Do you think Classic will Overtake Retail?

[Castia]

Never said it was dead. You sure do have a hard time understand things, huh?




Stop saying my scale. It's not my scale. It's the only scale. And it shows how many people are interested. AKA hyped.



I never said it wasn't hyped. Are you trolling right now? This is insane. I said it's LOSING it's hype. Stop strawmanning and moving goal posts.

The point of the tread is ‘will classic overtake retail’ in your mind you don’t think it will right?

I’m certain it will until WoW releases the next expansion, BfA has been a complete disaster and whilst the next patch looks promising the momentum will be with classic.

I’ll quote you in September after Classic has been smashing retail for a few weeks. In the meantime keep measuring those hype levels via Twitch, that shit is legit.

[Th3Scourge]

I'm very confident that Classic will overtake retail. Players will remember all the nuances that made vanilla such an amazing experience, it will feel like a breathe of fresh air and even might attract some new players that feel lost starting out in the current game. I'd hate to be a new player in BfA, there's so much older content that makes no sense or that you can just breeze through it might as well not even exist

[Big Thanks]

Overtake in the first couple days? Yes, possibly, i believe.

Overtake on the long run? Humm...less probable, even though i like the idea of that alternative reality.

I only predict a great War coming on the forums of Classic VS Retail.
But the Classic crowd will either be a minority and made fun of or...if classic is incredible successful its going to be an all out war for the ages.

[TigTone]

Or or the realistic idea most people with play what they like the most. My that be both or modern or classic. I’m just talking about wow players. All the other millions of millions other gamers will be playing today’s most popular games and both modern/classic wow will slowly die like any other game.

[Ielenia]

Do you have any proof of that claim.

Of course he doesn't. Any claims about WoW's current sub numbers are nothing but ass-pulls. Literally.

[Deathgoose]

I think Classic will see an initial surge of interest due to the novelty factor, much like a new expansion or patch.

But I suspect that will wane significantly once most people are reminded just how dated Classic's mechanics are from over a decade ago. Or, they started in BC or later, and were told how wonderful it was back then, when in reality it was simply new, and was the casual alternative to Everquest.

The front page of MMO-C currently hints at that: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...W-Classic-Beta

I'll be curious to see either way.

[glowpipe]

Can't speak for anyone else but I've already quit retail, which is absolute trash.

I'm looking forward to playing a Rogue again instead of this Fisher-Price nu-Rogue imitation with weakly Rogue-adjacent flavor.

yes, super fun playing a 3 button hero in pve, where you are banned from using rupture due to debuff limit. I played rogue throughout all of vanilla, and well, up to this point. The class is kind shit now, but don't come here and pretend it was better in vanilla. It wasn't

[Deathgoose]

Seems unlikely to.

As many others have pointed out, it's going to lack end game content.

Also (and this is just my own opinion), the way the fans demanded it be 'just like the old days' is kind of... odd. A lot of game companies tend to re-release old hits but they're almost always remastered. Better graphics, bugs fixed etc. So a lot of the visual appeal of the modern game is just... gone. And on top of it there's a lot of dead zones, areas they didn't have time to flesh out before launch with either mobs or quests. I could be wrong but I suspect this will limit things more than fans assume. If you don't CARE about graphics? Then you're not bothered. If you do? Then going back 15 years is going to be sort of painful. (and I'd be shocked if there weren't things like new model swaps happening in the mod scene).

Ultimately I suspect classic is a good thing - but less for it existing and more for it reminding players and devs of certain older mechanics (talent tree for one).

I never felt a need for Classic to return, but as a casual observer, I am glad that Blizz is trying to reproduce the Classic experience as much as possible, including all of the wonky bugs, shit class design/balance, the loss of every QoL addition that has been added over the years, and everything else that has been largely forgotten by those hyping it.

Had they not done so, and fixed so much of glaring issues Classic had, one of two things would have happened:
1) It does really well:
Pro-Classic: See?! Classic is better!
Pro-Retail: It's not Classic, it's just Retail with 60+ content removed

2) It does not do really well:
Pro-Classic: Well, it's not Classic!
Pro-Retail: Can't argue there.

But by trying to reproduce Classic as faithfully as they can, now in those two scenarios, we have:
1) It does really well:
Pro-Classic: See?! Classic is better!
Pro-Retail: Wow... I did not see that happening...

2) It does not do really well:
Pro-Classic: But... it's better... I swear!
Pro-Retail: Will you finally give it a rest already?!

As I said, interested in how it will play out.

[Katchii]

Blizz has said that, post naxx, they are open to adding new content at level 60 such as raids, dungeons, etc.

If they take an alternate reality approach to expansion and expand at 60 forever horizontally, rather than vertically through levels; the potential is limitless

There are conflicting interviews on this. One of them comes from the person currently in charge (Ion), and he said that adding new and original content in Classic is not a possibility.

I'm not saying it won't happen or that it's not possible, just that currently the more official decision within in Blizzard is that it won't happen, though this could change.

[Luxeley]

No but I hope the best aspects of Classic inform their future decisions.

Such as pacing and the relevancy of gear in every single step you make.

- - - Updated - - -



Retail doesn't have 5 million active subs. It doesn't have even 1 million active subs.

Not even 1 million subs. Seriously? Vanilla fanboy much? Fortunately, I have a level head and can provide some reason. You don't know how many active subs live has and neither do I. Blizzard wants it that way which means the numbers are probably pretty bad, but not as bad as less than 1 million subs. If that was truly the case, Ion would be on the unemployment line.

[Polarthief]

I mean, both are pretty bad, so who knows. Classic is not nearly as good as the majority of people who think it is (though of course it definitely still has its fans), and BfA is an absolute fucking dumpster fire.

Not even 1 million subs. Seriously? Vanilla fanboy much? Fortunately, I have a level head and can provide some reason. You don't know how many active subs live has and neither do I. Blizzard wants it that way which means the numbers are probably pretty bad, but not as bad as less than 1 million subs. If that was truly the case, Ion would be on the unemployment line.

It's probably somewhere in the ~2-3m range. Classic may bump that up to possibly ~5-6 when it comes out but it'll drop back down to ~3-4 once the "Oh boy, Classic!" nostalgia wears off.

I'm basing this on the fact that the last number we were given was WoD with 5.6m subs, and WoD continued on for a bit after that, and BfA exists. I can't see the number being any higher than 3m, TOPS, considering they're still hiding the number and it's obviously something worse than 5.6m, otherwise they'd sing it loud and proud that they actually gained (consistent) subs since WoD. Legion was an okay expansion but it sure as hell didn't recover from WoD.

[Doffen]

Actually, quite the contrary. They've been open that, if the community wants it, they'd be open to adding more lvl 60 content such as raids, zones, gear, etc... into the game and expand upon classic without going TBC route. They could have TBC servers and still expand wow classic horizontally rather than vertically.

There is plenty of WoW ahead for everyone

Sure, but this is in regard of making classic more than classic. And atm that doesn't seem likely. They seem very clear on that in interviews. Classic will stay Classic. But that they will make TBC servers etc that could definitely happen. Not ruling out anything about Classic changes, but as of now, no.

It is plenty of WoW for everyone, indeed..

[Vineri]

Objectively, Classic > Retail.

Subjectively, people will cling to what they know, all the time they invested, all the pets, mounts, armor sets.

Retail "veterans" are not apt to change.

However new players and casuals are interested. The new "old" playstyles will create waves, to influence future WoW games. News at 11.

[Revamp Man]

"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

Honestly I don't get the need to be a dick in chat or on forums

[bufferunderrun]

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.

like any novelty it gonna get many peoples hooked up, veteran with nostalgia, players who never experienced it and so on; but after the hype die like happen for new xpacks on retail thing will get in line, the biggest problem for classic is how blizzard gonna release the various patch content they say that classic will have progressive unlock but how much it will be until everyone is in t3? And what happen after?

Players who gonna try it and start progressing in it are all at last way more knowledgeable about the game than their counterparts back in the days, the game will be more stable and more bug free (that is a huge point as many hold vanilla players remember server instability and bugs that prevent guild progressing were common) i expect a bigger percentage to literally destroy the content and consume it faster than ever be it levelling or raids.

The biggest problem for classic server is that it can't progress beyond naxx hence once everyone is done only a small percentage keep lurking around maybe for pvp.

[bmjclark]

I dont even think 80% of people who start playing it will hit 60 tbh. I expect it to see one of the fastest drop offs in blizzards history. That being said, there'll still be a sizeable group that continues playing it im sure

[jstnw89]

Classic won't overtake retail.. but it will highlight a lot of the good parts of WoW that have slowly been eroded over the years.

It will overtake retail for me personally though.. if they then decide to do BC / Wotlk.. I'll prob never play 'retail' again if they're going to keep removing things and adding shallow / boring things in their place.

[MasterMirror]

No, because Classic is old and people like might like it, but it's a 15 years old game with all relative problems and issues.
It has something more of Retail RPG-wise and "sense of progression"-wise, but it's too old to overtake Retail.

[Akasha64]

Retail will have the advantage over the long-term, because as the years go by it will keep getting more content, whilst Classic probably won't. Though seeing how crappy the content has been lately, and seeing how much people didn't like the content in recent expansions, it might give classic the edge. People are very much content on playing classic over and over on repeat every 2 years, or are they not?

[Doomchicken]

People are very much content on playing classic over and over on repeat every 2 years, or are they not?

They'll tell you they will, but when they have to pay 15 dollars a month every month, you can almost bank on how fast their tune will change.