What is your position on the nature of "Classic WoW?"

[JohnnyMccrum]

I'm curious what peoples general stances are.

You can vote for multiple options.

[Sulfate]

I think people are dramatically overestimating the staying power of nostalgia and outdated content. New players aren't likely to pick up a 2004-era game, and older players don't have the time to commit to the insane vanilla grinds.

[JohnnyMccrum]

older players don't have the time to commit to the insane vanilla grinds.

I think this is a generalization, many people may just want to play and experience the game, not everyone is going to reach Naxx even if they play all day.

It's understandable if you have kids and a full-time job you're going to find it harder to compete at the top, but not to simply chill out and play the game, I think this is one thing that modern players don't understand about Vanilla, it was a world, chilling out in thunderbluff or going to goldshire with two of your best friends were some of the best experiences.

As for newer players, I really think the players should decide that for themselves when they buy it and play, if they think it sucks, it sucks.

[Sulfate]

I think this is a generalization, many people may just want to play and experience the game, not everyone is going to reach Naxx.

Stepping back, I can see your point. There's no inherent need to reach endgame, but that runs counter to the mentality that every expansion in the game has ingrained in us.

[JohnnyMccrum]

Stepping back, I can see your point. There's no inherent need to reach endgame, but that runs counter to the mentality that every expansion in the game has ingrained in us.

The current culture is to get to max level as soon as possible so you can "start playing the game". the ironic thing is, for modern WoW hitting 110 is really the start of a much longer journey of gearing up, getting better at your class and entering harder content, and sadly that progress is then reset with a new patch, the new patch is essentially a free boost past the lower tiers of content. when timeless isle existed, there was almost no reason for you to step into pandaria for example.

In vanilla, older content is pretty much required, you really need to do dungeons before raiding, and onyxia before BWL, and BWL before Naxx. there are attunements and things you need to get, like frost, fire and shadow resistance. even getting things like the scholomance key is a journey that isn't erased by time. even at a high level you are forced to make friends that have the stuff you need, or do it yourself.

because of how long everything takes, people are more likely to just chill out and do it in their own time, and do the things they want to do, like professions, whilst forming friendships with that one warrior that might tank for them eventually.

Things like Dire Maul did eventually ruin this, Dire Maul was like a "reset" patch within vanilla, offering vastly superior gear to other classic dungeons and even low-level epics. it was the boost of vanilla.

[VincentWolf]

I think people are dramatically overestimating the staying power of nostalgia and outdated content. New players aren't likely to pick up a 2004-era game, and older players don't have the time to commit to the insane vanilla grinds.

Thousands of people playing on private servers (including myself) disagree.

[Vineri]

Both of the first options may be OK, but with drawbacks.

As-Is : This would simulate a late start, as a player joining right before TBC. Pretend TBC got cancelled. It would be accurate to Vanilla. However it would neglect the early entry difficulty of Vanilla.

Progression : This would half simulate the evolution of WoW, unless Talents and abilities were also done in a progressive state. In other words, having only 1.4 currently out, while using 1.12 everything else, is not accurate to Vanilla (although still fun, as PS's have shown).

As for minor GUI alterations, I said yes, but only so far as creating / moving chat windows, changing fonts, and such. PS's use this, but I'm not sure when it came out on official WoW. Hi-Res Widescreen mode as well, although with old models.

[Afrospinach]

I think people are dramatically overestimating the staying power of nostalgia and outdated content. New players aren't likely to pick up a 2004-era game, and older players don't have the time to commit to the insane vanilla grinds.

The difference is on a "classic" server that is never going anywhere you have all the time in the world.

Stun locking was a bug? If you actually play as a team this is never an issue, in fact rogues were pretty exasperated in vanilla at their lack of group play utility compared to say a warrior who can sponge heals a cleave everyone to death. Sure rogues can sponge heals too but they never had the rage dynamic.

Classic is probably the only xpac that can be rolled out as is. It is nicely tiered so you can go from one to the next, tough to skip tiers as a group. It is my preferred concept so the server can just be locked in time. Progressive servers don't really appeal to me but all the subsequent xpacs had catchup vendors and what have you that will render launch content obsolete so they would have to be tweaked or progressive.

[JohnnyMccrum]

Progression : This would half simulate the evolution of WoW, unless Talents and abilities were also done in a progressive state. In other words, having only 1.4 currently out, while using 1.12 everything else, is not accurate to Vanilla (although still fun, as PS's have shown).

progression would be offering patch 1.1, then 1.2, then 1.3 but with game-breaking bugs removed retroactively. this means that the overpowered talent tree specs would never be implemented, skipping forward to the fix.

that's why I included the second option "progression with bugs" (which would have broken talent trees)

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Hi-Res Widescreen mode as well, although with old models.

not sure if 1.1 had 1920x1080, but 1.12.1 does.