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

[MoanaLisa]

And no people are alredy sick of yearly releases of same rehashed content. If Blizzard wants be at top again they have to inovate

The fact that you're writing this in a forum for something that will be 100% rehashed content and as non-innovative as it's possible to be is....well, I don't know what it is.

I don't hate anything. More is better. Classic will do fine although I don't even for one second think it will have more people playing it than retail after a few months.

[Eggroll]

What I'm more worried about is devs just saying: well if you don't agree with our design choices in retail you can always go classic so stfu!

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And no people are alredy sick of yearly releases of same rehashed content. If Blizzard wants be at top again they have to inovate, quit figuring out how to monitaze their games and take risks otherwise bye bye blizzi. And pushing out more content and games wont help them.

IMO I think it's not the rehashed content people are sick of. It's more the live beta quality of said content. It makes for a disruptive gameplay experience. All the shenanigans that started with WoD flying PR desaster, and they are still on the same track. Doing a 180 on systems stuff all the time, it just sucks, there's no fun in that and it's not entertaining.

I mean, the depressing theme of BfA isn't helping either.

[kamuimac]

First off i obviously realize classic getting popular is good for them monetary wise, im more wanting to know how the current WoW devs feel about classic and if their job is at risk.

Make no mistake about it classic will be the "real" game in the eyes of many, influencers from twitch and youtube and the split between WoW classic and retail will be stark, no one is going to be wanted to be known as the guy playing the second rate version of the game, as that is how retail will be viewed by these content creators.

People are starving for a good MMO to release, as witnessed yesterday by the delayed launch of atlas, some random pirate mmo that will have a tiny amount of people playing it compared to WoW classic (those "tiny" numbers still hit 200k viewers on twitch, wow classic will easily surpass a million...maybe 2).

The closer classic gets to launching the more popular do i think its going to be, how is blizzard going to deal with this internally and what does it mean for them in the future? I dont think they will stop doing expansions for retail anytime soon but i do wonder what the implications are in regards to how people are allocated internally to projects, WoW classic could actually become the cash cow of blizzard entertainment all over again. What does blizzard do if this happens, the game has already been made and the key to its success is keeping it that way.

Edit:
I wanted to clarify what i was asking in the title.

Imagine a scenario where WoW classic gets massively popular, to the point that more people are playing it than current WoW. Lets say 6 months after classic launches 3 million people are playing classic and 1-2 million are on current. What does blizzard do in this scenario?

I didn't make this thread for it to be a retail vs current discussion, i am genuinely curious as to what happens at blizzard ent. if the above scenario comes true. Do they scale back the team on retail WoW given the lower demand, dump MORE money into retail in an attempt to rejuvenate the project, put more time/effort on development for TBC or wrath classic?

We are no doubt still going to be getting a new expansion every 2 years no matter what, im merely curious what happens in the (unlikely?) scenario the old game becomes more popular than the new.

TLDR: Where is the money generated from classic going to?

how big it will be ?

initial month 2 mln + , 3 months in 100k + , half of year ? 10-20k people online in prime hours.

[Deleted]

Aren't you trying to rationalize why the other poster might enjoy retail while you do not? How does insulting him and basically saying he's wrong to like BfA speaks well of you?

Since he offer zero arguments to support is thrashed up arbitrary number, he is not showing that he enjoys retail, rather hes in a psychological state of hate, feeling the need to lash out against anything he perceives as a threat to his game. That does't imply enjoyment, it implies primitive tribal behavior and fear of the unknown, also known as xenophobia...which in turn are well described signs of ignorance and low self-esteem.

As you can see, I am not "rationalizing" his enjoyment, I am making logical deductions, based on descriptions of mental states you will find reflected in the medial literature.

[Deleted]

I wanted to clarify what i was asking in the title.

Imagine a scenario where WoW classic gets massively popular, to the point that more people are playing it than current WoW. Lets say 6 months after classic launches 3 million people are playing classic and 1-2 million are on current. What does blizzard do in this scenario?

I didn't make this thread for it to be a retail vs classic discussion, i am genuinely curious as to what happens at blizzard ent. if the above scenario comes true. Do they scale back the team on retail WoW given the lower demand, dump MORE money into retail in an attempt to rejuvenate the project, put more time/effort on development for TBC or wrath classic?

We are no doubt still going to be getting a new expansion every 2 years no matter what, im merely curious what happens in the (unlikely?) scenario the old game becomes more popular than the new.

TLDR: Where is the money generated from classic going to?

Also adding this to the OP for clarity.

Define massively popular?

Because there aren't that many people who still play Mmo's. Wow hasn't been massively popular since wotlk and that wasn't because of the game per say more just the psychology of fads like fortnight today.

Fubdementaly every bfa player could switch to wow vanilla and it would still not be much of a success compared to the numbers other types of game pull.

And to answer where the money goes.
It goes to blizzard developing much needed new ip, wow isn't worth investing a great deal in either retail or classic. What they want is to enter the mobile market and pull of another overwatch

[Deleted]

how big it will be ?

initial month 2 mln + , 3 months in 100k + , half of year ? 10-20k people online in prime hours.

Ladies and gentlemen: COughed up random numbers reflecting the beliefs of a person who likely hasn't done any market research ever, likely doesn't know anything about statistical mathematics, but somehow believes he can make a better assumption via his beliefs, than a multibillion dollar company can do with it's prefessional team of market researchers.

[Weber]

Since he offer zero arguments to support is thrashed up arbitrary number, he is not showing that he enjoys retail, rather hes in a psychological state of hate, feeling the need to lash out against anything he perceives as a threat to his game. That does't imply enjoyment, it implies primitive tribal behavior and fear of the unknown, also known as xenophobia...which in turn are well described signs of ignorance and low self-esteem.

As you can see, I am not "rationalizing" his enjoyment, I am making logical deductions, based on descriptions of mental states you will find reflected in the medial literature.

100% trueness right here. bfa apologists are the worst and i dont even HATE bfa.

[Tekkommo]

BFA has good points, I like the 5 mans and raid. Of course I'm bored of them now and not logged in for a while as I played them a lot when it was released. Outside of that (apart from pretty zones), the expansion has given nothing good. Questing the same linear bullshit.

The one thing I hope Classic makes retail do, is change how they do levelling. I much prefer the vanilla system, where you have to go back and forth between areas. You're never really sure when you are finished with an area, and sometimes unsure where to go next. This makes the world feel more alive to me.

Now, it's go to a hub, do quests, quests leads to next hub, repeat.

Apart from that, nothing much has changed for me in this game, I level to max level, then grind 5 mans and do raids. I'll herb from time to time for raid consumes. It's not different for me in vanilla than it is now.

[Leanne]

I am sure the simple combat and insurmountable amount of grind will turn off everyone but the most faithful fans after a few weeks.

I suspect the question will be how many of them actually love vanilla and how many played vanilla just because it was free on the private servers. The outcry when Blizz announced the subscription plan could be an indicator on this.

[Deleted]

100% trueness right here. bfa apologists are the worst and i dont even HATE bfa.

I don't hate it either, in the same way I don't hate vegan food. It's simply a bad game, as the other tastes like old socks.

[dcc626]

I can't quite decide...

Either you are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, or you are desperatly trying to rationalize the dumb decision to buy the piece of crap called BfA. Neither speaks well of you.

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Suits me.

The fewer "LF Tank M+6 checking rio 1200+ no retards" morons we have in our new game, the better.

i guess my favorite part about WoW classic is that all the people who hate retail have to pay for it to be able to play classic. Irony.

[Fahrenheit]

I think there will some hype at the start, but the active player #s will plummet pretty quickly. I'd be shocked if after 6-9 month we'd have more the 50-75k active users in each region, and less than 250k world wide.

[Deleted]

i guess my favorite part about WoW classic is that all the people who hate retail have to pay for it to be able to play classic. Irony.

The reverse is true as well, so joke's on you. There are a lot more dumb sheep in Retail than there will be players in Classic. You are funding our favorite game, not the other way round.

[Deletedaccount1]

i guess my favorite part about WoW classic is that all the people who hate retail have to pay for it to be able to play classic. Irony.

If you pay a sub that includes both and only play Classic what difference does it make? Blizzard doesn't need me to keep my money away as a sign of protest, they are very good at keeping players away right now themselves.

[diarx]

I think there will some hype at the start, but the active player #s will plummet pretty quickly. I'd be shocked if after 6-9 month we'd have more the 50-75k active users in each region, and less than 250k world wide.

Nostradamas right here.

Or should I say, Nostalriusdamas?

[Deleted]

The original game will have a dedicated crowd for a while. Maybe for a long while.

There will certainly be an influx of players at launch, many of those will either return to retail, while others will just go back to the "non subbed" status, but many will stay, in their time capsule were everything is feeling "just about right".

That was the original wow in the bottom line, a parallel reality were the bonds between the player and his fictional alter ago were deep enough to matter, and make him keep returning for more.

[CarbonTax]

I don't think anyone believes subscription numbers will head back into the 10M range, but I for one expect classic to wind up (after the initial bump and settling down time) with a larger active population than BfA by a mile and for it to retain that population for a good year or longer. Classic obviously can't expand beyond BC, because the expansions after BC went down the same rabbit hole that left us with the current state of affairs. Nobody wants to repeat that.

BfA is dead... there is no recovery for it, honestly. Depending on how well classic does, Blizzard will have to choose how to progress the modern game in the next expansion. Whether to continue their existing mantra or instead re-adapt classic playstyle, mechanics, itemization, gear progression, difficulty, and everything else BACK into the modern game for their next expansion. Blizzard could even create hard-mode servers for the next modern expansion that mimic classic's playstyle, and easy-mode servers for the rest of the player base. Blizzard could even reset the game so the next expansion starts post-BC instead of post-BfA. Blizzard has lots of options, and hopefully Classic will wake them up to that fact. I hope, by now, that Blizzard realizes that they've completely destroyed what faith players kept for all these years.

In terms of players getting bored with classic... Well, I sure won't be bored! I'm sure many modern players whom blizzard has programmed into just siting around in cities auto-queuing for free loot won't like the classic-level of difficulty or involvement. I am just as sure that there are even more players, like me, will love to return to classic, and probably even a good chunk of players who stopped playing entirely years ago will return as well. Instant gratification is not fulfilling... Bliz has essentially put the final nail in the instant-gratification coffin with BfA. If they don't change, the franchise is dead.

It won't be 10M, but I really think it will exceed modern game numbers until the next expansion... and the next expansion will be something that Blizzard cannot afford to get wrong because it will literally make or break the game. If it goes south, that's the end of the franchise. The permanent end. Blizzard will be watching the classic re-release very carefully. I think they already realize that they have seriously damaged the modern game, but I don't think they yet realize just how bad that damage is. It's been building up for a long time. Bliz has a lot of work ahead of itself and because of that they have to let Classic run its course and not rush the next expansion. Classic is giving them enough runway to redeem themselves post-BfA, if they accept that they've screwed up royally the last few years.

-Matt

[FuxieDK]

I don't think anyone believes subscription numbers will head back into the 10M range, but I for one expect classic to wind up with a larger active population than BfA by a mile and for it to retain that population for a good year or longer.

HAHAHAHA!!!!

This really made my day.. Classic will maybe, MAYBE, got to 10% of retail, but that's just in the first few months, until people find their rose tinted glasses are actually more turd brown, then it will fall to 2-5% of retail.

[Daedius]

About this big;



But that's just my estimate.

[CarbonTax]

What is it exactly that you think will keep people on retail? There is literally no game left to play beyond strutting around capital cities wearing transmog gear and a super-sized mount. Bliz has pretty much destroyed every other aspect of the game.

-Matt

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WoW Classic would be a desaster, if released as an independent/stand-alone game.
But WoW Classic will live and last, because it's integrated into the current WoW game client and server infrastructure.

It's a win for classic enthusiast: They get, what they want, running on modern computers, and having the original Blizzard mob mechanics.
And a win for blizzard: More player that pay the monthly fee. More MAU.

At BlizzCon they created 20 classic demo realms per region.
On the EU realms 3 instead of 20 would have been enough.
They even removed the time limit within the first 24 hours.

So, don't expect a loss in BfA players and millions of new Classic players.

Just enjoy WoW Classic. It wouldn't exist without retail WoW.

This is late and it may have been said already but you could only play the classic demo if you had a real or a virtual blizzcon ticket. The virtual ticket (for people not actually going to the conn) cost something like $50. I would have loved to play the demo but I wasn't going to blow $50 just for a few days on a demo that I felt Bliz should have opened up to everyone in the first place. I would have happily subbed for it. It was worth $15 for a few days of fun, but not $50. And, honestly, I think most players were already getting a bit miffed by Blizzard's cash grab by that point.

This makes the demo numbers basically meaningless.

the private server numbers are more meaningful. Most of the play on the private servers seems to be focused on PVP, but you have to keep in mind that the private servers actually have had relatively stable populations for a long time, and many will shutdown once Bliz releases classic. By that measure player populations on the private servers are actually quite important. Those people for the most part aren't going to care about 'free'... they will happily fork over for the Wow release and a subscription.

Apparently there are some people on this forum who think Classic is just a temporary distraction. I don't know if these people ever played classic back in the day (doing a level 1 push in the modern game doesn't even remotely replicate the classic experience). But I can assure you all that whatever happens, its not going to be trivial in any way. A lot of people will be playing it for a lot more than a few weeks. I plan on spending about a year of casual play on classic myself and I have no plans to play retail at all during that period. The only way I'll be going back to retail is if Blizzard completely retools it to bring back all the elements they had dumbed down and removed over the years because honestly the modern game just isn't all that much fun to play.

Back in the day, playing classic was a very casual experience for most players. There were always a subset of the population that were hardcore and would speed-level, but frankly most people were casual and leveled slowly. They took the time to build their professions, explore, etc. There are a lot of things to do in classic, because nearly all aspects of play are meaningful in ways that just don't exist in the modern game. And there is no need to rush when people know what the ILVL caps are going to be. If anything, the far more compressed ILVL ranges in classic progression make PVP all that much more fun because even if someone is ganking one scream for help often brings a couple of high-level, evenly-matched geared players into the fray on both sides.

The casuals of old could complain as loud as any modern player about unfairness in PVP, or dungeons, or RAIDing... but frankly classic was still far better balanced when you compare it against the modern game and there were plenty of casuals who could mix it up with dedicated players in PVP, too. I do not consider the modern game to be more fun, and I'll be happy to be rid of the instant-gratification whiners that seem to permeate the modern game. That alone makes it worth playing classic.

-Matt