Will Classic bring back player communication?

[kronides]

Give it a few months and it will.
Vanilla it's not like retail, there is no instant gratification all the time. Min-maxers and new kids will quit soon, who will stay will recreate the same kind of community because they either wery commited to the game or they are the nostalgia guys who want that feeling back.

Are you suggesting that min-maxers didn't play vanilla, that min-maxing and blasting through everything as fast as possible, with zero thought or care for "community," was not already a part of WoW and a playstyle (and not a tiny one) in 2005? Because you're incorrect, if that's what this post means.

[oland138]

It will bring back community for this reason: adversity. Yeah, there are challenges in BFA, but you only hit that wall if you're looking for it.

The adversity forced you to rely on others, now the average player doesnt have to deal with that because of how the game is designed. You can tackle most things solo, or by clicking the green eye.

In classic, if you were doing a quest that isn't easy to solo, it is was in your best interest to interact with that other person you run into... even if it's for 10 minutes. That element of the game is seriously lacking on live.

[Airlick]

It isn't about what I like, its about what I know.

What happens when all the Vanilla content is consumed?

Demands for new vanilla content. Which makes no sense, but yea. Vanilla has zero long-term sustenance.

But there will be no serious demands for new Vanilla content. Some people play Vanilla for years upon years on private servers, and they are not getting bored. PvP, for one, provides great replayability, and then the gearing process is much, much slower. Classes also play completely different. It's not retail, where if you've played one melee DPS spec, you've basically played them all.

And then, if Blizzard sees a big turn-off of players from Vanilla after 2 years or so, releasing TBC servers is a safe call.

[Xecks]

short answer : maybe.

long answer : it will to a certain point but people will be worried about being right click reported and getting auto squelched.

these authoritarians want to impose their will on other players to only have them play the way and say what way they want. leaving the ability to mob rule and impose punishment on other players will only end in ruin.

people wont be able to talk the same way. they will have to take turns with mobs instead of killing what they want cause johny "respect my authority" edgelord will report you for kill stealing with all his friends and you will get auto squelched and have to appeal.

shit like this chokes the free expression and exchange of ideas of a community .

without such tools though, people will come and stay for a while then leave only the diehards that want a real community and eventually there will be one.

[Alkizon]

Are you suggesting that min-maxers didn't play vanilla, that min-maxing and blasting through everything as fast as possible, with zero thought or care for "community," was not already a part of WoW and a playstyle (and not a tiny one) in 2005? Because you're incorrect, if that's what this post means.

Well, of course they were, only that the most their intolerant representatives for the most part were hanging out with their own kind, otherwise everything often ended for them in this way

[MatadorMedia]

Depends on how big the servers are; some private servers running vanilla are very close-knit and you recognize names.

[Demithio]

Are you suggesting that min-maxers didn't play vanilla, that min-maxing and blasting through everything as fast as possible, with zero thought or care for "community," was not already a part of WoW and a playstyle (and not a tiny one) in 2005? Because you're incorrect, if that's what this post means.

The game mechanics didn't permit 'crazy pull runs' through content back then. Just wasn't doable (due to difficulty and character limitations) as on today's scale. It had some of course, but compared to now, the 'zerg' was a much slower pace. Remember the 45 minute Baron run for .5 armor set? Yeah.

[Coronius]

Everyone who've played on a vanilla private server these last couple of years can tell you that yes, the community and communication between players are sprawling and fundamental concepts there. I see no reason for this to be any different on official Vanilla servers.

Communication is the result of necessity. When people discover that they can't pull a trash pack without CC, someone will CC something, or they will ask, or say something. There is still communication in BFA but it isn't required unless you're doing something hard, and most things aren't. So most people can get by without every saying a word and they play their game it's fine.

I can't wait for everything to be a little harder.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Alcsaar]

But there will be no serious demands for new Vanilla content. Some people play Vanilla for years upon years on private servers, and they are not getting bored. PvP, for one, provides great replayability, and then the gearing process is much, much slower. Classes also play completely different. It's not retail, where if you've played one melee DPS spec, you've basically played them all.

And then, if Blizzard sees a big turn-off of players from Vanilla after 2 years or so, releasing TBC servers is a safe call.

So we're expecting them to continue this trend of rereleasing expansions. Lol. Awful for the game.

PVP was good in vanilla because of the game at the time - today it would be considered absurdly imbalanced. Vanilla servers are popular because they're FREE and have high turn over rates.

[Airlick]

So we're expecting them to continue this trend of rereleasing expansions. Lol. Awful for the game.

PVP was good in vanilla because of the game at the time - today it would be considered absurdly imbalanced. Vanilla servers are popular because they're FREE and have high turn over rates.

I'll take the "absurdly imbalanced" over "homogenized to the extent every arena/BG plays the same" every day. Vanilla PvP was rock/paper/scissors, and was made strictly with larger scale PvP in mind, where any inbalance is balanced by having 2 large teams covering their weaknesses and amplifying their strenghts. Nowadays, it's like everyone is a rock, except one rock can heal other rocks, one throws pebbles at others, and the other charges around and bashes the other rocks in melee.

Vanilla servers aren't popular because they are free. They are a limited version of the game, by no means a close recreation of what Vanilla used to be. There's dozens of free MMOs that are better than Vanilla private servers. People still play on them because they miss what Vanilla was.

I don't see what's awful with releasing at least TBC servers after Classic.

[endersblade]

Communication is the result of necessity. When people discover that they can't pull a trash pack without CC, someone will CC something, or they will ask, or say something. There is still communication in BFA but it isn't required unless you're doing something hard, and most things aren't. So most people can get by without every saying a word and they play their game it's fine.

I can't wait for everything to be a little harder.

Doubtful. They'll likely just go to a forum somewhere, even here, and open multiple threads and QQ about shit being overtuned or too hard.

[FelPlague]

I joined a group as healer last night. Got bumped off a ledge and accidentally made a few extra pulls, but healed through it and we survived. Quipped a few jokes, apologized, literally nothing from the other four players.

After a couple bosses I pulled some extra packs while we were clearing. Nobodies health was dropping, we were aoe dpsing anyway, and we were all sub 120. Still no issues clearing, but tank starts complaining and other dps start yelling at me and talking about how stupid I am, special needs, etc etc. Then I’m like “this is the first time you guys say anything and it’s this?” Some complaints about state of the game, and they kick me.

We were almost at the last boss at this point. The group knows they can easily pick up another healer from LFD. They don’t give two shits about my time lost missing out on the final bonus exp and it doesn’t hurt them at all.

Will we ACTUALLY get back to people communicating with each other in Classic?

Groups will be harder to form and replacements will take travel time not to mention just finding someone. These same people would probably have preferred to work it out with me instead of kicking. Hell, I didn’t pull anymore after they said stop. I was just discussing why I thought the extra pulls made sense and they kicked me...

You could argue that these people would never have grouped with me in the first place but forget that argument. Suppose they DID group with me and same scenario came up.

I think either Classic DOES bring back tighter community that’s more willing to engage meaningfully with each other or it ends up falling flat and becoming just another desolate playground for those happy to piddle around with original wow either solo or with a tight group of friends.

1. yes it will, but not because we like to but because we will have to, there will still be tons of toxicity, and still tons of drama.
2. now with the better computers we have, and 15 years almost of the game, we will have an LFG addon. There was a few in vanilla, but they were so awkward, so buggy, and rarely used, now with classic it will be MUCH more used.
3. Community still does exist in modern wow, people just need to actually try, make friends, talk with people, add people, don't just ditch instantly once you wipe.
being part of the rp community you see tons of this.

oh and btw the community is both a good thing and bad thing. so we shall see if the goods outweight the bads, the internet has changed, many more people have acsess to it.

[Heathy]

well all i can say is that as a healer the game became faster and there is basically no room to start chatting any more at least, dungeons are short and blitzed through, so you don't really get time to spark up a lengthy convo with the group, I don't type much at all in game anymore. there isn't a whole lot of CC so there isn't any of that sheep star, sap x, trap nipple, thing going on that much. most ppl know how to play their class so you don't have to constantly remind ppl to do things. like you did back in the day.

'turn off aspect!' 'loot the dog!' 'palas judge wisdom!'

I think that there may be more random chat as everything is slower so there is more time between pulls, more down time overall really. I did do a lot of chatting I think during non-raid days, mostly with my guild though or other friends through whispers while idle in town. I dunno what ppl are expecting though, its not as if ppl were sharing life stories while running ubrs. i'm not sure what level of communication ppl are expecting beyond relevant information. back in the day it was common for ppl to be shit at the game and everyone tried to help ppl be better players so knowledge was shared but i can't say that the same thing will return simply because the level of banter going on was tied to the game being new, when everyone knows what to do then you don't get much talking, because everyone is focused on what is going on. today i'm usually healing so i can't type while running dungeons, i don't get chance to even if i wanted to. but really ppl these days use discord anyway so why type when you can just talk over discord.

in terms of random server wide communication, I still see it happening even if its just random unimportant shit and memes or troll bait. i've seen ppl discussing things in the general chats in game, maybe join the chats one day and you might see ppl talking on your server.

/join general
/join LFG
/join trade

then you'll see communication. if ppl think there is zero communication, you're either not in the chats or you are blind/selective in what you call communication. minus the LFG spam i'd say it hasn't changed all that much. at least out of dungeons and pug raids. even pugs often have ample communication, if they didn't they probably wouldn't get that far, some things have to be decided and for that you have to communicate.

[Barnabas]

I imagine it will be the same communication you get on live. For guilds they will communicate like normal human beings and pubs will be toxic.

[Kill Broccoli]

One of the more entertaining things about this thread is the fact that people somehow believe that people of group X (which they don't like) somehow aren't going to play Vanilla.

Fact is, Vanilla is a fantastic playground for min-maxers, because all the barriers that have been installed over the years to prevent certain actions do not exist in Vanilla.
Flask+every single possible Dps increasing elixir? Possible in Vanilla.
Farming some freaking blue because it's better than raid items? Yeah, that happened. (And being willing to lock / ninja it)
People calling out others that wear "red flag" items such as Vendorstrike? You bet, especially if said person is a loot competitor.

If you want to min-max your character, Vanilla gives you far more possibilities to improve your character than the streamlined progression on live.
And also helps you detect if the other person has any clue, rogues that literally wear not a single item with +Hit might not be the most informed player (or worse, play not the Fotm spec).

The only people that are in for a rough awakening are the ones that believe Vanilla will be this playground of niceties with everyone helping each other.
And said bubble will already pop while questing in the first zone once you hit the very first "Gather X Objects" quest.

Are you suggesting that min-maxers didn't play vanilla, that min-maxing and blasting through everything as fast as possible, with zero thought or care for "community," was not already a part of WoW and a playstyle (and not a tiny one) in 2005? Because you're incorrect, if that's what this post means.

No, I'm sure min-maxers will play vanilla as much as new kids who want to try the nostalgia wagon, i just think they'll quit soon in a few months after they tried all what you said. Vanilla is much more RPG than MMO, there's a big difference. How many of the new kids on retail do you think have the patien to level at vanilla speed grinding the hell out of a zone drinking every 3 mobs for mana?
How many min-maxers do you think will stick around farming endlessly for gold after they experience what they want?

In the past there were people who were blasting thru content at lightspeed in vanilla, they sticked around just because there were no real game alternative. Today there is, mainly retail, but also many others.

[Kralljin]

No, I'm sure min-maxers will play vanilla as much as new kids who want to try the nostalgia wagon, i just think they'll quit soon in a few months after they tried all what you said.

Due Raid bosses only dropping a rather low amount of items, it takes a long time to get even close to decent gear.
After all, lockout presenting a natural throttle on gear acqusition is how the game has worked for ages.

Then there's also the fact that Blizzard staggers content.

How many min-maxers do you think will stick around farming endlessly for gold after they experience what they want?

Those that like Vanilla perhaps?
People that min-max aren't casuals, they're used to putting effort into the game, Vanilla is especially rewarding to people that put a lot of time into it.

To be honest, i'm beginning to believe your definition of "min maxers" is different.

[Relapses]

The communication aspect is one of the more compelling pieces of Classic for me. Some of the best WoW friends I still have were made back when I was spamming /2 for DPS for my daily Heroic Mechanar. (It only took me 83 attempts to get the sword.)

[vsb]

Communication is the result of necessity. When people discover that they can't pull a trash pack without CC, someone will CC something, or they will ask, or say something. There is still communication in BFA but it isn't required unless you're doing something hard, and most things aren't. So most people can get by without every saying a word and they play their game it's fine.

I can't wait for everything to be a little harder.

There wasn't that much CC back in the day and most CC actually pulled mobs, you can't just polymorph a mob, you have to coordinate with tank and other CC. So communication is pretty much required.

[Kill Broccoli]

People that min-max aren't casuals, they're used to putting effort into the game, Vanilla is especially rewarding to people that put a lot of time into it.
To be honest, i'm beginning to believe your definition of "min maxers" is different.

Maybe. To me a min maxer is someone who does everything to have the best possible result in terms of raiding/pvp and i put them in a separate category from people who love every aspect of the game. I'm expecting the first group to stick around much less than the second.

It's just a different time. 10+ of information / experience / theorycrafting are going to affect the game. At the time there was sperimentation involved, people were discovering stuff. Now since blizz clearly stated the game will be the same, all this is absent and there is a clear path to get the most out of your char. Much much quicker to achieve.

[tikcol]

I havent decided yet if i want to play classic or not. At one point i will probably start to levelup a character.
The problem is, there are too many dick-ish players out there who developed a rather bad attitude over the years. A good amount of those players will start to play classic for different reasons. But they still got their attitude of bad behavior, quitting parties (or kicking other party members) for like no reason. That kind of stuff noone wants to see.

In classic wow you got punished for bad behavior over time. People stopped playing with you.
The big question is.. how many 'good' players have they made quit classic before the bad ones quit themself?

You're at the internet bro, you're also alive. There's no such thing as a safe place because there's people with a bad attitude everywhere.

You're telling us you won't be playing classic because there's "bad" people there? Wtf are you even saying.