Is it REALLY vanilla WoW that people want or just the mechanics?

[Prozach]

I feel like people aren't necessarily interested in replaying classic WoW for the content but more for HOW the content played. Playing through the same dungeons, raids, etc. as they did 14 years ago will be a hollow experience. But if they (or someone) created an MMORPG around Starcraft or another popular franchise, it'd be a golden opportunity for Blizzard to apply what they've learned from WoW over the past decade.

I actually think another top-tier MMORPG is inevitable. The other half-assed ones, including WoW, all need to go away first, though, and the new title needs to be one that somehow applies to huge age demographic ranges. From teens to 40+. Which kinda sucks because millenials have grown up on ezmode basically and like their games dumbed down to the point where you barely have to play them.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Classic is popular now because it's new. I still say the majority of people who play it quit by 40. Blizz doesn't, and shouldn't, use Vanilla as a blueprint to create a 2020 MMO. The hard ship sailed when Wildstar shut down.

Now that said, I do think from browsing the forums long enough this beta, a whole lotta people didn't ask for what they wanted. They played Private Servers and it tainted their memories of Classic. So when they wanted a game like Nost, they asked for Classic when what they wanted was Mythic Difficulty WoW.

[dunkl]

I miss the leisurely trek, the journey, the long adventure throughout many different interesting lands. So a slow paced 60 level experience is what I'd like if I end up playing. It gave the feeling that you'd load up your backpack or bags with your food, and important items, and set off on your task for the day. I like that. I also remember liking that the zones and characters were based off the standalone games, and enjoyed wondering when I'd bump into them such as Rexxar, Tyrande, The Undercity, Cairne, etc. This new classic won't have all the cool build up from years of playing the earlier games that was established backstory. I remember seeing the first screenshots of the undead windmill, and the stout dwarven architecture, and I remember thinking I can't wait to venture outward on azeroth and see these places in full scale, real time, as opposed to the top-down view of the older games. So originally, for me, the game had all this excitement already built up head into it. That won't be the case this time around since there's no build up heading into it. I enjoy current wow a great deal, but also want to play another mmo by blizzard, where I'm not as familiar with all the current landscapes and stories. Exploring as I go would be the way to recapture that wonder, I think, and it has to be massively large scale, and take a long time to get anywhere, and no flying ever and no addons/mods ever. I want to have to make a campfire and sit around it and cook my food before before venturing onward in a world unknown.

[Villentretenmerth]

Classic is popular now because it's new. I still say the majority of people who play it quit by 40. Blizz doesn't, and shouldn't, use Vanilla as a blueprint to create a 2020 MMO. The hard ship sailed when Wildstar shut down.

Now that said, I do think from browsing the forums long enough this beta, a whole lotta people didn't ask for what they wanted. They played Private Servers and it tainted their memories of Classic. So when they wanted a game like Nost, they asked for Classic when what they wanted was Mythic Difficulty WoW.

Are you retarded? Its anything but new!

[BeepBoo]

The hard ship sailed when Wildstar shut down.

I'm sick of seeing this posted and tired of having to rewrite the defense I've used 100 times as to why the "wildstar failed because it was HARD!" thing is unequivocally false, but suffice to say... you're wrong. Do some research on the issue if you're actually curious as to why it failed.

Also, I'm interested in beating the raids I never got a chance to when they were relevant. I enjoy the systems somewhat, but I hate that I either have to heal as the class I love or roll a different class to get the community acceptance I need to up my chances of raiding with the types of people I like (elitists who are definitely going to be blowing through raids at the pace they release) but ultimately I'm here to down all the raids.

[Isilarya]

I'm sick of seeing this posted and tired of having to rewrite the defense I've used 100 times as to why the "wildstar failed because it was HARD!" thing is unequivocally false, but suffice to say... you're wrong. Do some research on the issue if you're actually curious as to why it failed.

I agree, this is a pretty strong breakdown.

[anon5123]

I mean, yeah, vanilla plays like an actual MMORPG, whereas retail is practically a 3rd person shooter lobby game with some very light RPG elements.

I want to play an MMORPG, not a 3rd person shooter.

And yeah, I do want Vanilla's content. It's a game where, even at max level, lower level zones are still relevant to an extent. And for raids, ALL of the raids are relevant throughout the game's life. Even when you're raiding Naxx, you can still do MC for Thunderfury/Accuria, BWL for nef weapons and trinkets like DFT/Rejuv Gem, AQ40 for C'thun loot and T2.5, ZG for mounts and head/leg enchants, and AQ20 for.......ah, admittedly, AQ20 is pretty much the one raid in vanilla that once you have the gear you need you don't really need to go back there. But this is still a massive upgrade over retail where, once a new raid is released, there's 0 reason to do older raids because ALL of the gear in the new raid is an upgrade to the previous raid's gear.

[Daedius]

What I really want, my dear OP... is Chocolate, not vanilla!

[justandulas]

I feel like people aren't necessarily interested in replaying classic WoW for the content but more for HOW the content played. Playing through the same dungeons, raids, etc. as they did 14 years ago will be a hollow experience. But if they (or someone) created an MMORPG around Starcraft or another popular franchise, it'd be a golden opportunity for Blizzard to apply what they've learned from WoW over the past decade.

I actually think another top-tier MMORPG is inevitable. The other half-assed ones, including WoW, all need to go away first, though, and the new title needs to be one that somehow applies to huge age demographic ranges. From teens to 40+. Which kinda sucks because millenials have grown up on ezmode basically and like their games dumbed down to the point where you barely have to play them.

you can't get the same feeling classic provides in retail without ripping it down to the foundations and rebuilding it almost from scratch.

that isn't fair to those who enjoy what wow is in 2019.

[Echocho]

It's 100% the design philosophies. If people could get a game exactly like vanilla but with completely different content they would probably play that instead but nobody has been able to offer that since 2006, Blizzard included.

[Tech614]

I'm sick of seeing this posted and tired of having to rewrite the defense I've used 100 times as to why the "wildstar failed because it was HARD!" thing is unequivocally false, but suffice to say... you're wrong. Do some research on the issue if you're actually curious as to why it failed.

Wildstar failed because it wasn't WoW and was targeting WoW customers.

To a lesser degree the same will be true with classic. It won't fail, but it will certainly fall to a niche part of the total player base. Vanilla wasn't a boom, Lich King was the boom player base wise. The majority of ex WoW players are Wrath Babies and they aren't gonna stick around with antiquated ass classic mechanics as they started playing the game when blizzard started drifting towards more QoL.

The people that actually want classic, played classic and properly remember classic are the ones who will stick around. That my friends is called a niche.

[Big Thanks]

Classic WoW NEEDED to exist before Blizzard starts creating ANY other MMORPG.

It needed to exist because it will be a social experiment to see if oldschool designs can be applied to the current market.

Its my dream that oldschool designs prevail over current design...but we will see..............

[Liftinmammals]

Classic WoW NEEDED to exist before Blizzard starts creating ANY other MMORPG.

It needed to exist because it will be a social experiment to see if oldschool designs can be applied to the current market.

Its my dream that oldschool designs prevail over current design...but we will see..............

I am definitely there with you, friend. Classic WoW needs to happen. I want the old style of a truly community driven world to be what mmo developers bring back to the table. I hope classic WoW is extremely popular and I want to see Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen do extremely well.

[Ahovv]

I mean, yeah, vanilla plays like an actual MMORPG, whereas retail is practically a 3rd person shooter lobby game with some very light RPG elements.

I want to play an MMORPG, not a 3rd person shooter.

"Actual MMORPG" yet has far worse raid mechanics. Ok.

[Dergiab]

Yes I want to play a new MMORPG that works and feels like Vanilla but no company is neither willing nor capable of doing it.

[Rixxis]

"Actual MMORPG" yet has far worse raid mechanics. Ok.

Yeah the raid mechanics got much more complex and interesting as you'd expect with time but the RPG elements of the character you play are much weaker. The class you pick is very generic now in both utility and playstyle, you get heroic raiding gear without doing any raiding and mythic raiding gear just for getting lucky sometimes, and the majority of your time in the MMO world is not spent interacting meaningfully with others.

The game has made many improvements to things over 15 years but the core of the game is no longer what people want when they seek an MMORPG.

[Shadowferal]

Hmf...They want something. That damn "World of Warcraft 15th Anniversary Collector's Edition" is already sold out it seems.

[anon5123]

"Actual MMORPG" yet has far worse raid mechanics. Ok.

The fact that you think WoW is all about "raid mechanics" only proves my point.

[MoanaLisa]

I feel like people aren't necessarily interested in replaying classic WoW for the content but more for HOW the content played. Playing through the same dungeons, raids, etc. as they did 14 years ago will be a hollow experience. But if they (or someone) created an MMORPG around Starcraft or another popular franchise, it'd be a golden opportunity for Blizzard to apply what they've learned from WoW over the past decade.

I actually think another top-tier MMORPG is inevitable. The other half-assed ones, including WoW, all need to go away first, though, and the new title needs to be one that somehow applies to huge age demographic ranges. From teens to 40+. Which kinda sucks because millenials have grown up on ezmode basically and like their games dumbed down to the point where you barely have to play them.

I don't agree with any of this.

1st paragraph: People don't really understand what they want with respect to specifics but what they think they want is the experience they had 15 years ago with the game. There's a saying about how "You can't go home again" which means if you try to return to a place you remember from the past it won't be the same as you remember it. In this case most won't be new to the game, they will know too much and the experience is likely to be quite different.

2nd paragraph: I don't think another AAA MMORPG is inevitable at all. The days of dropping $100-$200 million dollars into developing massive MMORPG games is disappearing. The kind of MMO that is represented by WoW, Rift, Guild Wars 2 and others has had its day. More precisely WoW had its day in the sun with a freakish rise in popularity and cultural penetration that hasn't been seen since although Fortnite is starting to appear frequently in pop culture. WoW isn't going away any time soon and just like in the first paragraph given all MMORPG's have died and someone wants to start out with a fresh piece of paper to create a new one, it's unlikely that it's going to be anything like WoW. The graveyard of MMORPG corpses that thought they could "do something like WoW" is sizable.

So, no. I don't agree with any part of this. Blizzard isn't showing any interest in creating games of this size any longer. Their one attempt to replicate WoW's success went down in flames, critically injured the company and was a traumatic event for all involved.

[Staboteur]

Personally I want Cata/MoP class design with modern WoW boss design but Vanilla structure. No cross-realm, no LFG, a good progression system that's not invalidated by catch-up gear, leveling to be more than a rush to cap again, interesting stats on gear, bring back all the removed ones + the weird things that Vanilla had to make gearing fun again instead of just aiming for more ilvl.