So how are you guys feeling about WoW Classic? Hyped, wary, etc?

[Claymore]

I actually *wasn't* particularly interested in WoW Classic when first announced; I figured I would probably log in for a few minutes, have a little nostalgia trip, and then never play it again. However, when playing the "demo" during Blizzcon, I found myself getting surprisingly excited about it. I had forgotten just how many little things were different, and it felt like a much more "grounded" experience than even the current WoW (which increasingly seems to parallel shitty mobile games in design).

I also walked away with some major concerns, though.

Chief among them; phasing. As cool as the concept seemed during Wrath of the Lich King, it's been made abundantly clear that it's been detrimental to the game. Temporary "cut-scenes" are one thing, but when I recently tried to level a Dark Iron with my father, we found ourselves barely able to even play together due to the insane amount of phasing that happens.

And I consider "sharding" to be an extension of that, which is obviously the real concern. I can't speak for anyone else, but I WANT to log into a laggy mess because of too many players. I WANT to wait in line to kill quest mobs with other players. That is quite literally what the Classic experience was. That's how you socialized with players. The idea that Blizzard is going to artificially segment players in WoW Classic -- even just temporarily -- is completely missing the point, and I worry may represent a fundamental misunderstanding of why players are demanding a faithful experience.

Beyond that, I've also been quite shocked how much has come out about Blizzard not even having access to previous builds of the game. Like... what? Which, it's great the game will run as smoothly as we've come to expect, and obviously hardware has evolve in the many years since WoW launched. But there was still something unsettling about mousing-over gear, and instantly seeing a pop-up window showing the change in stats. "That wasn't in the game back then", I thought, which made me wonder how many other things had been modified. It made the experience seem a touch less "authentic".

All that said, though, I'm still pretty eager to play it. Again, provided it feels as authentic as possible (as opposed to "as authentic as we felt was best"). The current state of WoW, both in gameplay and storytelling, has completely killed my love of the series, and I'm hoping that WoW Classic can rekindle that flame. I've even heard people suggest that "maybe Blizzard could springboard off of it, and create an alternate continuation for WoW". Which, there's no way in hell that will actually come to pass, but... well, the idea of a truly deep RPG WoW, taking the story in a different, better direction, is certainly appealing (ie. never making Kael'thas or Illidan evil, maybe Arthas and Ner'zhul aligning with us against the Burning Legion, etc).

TL;DR

I have some serious concerns about WoW Classic, but I think as long as they don't implement any phasing/sharding stuff, and keep it as faithful as possible (for better or worse, barring obvious bugs), I think it may actually be a better game that current WoW.

[Armourboy]

Keep in mind you played a demo, and it literally was something they threw together last minute. Many things that were there will not be in Classic, and many more will be adjusted properly.

As far as sharding goes, if live is any indication it won't completely stop the lag and because of the old tag rules you will still be waiting in line. More than likely most players will be roughly in the same area you are.

Now if Blizzard holds to their word, sharding won't last past the starting areas and the first couple of weeks, mainly enough time to let players spread out a bit and let the madness calm down. While I understand wanting that feeling of seeing everyone, you aren't really talking about a bit of lag and a couple minute wait without sharding ( or a crap ton of servers), you are talking thousands of people all trying to log in and trying to kill those same kobold. Now I'm not sure if you ever been around for the opening of a new private server, but if you haven't its basically the same thing, and there is nothing nostalgic or fun about it. Its just flat out horrible and basically unplayable.

Now if they never turn sharding off, then yeah we have an issue and even most people that can at least understand their dilemma will not be so forgiving in that case.

Oh and I'm looking forward too it. I miss that older style of MMO before everything was all nice and tidy and everything worked and was balanced.

[Hottage]

Mildly interested, but not hyped.

I already know I'll never get to experience the content the way I originally and I can't real get excited about the prospect of leveling for 6 months to then run 5 mans over and over (if I can even be online long enough to form a group).

[chooi]

My only gripe with Classic is that it's nothing new. Been there, done that.

I would have preferred a Classic+ with some improvements like TBC class/spec balance, some QoL improvements like Guild Banks and most importantly: new content. So basically TBC with new content but without the mistakes they made in 2.3/2.4 (too easy catch-up mechanisms, too harsh nerfs, mandatory daily quests).

But Vanilla WoW in itself is still a billion times better MMORPG than live WoW so I will probably enjoy it casually.

[Mighty Tim]

Semi hyped semi wary. I do worry how the changes will effect the game and I worry about blizzards restraint. The chat system being the most worrying.

[ellieg]

I'm 99% hyped. I can deal with a few extremely minor changes as long as the core isnt touched. No rebalancing or anything like that. Been playing recently on "other" servers but theres no heavily populated pve ones. I have a busy life now that I'm older. I need to be able to step away without getting ganked. And I don't want to waste my only play time pvping when I want to level. I'm most excited to have a real pve levelling experience. I've been to naxx in vanilla years ago and downed a few bosses. I'd love to do it all again but wont have time for it. I'd be happy just to step foot in bwl.

[Cæli]

happy; I don't need anything more than getting back to the old world

[Morbownz]

Hyped, but like most I do have my concerns. That said, I drank the Blizzcon Kool Aid and I really do believe the people working on this project want to make it the best it can be, so when they've said stuff like "hey, we might need to use sharding in starting zones", I;ve tried not to overreact. I am also probably equally curious to see old WoW on modern tech, I want old graphics, but I will be playing with those sliders in each zone just to see what a graphically improved Azeroth looks like.

As for the game itself. I have played on private servers and though they are not completely accurate, they can still offer what I want out of the game no matter the quality of the server. I am confident (at least for me) that Classic is still a solid game in 2019, I don't care too much about class balance or rep grinds or having to run to instances, so there's little to put me off. I am also really excited for those big WoW fans out there that have played for years but never go to see Classic, I look forward to their feedback.

[Noxina]

Honestly, I can't wait for it to release. BfA just feels off for me, for some reason. I just simply don't find it fun, and that's a first for me since I started playing this game. I even enjoyed WoD, and logged in everyday, though some days just to do my garrison stuff.
Now I quit raiding, as I didn't find it fun. I think I can count the amount of m+ I've done on one hand (haven't touched it since the first week they released). Done a bunch of arena, but even that is just messed up now.

So I log in every other day, relist my auctions and keep the gold flow comming while I wait for classic. Done some testing on pserver (leveled every class to 20, to figure out what I want to play) and I've enjoyed that SO much more than ANYTHING in retail.

[MoanaLisa]

Best word for me is "interested". I don't get excited about 14 year old games reappearing.

[letssee]

Hyped af
Most anticipated game of the year. Lol for a 14 year old game

[~Valen~]

I'm pretty excited, but not 'hyped'. I am quitting BFA since I no longer enjoy it, and hope that 3-4 whatever months of a break will make it feel at least a bit fresh. I never played original wow, but since I started in TBC I got to experience the original levelling experience. But it's been a long time...

[Razzako]

Here's what they said about sharding:

As you've noticed, the Classic Demo does have realm sharding. This is to let as many people as possible experience it without technical issues such as server capacity or spawn density getting in the way.

Longer term, we know how crucial it is to the Classic experience for you to see your friends when you walk into Stormwind or when you’re helping them on a quest you’ve already completed. And there should only ever be one Kazzak on a realm, no matter how many people are waiting for him to spawn.

We’re still looking at how we can best deliver an authentic Classic experience at launch, and in the weeks and months that follow - both in terms of gameplay and community. You won’t see phasing (which is tied to specific quests that don't exist in Classic) or cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together) in Classic. However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). To that end, we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days. But we recognize that a cohesive world is critical to WoW Classic and are committed to bringing that to you.

Source.

Read and carefully notice how he mentions phasing first then sharding, phasing didn't exist at all back then, the quests were not even designed with phasing in mind, so it makes sense for phasing to not be implemented, but:

Have they said anything else regarding sharding? My take on that statement has always been that they might remove sharding after launch, also, where does the idea that sharding will only be limited to the starting zones as if they ever gave us their word? The official only mentioned that the players will be, quote "swarming the same initial few zones" unquote, but I can't see how does that hints that sharding will only be limited to the starting zones.

To me, all that they said was the typical 'we hear you but we'll do whatever we see fit'.

[Villentretenmerth]

I haven't played Retail in like 7 Month and I doubt I will ever again. I hope we see the Alpha/Beta soon™!

[jackofwind]

Burnt out from farming lords/bugs and doing AQ40 prep.

[BaronRivendare]

I have a feeling the luster will wear off really quickly for most. I remember when Emulators and ROMs first came out and I was like YES I can download a Nintendo and play Zelda, and Mario and Metroid etc...You end up dilly dallying around with a little of this and that and very quickly it's like ummm yeah why am I doing this again? I'm literally wasting time that I already wasted a long time ago.
If someone really wants to enjoy a grinding experience and flush a bunch more hours of their life down the toilet then go ahead but you have to ask yourself is it that journey you want to experience again or do you like the idea of being an uber level 60 all decked out and wrecking people in PVP etc.? If that's the case, then why not petition for a private customizable server where Blizzard lets you load up a decked out toon and do your thing to save you from all the wasted time? Even in that scenario it's like entering a "god mode" code on a game and after a while, it gets old while meanwhile the non geared people will be raging insanely and you'll lose them too due to imbalance if Blizzard tries to truly give a genuine Vanilla experience so the forums will be full of complaints tenfold for that reason so the deck is really stacked against them.
For all of the people that didn't play or exist during Vanilla there will be an upside and downside to that, the upside is a new experience but the downside is that it is so drastically different and lacking of the common comforts and conveniences of where we are today, I have a feeling that the newer instant gratification now now now mentality of most newer players will come to a verdict that it's not a better experience and hop off the train. Just IMO.

[Coombs]

Classic will be Vanilla easy mode designed to milk people who never got to raid back in the day. It will not be Vanilla. It might be a fun game, but Classic will be it's own game. The kind of people who will play Classic are usually the kind of people I don't enjoy playing games with. If I play it will be to gank as many scrubs as possible and camp them until they quit the game or their life.

[Razzako]

I have a feeling the luster will wear off really quickly for most. I remember when Emulators and ROMs first came out and I was like YES I can download a Nintendo and play Zelda, and Mario and Metroid etc...You end up dilly dallying around with a little of this and that and very quickly it's like ummm yeah why am I doing this again? I'm literally wasting time that I already wasted a long time ago.
If someone really wants to enjoy a grinding experience and flush a bunch more hours of their life down the toilet then go ahead but you have to ask yourself is it that journey you want to experience again or do you like the idea of being an uber level 60 all decked out and wrecking people in PVP etc.? If that's the case, then why not petition for a private customizable server where Blizzard lets you load up a decked out toon and do your thing to save you from all the wasted time? Even in that scenario it's like entering a "god mode" code on a game and after a while, it gets old while meanwhile the non geared people will be raging insanely and you'll lose them too due to imbalance if Blizzard tries to truly give a genuine Vanilla experience so the forums will be full of complaints tenfold for that reason so the deck is really stacked against them.
For all of the people that didn't play or exist during Vanilla there will be an upside and downside to that, the upside is a new experience but the downside is that it is so drastically different and lacking of the common comforts and conveniences of where we are today, I have a feeling that the newer instant gratification now now now mentality of most newer players will come to a verdict that it's not a better experience and hop off the train. Just IMO.

IDK I wouldn't really make that comparison, those games didn't really offer what most people seems to be looking for. The cherished server communities and the opportunity to be part of that community, which sadly have been long gone. It's pretty much the wish to play a true MMORPG again.

[iETHOSi]

I'm interested but definitely not hyped. I don't want to get my hopes up just to find out that it's actually not like vanilla at all.

[lonely zergling]

My body is ready.