Will Classic bring back player communication?

[Nerobit]

The best thing you can possibly do is find a guild that fits your playing habits, attitude and skills. Then you grow with the guild and make real life friends. It will always be funner to play with friends and family then to play alone, specially in classic where mobs will destroy your ass if you pull 1 too many or forgot to check your mana b4 you pulled lol ( that has happened to me lol ).

In any case, play the game with an easy going attitude and just try to have fun. There is no rush, the game isn't going anywhere and the more you take your time, the more you can experience the total impact of the classic experience. Chat with people, shoot the shit, have some laughs and help others and I guarantee you'll have a great time.

Also like others have said, use that friends list and keep the good players close. It will help big time.

[kpzcei]

of course. YES

[Spazlord]

Communication is the result of necessity. When people discover that they can't pull a trash pack without CC, someone will CC something, or they will ask, or say something. There is still communication in BFA but it isn't required unless you're doing something hard, and most things aren't. So most people can get by without every saying a word and they play their game it's fine.

I can't wait for everything to be a little harder.

[Mauzi92]

I havent decided yet if i want to play classic or not. At one point i will probably start to levelup a character.
The problem is, there are too many dick-ish players out there who developed a rather bad attitude over the years. A good amount of those players will start to play classic for different reasons. But they still got their attitude of bad behavior, quitting parties (or kicking other party members) for like no reason. That kind of stuff noone wants to see.

In classic wow you got punished for bad behavior over time. People stopped playing with you.
The big question is.. how many 'good' players have they made quit classic before the bad ones quit themself?

[ArenaDk]

I havent decided yet if i want to play classic or not. At one point i will probably start to levelup a character.
The problem is, there are too many dick-ish players out there who developed a rather bad attitude over the years. A good amount of those players will start to play classic for different reasons. But they still got their attitude of bad behavior, quitting parties (or kicking other party members) for like no reason. That kind of stuff noone wants to see.

In classic wow you got punished for bad behavior over time. People stopped playing with you.
The big question is.. how many 'good' players have they made quit classic before the bad ones quit themself?

I want to see this stuff, why do you talk for other as if you are their spokes person?

[Demithio]

It will have to if anyone wants to actually get anywhere.

[RoKPaNda]

No. I never needed to communicate in Vanilla, why would it be necessary in classic servers? I had an LFM macro, an LFG macro, and a "omw" macro. I interacted just as much with my guild as I do in retail, but there were more people to not pay attention to, and crafting was just lf [profession] for [item] my mats + tip."

[big-john]

i hope so, vanilla wow was the greatest mmo i have played, current wow is too boring.

[Kokolums]

Depends. If they stick sharding in there "only for launch" and then change their minds and leave it permanently, or just bring it back permanently after a short hiatus, then communication will suck.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

It will be toxic. You will have so many people that know whats best weather they are right or wrong at each others throats you wont know what to do in most cases.

[Holydork]

I would like to think that Classic will be somewhat more communicative simply due to the fact that some interaction is required to PUG a dungeon even before you hit the entrance, and it takes time to collect everyone together at the entrance before you can start (which people fill with idle chatter). That kinda breaks the ice and the players wind up continuing to communicate in the dungeon itself. It might be a very rough start when most of the player base is not used to it. It should get better, though, and the reason is that without server groups and without sharding you will be seeing a lot of the same players (on both sides of the pond) repeatedly and you will be able to build up a friends list that makes it much easier to put together PUGs for dungeon runs, as well as be able to tell who to avoid. This is something that just doesn't happen in the modern game.

In the original vanilla WoW not only would we see familiar faces while PUGging dungeons, we would also see familiar faces in PVP on both sides. Even when you aren't trying to group with the same folks. Particularly in AV. In PVP in particular, it made the game an order of magnitude more fun to play when you recognize some of the toons on both sides (Also a good reason to name your alts in a similar manner). There was that healer that paired up with me last time, I'll keep track of him. There's that geared warrior who can break through defensive lines of opposing players. There's that incredible enemy hunter that mowed down our players in the last AV game, now we know we have to focus him.

There's another trick you can use to make PUGs and PVP more fun, and that is to play off-hours. If you can, of course. In the mornings and in the late evenings (after the kids go to bed), the population on the server declines and the players tend to be more easy-going and communicative. This trick works in the modern game too.

Your personal reputation will matter for certain in Classic, though it probably won't be apparent until the population settles down after the initial bump. Having your name be known, building up your friends list. Being attentive to gear and mechanics. Saving comrades in PVP... when you start recognizing the people broadcasting for groups it greatly reduces the chore of finding a group to run content with and even in full BG PUGs you start to get to know how other players operate and can synergize with them... so even random PUGs can wind up with good coordination.

The question is... can we recreate this experience? I think its possible.

-Matt

well put together, certainly agree. My recent experience on private server has been exactly this. People was chatting to each other while levelling, or waiting for boat. Random players give out free gears, bags and gold. I like the vibe so far.

[Kill Broccoli]

The game will be an older version of the game, but the community will not be an older version of the community (the "better community" of vanilla is largely mythical, anyway). You'd better believe there will be lots of min-maxers who want to zerg through everything ASAP. And people WERE kicked from groups in vanilla for perceived incompetence, etc.

Of course, not everybody will be like that. But everybody isn't like that now in BfA.

Give it a few months and it will.
Vanilla it's not like retail, there is no instant gratification all the time. Min-maxers and new kids will quit soon, who will stay will recreate the same kind of community because they either wery commited to the game or they are the nostalgia guys who want that feeling back.

[Kralljin]

Vanilla it's not like retail, there is no instant gratification all the time. Min-maxers and new kids will quit soon.

One of the more entertaining things about this thread is the fact that people somehow believe that people of group X (which they don't like) somehow aren't going to play Vanilla.

Fact is, Vanilla is a fantastic playground for min-maxers, because all the barriers that have been installed over the years to prevent certain actions do not exist in Vanilla.
Flask+every single possible Dps increasing elixir? Possible in Vanilla.
Farming some freaking blue because it's better than raid items? Yeah, that happened. (And being willing to lock / ninja it)
People calling out others that wear "red flag" items such as Vendorstrike? You bet, especially if said person is a loot competitor.

If you want to min-max your character, Vanilla gives you far more possibilities to improve your character than the streamlined progression on live.
And also helps you detect if the other person has any clue, rogues that literally wear not a single item with +Hit might not be the most informed player (or worse, play not the Fotm spec).

The only people that are in for a rough awakening are the ones that believe Vanilla will be this playground of niceties with everyone helping each other.
And said bubble will already pop while questing in the first zone once you hit the very first "Gather X Objects" quest.

[Daevied]

Nope. Everyone now uses discord for everything related to communication

[Kelathos]

Do modern players really need to communicate such classic complexities as "See, Spot, Run"?
If it's casual content I'm not sure there's anything to say, really.
And if it's an organized group then you already talk, like you do today.

[Alcsaar]

Classic is going to fail. It will be popular for a few months at best because everyone is full of nostalgia and have hyped it up to all the people who never played vanilla.

What the majority of people don't seem to recall is that by today's standards Vanilla WoW is actually complete garbage. Vanilla WoW was great during that time period, but that sort of game play isn't popular today.

I'm preparing myself for all the "A rogue just stunlocked me from 100% to 0%!" and "A mage just PoM Pyroblasted me for 80% of my hp!" posts.

Or hybrids who are only healers.

Followed eventually by people complaining about the lack of new content and "When will we get new raids/dungeons/insert something here!"

[Cyanu]

I joined a group as healer last night. Got bumped off a ledge and accidentally made a few extra pulls, but healed through it and we survived. Quipped a few jokes, apologized, literally nothing from the other four players.

After a couple bosses I pulled some extra packs while we were clearing. Nobodies health was dropping, we were aoe dpsing anyway, and we were all sub 120. Still no issues clearing, but tank starts complaining and other dps start yelling at me and talking about how stupid I am, special needs, etc etc. Then I’m like “this is the first time you guys say anything and it’s this?” Some complaints about state of the game, and they kick me.

We were almost at the last boss at this point. The group knows they can easily pick up another healer from LFD. They don’t give two shits about my time lost missing out on the final bonus exp and it doesn’t hurt them at all.

Will we ACTUALLY get back to people communicating with each other in Classic?

Groups will be harder to form and replacements will take travel time not to mention just finding someone. These same people would probably have preferred to work it out with me instead of kicking. Hell, I didn’t pull anymore after they said stop. I was just discussing why I thought the extra pulls made sense and they kicked me...

You could argue that these people would never have grouped with me in the first place but forget that argument. Suppose they DID group with me and same scenario came up.

I think either Classic DOES bring back tighter community that’s more willing to engage meaningfully with each other or it ends up falling flat and becoming just another desolate playground for those happy to piddle around with original wow either solo or with a tight group of friends.

easily no, player mentality does not change with patchnotes

there might be some fake politeness due to people having limited options in grouping but an asshole is still an asshole no matter if he says silly things like hi,thx,bye,gj

[ZazuuPriest]

This is another thing i can't stand in the game for the past few years. In classic your personal reputation on a server was a HUGE part of what you accomplished on that server. If you were an asshole you either played in an guild full of assholes, or you were not in a guild. I know of a couple that stick out in my mind in classic that were such horrible people on the server they were literally shunned off it by both sides. People took integrity in their servers seriously. Now with CR ect there is almost NO reason to worry about it. I don't think people understand the power of community because they didn't play or was older at that time. If you look back 14 yrs just in the real world you will see a HUGE difference in how people act as a community. We have disassociated ourselves so much from the RL that we take it to games. For this exact reason is the main reason i cant wait for classic. It's community. Playing an MMORPG and not having community quite honestly is contradictory and why toxic behavior has run so amuck in games the past few years. So bad top companies now are realizing just how much of an impact it is making in their games. LoL for one. CYAS ON THE SERVERS!

This never happened to the extent you and people like you pretend it did. Stop the lies. If you were good enough you could be an asshole and still be in a guild. If you were good enough you could be an asshole and still get into almost any group.

[Airlick]

Classic is going to fail. It will be popular for a few months at best because everyone is full of nostalgia and have hyped it up to all the people who never played vanilla.

What the majority of people don't seem to recall is that by today's standards Vanilla WoW is actually complete garbage. Vanilla WoW was great during that time period, but that sort of game play isn't popular today.

I'm preparing myself for all the "A rogue just stunlocked me from 100% to 0%!" and "A mage just PoM Pyroblasted me for 80% of my hp!" posts.

Or hybrids who are only healers.

Followed eventually by people complaining about the lack of new content and "When will we get new raids/dungeons/insert something here!"

It's not popular because the developers believe it's not what players want. And they believe what players want is instant gratification, preferably amplified by lootboxes. They may not be wrong for the majority of players, after all, that is what the market told them. Coincidentally, the same majority of players that do not enjoy grindy, hard games, don't play MMORPGs. This is why many MMORPGs are failing, anyway, they are trying to put mainstream practices into a genre that is very much NOT mainstream. This doesn't mean there isn't a significant number of players who are looking for exactly the type of gameplay that Vanilla provided - a hard, time-consuming and highly "craftable" gameplay. If this wasn't true, private servers wouldn't have dozens of thousands of players after all those years. Them being free is not an explanation, either - there's a lot of other F2P MMOs out there now, that are better than the highly limited WoW that the private servers provide.

Like it or not, Vanilla will have some hundreds of thousands of players even after the initial bubble bursts. I personally doubt it will reach a million players even at launch, but an MMO, especially one that will pretty much be in maintenance state right after launch, doesn't need millions of subs. Vanilla will be fine with 100k players worldwide, and it WILL have at least as much.

[Alcsaar]

It's not popular because the developers believe it's not what players want. And they believe what players want is instant gratification, preferably amplified by lootboxes. They may not be wrong for the majority of players, after all, that is what the market told them. Coincidentally, the same majority of players that do not enjoy grindy, hard games, don't play MMORPGs. This is why many MMORPGs are failing, anyway, they are trying to put mainstream practices into a genre that is very much NOT mainstream. This doesn't mean there isn't a significant number of players who are looking for exactly the type of gameplay that Vanilla provided - a hard, time-consuming and highly "craftable" gameplay. If this wasn't true, private servers wouldn't have dozens of thousands of players after all those years. Them being free is not an explanation, either - there's a lot of other F2P MMOs out there now, that are better than the highly limited WoW that the private servers provide.

Like it or not, Vanilla will have some hundreds of thousands of players even after the initial bubble bursts. I personally doubt it will reach a million players even at launch, but an MMO, especially one that will pretty much be in maintenance state right after launch, doesn't need millions of subs. Vanilla will be fine with 100k players worldwide, and it WILL have at least as much.

It isn't about what I like, its about what I know.

What happens when all the Vanilla content is consumed?

Demands for new vanilla content. Which makes no sense, but yea. Vanilla has zero long-term sustenance.