy pace. I guess demand for the vanilla version will dictate how far they go. It would be unheard of for a gaming company to completely replay 5 years of their history and have it succeed in a big way.

I can't guarantee you it will happen, but man do i feel like there are a ton of people that are already asking for TBC, i could actually see TBC being just as popular as classic because of arenas and raiding mainly.

[Trend]

Its going to be the biggest mmo launch in history, that isnt even a bold prediction. (swtor was the biggest from memory, around 2.5 million)

If you're trying to be funny, you are succeeding.

PC gaming is dying. Kids don't have the attention span for an MMO. Plus you lose a bunch of potential players .... BECAUSE THEY ALREADY PLAYED THE GAME 14 YEARS AGO!

I wouldn't mind all of this if there was some sort of Internet guarantee that whoever makes absurd predictions gets universally squelched forever after the proof comes in. But no, you'll just move on to the next topic to make equally asinine assumptions.

[Hinastorm]

There will be new content for BfA and future expansions. Good luck raiding Naxx over and over and over and over and over and over and over again for the next 10 years in Classic. I hear putting together and maintaining a 40 man raid group is real easy.

You really think they wont add BC, then wrath after, once these servers make them a ton of money? Blizz/acti loves money, as we all know.

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If you're trying to be funny, you are succeeding.

PC gaming is dying. Kids don't have the attention span for an MMO. Plus you lose a bunch of potential players .... BECAUSE THEY ALREADY PLAYED THE GAME 14 YEARS AGO!

I wouldn't mind all of this if there was some sort of Internet guarantee that whoever makes absurd predictions gets universally squelched forever after the proof comes in. But no, you'll just move on to the next topic to make equally asinine assumptions.

I dont know about biggest launch ever, but its going to be massive. Thinking otherwise is just delusional. This is coming from someone who *might* play some, sorta casually.

You are right, the fortnite crowd does not have the attention span for older style mmos. Thankfully, the gaming market is much more massive than just the fortnite kids.

[Kathranis]

They're grouping both games together so what's good for Classic is good for Modern. MAUs are going to be added together, and that's really all there is to it.

Where it would more likely have an affect is on developer attitude. If the development team starts to get passionate about Classic or sees that its becoming more popular than Modern, that would probably change their approach to the way Modern is designed.

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Retail as a term doesn't make sense.

Agreed. Classic fans need to come up with a better distinction since they're both going to be retail products tied to the same subscription.

I've been using Modern. I think Blizzard just calls them "Classic" and "BFA" right now, though that's also not the best nomenclature.

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I dont know about biggest launch ever, but its going to be massive. Thinking otherwise is just delusional. This is coming from someone who *might* play some, sorta casually.

It'll be a huge launch and it'll be big on Twitch with a bunch of streamers, but I suspect it's going to rapidly fall off within the first few months. Of course it'll have a sizeable, dedicated community, but I don't think it's going to be nearly as massive as people are predicting.

[Chaelexi]

They addressed this at blizzcon, its scale able.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAKvIx6eQpA&t=#t=13m40s

That is exactly what I am saying, looking what they say for a server being full in Classic vs low or medium in live means absolutely squat.

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beucase classic is leaaaaaaaaagues better than retail wow

how do you know this, have you actually played classic....and not the little teaser that they gave you.