A playerbase divided

[Fiacla]

So as I'm sure many people are aware after browsing this site and others, the WoW Classic beta has begun to a great deal of fanfare.

However, I can't be the only one to have noticed the massive increase in hostilities between the retail and classic crowd? You have both sides creating pejorative terms to describe the others, such as "retail babies" or "nostalgia purists".

So I suppose my question and the point of this thread is to ask how do you predict this will all turn out?

I personally believe the community is fractured beyond belief and it's sad that so many who once shared a favourite pass time are now attacking each other over what essentially amounts to their personal preference.

[quite an expert in wow]

i have not yet noticed it really, not in the hostile way you describe it

most people i talk to simply say: 'yeah im not going to play classic, i've seen it already' or 'yeah i'm really looking forward to classic'

it's only logical though that there will be some splitting going on. which is fine: let the core of classic play together, and the core of retail play together, those that play content they don't really like now have the actual option to do something else

[Tom007p]

I mean its pretty simple, WoW classic is for chads and retail WoW is for betas and I predict that most people actually want more then 3 abilities on there bar. I suspect classic will take the OSRS route.

[Dazmalak]

I used to visit this site all the time. Not much of a poster, but I enjoyed browsing the forums and seeing reactions and ideas being discussed about the game. State of the game aside, people have really taken more of a "my way or the highway" attitude regarding just about all aspects of the game. I agree with you OP. I don't visit the site as often because it just isn't fun watching people who can't seem to tell the difference between trolling and being vindictive, or who can't have nuanced conversations without jumping right to name-calling and hyperbole. It reminds me of the political atmosphere, honestly.

[Tyrilion]

Why can't people who like classic play classic and people who don't carry on with retail.

Then everyone can shut up about this "fued"

[quite an expert in wow]

I mean its pretty simple, WoW classic is for chads and retail WoW is for betas and I predict that most people actually want more then 3 abilities on there bar. I suspect classic will take the OSRS route.

wouldn't it be the opposite? chads playing retail since it's super easy and you can spend little time on it
retail for beta since it's insanely hard and takes all your free time

[FuxieDK]

I can't be the only one to have noticed the massive increase in hostilities between the retail and classic crowd?

I see no hostility from the "retail crowd"..

However, I do see hostility from the "classic crowd", when you point out that Classic is far from likely to be the success "classic crowd" have hyped it up to be... THEN the hostility begins.

Personally, I want classic to succeed, but I don't see what a 15 years old game have to offer in 2019.
it will offer a bit of nostalgy... Some die-hard-fans will play it, but not make..
Some will switch for a while, but go back to retail..

I see people talking about 2-5 million players play classic.. That's up to 3x the amount of retail players (guestimated at 1,8M).. My guess, is less than 100K accounts will create one or more toons. 90% of then already have an active account. And within a year, it will be 25-50K active accounts logging in for Classic on on weekly basis.

But bring in NEW players.. I really don't see that happen.. If it does, HOORAY!! it just won't..

(and now there will be flames)

[Waynhim]

wouldn't it be the opposite? chads playing retail since it's super easy and you can spend little time on it
retail for beta since it's insanely hard and takes all your free time

Classic was never hard.

[quite an expert in wow]

Classic was never hard.

that's debatable but let's keep that on the side, remains the super big time sink you had. that's not something for the casual chad that wants to lift weights

[Fiacla]

...It reminds me of the political atmosphere, honestly.

I agree with this somewhat, it feels alot like Coke vs Pepsi, but it's the same product just 15 years apart.

[Dizson]

I mean its pretty simple, WoW classic is for chads and retail WoW is for betas and I predict that most people actually want more then 3 abilities on there bar. I suspect classic will take the OSRS route.

"most people actually want more more then 3 abilities on there bar"

Aside from the terrible english this isn't correct. Sure you had more abilities on the bar, but most of those abilities were useless, not even combat abilities, and utility skills are better now and the rotation is better and the skills have better visuals, the combat skills were just boring back then. "Rotation" was literally 1 or 2 buttons like frost mage or healers and they were mundane spells, but you know what enjoy your frostbolt spam and afk drinking because its so hardcore.

wouldn't it be the opposite? chads playing retail since it's super easy and you can spend little time on it
retail for beta since it's insanely hard and takes all your free time

Just because its a massive time sink it isn't hard, it's just time consuming. Back then it was hard, because I was 10 and I didn't know a lot of things, but any adult should have an easy time playing Classic.

[justandulas]

There's enough room in WoW for all of us to have a version of WoW we want to play.

Personally, i'm all about classic and have been asking for this for years (i just won't support pirate servers so it's legit or nothing for me) but i don't belittle BFA players.

They are two very different WoW's. Classic is a more 'classical' mmorpg in the mold of such titles like EQ. WoW BFA has more in common with Diablo 3 than Vanilla/EQ.

Some people prefer the MMO ARPG solo friendly able to que for everything, multiple difficulties of each content... type of content that BFA/Diablo 3 offer.

Others, prefer the MMORPG world of something like EQ where rewards are few and far in between but feel infinitely more substantial to receive.

There's no need to belittle one another, and i hope everyone finds their happy spot in WoW

[A Chozo]

I can't be the only one to have noticed the massive increase in hostilities between the retail and classic crowd?

No one should care about the loud anonimous minorities bullshitting in public foruns. They don't represent the community at all. There are Retail fans who tihnk everyone is part of their hivemind and we all have the same tastes. There are Classic fans who think vanilla classes are somehow more complex than BfA's. Weirdos on both sides of a cage.

The actual community will throw money at Blizzard if they provide fun.

[Shaetha]

Why can't people who like classic play classic and people who don't carry on with retail.

Then everyone can shut up about this "fued"

live and let live is not a concept the internet is good at. Well, forums at least.

[Canield]

Reacting validates their opinions

[justandulas]

live and let live is not a concept the internet is good at. Well, forums at least.

WoW isn't unique in that aspect. Look at sports, politics, movie opinions, hell even GoT final season opinions.

People are more divided than ever, and even worse, the concept of "agree to disagree" died this generation sometime and now everyone needs to feel vindicated that they were right all along and won't shut up until they get that. Like a dog with a bone.

[Tom007p]

that's debatable but let's keep that on the side, remains the super big time sink you had. that's not something for the casual chad that wants to lift weights

I was just kidding of course, but what I really meant was that people are sick of having 3 abilities and want to actually use their brains while playing. Lets be honest here, retail WoW is brain dead 95% of the time outside of high end PvP and Mythic raiding. Where the opposite could be said about classic, 95% of the time is active thinking and 5% of the time is brain dead.

[AIBot]

Classic is like CoD mw. They release new versions, then release an old game as remastered to sell it again.

[justandulas]

Classic is like CoD. They release new versions, then release an old game as remastered to sell it again.

Oh how i wish this were the case. I'm still waiting on my COD MW2 remastered with MP. It will never be released, ever, because MW2 with MP would instantly kill modern CoD.

Sound familiar?

[quite an expert in wow]

Classic is like CoD mw. They release new versions, then release an old game as remastered to sell it again.

this is not an answer to the question OP is asking