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

[mvaliz]

I don’t believe Classic will be as popular as you believe it to be. Same with a D2 remake, it’s only appears popular on these forums from a thousand + remaining fans. Not millions...

[RundinO]

And this opinion is based on what exactly?

Hundreds of thousands of people have been playing on pservers for the better part of 12 years. That crowd alone is enough to support an entire MMO on its own. And many more people yearning for the qualities of Vanilla over the shit that is BfA will join them, once there are official servers without the shenanigans of pirated software.

Ah well, I guess arguments are wasted...haters gonna hate.

Out of all of these pservers for vanilla, which have not been altered to fit the owner's agenda (i.e., drop-rate changes,etc.) even in the slightest? Can you really say?

I know that the last 3 or 4 I tried playing on were all "tweaked" without explicitly saying so.

[Thelxi]

I'm pretty sure its popularity will boom when it launches, and then the masses will quickly lose interest in it once they hit a brick wall in their progression. For some it will be quicker than others, but there is no RNG casino near horizontal progression carrot on a stick that is current WoW, everyone will hit the wall sooner or later.

Of course some people will keep playing, but the masses will move on to greener pastures very quickly.

[Fascinate]

I'm pretty sure its popularity will boom when it launches, and then the masses will quickly lose interest in it once they hit a brick wall in their progression. For some it will be quicker than others, but there is no RNG casino near horizontal progression carrot on a stick that is current WoW, everyone will hit the wall sooner or later.

Of course some people will keep playing, but the masses will move on to greener pastures very quickly.

That really is the question, but who exactly are the "masses" in regards to WoW classic? There are a huge amount of older (late 20's to 40's) gamers out there who are used to, and miss the slower paced style that vanilla had. I don't think blizzard is banking on retail players to carry classic, i think they see companies like nintendo cashing in on retro gaming and decided they could do the same.

People seem to forget how popular WoW was in its heyday, i personally don't believe any of the game systems that made vanilla WoW so addictive have faded away. Time will tell i suppose.

[Pickynerd]

Honestly.

I think some people care way too much about how big it's going to be over how much fun they are going to have.

Who cares if it has 10,000 players, 100,000 players or 1,000,000 players?

Just have fun.

You don't want to invest time into a dead game, that requires many players, so player count is important.

[Deletedaccount1]

Care to provide source for your claim?

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/news/...zeroth-1932930

[Shockzalot]

I don’t believe Classic will be as popular as you believe it to be. Same with a D2 remake, it’s only appears popular on these forums from a thousand + remaining fans. Not millions...

So....the most notorious vanilla server that drew 40k+ players online at a time wasn't popular? It's foolish to make a claim like you're making, when blizzard releases their official version it'll be an even larger magnitude. Blizzard isn't putting all this effort in for a thousand fans and the interest in vanilla isn't relegated to these forums. I have friends who haven't played the game since wrath and cata and have avoided private servers who are hyped for this. Here is a bold claim I'll make : Vanilla WoW will open with 2 million+ active players in the first month. When I say active player I intend that as a player who will play 2-3 times a week throughout the first month and not a player who logs in for a couple days then quits because he doesn't have heirlooms, group finder and every other ez mode aspect of retail.

[Deletedaccount1]

This was debunked. The information was gathered using an addon.

Why does that debunk it? There are few other methods of determining player activity levels outside of what Blizzard chooses to report and what people can determine through anecdotal or empirical evidence.

This unusually insightful post on the official forums shows the only other reliable method that I've seen.

https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...activity/12636

[Chaelexi]

That really is the question, but who exactly are the "masses" in regards to WoW classic? There are a huge amount of older (late 20's to 40's) gamers out there who are used to, and miss the slower paced style that vanilla had. I don't think blizzard is banking on retail players to carry classic, i think they see companies like nintendo cashing in on retro gaming and decided they could do the same.

People seem to forget how popular WoW was in its heyday, i personally don't believe any of the game systems that made vanilla WoW so addictive have faded away. Time will tell i suppose.

WoW was not super popular in Vanilla it's popularity hit the boom in BC and WotLK. You know when wow streamlined some game play and made things more linear.

[yetgdhfgh]

If noone plays retail but subs to classic then nothing changes cause blizz still gets its money

[mvaliz]

So....the most notorious vanilla server that drew 40k+ players online at a time wasn't popular?

Ummmm... no. 40k is fuck nothing, especially compared to Blizzard standards. 40k is MAYBE something of a semi-success for an indie developer... and that’s not even taking into consideration that those alegidly 40k weren’t PAYING a subsciption fee (or anything, from the best of my understanding). Last I checked, there were suposed to be millions of WoW players. And here you’’re throwing a paltry algeged pathetic number like 40k to keep World of Warcraft alive and kinging at at Bli... I mean... Activision/Blizzard?

Son, I’ve dealt with gaming companies who folded when they couldn’t even reach 100k... and you’re spouting 40k? HAH! =D

[Orbusg]

WoW was not super popular in Vanilla

Dude what?
It was a cultural phenomenon.
South Park even made an episode about it back in the vanilla days, you didn't get much more mainstream than that back then.

[Pieterman]

What content is not in BfA that was in vanilla? And please don't tell me stupid shit like reagents.

Forgot about original naxx. So we got one raid with t3 gear.

Alright, so you are misinformed. The demand for Classic servers has nothing to do with the content itself. It's they way content was played. WoW would have been dead on arrival originally if leveling took less than 20 hours and raids/dungeons were queueable. Content in BfA has no longevity because their design philosophy is massively different. BfA could have 5 raids and 30 dungeons added tomorrow, and within 3 months people'd be bored again.

[Shockzalot]

Ummmm... no. 40k is fuck nothing, especially compared to Blizzard standards. 40k is MAYBE something of a semi-success for an indie developer... and that’s not even taking into consideration that those alegidly 40k weren’t PAYING a subsciption fee (or anything, from the best of my understanding). Last I checked, there were suposed to be millions of WoW players. And here you’’re throwing a paltry algeged pathetic number like 40k to keep World of Warcraft alive and kinging at at Bli... I mean... Activision/Blizzard?

Son, I’ve dealt with gaming companies who folded when they couldn’t even reach 100k... and you’re spouting 40k? HAH! =D

You're oblivious. It's a private server that drew 40k+ players online during it's peak hours with no promotion what so ever because it was illegal and had over 100k+ active players. You're going to eat your words when classic drops, hope you're ready for a serving of humble pie.

[ashblond]

Beats BfA, which has 0 content compared to classic and requires grind-like activities even more.

You has to be joking, LOL

[Deletedaccount1]

That’s not the point to begin with. Let’s assume that wow have 1m active subs now which is lower than expected. The game is 15 years old and 1m subs is not a light number for a leading game in the MMO industry. The new model for MMOs seems to work better for players when they play for 3-4 months on the release of expansions ro consume all content and then take a break.

On the other hand, vanilla will NOT be as impactful on sub numbers as people here thinks. It’s targetted towards dinasaurs who don’t mind being stuck on a motionless period of time.

Your first argument was that retail is as popular ever, not that WoW is still successful relative to the size of the MMO market which has also been in decline for years. So it's a shell of its former self as is the MMO industry as a whole so its size relative to that is really irrelevant. WoW players shouldn't even give a shit about MMOs, they should care about WoW in a vacuum like they always have.

I like how you can just assert how popular Classic will be without any evidence while dismissing any evidence presented on how unpopular BfA is.

- - - Updated - - -

WoW was not super popular in Vanilla it's popularity hit the boom in BC and WotLK. You know when wow streamlined some game play and made things more linear.

Yeah because it took years to build up its player base but it was growing rapidly in vanilla as well. What a horrible, thoughtless argument.

[Fascinate]

I'm excited to see launch day, when all the streamers who have talked a big game about classic play it and then watch the number fall off a cliff when people see how boring its going to be to watch. No arena, no M+ runs, no heroic raid carries etc..etc. Just dont be the guy who comes in day one gloating about numbers and never shows back up when the game is a ghost town.

Its going be no different than retail, numbers will go down during lull periods and shoot back up when big patches hit. You dont think these big streamers will come back for the AQ gate opening, or honor system, or naxx? And by the time naxx is been out for a while blizzard will have likely announced a TBC server.

[Necroxis]

It's going to be insanely profitable for the first month, and then drop off dramatically.

[s_bushido]

You dont think these big streamers will come back for the AQ gate opening, or honor system, or naxx?

With no catch-up mechanics to speak of, you can't just "come back for naxx."

And by the time naxx is been out for a while blizzard will have likely announced a TBC server.

lol

[Fascinate]

With no catch-up mechanics to speak of, you can't just "come back for naxx."



lol

Most of these streamers played in vanilla WoW, they know what they are in for and will keep up with gear from aq and bwl/crafted. I think about .03% of all guilds completed naxx in vanilla, this is the ultimate carrot on a stick blizzard has in classic.

As for TBC laugh all you want, but i called classic servers 2.5 years ago and i got the same response on these forums