How I predict WoW Classic plays out

[HuxNeva]

I find it crazy people think that Classic servers which will forever be in a permanent content drought, will somehow last long enough for people to get bored of Retail content droughts and go to it.

"OMG THEY HAVEN'T ADDED NEW CONTENT FOR 3 MONTHS!! I'm going to go play Classic, where the content hasn't changed in 12 years!"

I find it hilarious that people think that if Classic turns out to be successful, that there will be no new content developed for it.

[rda]

I think the OP is way too optimistic.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I can exactly tell when you lit that blunt. It's point 8.

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Bookmarking this thread for later, I also have an idea how this project will play out and my rose-colored goggles aren't permanently impacting my vision like the OP.

I gave up bookmarking threads/posts here. I just keep a link to the forum and bookmark the few realistic scenarios, that is way more economically viable.

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Best case scenario, Legacy lays the groundwork for whatever becomes of WoW once Blizzard announces another MMO to replace it.

I could see that happening as well. I doubt they will want to keep spinning wow until the end of time. The classic servers will be their smal scale beta test to see how they can let a game taper out over a longer time without landing in the news because of mass wow related suicides because some shut-ins can no longer cope with the world without wow.

[Deleted]

13. The WoW Classic population hovers around 80%-90% the size of the retail population.

To be honest i dont know where is this thinking coming from. There seems to be one general misconception that when Classic is out, well thats the end of retail. That is not the case. Most people will never stay in classic or are not interested in trying it out. I am final year in games design at uni atm, so there are gamers around me all the time and none of them seem to be interested in classic. At the beginning i though that well fair enough, they are kinda young to be hardcore vanilla fans but then when i started asking people at games events, the answer was the same: "Yeah i could try it, i guess. If i have time."

[TaurenNinja]

1. There will be an initial rush to classic servers, especially if it is released during a content draught on retail (say, 50% of retail)
2. Most people will play a bit for nostalgia's sake, but then realize that it's just not that great anymore and eventually stop doing it (or just continue doing it very casually on the side)
3. Some people will think this is the best thing ever (despite a ton of flaws) and stay on the classic servers, thinking they're the hardcore crowd when in reality they're quite casual
4. In the end, classic population will shrink to something like 20% of retail, with some ups and downs depending on if and when new content is being released for the classic realms
5. Most classic players will spend more time on forums discussing and debating balance/changes/patches
6. If the classic realms won't be updated with expansions after ~2 years, the classic population will shrink a lot more
7. If Blizzard decides to not update the classic realms with expansions and instead release new TBC servers after ~2 years, the already small player base will split up even more, each becoming even smaller
8. If Blizzard decides to update the classic realms with the TBC expansion, there will be some more players who liked TBC checking it out shortly, and some more players who wanted the servers to forever stay on classic will leave, meaning that there won't be an increase in player base. Over time, player base will only shrink, not get bigger.

[Deleted]

Everyone thinking Classic servers will bring a nice community back is just blind.

Hey guys, psssst, the problem of the community is not from the game. It's the shitty humanity we have these days.

Other games tried a vanilla style and failed hard. There are reasons. Gaming today is a casual fiesta.

[Narzok]

4. The people who vault ahead of the pack are those who ignore pretty much all quests from 1-25 and just grind. They hit 25+ ahead of everyone else and then get places like Arathi Highlands or Thousand Needles to themselves, which means they can now quest and pull ahead even FASTER.

why do people think this is some kind of hidden super tactic? everyone and his dog will be doing this, so basically all starting zones up to the point where it is flat out impossible to solo mobs will be stuffed with "smart" people grinding mobs.

the only people who can hope to pull away are groups who can go that extra few lv higher in the grind-area (and i think at some point higher-lv mobs give less exp? could be wrong)

[MiiiMiii]

This thread is the biggest proof you will find on the WoW community being split.

Holy shit are retail people triggered by this thread.

I don't think you guys realise how much influence big Twitch streamers have. And the top dogs will all play Classic. A lot. It's naive to think that Classic will not have a huge launch.

Will many fall off because it's too hardcore? Of course. Will many new people that has never experienced Classic, and realise they LOVE it? Of course. A new game in the Battle.net launcher and being released by Blizzard is a huge deal. Tons of "noobs" will play it, even people that has never played it nor Retail before.

To me, BfA looks trash. It's the same trash that Legion is. It's a game you play for 2 weeks then get bored. Then you might play again when a new major path comes for a week again. Classic is not like this. There is constantly people leveling, people being at early raids, while very very few people are on raids like Naxx. You won't run out of content. You will use maybe 3 months to level to 60. Then you will spend like 2 years minimum to get "full naxx gear". Then after that you can go for Rank 14. Thats like 1.5 years again. Then you can start an alt, and you have 4 new years of content again. do it on all classes, thats like 30 years of content. I think that's enough. The point is, there is no "content draught" in Classic, so the slope won't go down after 2 weeks like it does in retail.

Am I sad that the WoW community is this split? Not really. I kinda wish the "classic is DUMB" people would just stay away from this part of the forum though.

[kamuimac]

Here is what I think will happen:

1. WoW Classic is released.
2. Players OVERWHELM the WoW Classic server. There is far MORE interest in WoW Classic than they anticipated. The initial Classic playerbase is something like 65% of the retail playerbase.
3. The zones are congested and packed. It becomes difficult to level simply because you wind up with a queue to kill certain quest mobs.

ad 2 - ha ha ha ha ha keep dreaming

ad 3 - 90 % people quit on hogger quest because due to no multitagging they have to wait 10 hours for tag

aaaaand thats how its gonna end

[shifu]

WoW Classic is launched. There is an overwhelming surge of players into Classic. less than a week later, 80% of them are gone, never to return.

When there is a content drought, players initially give classic another chance, but realise that with the content scaling in live, they can finally enjoy entire zones and questlines, without having to sacrafice so much from live.

Initially, players think they will build this really positive reputation for themselves on classic, and will build an amazing community. They realize very quickly this was NEVER the case in vanilla, and is one of the worst examples of rose tinted glasses. No one cares. No one remembers you from the previous run.

Toxic players find they can be even more horrible in a dungeon, because the chance of getting kicked is much, much lower than in live, since the group would lose anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour trying to replace you.

Just remember, this amazing community you think you are getting will be built around the players on these forums. and you guys havnt agreed on a single thing since the announcement, and have done nothing but fight each other.

Retail continues to plod along quite happily with a strong, dedicated playerbase who enjoy it for what it is.

Classic becomes exactly what it is - fanfare and a silly little side project.

Clearly you never played Vanilla. Your reputation did and will matter. People did not group / raid with dicks. And yes people would gladly kick an asshole from a group even it cost them 5 minutes. More like the run was over or it would take an hour to replace. But people would go out of their way to be a dick in the world / dungeons / raids. Then the other people would go out of their way to replace / ruin you on the server if you deserved it.

[Gavll]

I'd be surprised is Classic servers even reach 10% of retail population

[kamuimac]

Clearly you never played Vanilla. Your reputation did and will matter. People did not group / raid with dicks. And yes people would gladly kick an asshole from a group even it cost them 5 minutes. More like the run was over or it would take an hour to replace. But people would go out of their way to be a dick in the world / dungeons / raids. Then the other people would go out of their way to replace / ruin you on the server if you deserved it.

oh th sweet innocence - as long as they were geared and what is more important ATTUNED - ofc people group up with them - and ofc people recuited them to guilds.

you have no clue if you belive it wasnt the case. nobody would ever kick from guild geared attuned player because they would have to waste enornous amount of time to regear and reattune new players to replace them .

im sorry but its you who have no clue.

[Bumbasta]

I do indeed think that at first a lot fo people will try these servers. But after a while they finally see how terrible the game was compared to now (as in most boring rotations ever, boring quests, grindy, hard to find mobs, wasting a lot of time on bullshit) and start moving back to BfA. Because WoW has evolved to become a much better game than it was at first. Times have changed.

[shifu]

oh th sweet innocence - as long as they were geared and what is more important ATTUNED - ofc people group up with them - and ofc people recuited them to guilds.

you have no clue if you belive it wasnt the case. nobody would ever kick from guild geared attuned player because they would have to waste enornous amount of time to regear and reattune new players to replace them .

im sorry but its you who have no clue.

Try harder big boi.

Keep showing everyone how very little you know about Vanilla. And more importantly that you did not actually raid in Vanilla.

Atunement to both MC(1 BRD run. Not even a full clear.) and BWL(1 UBRS run) literally took a couple hours at most with any geared guild. Any guild would gladly make the group to attune a newbie.And our guild did this all the time. It was so easy and effortless. Just this one point alone shows you never raided in Vanilla. Whys that? Because in Vanilla everyone worked together as a team. You would know this if you actually played in Vanilla. You mention that you wouldn't kick a geared asshole because it would cost the guild too much time. What you don't understand is the asshole would have never gotten geared in the first place because the asshole would have shown his true self long before the opportunity to completely gear himself, and thus would have been removed.

So let me reiterate myself. Clearly you never played Vanilla.

[Ielenia]

12. People begin to regularly clear Naxxramas by now, with the PvE content complete, people quit WoW Classic. But thee people also feel retail is somehow inferior and do not return to retail.

So... what you're saying, is that classic servers will be what kills both classic and modern WoW?

[Sky High]

you know why it's frowned upon to make ASSumptions? do ya OP?

[Super Kami Dende]

I find it hilarious that people think that if Classic turns out to be successful, that there will be no new content developed for it.

There was, we are currently up to the Legion expansion.

[AuthurDent]

I think alot of people forget what it was like to level in Vanilla. Mobs couldn't be mult-tapped, respawn rates were adjusted in a later patch from initial release so spawn times were slow. Mobs could be trained onto another player as well and different types could chain aggro. While his opinion of release is his own, #3 has it's merits.

I think you forget that most people who are excited for Classic... have been playing on private servers for years now... they know exactly what they like.

[Celista]

I think you forget that most people who are excited for Classic... have been playing on private servers for years now... they know exactly what they like.

Yeah, they like playing the game for free.

[stomination]

Here is what I think will happen:

1. WoW Classic is released.
2. Players OVERWHELM the WoW Classic server. There is far MORE interest in WoW Classic than they anticipated. The initial Classic playerbase is something like 65% of the retail playerbase.
3. The zones are congested and packed. It becomes difficult to level simply because you wind up with a queue to kill certain quest mobs.
4. The people who vault ahead of the pack are those who ignore pretty much all quests from 1-25 and just grind. They hit 25+ ahead of everyone else and then get places like Arathi Highlands or Thousand Needles to themselves, which means they can now quest and pull ahead even FASTER.
5. Blizzard decides to take no action regarding congested zones, adopting a policy that "the people wanted a vanilla experience and this is part of it."
6. The Classic playerbase drops as people quit because they won't tolerate congested early zones. However, this is balanced by some people quitting WoW altogether, even retail. So the playerbase drops to something like 50% of retail.
7. After a couple months, WoW Classic begins to settle in. Players adopt a policy of switching to Classic every time there is a content drought in retail.
8. Every time there is a retail content drought, people play Classic and realize that, for some reason, its just more FUN and INTERESTING. They have a reputation in the Classic community to defend and protect. They MATTER. The gear and accomplishments seem to MATTER in a way it does not on retail.
9. With every content drought in retail, Classic actually converts people to exclusive Classic players.
10. 6 months after launch, the Classic population is about 75% the size of the retail population.
11. 9 months to a year after launch the Classic population is roughly the same size as retail.
12. People begin to regularly clear Naxxramas by now, with the PvE content complete, people quit WoW Classic. But thee people also feel retail is somehow inferior and do not return to retail.
13. The WoW Classic population hovers around 80%-90% the size of the retail population.
14. At this point, with the PvE content complete, the WoW Classic server begins a permanent transition into a PvP server. WoW classic becomes exclusively the place to grind rank 14, or play Arathi Basin, WSG, or especially old Alterac Valley all day.

I actually think that most will quit and go back to their free pirated servers.