Classic Era - Experiences 1 month in

[Hardkorr]

So, Classic Era has been its own thing for a month now. What has been everyone’s experiences so far?


Personally, I am still sad about not being able to raid atm due to lack of players. But on the plus side I have been able to gather tonnes of mats for consumes. Feels like a nice break after raiding naxx nonstop.

[Prag]

I logged in but nobody from my guild stuck around. Most of the server was quiet.

Do you have a good number of folks that stayed, or will some be coming back once T4 is done?

[Linkedblade]

So, Classic Era has been its own thing for a month now. What has been everyone’s experiences so far?


Personally, I am still sad about not being able to raid atm due to lack of players. But on the plus side I have been able to gather tonnes of mats for consumes. Feels like a nice break after raiding naxx nonstop.

I've been leveling on both to break up the monotony. But they're definitely going to need to merge servers or cross-server at some point.

[Hardkorr]

Do you have a good number of folks that stayed, or will some be coming back once T4 is done?

My server, Grobbulus, is pretty dead. I think believing players coming back after T4 is similar to believing players will come back after the TBC pre-patch hype died down. Just wishful thinking. On the flip side anyone still playing classic era are likely to keep playing classic era, so long as servers merge or something. Hopefully with the new global battle.net update, there can be cross world merges for classic era. But until then or free character copies all to one server or something, the game feels dead in the water atm.

[Prag]

My server, Grobbulus, is pretty dead. I think believing players coming back after T4 is similar to believing players will come back after the TBC pre-patch hype died down. Just wishful thinking. On the flip side anyone still playing classic era are likely to keep playing classic era, so long as servers merge or something. Hopefully with the new global battle.net update, there can be cross world merges for classic era. But until then or free character copies all to one server or something, the game feels dead in the water atm.

Ugh, that’s a huge bummer. Hopefully with realm updates you mentioned and/or fresh servers, things will improve.

[arkanon]

Considering pre launch some delusional people genuinely believed Classic would maintain 10-20 million players for another 10-15 years....I'm sure no rational people are surprised by classic being a ghost town, but there really were some very confused and delusional people early on. I personally dont see any players who are currently in TBCC actually returning for any length of time to Classic - maybe for a laugh or just for a quick burst of....nostalgia-nostalgia? Nostalgia squared? but yeah, obviously the overwhelming majority of players have moved to TBCC and wont be coming back.

[Outofmana]

Classic era was a ridiculous idea to begin with. The only thing that would keep people playing classic is releasing Fresh servers, which the pvt server scene has proven time and time again; after Naxx it's downhill, and fast.

[Gorsameth]

Classic era was a ridiculous idea to begin with. The only thing that would keep people playing classic is releasing Fresh servers, which the pvt server scene has proven time and time again; after Naxx it's downhill, and fast.

I'm pretty sure Blizzard knew this would happen, but its a minimal investment and stops the constant argument that Classic would still be full if only they didn't close it for TBC...

If it is a ghost town I suspect Blizzard will merge servers once the TBC launch has died down

[anveena]

It was dead as fuck in stormwind the last time I logged on. Fresh servers are the only way any significant amount of people are going to keep playing classic era realms. If they do fresh with the chronoboon and no spell batching I'd probably play again.

[hulkgor]

Ghost towns all around. Was a terrible idea to split the playerbase, ended up being something like 1-99% if my guilds, friends list and twitch are any indication.

[OokOok]

The whole "pay to copy your character" was the only reason they didn't release fresh servers, they wanted to grab more money out of players and it clearly worked. I don't feel bad for idiots.

People are pretty stupid if they thought classic wasn't going to be anything but a cash grab. Although Blizzard could of also not been greedy pieces of s*** and released 1-2 fresh servers for people who actually wanted just classic, it's only reason private servers still survive. Without a wipe there's 0 reason to stay on classic, literally 0 reason. Considering Blizz said they weren't doing fresh servers anytime soon, you have to be a moron to of said "Hey i'm gonna copy my character" because it's going to be dead and they're not going to merge servers for obvious reasons.

[SinR]

Do you have a good number of folks that stayed, or will some be coming back once T4 is done?

That's the Copium talking.

Classic Era is pretty much a graveyard. I think TBC Era will be too when/if WOTLK Classic becomes a thing.

Really the only thing that could revitalize Classic Era would be Fresh.

[Linkedblade]

That's the Copium talking.

Classic Era is pretty much a graveyard. I think TBC Era will be too when/if WOTLK Classic becomes a thing.

Really the only thing that could revitalize Classic Era would be Fresh.

Fresh or maybe challenge realms. Like have an event where you have people 1-60 as fast as possible or 1-kt.

My only problem is that achieving something in Classic or BC isn't represented anywhere on your account. Like throw in an unlockable achievement or something. Maybe a b.net portrait, something other than a character name in a database that no one can see.

[SinR]

that'd be kinda cool. Realm where everything is unlocked day 1 (including AQ) and its a race to see who can down KT First.

I mean its one thing to down BWL when your raid is in full MC Gear, another to down BWL When you're still in leveling gear.

[Indigenously Abled]

The 'back to classic' nostalgia rush is gone for the majority of the playerbase I'd imagine. There will probably be a high enough participation rate to justify keeping the servers live, but without competition/progression there won't be much of a reason to play outside of vacationing in the classic theme park.

[Hctaz]

I called this from like 1 month into Classic being released as a player. I was hoping they would go the route of stalling content releases in regular Classic while coming up with an idea for a possible Classic + to bring in TBC content without making Classic era an irrelevant ghost town. I had a whole host of ideas, but they can't really do it at this point. How would you even go back now? I'm sure there are plenty of players who came back for TBC only, so it wouldn't make sense to actually make Classic + a real thing anymore. I think they missed their chance to make something unique and instead went for the easy crash grab of TBC and the character copy/Dark Portal Pass/Deluxe Edition bullshit.

[Shaetha]

The whole "pay to copy your character" was the only reason they didn't release fresh servers, they wanted to grab more money out of players and it clearly worked. I don't feel bad for idiots.

People are pretty stupid if they thought classic wasn't going to be anything but a cash grab. Although Blizzard could of also not been greedy pieces of s*** and released 1-2 fresh servers for people who actually wanted just classic, it's only reason private servers still survive. Without a wipe there's 0 reason to stay on classic, literally 0 reason. Considering Blizz said they weren't doing fresh servers anytime soon, you have to be a moron to of said "Hey i'm gonna copy my character" because it's going to be dead and they're not going to merge servers for obvious reasons.

Yes, you have literally no idea what's involved in doing that, but sure, it's entirely because they want to make money by not... doing something customers want?

In other words, the world isn't that simple. A consumer software company isn't trying to make software people don't want. They do, however, have to worry about throwing money at a fool's errand.

It's entirely possible that out of the people that actually responded to the surveys, few people cared about new vanilla classic servers.

It's going to stop being repeated at some point. The only question is, "When?" For vanilla classic, that answer might be now. We don't know, but your need to pretend the video game market is the same as it was 15 years ago needs to stop.

[Sinndra]

what stops people from just making an alt?

why is a fresh server - which forces everyone to forfeit all they have worked for - better than just rolling an alt? i dont get why giving up all that effort.. to then redo that effort.. is what people want?

i guess "to hell with people that want to keep what they earned" is the idea of some.

or is it, that you are wanting to fracture the population again.. and again... and again.. making communities smaller and smaller and smaller in the process as you just continue to add new servers?

should the answer be that everyone gets their own individual server? because thats the direction you head if the above is true.

idk, i just never understood what people expected with classic. if you change it, it isnt classic.. if you restart it.. nobody wants their efforts taken away. and clearly you cannot add new content to classic.. thats what retail is for.

[Aphrel]

what i dont get is why blizz doesnt do anything.

Merge the calssic+ era servers.

start some new ones, shouldn't be that fucking hard.

Im not even playing classic, but seeing once again that blizzard is completely ignoring part of their player base when an easy solution is within reach is just sad. Incompetence truly do run in that organization.

[Gorsameth]

what stops people from just making an alt?

why is a fresh server - which forces everyone to forfeit all they have worked for - better than just rolling an alt? i dont get why giving up all that effort.. to then redo that effort.. is what people want?

i guess "to hell with people that want to keep what they earned" is the idea of some.

or is it, that you are wanting to fracture the population again.. and again... and again.. making communities smaller and smaller and smaller in the process as you just continue to add new servers?

should the answer be that everyone gets their own individual server? because thats the direction you head if the above is true.

idk, i just never understood what people expected with classic. if you change it, it isnt classic.. if you restart it.. nobody wants their efforts taken away. and clearly you cannot add new content to classic.. thats what retail is for.

Its something we don't see anymore because its been ages since Blizzard opened a new retail server but back in ye old days there was a massive crowd that would flock to a new server opening, rush to be 'first' whatever and when all fail at doing so because they are not actually good players and then run to the forums asking for a new server.

Its like losing a sprint competition and immediately asking for a new race without the old winners (because they are happy in their server first guilds) in the hope that if they repeat it often enough they will be the ones who win.

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what i dont get is why blizz doesnt do anything.

Merge the calssic+ era servers.

start some new ones, shouldn't be that fucking hard.

Im not even playing classic, but seeing once again that blizzard is completely ignoring part of their player base when an easy solution is within reach is just sad. Incompetence truly do run in that organization.

Its been 2 weeks dude. No one should be surprised that Blizzard is going to give this new situation a little bit of time to stabilize and evaluate before acting.