Classic and the possible death of current

[getupkid55]

and since you can only play one game at a time.

says who? :P

[huth]

100 million accounts up to 2014. Does not include last 5 years. No of course no one expects them to all think like they do... but it's a reasonable expectation that a lot do. If only 10% do that's still 10 million players+.

And if less than 1% does, it's not even 1m.

The only thing you have going for your number is assumptions that it will be a smash hit. More likely most people won't give it more than a passing glance.

It could happen.

We could also get hit by an previously unknown gamma ray burst and all die tomorrow. I'm not sure which of the two is more likely, but i'm leaning to the gamma rays.

[Maudib]

And if less than 1% does, it's not even 1m.

The only thing you have going for your number is assumptions that it will be a smash hit. More likely most people won't give it more than a passing glance.



We could also get hit by an previously unknown gamma ray burst and all die tomorrow. I'm not sure which of the two is more likely, but i'm leaning to the gamma rays.

I guess we'll see. And we won't have to wait long either.

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Except, like I mentioned, your conclusion doesn't follow your premises. You talked about the reasons why players left WoW throughout its lifetime... then you conclude by saying "millions of potential Classic WoW customers."


Yeah. And what percentage of those "millions" left the game because it was no longer vanilla WoW? Which is the kind of player that is most likely to return and stay. What's that percentage? 20%? 10%? 5%? 1%? Do you know which it is?


It's not "by default", especially since you do not know the reason they're not playing WoW. They could have different priorities, or not enough time to dedicate to MMOs (especially one as grindy as Classic).


I don't think that thing was ever in question? I questioned the idea that Classic WoW "is being made of the tens of millions of players that aren't playing."


It's astounding how people very often bash on current WoW when they want to make classic WoW look good.

Millions of POTENTIAL players. No one said they all would play... no one said a majority of them would. But they are all potential customes... except those that tried it initially and hated it.

But because they are NOT playing BfA... and could be... they are NOT potential players of BfA.

I represent the type of player that cannot stand what modern WoW has become but cannot wait to play Classic... I do not find it unreasonable to believe that there is a segment of those 100 million accounts that feel similar.

I do not find it unreasonable that there is a segment of those players that loved TBC and Wrath...and would really love to play the first rendition that they missed.

I find it reasonable that there is a segment of those players that would OVE to experience a luanch of a brand new Azeroth... where leveling hasn't been destroyed and made irreleveant, that the AH isn't so bloated from inflation that a low level item costs 500g because it looks cool for transmog.

Sure there are lots of reasons why many won't consider coming back and sticking with Classic... but there are also a lot of reasons why a significant number of people will.

In a few monhs, it will all play out, then we will know.

[Ielenia]

Millions of POTENTIAL players. No one said they all would play... no one said a majority of them would. But they are all potential customes... except those that tried it initially and hated it.

It's hardly "millions", much less "tens of millions".

Those who weren't interested in playing WoW in 2004, are highly unlikely to want to play 2004 WoW today.
Those who stopped playing for any other reason than "it's not vanilla WoW anymore" are also highly unlikely to return.

Said reasons include, but aren't restricted to:

• They don't like vanilla WoW but stopped because 'expansion X' brought a change they didn't like;
• They now have family and/or a job to worry about;
• They're no longer interested in gaming;
• They're no longer interested in MMOs;
• They're no longer interested in WoW;
• Their friends no longer play WoW.

Classic WoW is being made for those who like how WoW was in 2004-2006.

Not for those who were never interested.
Not for those who stopped playing for any reason other than "it's not vanilla WoW anymore."

The "target audience" is actually much smaller than you make it out to be.

I represent the type of player that cannot stand what modern WoW has become but cannot wait to play Classic... I do not find it unreasonable to believe that there is a segment of those 100 million accounts that feel similar.

I don't find that "unreasonable". I'm just saying you greatly overestimate the size of said "segment".

[Fascinate]

You really have no idea ielenia lol. Very soon we are going to get a release date and that is when the hype is truly going to start. If i know blizzards marketing team we will be seeing advertisements for classic that pull on peoples heartstrings, they will have no choice but to resub to classic.

[huth]

I don't find that "unreasonable". I'm just saying you greatly overestimate the size of said "segment".

His mere existence proves the existence of the segment. It does not, however, prove that the segment contains anybody else.

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You really have no idea ielenia lol. Very soon we are going to get a release date and that is when the hype is truly going to start. If i know blizzards marketing team we will be seeing advertisements for classic that pull on peoples heartstrings, they will have no choice but to resub to classic.

And you know that how? Prophetic dreams? Wishful thinking?

[Dziubla]

Once the rose-tinted glasses come off, only one WoW will be standing. And, despite all the problems with BfA...the one that's standing will NOT be classic.

[Phuongvi]

Classic, like all other game that was supposed to kill WoW, will fail miserably

[khazmodan]

Once the rose-tinted glasses come off, only one WoW will be standing. And, despite all the problems with BfA...the one that's standing will NOT be classic.

I think you underestimate how deeply Ion Hazznoklue is in over his head, most of the great talent that made WoW into a billion dollar cash cow are gone and replaced by people that need to drastically simplify the game for them to avoid blowing it up. The problem is that these same people are also in charge of vanilla so the incompetence contagion will probably spread and ruin it as well.

[munkeyinorbit]

Ok, but it's not as old as Medal of Honor I always associate Call of Duty with 7th generation of gaming, because that's when it started getting really popular, and really dominated that generation, but indeed existed since the 6th generation of gaming.

Being wrong is still being wrong. It doesn't matter if you consider an item to be part of a different category because of arbitrary reason number 7.

[Machismo]

Classic will be a side project for a lot of players, because many will lose interest after a while. We have a lot of vanilla servers that show it to be true.

[Frostyfire14]

I'll also never understand how people try to pass off a subjective, anecdotal opinion as facts somehow.
Facetious at best.

That's what the OP did. Opinion vs. Opinion, as fit.

[Akasha64]

Being wrong is still being wrong. It doesn't matter if you consider an item to be part of a different category because of arbitrary reason number 7.

Ok then. I stand corrected. Happy now? Jeeze.

[Nzx]

You are dreaming if you think classic will make any meaningful dent in the remaining number of retail WoW players. The number of people who actually care about going back and playing Vanilla again for any real length of time is a fraction of the number of people who only play Mythic+, let alone the entire playerbase. Classic will be fine on its own, why are you people so desperate for it to "kill" retail WoW? Are you that obsessed with your opinion of WoW that you crave validation or something?

[Kathranis]

I think the ven diagram of people who want to actively play both classic and retail long-term would show relatively little overlap. They're very different experiences at this point. It's more likely that any potential split in the playerbase will be compensated for by a bunch of returning players and cross-pollination between the two games. Realistically I seriously doubt that it will make any noticeable difference beyond growing the WoW playerbase as a whole by drawing in people who're only interested in classic.

This is it in a nutshell.

In the long-term, after the initial surge of nostalgia and curiosity dies down, Classic is mostly going to exist to turn currently lapsed Classic fans back into active subscribers, and then retain them.

For most currently active players, it'll just be a novel way to play alts when they're bored with the current Live content. Especially since I think there will be a lot of crossover guilds and communities that seesaw from Live progression to Classic progression and back, if only casually.

The number of players who fully convert from Live to Classic will be relatively minor. Same for returning Classic players converting to Live. Though both will surely happen, it's not going to dramatically upset the current playerbase so much as grow it.

[Terracresta]

It's not just WoW that changed but also how people play MOORPGs and online games in general. I don't think the experience will ever be the same as 15 years ago.
Many of the people I played Vanilla with won't return as they moved on in their lives. I'm also on and off in WoW, not being subscribed at the moment and when subscribed, I'm playing the game in a different way than back in 2004/05, because my life changed since then. Also the experience like entering Darnassus for the first time will be a different one, because it's nothing new to me and technology also advanced. WoW never had high-end graphics, but by now it's far more dated looking.

So in the end it's hard to say what will really happen.

[Kumorii]

Classic, like all other game that was supposed to kill WoW, will fail miserably

Not even WoW will be the WoW killer.

[Rafoel]

Everyone is completely over-rating Classic. It's a terrible game. And I've played WoW since May 2005. It will not kill any other game, including its sister LIVE server.

Why did you keep playing terrible game for 14 years?

[Twdft]

Why did you keep playing terrible game for 14 years?

I don't think s/he played classic for 14 years.

[Rafoel]

I don't think s/he played classic for 14 years.

He tried the game in vanilla, decided its terrible, and kept playing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯