Dev Watercooler: Inside the World of Warcraft Classic BlizzCon Demo

[rogoth]

Only reason I would want to play classic is if they allowed people to collect lost trans mog that could be sent over to Wow regular.

pretty much this.

[Zerzuru]

Just reading first pages made me excited about Vanilla , just to see Hell unleased on forums.

PS: You dont need to be Blizzard developer to know they will fix wall jumping.

[Arakakao]

So, if they are gonna use the new client, they are also using the new models?

Because they tend not to fit that well with all the old armour and sets. It's really evident they don't belong to the same era, and it wouldn't be... the same.

New models are great with all the new gear and assets but with all the clown gear in classic, yikes.

That's my only itch about it right now.

Why do people say this? I use a lot of vanilla transmogs and they look good with the new models.

[damonskye]

In a couple months you'll see how wrong you are. Plenty of people still love the old style and philosophy. That part of the playerbase just left over time because Blizzard wanted to appeal to a broader audience and make a more streamlined game. Vanilla WoW is like a book that got turned into a movie. The book's still great, and many people prefer it .

I've done the MC attunement at least 20 times, and the onyxia attunement 4 times in the past few years. It's enjoyable and rewarding every time.

Sure I will. Sure you are.

Again, talk to the developers of Wildstar who also thought like you did: that people really missed long attunement periods and non-flexible 40 person raids. That was the key to that game's downfall. The MMO player community moved on.

All those players you talk about who left and never came back... are ten years older (or more) and won't have the time you need to invest. But maybe they do. Maybe we're all wrong.

But don't take my word for it. I wish you well, honestly, in your never-ending quest for 40 people cooperating long enough to down Onyxia so that one raid leatherworker can make Onyxia Cloaks for all of you, so you can survive Nefarian. And once you do, I genuinely hope it's fun for all of you to get a proper 40-man group together, all the while making sure you have enough paladins on your Alliance team for the buffs, and warlocks for the DOTs who don't mind farming for an hour before each raid just to fill their bags with soul shards. And good luck without heroism because shamans only play Horde side. Plus the other hundreds of little quirks you'll have to live with.

But I wish you all good luck all the same. I genuinely do hope everyone who wants this has fun. My doubts lie as always with Blizzard, and their need to make money, and their ability to provide resources to this once the allure wears off...

[Sigxy]

You've already explored it all.

I'm willing to bet there are people who joined in after Cataclysm hit that would love to mountain-climb Hyjal to find those goblin signs saying "Under construction", or the big happy smiley under Karazhan.

[Rotted]

We also typically limit the time our BlizzCon attendees can play a demo, and that will be the case for BlizzCon WoW Classic Demo players at home

Lol....

You can fully appreciate everyone at blizzcon having a set amount of time due to the number of people there + spacing + event length, but restricting that to people at home as well? That's completely bang out of order. If they haven't got the facilities to accommodate everyone who gets a demo to play it, they shouldn't be including it as an option.

[Deleted]

I'm willing to bet there are people who joined in after Cataclysm hit that would love to mountain-climb Hyjal to find those goblin signs saying "Under construction", or the big happy smiley under Karazhan.

True, but those exceptions can be added without bringing back wall jumping. Rock jumping can solve that - no abusing clipping, while making it possible to reach some tricky places.

[Uselessrouge]

a time limit on the demo?

lul

[damonskye]

If you check, you'll find that most of the people around here that are pushing for the "untouched" vanilla experience for classic are also the ones that are constantly crying over flying, class balance, and the time it takes to level in the modern game. It's going to to be hilarious watching them implode.

That's the thing. There are a bunch of people (including people who have replied to me) who genuinely think that the large majority of the player base is clamoring for this. In fact, it's a much smaller group of people than they realize... and an even smaller subset who will be happy with it.

We all look back at WOW with rose-colored glasses, but thankfully there's the power of YouTube to help jog our memories. I used to go to Blizzcon every year. Was the highlight for me, in fact... not because of what was happening at the moment, but always the prospect of what the future would bring. I'd invite every person in this thread to go to YouTube and look up the reaction videos from info releases of past Blizzcons. Specifically, go find Chris Metzen's Cataclysm announcement from the main stage.... the one with the audience's feedback audible on it.

I was there, like ten rows from the front. I remember the JUBILATION from the player base when "Flying Mounts... In Azeroth" flashed on the screen with an NPC riding over the new Barrens canyon on a dragon. The entire auditorium went absolutely ballistic with joy.

That is the sort of thing WoW Classic has to face: a player base that has taken the best things from WoW for granted, and who will miss them FAR more than they realize when they're gone.

[Al Gorefiend]

That's the thing. There are a bunch of people (including people who have replied to me) who genuinely think that the large majority of the player base is clamoring for this. In fact, it's a much smaller group of people than they realize... and an even smaller subset who will be happy with it.

We all look back at WOW with rose-colored glasses, but thankfully there's the power of YouTube to help jog our memories. I used to go to Blizzcon every year. Was the highlight for me, in fact... not because of what was happening at the moment, but always the prospect of what the future would bring. I'd invite every person in this thread to go to YouTube and look up the reaction videos from info releases of past Blizzcons. Specifically, go find Chris Metzen's Cataclysm announcement from the main stage.... the one with the audience's feedback audible on it.

I was there, like ten rows from the front. I remember the JUBILATION from the player base when "Flying Mounts... In Azeroth" flashed on the screen with an NPC riding over the new Barrens canyon on a dragon. The entire auditorium went absolutely ballistic with joy.

That is the sort of thing WoW Classic has to face: a player base that has taken the best things from WoW for granted, and who will miss them FAR more than they realize when they're gone.

Cataclysm had the most hyped Blizzcon ever. WotLK was still fresh, WoW had the highest playerbase, and so many rumors were all across the web. It was amazing.

[Gadzooks]

Only because no one knew what they were doing. Until I found a guide, I had no idea it was in the game. The quest setup and information resources back then were nothing like what we have now. Attunement guides in Vanilla and BC were literally MS Paint flowcharts.

Nobody knew the Ony and MC attunements weren't in the game? Are you serious? I knew about both before I had my first mount, it was always a topic in guild chat, because some were working on it, early.

You all act like it was the dark ages, or something. We didn't have everything datamined and spoonfed to us, but we knew about big things like this, and spent large amounts of time working towards them. My "job" in my guild was to run people to get attuned for MC, even people who never stepped foot in it, it's just something we did.

[Tehterokkar]

Lemme piggyback off that with a question: Aren't most companies phasing out 32 bit stuff anyways?

Yes. 32-bit OS tech is 25 years old(Windows NT 3.1 in 1993), it has a ton of limitations in both resource management and security(mainly Win7 issue).

If you are one of the poor sods who still have not upgraded to win10(which is 64-bit only), you should soon. Starting next retail expansion you are most likely required Windows 10, or at least Windows 8.

I would expect Classic's client to be mirrored from retail, so when retail needs Win10 to play, Classic will do so as well. This is for compatibility issues with their systems that possibly require functions that only Win10 offers.

[damonskye]

Cataclysm had the most hyped Blizzcon ever. WotLK was still fresh, WoW had the highest playerbase, and so many rumors were all across the web. It was amazing.

It was, definitely. And that announcement panel was amazing (unlike Metzen's no-info "Geek Is" opening address the year after, which was mind-bogglingly dull). The hype around the Cata revamp, the announcement about flying... DEATHWING HAS RETURNED... that was a fun time. Of course, people have some negative memories around the expansion (a large part of that being Dragon Soul, I think) and that dulls the hype it all started with.

Memory is a funny thing. Everyone talks about how wonderful WOTLK was, and when I was raiding Ulduar and ICC, it was (Ulduar is still probably my favorite raid ever). Of course, now we look back and realize that leveling through BC and WOTLK areas is almost painful...

[therealbowser]

If "Wall walking" was "fixed" then nothing more need be said; this isn't vanilla in any shape, form, or fashion.

RIP.

[Al Gorefiend]

It was, definitely. And that announcement panel was amazing (unlike Metzen's no-info "Geek Is" opening address the year after, which was mind-bogglingly dull). The hype around the Cata revamp, the announcement about flying... DEATHWING HAS RETURNED... that was a fun time. Of course, people have some negative memories around the expansion (a large part of that being Dragon Soul, I think) and that dulls the hype it all started with.

Memory is a funny thing. Everyone talks about how wonderful WOTLK was, and when I was raiding Ulduar and ICC, it was (Ulduar is still probably my favorite raid ever). Of course, now we look back and realize that leveling through BC and WOTLK areas is almost painful...

Cataclysm's biggest issues were definitely 4.1 and Dragon Soul. The "rehashing" of the Zul raids into 5-man dungeons made a lot upset. 4.2 was a fantastic patch for many, Firelands always stood as a great raid design plus the Dragonwrath legendary.

And really, everyone didn't hate Dragon Soul, though the story itself was polarizing (The Dragon Aspects have always been really weak lore IMO), and Deathwing's defeat was anti-climactic. Then it lasted sooooo long, and despite MoP being fantastic, the announcement of "were doing pandas now" in the middle of a burn out made so many people quit. Probably among the biggest mass player exoduses Blizzard would have until WoD.

[Projectmars]

I'm sure there are people that'll do that but even that creates value. It makes them part of the team. Running naked through the streets isn't useful either but it's what gets you into a fraternity.

So we do agree that rushing and skipping content is nothing new. Got it.

[Gadzooks]

There was really nothing special with the attunement quests. They were more or less go here kill this. Many were also in the same instance so you had to run them several times to make the chain take longer. MC was just picking up a fragment.

I get that there is a story behind them but I don’t get why many glorify them so much.

Nostalgia. Reps in vanilla weren't particularly challenging, that was saved for TBC when it launched. It was stuff to do, most of it annoying, to be honest. Hydraxian farming was a pain, to get to Majordomo, until you got revered with them, which was a long ass grind. Getting keys for UBRS was a hell of a lot more work. The Naxx attunement was the worst, because you had to grind pretty expensive matts and drops to get it, plus gold, which lowered the higher your rep with the Argent Dawn was.

None of it was "hard", in a real sense, you just had to do it, and with an organized guild, like mine, it got done fairly efficiently.

[Projectmars]

Considering that Vanilla's "core experience" was a ton of unbalanced classes, completely non-viable specs, classes where you couldn't even use half your abilities because there were only so many buff/debuff slots and gear drops that were locked behind 3-4 hour dungeon runs with the same RNG that exists today, but also with the added constraints of respawning trash, needing specific classes to even be able to clear certain content, and having to travel back to capital cities to reform groups when you lose a person - you are pretty much going to end up with the exact same situation you are in now with BFA - only now, with more grinding.

This is coming from someone who ran Strat 42 times @ about 2-3 hours per run to finally get my Shadowcraft Spaulders on my Rogue during Vanilla - and good luck getting in a raiding group w/out full T1 and Fire Resist. You guys seem to forget that the average boss had loot tables containing 15+ drops and only dropped 1-2 items per kill.

You guys also seem to forget that the majority of classes and specs were a shit show in vanilla - so unless you knowingly pick one that is OP as of patch 1.12, you are not just going to be waiting for a month or two for a patch to make that spec you want to play viable, you are going to be waiting until they drop TBC or Wrath servers before you can finally play the spec you want.

And while we're at it - don't forget all the broken mechanics that limit dungeon clearing, like needing sap in UBRS to be able to efficiently clear the last room, but still having sap with a chance to break stealth when used, which nearly always led to a full wipe.

I'm not saying Classic won't be fun - I, for one, will play it for nostalgia - for a short time anyways. However, if you guys think you are going to get a balanced, non RNG gameplay experience out of Classic, you are in for a serious shock, as Vanilla was nothing but a grind fest of RNG loot lottery and unbalanced, broken classes and broken mechanics.

I believe most classes were viable for raids... but not all Specs were and that was the whole point.

[xcitng]

If "Wall walking" was "fixed" then nothing more need be said; this isn't vanilla in any shape, form, or fashion.

RIP.

You'll be fine princess.

[Blayze]

When did they fix reps so that you didn't get less rep if you overlevelled a quest?
I hope that fix is in for Classic.