Classic and the possible death of current

[huth]

I don't find that "unreasonable". I'm just saying you greatly overestimate the size of said "segment".

His mere existence proves the existence of the segment. It does not, however, prove that the segment contains anybody else.

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You really have no idea ielenia lol. Very soon we are going to get a release date and that is when the hype is truly going to start. If i know blizzards marketing team we will be seeing advertisements for classic that pull on peoples heartstrings, they will have no choice but to resub to classic.

And you know that how? Prophetic dreams? Wishful thinking?

[Dziubla]

Once the rose-tinted glasses come off, only one WoW will be standing. And, despite all the problems with BfA...the one that's standing will NOT be classic.

[Phuongvi]

Classic, like all other game that was supposed to kill WoW, will fail miserably

[khazmodan]

Once the rose-tinted glasses come off, only one WoW will be standing. And, despite all the problems with BfA...the one that's standing will NOT be classic.

I think you underestimate how deeply Ion Hazznoklue is in over his head, most of the great talent that made WoW into a billion dollar cash cow are gone and replaced by people that need to drastically simplify the game for them to avoid blowing it up. The problem is that these same people are also in charge of vanilla so the incompetence contagion will probably spread and ruin it as well.

[munkeyinorbit]

Ok, but it's not as old as Medal of Honor I always associate Call of Duty with 7th generation of gaming, because that's when it started getting really popular, and really dominated that generation, but indeed existed since the 6th generation of gaming.

Being wrong is still being wrong. It doesn't matter if you consider an item to be part of a different category because of arbitrary reason number 7.

[Machismo]

Classic will be a side project for a lot of players, because many will lose interest after a while. We have a lot of vanilla servers that show it to be true.

[Frostyfire14]

I'll also never understand how people try to pass off a subjective, anecdotal opinion as facts somehow.
Facetious at best.

That's what the OP did. Opinion vs. Opinion, as fit.

[Akasha64]

Being wrong is still being wrong. It doesn't matter if you consider an item to be part of a different category because of arbitrary reason number 7.

Ok then. I stand corrected. Happy now? Jeeze.

[Nzx]

You are dreaming if you think classic will make any meaningful dent in the remaining number of retail WoW players. The number of people who actually care about going back and playing Vanilla again for any real length of time is a fraction of the number of people who only play Mythic+, let alone the entire playerbase. Classic will be fine on its own, why are you people so desperate for it to "kill" retail WoW? Are you that obsessed with your opinion of WoW that you crave validation or something?

[Kathranis]

I think the ven diagram of people who want to actively play both classic and retail long-term would show relatively little overlap. They're very different experiences at this point. It's more likely that any potential split in the playerbase will be compensated for by a bunch of returning players and cross-pollination between the two games. Realistically I seriously doubt that it will make any noticeable difference beyond growing the WoW playerbase as a whole by drawing in people who're only interested in classic.

This is it in a nutshell.

In the long-term, after the initial surge of nostalgia and curiosity dies down, Classic is mostly going to exist to turn currently lapsed Classic fans back into active subscribers, and then retain them.

For most currently active players, it'll just be a novel way to play alts when they're bored with the current Live content. Especially since I think there will be a lot of crossover guilds and communities that seesaw from Live progression to Classic progression and back, if only casually.

The number of players who fully convert from Live to Classic will be relatively minor. Same for returning Classic players converting to Live. Though both will surely happen, it's not going to dramatically upset the current playerbase so much as grow it.

[Terracresta]

It's not just WoW that changed but also how people play MOORPGs and online games in general. I don't think the experience will ever be the same as 15 years ago.
Many of the people I played Vanilla with won't return as they moved on in their lives. I'm also on and off in WoW, not being subscribed at the moment and when subscribed, I'm playing the game in a different way than back in 2004/05, because my life changed since then. Also the experience like entering Darnassus for the first time will be a different one, because it's nothing new to me and technology also advanced. WoW never had high-end graphics, but by now it's far more dated looking.

So in the end it's hard to say what will really happen.

[Kumorii]

Classic, like all other game that was supposed to kill WoW, will fail miserably

Not even WoW will be the WoW killer.

[Rafoel]

Everyone is completely over-rating Classic. It's a terrible game. And I've played WoW since May 2005. It will not kill any other game, including its sister LIVE server.

Why did you keep playing terrible game for 14 years?

[Twdft]

Why did you keep playing terrible game for 14 years?

I don't think s/he played classic for 14 years.

[Rafoel]

I don't think s/he played classic for 14 years.

He tried the game in vanilla, decided its terrible, and kept playing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Lurker1]

So since classic requires a bigger time investement than current wow (for casuals atleast) and since you can only play one game at a time.

I was wondering if once classic is released and everyone and their mothers will be playing it.. won't it have a negative effect on current wow playerbase and ingame activity ?

Classic still requires a sub to current wow to be played so the blizzard numbers won't realistically show who is playing what but i think Blizz might actually accidentally schoot current wow in the foot by dividing the playerbase.

I'm not waiting for wow to die in any form nor do i think it will truly die anytime soon, but with all mmo's released since launch i believe that Wow classic has the biggest chance to do what has been repeated on these forums each time a compareable mmo releases.

Will blizzard be able to convince us to play the xpac after bfa instead of classic ? for now i don't think so.


Update: Given the answers, classic wow might be the thing current retail needs to fill in the content gaps between patches and expansions.
Both of them being on the same sub might even be a blessing instead of a curse.

Thanks for the answers and sorry if i triggered anyone with my now only 3 posts

LMFAO! cmon now you and i know that won't happen.

[Tavin]

No wow is not dying or getting killed.
No you will not win a price for having confirmed this on mmo champ.

Except the mmo-champ fanboys that praise classic to be a work of God, the vast majority of people I've spoken to thinks that classic seems like trash.

The thing that made classic great was the people/community/amount of players, the game itself was beyond awful.

[justandulas]

I, personally, will go to Classic and never look back unless a future expac is the greatest in MMO history. I just really dislike the ARPG direction WoW has been going in for a few years. It's more Diablo 3 than Everquest today, and that's not what i'm after in an MMORPG.

I'd take a slower, everquest style game with worse gameplay but more meaningful progression over the mess we have at endgame in live.

[Maudib]

It's hardly "millions", much less "tens of millions".

Those who weren't interested in playing WoW in 2004, are highly unlikely to want to play 2004 WoW today.
Those who stopped playing for any other reason than "it's not vanilla WoW anymore" are also highly unlikely to return.

Said reasons include, but aren't restricted to:

• They don't like vanilla WoW but stopped because 'expansion X' brought a change they didn't like;
• They now have family and/or a job to worry about;
• They're no longer interested in gaming;
• They're no longer interested in MMOs;
• They're no longer interested in WoW;
• Their friends no longer play WoW.

Classic WoW is being made for those who like how WoW was in 2004-2006.

Not for those who were never interested.
Not for those who stopped playing for any reason other than "it's not vanilla WoW anymore."

The "target audience" is actually much smaller than you make it out to be.


I don't find that "unreasonable". I'm just saying you greatly overestimate the size of said "segment".

What about those that:

• Loved vanilla WoW but stopped because 'expansion X' brought a change they didn't like;
• They now have a solid career, kids older doing their own thing, and have plenty of free time, you act like only 14 year olds played Vanilla... to the contrary, there was a large portion of players who were adults.;
• They're looking for something exciting to play once again;
• They're missing the fun they had in WoW's successful MMO, and other MMOs just didn't have the same appeal;
• They're intrigued by a return of WoW and being a part of a brand new Azeroth;
• Their friends are coming back to play Classic WoW.

Also, what about current players who are WoW zealots that never played Vanilla who want to so they can experience the entire WoW experience?

What about the MANY adults who played early WoW (I started at 38 in early TBC) and now kids are grown and out of the house, career is at it's peak, I have plenty of free time and vacation time to play a game I once loved passionately).

What about the adults who have kids who are getting to the age of gaming and want to share an experience they loved with them? (multiple accounts)

What about those people who can tell you they have talked to their old WoW buddies and many of them are excited to play Classic?



Of course I don't expect to see 10 million players return to play Classic... but could 1 million? 2? 5? Yeah, possibly. And that'd fine with me. Single servers alive with people who love the game and are passionate about playing it? Sign me up... that is something that is missing from current WoW.

In a few months we'll see just how many people play Classic.

[Ozyorkbourne]

Play it through in a couple of months? Did you mean years? Only a fraction of the content will be available in the first two months, and you won't even be able to get through all of that in a 2 month time frame.

Gated or staggered content? I thought we didn't like that. Now I'm confused.