Do you think Classic will Overtake Retail?

[Revamp Man]

Imagine being so delusional to think classic will have anywhere near as many players are retail. I'm not shitting on classic, it is what it is. I think it will be the biggest thing for wow ever, for a few weeks. People will realise how much convenience and streamlining they lose, how clunky and old hat vanilla can be and only the hardcore will play it. I'm hyped because I can stop listening to purists chat bollocks in trade about how good vanilla was

It will just turn to "I'm glad I play on classic omg this game so dead

[Rawrajishxc]

100%. Not only will wow classic be far more popular than the naysayers would have us believe; but the state of bfa isn’t exactly encouraging

It isn’t like wow classic is competing with wow at its peak... it’s competing with wow at its lowest

If it doesn't overtake it initially it definitely will if they get to BC/Wotlk expansions, if they happen to go that route.

[Thundering]

Let's wait and see.

[Saverem]

I think a lot of players will realize they are wrong, whenever they start to play classic.

Have you guys seen venruki newest video, he was one of the biggest naysayer and retail baby, but look at him now.

It might come close in the first week from hype and stuff, but it has no where near the lastability as live. I'd say at least 80% of the people who start playing it won't even make it to Onyxia attunement.

[Dch48]

They have said there will be no expansions because then it wouldn't be Classic any more. Then one guy said maybe there will be. I don't think it will last long enough to have to think about it. I personally see nothing wrong with how the game is today and I'm hyped for the 8.2 patch. Especially because Thrall is coming back. The only Orc I could ever stand.

[Watchers]

the new wow killer?

[MechaCThun]

Actually, Classic will be "hardcore mode" so if you get banned there you get banned permanently in real life and have to wait to be born again to play

[Eurhetemec]

I think Classic will have a small following for about 6 months and then fade and die. It will be gone long before the retail product.

I think it'll actually have a large following for about somewhere between 6 and 18 months, and quite likely eclipse Retail in terms of number of players actively playing it during that period. That would be my main prediction, based on the "Classic servers" other games have put out, and assuming Blizzard will do a better job, and going on the fact that WoW has literally tens of millions, possibly well over 100m, ex-players. If even some of them are nostalgic, and Classic is advertised in such a way that they find out about, they may well come give it a try.

I mean, if I look at my friends and colleagues around my age, sort of the 35-45 range, a lot of them have played WoW (and not just the men, either). But as yet few of them know about Classic, based on my talking to people. So the advertising isn't there yet. If they do go and actually have adverts, and aim them right, though, I think a lot of those people will re-sub and play a bit - and potentially forget to cancel their subs, or keep playing for a while.

Plus you'll have a lot of people who didn't play in Vanilla at all, and are used to all these stories from the ancients about how it was, so they'll want to try it, and some of them will enjoy it a lot - but probably not enough to stick with it.

So I think after that 6-18 month period, it'll drop off pretty smoothly and rapidly. There will likely always be some smallish "hard core" of Classic players, and Blizzard will be able to make money off them sub'ing and doing server moves and so on, but I think it won't be a major thing after that.

However it might be quite influential. I think the most interesting thing about Classic will be seeing what people love, and what people actually don't enjoy at all about it. In the longer-term I think it'll be good for retail, both in terms of silencing people claiming "It was better back then!" about some stuff, and reminding the designers about the smaller proportion of stuff that was actually kind of cool.

Re: TBC and Cata, I fully expect if Classic makes a decent amount of money that they'll have servers where people can progress onto those expansions, quite likely with some sort of mechanism for a one-time transfer from Classic. They'll make money, but it'll be a lot less than Classic did.

[Celista]

Definitely will not happen.

[Xemioza]

Yes, 100% absolutely no doubt about it. I personally haven't met someone who actually likes modern WoW or the direction it has taken; nearly all of them continue because of the time sink issue.

I'm sure there are some of these zaney clown world MMO-Champ CNN consumers who enjoy the sanitized and overly standardized WoW of today.

U on drugs ?

I know plenty ppl who are playing BFA, and a lot of them played classic, and actually remembers how bad it was and have no interest in playing it.

[grexly75]

Not a snowflake´s chance in hell.

Retail is boring atm, but by far not half as boring as classic will be.

Exactly, people carry on like pork chops about being bored in retail and in essence there is so much more to do.. While in classic all there will be is dungeons, raids if lucky to get picked and just out and out farming mats for raiding and or farming Brotherhood rep in Searing Gorge/Burning Steppes..

There will be no dailies/world quests or anything like that, most of the time people will just be vegging out in SW/Org..

[Celista]

Actually, Classic will be "hardcore mode" so if you get banned there you get banned permanently in real life and have to wait to be born again to play

I've been watching the beta videos and I think people vastly overstated how difficult vanilla was, or it needs to be re-tuned. The most likely explanation being that the game was more difficult back then simply because players had no idea what the hell they were doing.

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Exactly, people carry on like pork chops about being bored in retail and in essence there is so much more to do.. While in classic all there will be is dungeons, raids if lucky to get picked and just out and out farming mats for raiding and or farming Brotherhood rep in Searing Gorge/Burning Steppes..

There will be no dailies/world quests or anything like that, most of the time people will just be vegging out in SW/Org..

The upside of all this is that maybe it will finally stop the whining regarding having nothing to do in retail. Doubtful, though...

[clausuk57]

"Can't believe you guys are playing retail LUL"

whilst my guy logs over and deadass loots every mob one at a time, and progresses on a raid that was easy 14 years ago

Don't act like retail is hard LUL

[grexly75]

I’d hate to see how these people would be at older games like eq if that’s the case. Wow vanilla questing is as simple as it gets. It tells you where to go and what to kill.

Sure it doesn’t have a giant explanation point overhead but doesn’t that kind of cheapen the rpg aspect?

Not always there have been a few quests that tell you to go there, once there trying to figure out what to kill/collect and in the end going to Thottbot to find out what the quest requires..

[Zantos]

It will be lucky to keep a healthy population. No way its going to draw in more then the players of retail. People will realize all of the QoL things added in over the years that were wanted for a long time and realize that vanilla wow isn't as grand as they thought.

[grexly75]

The upside of all this is that maybe it will finally stop the whining regarding having nothing to do in retail. Doubtful, though...

Will be interesting to see that is for sure..

[Relapses]

Not a fucking chance.

[Saiteck]

classic will have people playing it until all the classic patches have been released, then there is nothing more to do and players will eventually stop playing or return to retail. So about 2 years then classic will be dead

[Ragnarohk]

Most players will probably just level a character to 60 (If they manage to get there) and quit once they realize that vainilla endgame is garbage.

Your avarage wow player will not join a 40 man raiding guild. There is no content in vanilla for casual players (most players are).

Clasic is niche. Many players will try it out, but only the nostalgia tinted glasses players will stay. Casual will realize that retail has muuuuuuch more to offer

[clausuk57]

They talked about releasing additional content if community wants it, so i don't think it will ever run completely out of content

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Most players will probably just level a character to 60 (If they manage to get there) and quit once they realize that vainilla endgame is garbage.

Your avarage wow player will not join a 40 man raiding guild. There is no content un canilla for casual players (most players are).

Clasic is niche. Many players will try it out, but only the nostalgia tinted glasses players will stay. Casual will realize that retail has muuuuuuch more to offer

>Classic had like 6-8 times BFA numbers but Classic is the niche market

nice meme