What if there was a way...

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

...to continue playing past expansions as current content?

I am thinking mostly of alts here. Most people want their mains and maybe even their favorite alts in current content for raiding, M+, etc. But if you're like me and have several alts, it's kind of fun to go back and play other xpacs. Except - even if you've never played your alt past Legion, for example - their Legion toys (legendaries, artifact) no longer work. I would enjoy leaving a handful of my alts in the expansions that best suited them (my DH in Legion, for example) and still able to play with that xpac's toys, even if all I could do with them was end-zone dailies. It wouldn't be my main thing, just something to play with occasionally and remember those days.

Blizz already has lots of innovations with Chromie Time and Classic. I don't really expect anything like this to happen anytime soon. But I would enjoy it.

[Relapses]

It already failed catastrophically in Classic and I doubt it'd fare any better with retail.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

For one thing, stop increasing the level cap and stop with gear treadmill. That would eliminate the artificial incentive to only do the latest expansion's content, and it would also help stop the diminishment of the challenge of older content.

[dragonflight10]

...to continue playing past expansions as current content?

I am thinking mostly of alts here. Most people want their mains and maybe even their favorite alts in current content for raiding, M+, etc. But if you're like me and have several alts, it's kind of fun to go back and play other xpacs. Except - even if you've never played your alt past Legion, for example - their Legion toys (legendaries, artifact) no longer work. I would enjoy leaving a handful of my alts in the expansions that best suited them (my DH in Legion, for example) and still able to play with that xpac's toys, even if all I could do with them was end-zone dailies. It wouldn't be my main thing, just something to play with occasionally and remember those days.

Blizz already has lots of innovations with Chromie Time and Classic. I don't really expect anything like this to happen anytime soon. But I would enjoy it.

How do you wake up one morning and think it's helpful to post stuff like this ? its delusional on so many levels

[MrLachyG]

There might be a way but I don’t think it will ever happen. The devs at Blizz put a huge amount of work and effort into the new expansion, why would they want to discourage people from playing it by giving them options?

[Stormwolf64]

For one thing, stop increasing the level cap and stop with gear treadmill. That would eliminate the artificial incentive to only do the latest expansion's content, and it would also help stop the diminishment of the challenge of older content.

But would give you the feeling of "what is the point of doing all this?" like you easily get in elder scrolls online with non current content

[Ealyssa]

It already failed catastrophically in Classic and I doubt it'd fare any better with retail.

This, nobody really wants to be out of the wave.

And maybe at that point the few that those should play single player games…

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

This, nobody really wants to be out of the wave.

And maybe at that point the few that those should play single player games…

If you still played the current expansion on your main, and even on a couple alts, how would you be out of the wave?
I am only talking about something to do with other alts for a change of pace. Like be able to leave a couple alts behind in other expansions, to continue playing by their rules, as long as you only use them there.

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It already failed catastrophically in Classic and I doubt it'd fare any better with retail.

What do you mean by "It"? Exactly what I said, or something you consider similar?

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How do you wake up one morning and think it's helpful to post stuff like this ? its delusional on so many levels

lol ~ I only said I would enjoy it. I never said you had to.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

For one thing, stop increasing the level cap and stop with gear treadmill. That would eliminate the artificial incentive to only do the latest expansion's content, and it would also help stop the diminishment of the challenge of older content.

And instantly destroy the game so they probably won't do that

[Relapses]

What do you mean by "It"? Exactly what I said, or something you consider similar?

They offered a way for Classic players to stay on Classic realms while the rest of the realms continued into TBC.

These servers were immediately dead and barely a single soul played on them. They recently had to be shut down completely because there was no interest in it.

[Otaka]

It already failed catastrophically in Classic and I doubt it'd fare any better with retail.

Failed how exactly? and what does classic have to do with retail?
They are two separate games... and as we can see classic is nothing but a sideproject for blizzard since they are barely even supporting it.
Even then... failed? its been way more popular than retail has been for years. A new expansion always dies in a month or two but classic managed to chug along several months before most people quit, and even it was accelerated by content we already know how to do so there was nothing truly new there.

If they could somehow combine the two... hmm... so people dont have to launch a different client entirely.
Its never been tried before... timewalking is barely an attempt to make old dungeons work, and that was abandoned real quick... now its kept as a timegating mechanic to squeeze subscription time for no reason.

If only old content could be made relevant again... hmm... i wonder how... maybe a daily badge system with randomized daily objectives to take you into older content like guild wars 2 or ffxiv. naah it cant possibly work can it? those other mmos are dead! right? ... right?!



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They offered a way for Classic players to stay on Classic realms while the rest of the realms continued into TBC.

These servers were immediately dead and barely a single soul played on them. They recently had to be shut down completely because there was no interest in it.

It died because they asked us to pay to play on them... clearly not the brightest idea to split the community.
Literally everyone was asking them to let us play on both for free rather than splitting it with a paywall. Ontop of a subscription.

[Amnaught]

Should have just disabled different mechanics within specific types of content.

Like, all Legion legendaries should work as intended within Legion dungeons, raids, and zones.

[Relapses]

Failed how exactly? and what does classic have to do with retail?
They are two separate games... and as we can see classic is nothing but a sideproject for blizzard since they are barely even supporting it.
Even then... failed? its been way more popular than retail has been for years. A new expansion always dies in a month or two but classic managed to chug along several months before most people quit, and even it was accelerated by content we already know how to do so there was nothing truly new there.

If they could somehow combine the two... hmm... so people dont have to launch a different client entirely.
Its never been tried before... timegating is barely an attempt to make old dungeons work, and that was abandoned real quick... now its kept as a timegating mechanic to squeeze subscription time for no reason.

If only old content could be made relevant again... hmm... i wonder how... maybe a daily badge system with randomized daily objectives to take you into older content like guild wars 2 or ffxiv. naah it cant possibly work can it? those other mmos are dead! right? ... right?!



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It died because they asked us to pay to play on them... clearly not the brightest idea to split the community.
Literally everyone was asking them to let us play on both for free rather than splitting it with a paywall. Ontop of a subscription.

"Literally everyone," in this example being you and the five other forum posters who insisted that it would be the best thing since sliced bread. TBC Classic realms were just as popular as the OG Classic realms and from the look of it, WotLK Classic realms are going to be even more popular. People do not want to fuck off in the past, they want their characters to progress. The entire idea this thread is predicated upon sucks ass and appeals to such a minute audience of players that it's barely worth addressing. Just find a pirate realm and go ham if you want to lock yourself in a time capsule. Don't waste Blizzard's (or our time) insisting on a version of WoW most people do not have any interest in playing.

[Biomega]

It died because they asked us to pay to play on them

So what you really want is to play for free.

Sounds to me like what you're asking for is for them to legalize private servers so you can do whatever you want without paying Blizzard money. Yeah, I'm sure they'll get right on that.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

Should have just disabled different mechanics within specific types of content.

Like, all Legion legendaries should work as intended within Legion dungeons, raids, and zones.

That would be perfect!

[hulkgor]

For one thing, stop increasing the level cap and stop with gear treadmill.

Surefire way of killing the game. No thank you.

[MoanaLisa]

For one thing, stop increasing the level cap and stop with gear treadmill. That would eliminate the artificial incentive to only do the latest expansion's content, and it would also help stop the diminishment of the challenge of older content.

I agree with freezing the level cap and releasing expansions that are nothing but endgame difficulty content. The one good thing that would come out of this—along with some possible things that wouldn't be so great—is that WoW could become an integrated game world instead of a bunch of standalone expansions. The easiest and probably best way to do this is an approach that isn't all that unique. Down-level players to some extent when they are in content that is below their current level. They could perhaps be something like a level 16 (with all spells and abilities) in a level 12 zone which might be no more than "pay attention" difficulty.

I don't think that would kill the game. I don't know if it would be terribly popular. I doubt Blizzard will do this as they are moving toward separating all of the expansions so you can level 1-whatever in one expansion's content. That's the opposite of having a coherent world to game in. I think Blizzard has given up on this which people who believe that there will be some massive rewrite of the zones a la Cataclysm should think about. They're going the opposite direction.

[Neuroticaine]

What do you mean by "It"? Exactly what I said, or something you consider similar?

Season of Mastery. They let the CLASSIC classic fiends try to stay relevant when everyone else moved on to TBC. It was such a failure they're not even going to do the same with TBC->Wrath

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For one thing, stop increasing the level cap and stop with gear treadmill. That would eliminate the artificial incentive to only do the latest expansion's content, and it would also help stop the diminishment of the challenge of older content.

Strange comment coming from a FFXIV apologist.

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I agree with freezing the level cap and releasing expansions that are nothing but endgame difficulty content.

Could you honestly imagine having to grind your way through 20 years of content just to be relevant to the newest stuff everyone's running?

What I WILL say, and what I have ALWAYS stated, is that the power difference between the first tier of expansions and the last tier of the expansion is WAY too large.

Someone who is competent at the game should be able to contribute to the latest content, even if they're fresh at level cap, rather than being practically dead weight, playing perfectly and doing less damage than a healer just spamming their main nuke during their free globals.

[MoanaLisa]

Could you honestly imagine having to grind your way through 20 years of content just to be relevant to the newest stuff everyone's running?

Anything but the base edition of an expansion has an end-game character boost included with it.

Yes, I can imagine it but I wouldn't do it more than a couple of times. It's a $20 choice ($49.99 vs. $69.99). I'll be the first in line to say that the base edition ought to include a character boost as well.

[Sanguinerd]

Blizzard is not known to offer such freedom, we're kind of told how and where to play.

Would be nice though.