"You think you do, but you don't."

[Nanaboostme]

At this point in time; how accurate/inaccurate is this now to you?

[Valkrysa]

What about an option for "He was right, but Blizzard has embraced it anyways and that's great"?

I guess that would just fall under "He was right, still is right." though it feels less nuanced. Maybe an "Other, specify in the comments" option.

[derpkitteh]

i think he was not exactly right.

people do want it. these new people wanting changes to it, they're not the ones that fought for it. they're new people wanting to experience vanilla, but not how it was.

that doesn't make him right. the people that wanted it, wanted it how it was back then. that's all there is to it.

[Nasuuna]

i think he was not exactly right.

people do want it. these new people wanting changes to it, they're not the ones that fought for it. they're new people wanting to experience vanilla, but not how it was.

that doesn't make him right. the people that wanted it, wanted it how it was back then. that's all there is to it.

really hope they don't change to much

I legit want to experience real vanilla, as I'm a BC baby

[Eazy]

Just because some people don't know what OP is saying about

[Count Zero]

You know the vitriolic arguments that are happening between the "absolutely no changes whatsoever" and "QoL changes, please" camps ? That's basically what he meant.

Some of the former are going to crash hard from their nostalgia trip pretty early on. Some of the latter will realize even massive QoL overhauls can't bridge the gap between 2004 and 2019 (I'm assuming it comes out on Vanilla's 15th anniversary, 2 years from now to the month).

I mean, if they're doing it, they figure it will turn a profit for them. It'll probably have a pretty comfy population for a very long time, actually. But I guarantee there is a not-insignificant number of people who just can't see right now that probably 90+ percent of the variables that accounted for the magic they felt back then are gone, because they were tied to a particular era of their particular individual lives.

When I started playing in BC, I'd just gone back to school, and I was in community college. Since then I've graduated from undergrad, dabbled in grad school, and have been working (in an office now vs delivering pizza when I started WoW) since.

Again, don't get me wrong - I do think it will be a success. But we're going to see people making threads about how the magic is gone. They'll blame whatever changes Blizz makes (picking this patch over that, or removing some exploit that they relied on, or whatever their decisions on raid size, new models, etc, etc, etc ... or even if the only thing they change are dc bugs ). But hopefully some of them will be able to finally see/admit that, yes, times change.

[Swalload]

At this point in time; how accurate/inaccurate is this now to you?

It's extremely accurate seeing the insane amount of people who are realizing how different vanilla is compared to their embellished memories so they ask for changes to make it less tedious and crappy like vanilla really was.

[Koward]

The statement "you think you do but you don't" was IMO always right.
Vanilla is popular not because of nostalgia but because of certain gameplay mechanics that were part of it. You think you want Vanilla, but in fact you want its gameplay, that could very well be Vanilla as it was or a completely new game set in a different universe or whatever. So you think you do, but you don't.
At least that's how I felt it. Maybe he had something else in mind.

[time0ut]

He was wrong and he is still wrong. The people who want this really do want it.

- - - Updated - - -

The statement "you think you do but you don't" was IMO always right.
Vanilla is popular not because of nostalgia but because of certain gameplay mechanics that were part of it. You think you want Vanilla, but in fact you want its gameplay, that could very well be Vanilla as it was or a completely new game set in a different universe or whatever. So you think you do, but you don't.
At least that's how I felt it.

Ok, I could agree with that take on it. If there was a version of WoW with the same immersion, server community, class customization, etc, I would play the shit out of it even if it wasn't Vanilla.

[MoanaLisa]

Just look at the uproar over proposed changes. Clearly he was right then and right now. That doesn't mean that I agree with him personally. In fact I don't but applied across the board I think he had it just about right. I'm sorry they didn't push pristine servers harder. Always have been. I still want them as an alternative to the main game.

[ro9ue]

He's right, still right.

I suspect 80% of the people who try classic when it's released will leave in a month. Hopefully for Blizzard, that 20% will still be enough to consider it a financially sound endeavor.

Also often when people say "I want Vanilla back", they are really speaking to wanting a -feeling- back, but if confronted with Vanilla as is, they would be like... how the fuck did I enjoy this?

Think of how many times you've went back to play an old game you used to enjoy and it was surprisingly bad from what you remember. It's because the -feeling- when it was new and something you haven't experienced before was what you were remembering and not necessarily the crystallized state of the game at the time.

Happens to me every time I get an itch to play EverQuest 1 again. I don't play much longer than an hour or two before I'm like... WoW is just way better.

Classic for me will probably be a place I can go to scratch an itch, but I don't see myself investing any considerable amount of time there.

[Kolbjorn]

At this point in time; how accurate/inaccurate is this now to you?

In terms of pure marketing/behavior theory, he's probably more right than he is wrong.

Basically, people's stated intentions typically deviate from their actual behaviors. And message board / fanfest chats are just stated intentions.

Sure, there will be a few servers worth of people that can't give up the past, but they won't be the majority of servers. A few loud people aren't the majority, so when he says "you" he might not necessarily mean "you," but his statement is likely valid for the vast majority of the player base.


Coca Cola wouldn't hire fat stacks of psychology PhDs to get you to buy specific products at specific times if all they had to do was ask 3 loud product zealots. They'd just do what those 3 guys say. Same is likely true for Blizzard.

[Heladys]

He was entirely right, because the thing people think they want never existed.

[Lochton]

At this point in time; how accurate/inaccurate is this now to you?

With all the threads talking about various changes that weren't a thing, it is quite accurate on that crowd.

[Aggrophobic]

At this point in time; how accurate/inaccurate is this now to you?

Seeing every forum filled with posts about how people want to change vanilla into something it never was I'd say the statement was pretty accurate.

[ro9ue]

I kinda feel like they are just releasing classic to turn around and say 'I told you so' after the playerbase dies and theres only a handful of people left, 2bh. I am looking forward to trying classic servers myself, but I don't think it will last long for most people.

I don't think I can be that cynical about it. Honestly, I think they really want to do it justice. I don't see Blizzard going through all that work just to have something fail for a simple snarky "I told you so".

This is a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. They probably at least saw there was a considerable interest in it, enough that it might entice players to get a subscription who have left the game over the years, and maybe even if people come back to try classic and don't like it... they might say fuck it I have a sub I'll give live a try and get hooked back in.

For current sub holders this is just extra stuff to check out.

Basing my assumtpions that they will include this into the base WoW sub and not add a separate charge. If there is a separate charge... it's deader than dead.

[Akka]

He was factually wrong. People did and do play Vanilla to this day and have fun. This alone PROVE (not an opinion) that he was wrong.
Now, there are a lot of idiots who can't manage to see facts even when they punch them in the face, so...