Brainstorming on how Blizz rolls out TBC/Wrath.

[Fascinate]

At first I thought the best idea is to roll it out the way it happened back in the day. TBC just releases on the server. But the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of keeping the server Classic and creating a new one for TBC. People should be able to character transfer immediately on release, no waiting.

See that wouldn't work tho, being able to transfer day 1 would completely mess with world firsts and everything. They would definitely need to put a timer on being able to transfer, most likely in the 1-2 month range.

But ya they definitely wont just make TBC on the same server, there are too many people that want classic to stay classic forever

- - - Updated - - -

Ah I see your point, but the biggest thing is how many of those people will stay each month. It's really hard to tell.

Kind of irrelevant how many stay, the hype day 1 again is going to far outweigh how much they have put into the project. This will be the same thing with TBC, day 1 hype and returning subs is what will pay for server upkeep for years.

[Dacien]

See that wouldn't work tho, being able to transfer day 1 would completely mess with world firsts and everything. They would definitely need to put a timer on being able to transfer, most likely in the 1-2 month range.

I don't know about that. Everyone would be baseline, right? level 60 in a max-70 world.

I guess what I'm saying is that world firsts should be available for transfers and not just people who leveled up on that server exclusively. Because think about it, people who level up on that server exclusively are going to skip Classic raid content anyway and just hop over to Outland at 58.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

"Activision Blizzard annual revenue for 2018 was $7.5B, a 6.88% increase from 2017. Activision Blizzard annual revenue for 2017 was $7.017B, a 6.19% increase from 2016. Activision Blizzard annual revenue for 2016 was $6.608B, a 41.68% increase from 2015."

Throwing out random revenue without any context doesn't help whatever point you're trying to make.

[Fascinate]

I don't know about that. Everyone would be baseline, right? level 60 in a max-70 world.

I guess what I'm saying is that world firsts should be available for transfers and not just people who leveled up on that server exclusively.

Hmm good point i didnt consider server first 70, i just had raids in mind. I guess ya day 1 transfers would have to happen and they would need to time gate the raids instead.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

"Activision Blizzard annual revenue for 2018 was $7.5B, a 6.88% increase from 2017. Activision Blizzard annual revenue for 2017 was $7.017B, a 6.19% increase from 2016. Activision Blizzard annual revenue for 2016 was $6.608B, a 41.68% increase from 2015."

On second thought I see what your point was. There was 41% increase of revenue in 2016, the year Legion released. Most people had already checked out WoD so when Legion was released there was a huge boom of returning players. It looks like it stabilized since then.

[Dacien]

Hmm good point i didnt consider server first 70, i just had raids in mind. I guess ya day 1 transfers would have to happen and they would need to time gate the raids instead.

I guess time gating raids is fine, but even then.... If you're not level 60 and ready to go for world first Outland raid content by the time it's released, you were never in the contention anyway, right?

[Fascinate]

I guess time gating raids is fine, but even then.... If you're not level 60 and ready to go for world first Outland raid content by the time it's released, you were never in the contention anyway, right?

Ya it would just be weird, if they allowed day 1 60 transfers they would need to do something for all the people that are leveling 1-70 (which would be a lot, not everyone would want to pay 35 bucks or whatever).

That's why i made this post, to see what the most reasonable way to go about it would be

[McNeil]

I just hope they don't waste anymore resources beyond Classic.

Its not a waste if people end up enjoying it

[Dacien]

Ya it would just be weird, if they allowed day 1 60 transfers they would need to do something for all the people that are leveling 1-70 (which would be a lot, not everyone would want to pay 35 bucks or whatever).

That's why i made this post, to see what the most reasonable way to go about it would be

I guess that makes sense when you talk about the transfer cost. I'm running off the assumption that people who were on Classic and wanted to transfer over to TBC would get it free. Besides the costs of purchasing TBC (Which might just be a thing; maybe not as much as it was back in the day, but some nominal cost). Just permanently transfer to the TBC server to continue on. The only reason to have the separate server at all is to preserve the Classic server. A lot of people are going to want to move on to TBC with their beloved mains.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Its not a waste if people end up enjoying it

I'd say it's up to the individual. I know there's tons of people that will enjoy it and it's not a waste to them. For me not so much.

[rionalgaming]

I fully believe they will have at least a tbc server but there is no way it's in 2 years. I dont see phases coming out any sooner than 6 months each. I hope they are linger than that honestly. 26 raid lockouts aren't enough imo.

I suspect tbc in 2023.

i expect the tbc in; never i dont expect them to go beyond classic at all unless its over all success then its possible as a seperate server from classic

[Fascinate]

I guess that makes sense when you talk about the transfer cost. I'm running off the assumption that people who were on Classic and wanted to transfer over to TBC would get it free. Just permanently transfer to the TBC server to continue on. The only reason to have the separate server at all is to preserve the Classic server.

Oh they would definitely want to cash in on this lol. Like i said earlier in the thread it would make sense to me for them to offer a free one time transfer to TBC server but it would also remove the lvl 60 from the vanilla server, paying the 35 bucks would allow you to keep the 60 on classic. That so far is what makes the most sense in my head on how they would go about this.

[Alvito]

Agree, they should have taken the server engineers from classic to create more mount/pet models for BFA. Cause as we all know, thats what mmo's are all about ")

They are going to keep splitting up an already shrinking pie if they do that. Some people might want it, but for the good of the game you can only move players to alternate versions so many times before they all suffer.

[Dacien]

Oh they would definitely want to cash in on this lol. Like i said earlier in the thread it would make sense to me for them to offer a free one time transfer to TBC server but it would also remove the lvl 60 from the vanilla server, paying the 35 bucks would allow you to keep the 60 on classic. That so far is what makes the most sense in my head on how they would go about this.

Oh I missed that post, I see it now. Yeah, free transfer makes the most sense to me. I think they'll likely charge some reasonable fee for the TBC "expansion", probably something like 20 bucks for everyone. But the transfer would be free. That's how I see it. I'd be shocked if they dumped as much time and development into Classic and TBC as they have/would and only require the subscription to fuel it.

[Fascinate]

They are going to keep splitting up an already shrinking pie if they do that. Some people might want it, but for the good of the game you can only move players to alternate versions so many times before they all suffer.

Well none of its going to be mandatory, you can keep your 60 or choose the one time transfer or what i think they will do is also offer a character copy as a paid option. If you dont want to pay or use your one time transfer you can simply start fresh 1-70.

[Kolvarg]

Players have the option to:
Create a fresh character at lvl 1
Paid character transfer to TBC server ~1-2months after launch to give people time to hit 60 etc.
Pay to create a template lvl 60 character, again also 1-2 months after tbc launch.

Classic will likely live out for at least 2 years before they introduce TBC. By that time a lot of people who are interested in these classic servers will likely have leveled a bunch of toons and will be put off from having to level 1-60 again just to get into TBC.

I think it would be much more likely that they simply allow free character copies or transfer from Classic to Classic TBC realms, at least level 60 characters, and at least for the first 2 months or so. This would still allow potential new players (ie people who weren't very interested in Classic, but would like to play Classic TBC) to level up in Classic servers a few months before TBC's release and catch up with everyone else.


Given the attitude of the Classic team so far and the monetization announced for Classic, I am hoping that they will make that way.

Now with that said, they will have a though decision to make on how to handle all this, because there is a big drawback of dividing the playerbase between Live, Classic, TBC and WotLK. Even if, for instance, only Live and WotLK are "active" (ie getting updates), there will still be some people playing on the other versions. They did say a big part of the project is conservation (essentially having a "living museum" of Classic WoW), so I would think they would keep Classic playable as the introduce new expansions.

[Fascinate]

Classic will likely live out for at least 2 years before they introduce TBC. By that time a lot of people who are interested in these classic servers will likely have leveled a bunch of toons and will be put off from having to level 1-60 again just to get into TBC.

I think it would be much more likely that they simply allow free character copies or transfer from Classic to Classic TBC realms, at least level 60 characters, and at least for the first 2 months or so. This would still allow potential new players (ie people who weren't very interested in Classic, but would like to play Classic TBC) to level up in Classic servers a few months before TBC's release and catch up with everyone else.


Given the attitude of the Classic team so far and the monetization announced for Classic, I am hoping that they will make that way.

Now with that said, they will have a though decision to make on how to handle all this, because there is a big drawback of dividing the playerbase between Live, Classic, TBC and WotLK. Even if, for instance, only Live and WotLK are "active" (ie getting updates), there will still be some people playing on the other versions. They did say a big part of the project is conservation (essentially having a "living museum" of Classic WoW), so I would think they would keep Classic playable as the introduce new expansions.

A one time free transfer will probably happen but i highly doubt blizzard is going to let that free option be a copy instead of transfer, for financial reasons. On top of that many of the people will want their 60 to stay on classic realms, thus my suggestion of the character copy being a paid service that allows the 60 to remain. If you didnt want to use the one time free transfer or the paid copy you could always just start fresh 1-70. I dont see it as dividing the playerbase because none of this is mandatory, you also would have a huge influx of players that are interested in TBC because of better class balance and arenas that would help even out the people that didnt want to transfer their 60's over.

Again the reason i made this thread is to figure out the best way to go about this for all involved, and given blizzard has all but said TBC is going to happen these are things that need to be discussed The one thing they wont do is just paste TBC on top of classic, so we need to figure out the best way to plan out how they are going to do fresh servers.

[Aurabolt]

In terms of timeline, I do think TBC and WOTLK will be announced at the same time but released a year apart from each other. For example we get TBC in 2021 and WOTLK in 2022.

Blizzard likes giving players choices when it makes sense. This isn't Retail. I do think TBC and Wrath Servers will be separate. We know TBC was about 7GB and Wrath was about 10GB. Aside from being updated to run on current builds, no one should need to update their machines for TBC/Wrath Servers. So, if you wanted you could run all 3 + Retail. My remaining computer doesn't have the specs to run Retail which is why I haven't upgraded to BFA yet. Makes no sense to upgrade for an expansion my toaster can't run, yes?

...Classic/TBC/Wrath is a different story though. More so given they will share the same sub with Retail.

Getting back to choices. I do think Blizzard will give characters these options when TBC and then Wrath is released:

• Copy to TBC/Wrath: Players can pick chars in Classic/TBC to be copied to TBC/Wrath. The copied char will spawn outside SW/Org in TBC/Wrath with their talents reset.
• Transfer to TBC/Wrath: Players can pick chars in TBC/Classic to be sent to TBC/Wrath. The usual Transfer Rules apply. The transferred char will spawn outside SW/Org in TBC/Wrath with their talents reset.

There is also the fact 2 races are introduced in TBC that start at level 1 (Draenei and Blood Elves) and a class introduced in Wrath that starts at level 55 with a precondition attached (Death Knight).


Achievements are introduced in Wrath. I assume Blizzard will have separate achievements from Retail but I am also hopeful certain Retail Accountwide Achievements will be retroactively applied to those who did the content when it was current and certain other stuff. A few fun Achievements I'd like to also see include:

• Classic Veteran: Played the original World of Warcraft.
• Burning Crusade Veteran: Played The Burning Crusade when it was current.
• Wrath of the Lich King Veteran: Played Wrath of the Lich King when it was current.

We could see some QOL additions in TBC or Wrath from later expansions as well. These all come to mind:

• Mount Tab
• Heirloom Tab
• AOE Loot
• Bank Mat Tab
• Stack Mats up to 200
• Instant Mail to Alts
• Gold Heirloom Vendors in Ironforge and The Undercity
• Riding learned at level 20 and Epic Riding learned at level 40
• Flying learned at level 60 and Northrend Flying learned at level 70
• Mailboxes in all starting areas
• When bought, Traveler's Tundra Mammoth is Accountwide
• In Wrath Servers, you can choose to quest in Northrend from level 58

I also think Blizz will allow folks to buy a "Gold Bond" for $10, which you would sell in game for 50k Gold. Enough to buy everything in in Wrath and TBC and no I don't think it would be game-breaking. All current and future chars would get one in their mailbox which they can sell for the money. It would be a 1-time purchase to say the least. Most would blow the money on leveling profs as well as mounts in TBC/Wrath. The Traveler's Tundra Mammoth is 20k Gold if you're not Exalted and 16.5k if you are I believe. I was Exalted when I bought it myself.

One thing no one's said yet is the topic of paid boosts. I know it's a touchy subject to say the least.

[Janaa]

We could see some QOL additions in TBC or Wrath from later expansions as well. These all come to mind:

• Mount Tab
• Heirloom Tab
• AOE Loot
• Bank Mat Tab
• Stack Mats up to 200
• Instant Mail to Alts
• Gold Heirloom Vendors in Ironforge and The Undercity
• Riding learned at level 20 and Epic Riding learned at level 40
• Flying learned at level 60 and Northrend Flying learned at level 70
• Mailboxes in all starting areas
• When bought, Traveler's Tundra Mammoth is Accountwide
• In Wrath Servers, you can choose to quest in Northrend from level 58

I also think Blizz will allow folks to buy a "Gold Bond" for $10, which you would sell in game for 50k Gold. Enough to buy everything in in Wrath and TBC and no I don't think it would be game-breaking. All current and future chars would get one in their mailbox which they can sell for the money. It would be a 1-time purchase to say the least. Most would blow the money on leveling profs as well as mounts in TBC/Wrath. The Traveler's Tundra Mammoth is 20k Gold if you're not Exalted and 16.5k if you are I believe. I was Exalted when I bought it myself.

Why, why and WHY? The game was fine without those QOL changes. If you want to go experience wrath content with retail QOL, you can. Level up to 80, lock your XP, and away you go. It seems kinda silly to introduce that into TBC/Wrath. The whole point of classic servers is to experience as close to the original experience as you reasonably can. Not some tricked out uber-classic with all the bells and whistles of retail.

But the gold? What the hell? Why not just earn the gold, the same way you did when you got the mammoth the first time? This would entirely change the meta of the game and economy and is a super bad idea.

[ItsWhimsy]

Brainstorming on how Blizz rolls out TBC/Wrath.

They won't.
/thread