If you were Blizzard...

[Daedius]

I look forward to Classic WoD.

[hulkgor]

They all but confirmed Classic WOTLK on the WoW Classic Deep Dive, or whatever its called by stating something along the lines of "We will have 'Era' servers that stay on each game, whereas the 'Progression' servers will always move along the next expansion".

So, WotLK is pretty much guaranteed, and the only thing that remains to be seen is how far in to the expansion pool they are willing to go.

[Dazlartist]

I think this is typical representation of people: Some fight to their teeth to get Classic servers and TBC servers, soon Wrath servers, then the pitchfork pack from the other end of the spectrum comes in to cry "milking".

Are there other companies that you regularly "expose" with your "critical thinking" on other forums?

Did you not see my sarcasm tag?

[Zyky]

It's way more complicated than that they need to port the whole game to modern wow engine. A lot of things had to be manually programmed and changed so it would work. They already had all the files for vanilla from 1.12 backup yet it took them about a year to release it.

So the difference is that Classic is running on the WoD engine, they had to remake all of Classic from scratch because the WoD engine was built with Cataclysm era Azeroth. Burning Crusade content and Wrath content were untouched on the WoD engine, it only requires a port over and then bug checks and bug fixes.

[Demithio]

If I were Blizzard I would be very worried about my seriously strained, and tarnished reputation and become a quality development company again. Instead of an obscene corporate money grab. Little chance of that happening, I know.

[Prag]

Find a seamless way for players to experience their character’s journey across Classic and Retail. Instead of two installs/versions, just let me progress my character in Wrath on Wednesday, BC on Thursday, Shadowlands on Friday, etc.

[chrisnumbers]

If I were Blizzard I would be very worried about my seriously strained, and tarnished reputation and become a quality development company again. Instead of an obscene corporate money grab. Little chance of that happening, I know.

These 2 qualities aren't exclusive. Blizzard does very well at both.

[Relapses]

You mean to tell me that everything Blizzard of old did is good but everything Blizzard of new does is bad?! My entire world view has been shattered!

[Dazlartist]

Or they could release cata and wod standalone, but for a reduced timeframe..like one year per expansion max.

What killed those extensions, amongst other things, was content drought.

they could but who the heck would want to do them ( for even a year) unless they are progressing for nostalgia ( with friends etc) - there haven’t been that many changes to the cata or wod leveling zones over the past years and timewalking has given us the dungeons - the announcement of ‘classic cata’ is unlikely to be celebrated even if the content was decent if not great at times but there’s no sizzle on that steak ������ - classic is likely to fade after classic wrath if not just go to seasonal fresh servers in my opinion but what do y’all think?

[Ragerre]

Or they could release cata and wod standalone, but for a reduced timeframe..like one year per expansion max.

What killed those extensions, amongst other things, was content drought.

No thx, let us have at least one 'eternal' server per region, like there will be eternal ones for other expacs. People who like WoD (myself included) obviously don't care for stuff like 'content drought'.
We were punished because someone didn't have enough torghasts and maws.

[Akibaboy]

If I were Blizzard.

I'd create Classic+, a version of Vanilla that I'd rename World of Warcraft: Legacy.
• It'd have all the gameplay, abilities, talents, etc. of Vanilla 100% intact.
• It'd have HD updates for models, armor, and the world, with an option for original graphics.
• It'd allow for offline play for those who don't have internet (like me when I'm on deployment).
• If you do have internet, you can host your friends to join in to your game.
• Live's Party Sync is enabled for questing purposes, meaning it's always rewarding for a friend to join you.
• You can build your own NPC party out of your alts, and they'll be smart enough to do dungeons for you for those playing Offline, but aren't as good or fast as playing with players.
• Progression-based end game - Naxx patch content is unlocked by finishing AQ, AQ is unlocked by finishing BWL, etc.
• Online shared Auction House across users, ability to host lobbies for dungeon groups.
• Additional content for end game

I know that for some, this is absolute blasphemy to WoW. I know to Blizzard's love of subscribers this is blasphemy. It's just that after seeing how exploited and corporate the community got at endgame of Classic, that this would put the control into the player's hands for how they want their endgame to play out, and the ability to start fresh / engage progression on their terms.

[Roxyfoxy]

If I were Blizzard.

I'd create Classic+, a version of Vanilla that I'd rename World of Warcraft: Legacy.
• It'd have all the gameplay, abilities, talents, etc. of Vanilla 100% intact.
• It'd have HD updates for models, armor, and the world, with an option for original graphics.
• It'd allow for offline play for those who don't have internet (like me when I'm on deployment).
• If you do have internet, you can host your friends to join in to your game.
• Live's Party Sync is enabled for questing purposes, meaning it's always rewarding for a friend to join you.
• You can build your own NPC party out of your alts, and they'll be smart enough to do dungeons for you for those playing Offline, but aren't as good or fast as playing with players.
• Progression-based end game - Naxx patch content is unlocked by finishing AQ, AQ is unlocked by finishing BWL, etc.
• Online shared Auction House across users, ability to host lobbies for dungeon groups.
• Additional content for end game

I know that for some, this is absolute blasphemy to WoW. I know to Blizzard's love of subscribers this is blasphemy. It's just that after seeing how exploited and corporate the community got at endgame of Classic, that this would put the control into the player's hands for how they want their endgame to play out, and the ability to start fresh / engage progression on their terms.

This is not blasphemy to WoW, its blasphemy to the MMO genre as a whole. If you are looking for a single player game with coop, there are plenty great ones out there.
Whats this obsession a lot of people have with wow, that they want to make it into something completly different?

Wow is great, but there are other games out there just as good that have pretty much every single thing in that list with the exception of it not being World of Warcraft.

[MORGATH99]

If I were Blizzard I'd do everything right and all the players would be happy.

and player will still find something to complain about

[Akibaboy]

This is not blasphemy to WoW, its blasphemy to the MMO genre as a whole. If you are looking for a single player game with coop, there are plenty great ones out there.
Whats this obsession a lot of people have with wow, that they want to make it into something completly different?

Wow is great, but there are other games out there just as good that have pretty much every single thing in that list with the exception of it not being World of Warcraft.

Because it's hands down my favorite RPG world where gameplay is *mostly* king. The zones aren't too big as to be aimless, the combat flow feels better than 90% of the genre - I say that's true for both the wildly different gameplay of Vanilla AND Live, and the pacing and sparseness of the story and themes allows a lot of space for actual roleplay (as opposed to others that heavily dictate your identity and motivations).

I've been playing MMOs for 20+ years now. The reason I want this isn't because I hate the genre, it's because of a desire for certain kinds of gaming content to be preserved for eternity. Classic was good for a month or so, but the required playerbase that's needed have the kinds of experiences I want to have isn't there after a short amount of time. Thus, the ability to have those experiences are again gone the same way Classic itself was. I wouldn't dream of advocating that someone should want to play a game the way I want to, so I imagine a scenario where both are possible. I want to complete that quest for RFK on my Alliance Rogue, but after trying here and there for 3 weeks to find a group, it just isn't going to happen.

I have this weird thing about online game experiences going away and never being possible again. I know WoW is probably the LEAST possible candidate for a shutdown of any online game in the next 20-30 years, but who knows. My mind is still blown that my FFXI character exists still.

[NihilSustinet]

#ClassicLegion

One can only hope.

maybe it would split the player base too much, but after wrath, i think it would be cool if they just started launching servers dedicated to each expansion, and just have cata, mop, wod, legion, bfa servers full time, maybe with a "season" type structure.

[Thage]

Classic Wrath is a no-brainer at this point, because Wrath finishes off the 'feature-complete' Classic trilogy. There's an observable story arc for the player character throughout the three, the three mostly fall under the same design philosophies, and the story itself flows from one to the next.

I'm not sure they'll do Cataclysm onwards, if only because Cataclysm is when their long-term issues with player retention began in earnest. I think it'd be a hard sell to the bean counters for post-LK Classic server options.

[Roxyfoxy]

I've been playing MMOs for 20+ years now. The reason I want this isn't because I hate the genre, it's because of a desire for certain kinds of gaming content to be preserved for eternity. Classic was good for a month or so, but the required playerbase that's needed have the kinds of experiences I want to have isn't there after a short amount of time. Thus, the ability to have those experiences are again gone the same way Classic itself was. I wouldn't dream of advocating that someone should want to play a game the way I want to, so I imagine a scenario where both are possible. I want to complete that quest for RFK on my Alliance Rogue, but after trying here and there for 3 weeks to find a group, it just isn't going to happen.

I have this weird thing about online game experiences going away and never being possible again. I know WoW is probably the LEAST possible candidate for a shutdown of any online game in the next 20-30 years, but who knows. My mind is still blown that my FFXI character exists still.

The required playerbase is definatly here, but it wont come to you, you need to look around to find it.

Im having almost identical experience as i had back in vanilla, with the exception all the knowledge aquired over the years. To enjoy a mmo to the fullest, you need to find people to play with that you can pretty much consider to be your friends, go out and have fun with. Thats not happening if you dont try to find them.

Now, what people want to get out of a mmo varies a lot, and the game is entierly driven by the community, you can get unlucky and be on a server where a few guys make life shit for the entire server, or you can be lucky and find people you will consider friends, once you find the group of people you enjoy playing with, what everyone else does is completly irrelevant, cause they dont have any power over you unless you give it to them.

But to gain friends, sometimes you will need to make both compromises and sacrifices in order to keep playing with them.

You might not find that group for RFK, simply cause there is nothing there for alliance, so finding peolple to do so might be impossible in a pug, but thats part of the community, they arent here to boost you, however if you try to get friends in the game, you might see them wanting to help you out.

Mmos are social games, and just like in real life, random people wont go out pf their way to help you with nothing to gain from it, close friends will.

I kinda lost my train of thought here, but TLDR, mmos are no fun without friends. Great fun with friends.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Tick tock releases is what they will do until it doesn't work. I for one wouldn't be very interested in Cata but I know if Wrath is a huge success they will be printing Cata afterward Wrath. It will go until it stops working. More or less free money and gets easier and easier the closer they get to live as the systems become more and more like they are currently. It also lets them put more and more "games" under the WoW subscription model that lets them make it look more and more like a "deal". How they are handling the character moves and such in TBC shows they will slowly inject more and more monetization. Once you get into Cata then you can even sell the mounts that were in Cata in the store that was actually in the game then too. Plus most importantly I look at it this way. Someone may really want to play Cata and even if that isn't me I don't see why they cannot have their classic experience like I had with Classic and will have with TBC and (99.999999% likely) WotLK.

[hulkgor]

Working on it? lol

Like BC all they have to do is copy the BC onto Classic, because BC zones/content weren't destroyed with the release of Cataclysm, which would literally take less than a week. Then it's all bug testing and whatever adjustments they want to do. It's the same for Wrath. It's tops like 2 months to do lol.

I actually find it funny how wrong you are, but spewing gibberish with such confidence.

It's not that simple. Classic (and TBC Classic) is played on the Legion client, not the original one. And there's a lot of aspects of the game that simply run differently, for which they'll have to go over every single bit and ensure it's working properly.

If you're actually curious about it, and weren't just bashing for the sake of bashing, check BlizzConline, they literally talked about it, and showed a lot of funny issues that have been arising by simply loading up TBC on the current client (Oceans on Hellfire Peninsula, huge Draeneis on char selection with wrong race backgrounds, etc etc).

It might be easy work to fix, but it's lengthy one at that, and i'm pretty sure they run small teams for Classic\TBC.

But yea man, you know best with the "LESS THAN A WEEK!" remark :P

[Watchers]

If I were Blizzard I would be happy with what SL achieved. It's the best X.0 patch since at least cata (did not play before, so I can't comment on that). Whether or not 9.1-9.3 hold up will be seen, but SL blew BfA, Legion, WoD and MoP's X.0 patches out of the water. So Blizz can build upon this base, they just have to deliver content and minor tweaks. Torghast could see some changes, but the rest seems pretty perfect to me.

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