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Classic servers, why not? (Poll inside!)
poopmonster
Member Posts: 9
MMORPGs continue to expand and you can lose what a game is originally somewhere down the way. I bet the people that keep up with the numbers see people quit as well down the way as their games change as well as pick up new players. Whe see classic server request happen for all games at some point. I say why not? If you can keep those people that are quitting because of game design issues they do not agree with by keeping one legacy server around, do it!
You can have the best of both worlds. You get new players with expansions and get to keep the ones who would quit as well because of the changes in expansions. I know the excuse for not making classic servers usually goes it will cost too much to keep up two versions of the same game. Why? Why could you not put one classic server on the list as "as is" and be done with it? Keep it at the patch of your choice and label it as "as is". People will know from the beginning this server recieves no changes. That would be most likely great with these folks anyhow, they are after that previous experience. Also you could offer a paid transfer off of the server as well for the folks that want to move along. It would be a great special ruleset server.
What is it going to hurt to try it if you still have that the software and patches? I think the companies are afraid some people will not upgraed and stay on that server. I say if they are that server to begin with they wouldn't have upgraded anyhow. Actually this server being available may entice people to try out the expanded game that normally would not have. I really don't see the harm in it for the companies. If it works, great more profit from more people who would have let their subs expire. If it doesn't just removed the server software and put the live version on it.
There may be one reason they do not realise the potential of classic servers and that is they get their information usually from their game forums. Well the current subscribers are of course not going to want a server such as this because obviously they are playing the live version. Usually the only people that can voice their opinions on a game forum is paying players. All the unheard voices of people that might want a classic server of their favorite MMO will not be heard. I think there is at least a population for a classic server for most games to fill up one or two servers. I think some popular classic servers would be World of Warcraft, Everquest, Asheron's Call, and Star Wars.
What do you think? I will make a poll.
Comments
I'm in the camp that believes that classic servers would not work.
Nostalgia is a powerful but misleading thing; we all remember the fun we had back in the early days of MMOs, but that was 8-10 years ago and we're looking back at them with rose-tinted spectacles and forgetting the bad stuff.
You have to consider that if a game were to bring out a "classic" server then that server would never change. No bug fixes, no upgraded content, nothing new at all. Ever.
Developers won't split resources with debugging/testing multiple versions of code.
I firmly believe that the appeal of a classic server is so small that they would prove to be more of a liability than a benefit. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be averse to the prospect of a developer testing the concept so that my opinion could be proven (in)correct.
I just can't see them doing it.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
Classic servers wont work because while yes maybe the game was ruined, too much time has gone past with so many other refinements you'd miss. So for example Star Wars Galaxies Pre CU would be great by now if they carried on development, fixing the problems the old game had. However if you make a classic server then you wont have any of the new content and things that they've done right since like the Collection system and all the new quests. Also you'd have to wait for them to fix the Comp Armour and Buff issues and all the other bugs in the game back then that have now been fixed. Imagine classic Everquest servers without all the kool new content you have today.
I think the better option would be Take the NGE how it is today and strip out all the classes and put back in the old profession system and change the loot system.
Then i think people would be happy again.
I would say it depends on the games audience and maybe what changes have been made over it's life. Eve for example would not do well with a classic server, but SWG would shine with a classic server.
So, my answer is undecided because of all the variables involved in the main question of classic servers...
I Reject your Reality and Substitute it with My Own!
I still take out my old Baldur's Gate discs every two years or so and play the whole saga from beginning to end - and I'd certainly return to SWG if they launched a couple of classic servers, so, yes, I confess I have a fondness for the classics.
I often wonder...was it the classic servers that were fun...or was it the smaller communities we had back then?
I would love to play Pre AoS UO again...but I know that part of the fun I had, was the community. So on classic servers would we still see the classic community or would we see the a$$hat community come out in full force?
Personally I think it would be better to see a new game with more of the classic mmoRPG game in it. Not all this instant gratification, do quest A-B stuff.
Thank you for all your opinions so far on this topic. While there is a great deal of nostalgia that would drive interest in a classic game, maybe nostalgia can be a incentive to create servers such as these? I have noticed that many games on consoles rerelease classics from past consoles and I think they are relatively successful. They keep rereleasing more classics anyhow so they must be making someone money.
It would be interesting to see a game company attempt a classic server such as World of Warcraft. They have large numbers of people playing the current game and I am sure they have had a large number of customers leave over the years as well.
Sure, it would bring back players. I don't think that is the issue, though.
The issue is would the server be sustainable? Would players stay past 3 months to continue to play an outdated game that is going to get zero updates? After all, everything cost money, and everything most earn a profit. No company is going to spend the resources on opening a special server that is not going to remain profitable.
Another issue, is the developer is not going to sell any expansions to the people who remain on a classic server, although, honestly I think that has little impact on the decision.
I admit if EQ came out with a classic server I would try it out for at least a month. Not sure if I would stay very long with zero updates, though.
This is not entirely true. You could fix bugs without adding anything new to the game. Classic servers let people who played during those times and not experience all of what the classic offered a chance to get back into the world and experience it.
MMOs Played: I can no longer list them all in the 500 character limit.
I think you might not get back the exact same people on a new classic server but I would guess you may get a lot of folks that you can relate with since you guys are there for the same reasons. That is another point I would like to make actually. With one or possibly two classic servers of a game, people that enjoyed the past game would have a central location for meeting and playing with each other. If you tried to attempt to play the classic content on the current live games, either it has changed so much from what it was or people with that similar ideas would be spread amongst many servers.
I voted no.
People that frequent this website need to let go of the past and move on.......
MMO Played-EQ, EQ2, WOW, DDO, GW, COH, Vanguard, WAR
MMOs Playing-LOTRO
Great informative post. I enjoyed your detailed and compelling arguments against this type of server.
Its a tough call but I think they would most likely fail long term.....There are several games that have classic private servers and most of them do not have very many players.......I think alot of people like the nostalgia of the games they played but for them to go back and play that game now would most likely be short lived......You could still play games like EQ in nothing but the old areas but players choose not to......No one forces them to go to PoK, Luclin, or whatever expansion it is they claim ruined the game for them.........I think now in 2009 the majority have moved on from their early roots and accepted that things are different now.........
I would love to play classic EQ again. It isn't just nostalgia speaking. Games are not made like that at the present time and the old EQ does not exist. The game of today named Everquest is only Everquest by name. I love great hits of the past. I still have a Nintendo for the times I want to revisit old great hits from the past. I still like them. They were hits for a reason. I would do the same for MMOs if it was possible but it isn't. They change to something they were not originally designed to be.
Sure it wouldn't be the exact same experience but we will never know untill a producer gives it a try. Closest thing I have seen that resembled a classic server was Everquest progression servers. They were a smash hit in the beginning before Planes of Power was opened. People have stated they were back to play the old game and were dissappointed how fast the game was once again ruined with expansions they did not enjoy. It was such a hit they had to open an additional progression server. We will never know how long people would have stuck around if the expansions were not released so fast.
Wanted to ad Diablo 2 is an old game that hasn't been updated in years and it still sells retail for $40 in a all in one package.
I voted no.
The work needed to make "classic" servers would not be worth the tiny increase in players returning.
Plus the players that this type of server would bring are already unhappy with the game, better to let them just find another MMORPG to play and be done with WOW.
In the original post it was stated "if" the company still had the game version and patches. That doesn't sound like much work. That was the point they are unhappy with the current version of the game. Why not bring them back if you could? I voted yes.
I think the underlying issue is that the powergamer type player is rampant in a genre that is intended for roleplayers.
Content is ripped to shreds in record time for loots and players want to be the first to have the best equipment, all while the people who are playing the game as it was intended are taking their time, immersing themselves in the lore, living the game so to speak, not simply camping spawn after spawn blindly doing quest after quest, not even reading any of the text, until max level.
The genre is overrun, powergamers have taken it over, and It's not the devs fault either, they are the customers now and If the developers want to keep their customers they had better push out some new bosses and loots ASAP. Why do you think 90% of the quests can be completed without reading a single line of text? Usually all you have to do is click accept, head towards the map marker, and start killing whatever is there, or clicking on anything with a ! sticking out of it. Most players don't give a damn about any of that, thats why the quests are so freaking shallow, the devs are just doing whatever they can to make the game into as much instant gratification as possible, and thats what the players want! These aren't roleplaying games anymore.
Sure, some MMO comany could just ignore the entire business side of what they're doing and make a true mmoRPG, but even if they did it would be swarmed with the typical playerbase lining up for their loots, whining about how it's too hard to get from point A to point B, whining about how something is unfair for class A vs class B, and not a single one of them has ever roleplayed in their entire life, not once. Remember the /ooc channel in EQ? See any channels like that nowdays? The mmoRPG genre is confused, and should be completely rebooted into some kind of powergamer halo-online mode. WoW comes far doing this but even WoW is based on EQ, and there sure as hell isn't anyone RPing in WoW. Not sure why they are even still making fantasy style mmos anymore.
"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun."
"there sure as hell isn't anyone RPing in WoW"
Wrong.
I see dozens of dedicated RP'ers every day on my server doing their thing - it's at times strange, and at other times very enjoyable to watch.
So I don't know where you get your information regarding "there sure as hell isn't anyone RPing in WoW", but it's incorrect.
I was speaking relatively, so yea I bet you have seen an RPer, good for you. It means nothing compared to the point I was trying to make that is the game itself is no longer an RPG.
"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun."
say what
90% of the people love getting new expansions for wow, so they can do more pve... and get new pve gear... they'd be lost without new dungeons and you know it
Even if you were correct in your assumptions. They have claimed to have 11.5 million players at one point. What is 10% of that? I think that might fill up one classic server. : )
I think that a classic server would bring back some nostalgical player so if a company can put up one for a small amount of cash so why not?
But the server can't expect to much maintanance, updating and so on, then it would cost more than it earns.
Well when DAoC did its "classic servers"....
Gareth on its own had more population than ANY other cluster in the game... Yet they weren't really Classic servers. Would they have done better or worse... who knows.
I started to go off on a ramble here but... When we start to debate classic servers or not..
How much of the industry isn't bleeding subs withOUT classic servers? (ie: they argue against them but can't retain player base with their brilliant ideas and awesome PR campaigns telling us what we want and how we're wrong... yet we continue to cancel and walk away).
I would say when your games core mechanics are the same as 90% of the market ... classic servers will not give you a long term player increase.
DAoC could have done much better with classics.. if they didn't do some of the retarded changes they did (game wide) as it was one of the best RvR games on the market (my opinion).
A couple other games are very different (or used to be) from the common game so they might have done better with classic server(s).
The one thing developers seem to do is when they lose subs.. they seem to have no clue as to why. So they keep pushing that same button (direction) and losing more. This to me is why people think about classic servers... (when the game used to be fun).
Then again as a developer would you want to support classic servers? Thus having to freely admit that you were paid for the last 2 years (or more) of development time.. where you were totally wrong... I've yet to see a developer just stand up and admit they are an idiot.. it somehow always gets passed back onto us.
Classic servers aren't a terrible idea, if they come with the disclaimer "This server is Patch X. It will never, ever change."
That way, players who are nostalgic can go back if they want. Some will realize they were foolish and go back to playing the latest patched servers. Others will genuinely enjoy the old build and keep subscribing. Either way, players get what they want and get it out of their system!
The decision mostly boils down to minimizing the cost of running these servers. Because running multiple versions at once is a headache for developers, and does incur extra costs beyond simply running one more server.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver