Will classic servers be a long time succes?

Lord.Bachus

I dont think so In less then a month a huge majorrity will realise that todays gameplay is so much better. Combat, classes, bossmobs .. and so many things that weren't in Vanilla. We all will try and most will quickly realise... the game has evolved for the good... I have a whole toher take on classic servers.. Make them part of the current WoW game.. Bring them all back to max level.. And allow people to play Vanilla as a timetravel destination.. To make it even better, add some diablo style to it.. So people can choose from several difficulty levels. Also let them choose between PvE and PvP And add some form of progression, so content opens further based on progression... This allows people to replay full expansions for the content While enjoying that as part as a 2018 game.. instead of playing the 2004 game.. As much as i loved Vanilla... I also can still see and feel it flaws.. So maybe Blizzard should make us a better vanilla experience and me.. i am allready looking forward to Wrath of the Lichking..

Sovrath

Lord.Bachus said:

I dont think so In less then a month a huge majorrity will realise that todays gameplay is so much better.

I wholly believe that there is a contingent of people who actually prefer the "older game play" as far as the original mmo's. I know I do.

I think the real issue is how Blizzard will develop these servers. I know that if they just leave them "as is" people will eventually go through all the content and then say "now what?".

rpmcmurphy

I think there will be lots of people who think they will enjoy it but won't and there will also be a lot who do.

For some people the game has evolved for the better, for another group of people it has evolved for the worse and it's unfair to make any declarative statement about who is right and who is wrong. The cost of making it more accessible and convenience friendly seems to have been the removal of character individuality, quirks and a lot of other things people found interesting about vanilla.

My interest is whether the communities hold up, how well will PUGs work going back to this sort of system, how will people deal with negative server reputations etc.

Panther2103

Lord.Bachus said:

I dont think so In less then a month a huge majorrity will realise that todays gameplay is so much better. 

I don't think it will die off that quick. The question is entirely based off of how Blizzard plans on keeping the server updated. If they just put a classic server in and leave it without any updates, I say a few months. If they keep updating it and put either expansions or new content in over time with the classic mold, then I say it could potentially stay around for a long time. 

A month is a very small amount of time. I know the argument happens a lot about private servers only having players due to it being free, but ALOT of people wanted to play those servers because they wanted the experience again or for the first time. I see posts all over the place on other forums saying I'll finally try the game because I can see how it started. Those servers retained a relatively huge community for a private server with no signs of dying off (except when they get shut down or some people start funneling donation money). 

I feel like only time will tell what actually will happen. I always bring this back up in these threads because it's entirely relevant, Oldschool Runescape has constantly grown in population since it came out, eventually growing past the amount of concurrent users of the modern game because Jagex handled it so well, and have released separate content that was different from the path the main game took. 

JRRNeiklot

In  a year, classic will have more players than the current version.  It's just a superior game in almost all aspects.

Pemmin

DMKano said:

Nobody knows, but Blizzard has a plan that they are not sharing yet.

****since none of this is offically reported - unsubstantiated rumor clause applies, so treat this post as such****

Just a little inside info here - there is a huge split inside blizzard of employees who wanted classic and employees who were against it. 

Majority of the current WoW team was against classic servers, at least against how they are being done.

This is why Blizzard hiring new devs to do classic makes sense becuase internally the devs werent jumping on this project.

Also the reason of why they are hiring a new team is because of the bigger plan behind classic servers that they are keeping quiet.

I mean there is a lot of work to get classic done with new infrastructure, but once classic is done - then why have a whole team?

The plan beyond classic is this - redo all expansions with classic ruleset - yep. Thats why they need a team and thats why they see potential to keep this relevant and profitable even after noataliga wears off and numbers dwindle.

At least thats the plan now, after classic launches things might change

that would be amazing

and while i do enjoy legion....I hopped on a private server a few months back and have enjoyed the classic rule set more so....it wasn't just nostalgia. unless I'm a huge outlier(which I don't think I am)...I see a market for what is suggested above.

DeadSpock

Today's WoW is dead I just re downloaded wow check several servers all in the low 300 per side horde/alliance, I think that's why Blizzard decided to start vanilla classic server wow is finally dead.

Octagon7711

I just logged out of SWL and during the 3 hours I spent questing I saw 4 other players, not counting those standing around in the hubs.  I would call that dead.

waynejr2

DMKano said:

Nobody knows, but Blizzard has a plan that they are not sharing yet.

****since none of this is offically reported - unsubstantiated rumor clause applies, so treat this post as such****

Just a little inside info here - there is a huge split inside blizzard of employees who wanted classic and employees who were against it. 

Majority of the current WoW team was against classic servers, at least against how they are being done.

This is why Blizzard hiring new devs to do classic makes sense becuase internally the devs werent jumping on this project.

Also the reason of why they are hiring a new team is because of the bigger plan behind classic servers that they are keeping quiet.

I mean there is a lot of work to get classic done with new infrastructure, but once classic is done - then why have a whole team?

The plan beyond classic is this - redo all expansions with classic ruleset - yep. Thats why they need a team and thats why they see potential to keep this relevant and profitable even after noataliga wears off and numbers dwindle.

At least thats the plan now, after classic launches things might change

That would be ambitious to say the least.

kitarad

That's very ambitious @DMKano but Blizzard can do it 

laxie

Does anyone know how Everquest 2 progression servers are doing? I know a lot of people went to try them, but I have no idea how many actually stayed long term.

ByrgenarHofen

As usual, only time will tell.

Lord.Bachus

My biggest complain with WoW is the fact that from the huge gamibg world with many fantastic sights, only a small portion is alive...    there is so much potential lost...   i just want my current characters to relive what made vanilla and expansions like wotlk great...  a huge explorable world...

for me there is just one thing needed to break open this game... open up servers where everything is max level, and allow people to enjoy all that the game has to offer and had to offer at max level...

if done smart, it will be offered in chuncks, starting with all of vanilla...   and then add all of the previous rotations on a 6 months schedule...   also allow people to choose difficulty like in diablo 3 

also give people a reason other then just fun, to replay those old expansions... 

Wizardry

Restarting is an instant influx of excitement then dies off quickly as players realize....wtf am i doing this for.
The long term goal is that you end up exactly where you are now so why bother delaying the inevitable?

I believe for some,they want to show off,be the first on this new server and will play 24/7 to strive ahead and defeat the whole purpose of gaming.
If that is all Wow offers is a race to finish like some single player game,then it is a fail and not worth playing no matter what server setup.

Someone asked about Eq2 doing this,a ghost town within 3 months because of exactly what i said.Players were ok for a month,then about 50% of the server wanted the game to be exactly like it was ..lmao to forge ahead so then everyone gets frustrated and it dies.

Kyleran

Initially there will be a huge flood, servers choked to capacity.

In short time, 3 to 6 months many will move on for various reasons.

Some will stay, perhaps for many years, but will be a small fraction of the original rush.

Galadourn

DMKano said:

The plan beyond classic is this - redo all expansions with classic ruleset - yep. Thats why they need a team and thats why they see potential to keep this relevant and profitable even after noataliga wears off and numbers dwindle.

At least thats the plan now, after classic launches things might change

You mean release all the content post 1.12.1 (new continents, dungeons, races, and what not) scaled down to fit that version of the game? That would BE AMAZING! The depth of character progression would make WoW hard to beat vs any other game.

I really hope they do that. There was a poll that was circulated around the time of the petition to bring back classic wow, where among other things people were asked if they would like new content for vanilla and lore. The majority voted for such a thing.

delete5230

Kyleran said:

Initially there will be a huge flood, servers choked to capacity.

In short time, 3 to 6 months many will move on for various reasons.

Some will stay, perhaps for many years, but will be a small fraction of the original rush.

I think they are anticipating that. 

That's why I think they will have a nice fresh expansion waiting in about 30 to 60 days after release.

blamo2000

I think the people who enjoyed the games more back then for specific reasons, such as talent trees and making hybrid builds and actually having character progression of note outside of equipment, or having more brutal and unforgiving content, or the slower pace and less kid-inclusivity of the games will be the ones to make them popular long term.

I think the people that are more of a today gamer, that dislikes thinking or actively playing, and who just want to check it out to see what all the fuss is about will be the tourists.  

I doubt many people who like wow today will like the classic servers.  WoW today is for them and their ilk.  WoW classic will be for people like me who used to love wow but find today's popular games tedious and dumb and so completely devoid of complexity as to barely warrant the label of "game."  

It makes sense that the modern wow lovers will not like classic wow and vice versa if you look at this from a mechanical perspective.  

Triddle

I disagree completely. Vanillas combat, class system, boss mobs, world, etc was in a completely different league to the mobile-game-wannabe that is modern WoW. The game game was a diamond rolling, slowly at first, down a hill of faeces. As it accelerated down the hill it picked up more and more crap until it reached the point that no one would know there's a precious gem underneath it all. It's beyond repair, classic is the only course of action to save the game from its own dev cycle.

MadFrenchie

Kyleran said:

Initially there will be a huge flood, servers choked to capacity.

In short time, 3 to 6 months many will move on for various reasons.

Some will stay, perhaps for many years, but will be a small fraction of the original rush.

That wouldn't really be any different than the past X number of new MMORPG releases, though.  Some build that base back up slowly by adding fixes and content, but all face the rush and impending "hangover."

d_20

They need dynamic events to keep things fresh.

DrunkWolf

Its hard to say, each person will have a different opinion on it. i know from experience i have a friend who plays on a vanilla server now, he was playing it for awhile and thought to give real wow another go.

he found real wow very boring because everybody just sits in city queing up for everything, levelig was just so fast, money so easy to make. so he went back to vanilla server just because its more interactive being around others doing quest and such, and not so hand held.

but other people might not like that, because lets be real 50 people fighting over a 10 mob spawn for a quest drop isnt very fun, and for those who have forgotten. that is what vanilla was like.

MadFrenchie

I have to agree with your sentiment Sedryn.  I'm currently playing through Legion and earning tokens that grant "1.3 billion artifact points.". Not to sound petty, but why the fuck are so many zeros needed?

Just move the damn decimal and keep the underlying stat effects.  Do folks really need to see the number objectively go up like that to enjoy playing the game?

MrMelGibson

Elidien said:

As the old saying goes, "You can;t go home again" and it applies to nostalgia in MMOs too.

I love DAOC. My best gaming memories are from it. I still try and login a couple times a year and those memories come rushing back. Then after a day or two, the nostalgia vanishes and I am left with a  shell of a game and memories of what was.

Blizzard has to have more than a 1-60 classic experience in mind or the sane thing will happen. Huge influx, a few months down the road, people leaving en mass. They will need something to hang around for and trying to get 25 people together EVERY night to raid won't do it.

Vanilla was 40 people.  So even more difficult.

DrunkWolf

SedrynTyros said:

DrunkWolf said:

Its hard to say, each person will have a different opinion on it. i know from experience i have a friend who plays on a vanilla server now, he was playing it for awhile and thought to give real wow another go.

he found real wow very boring because everybody just sits in city queing up for everything, levelig was just so fast, money so easy to make. so he went back to vanilla server just because its more interactive being around others doing quest and such, and not so hand held.

but other people might not like that, because lets be real 50 people fighting over a 10 mob spawn for a quest drop isnt very fun, and for those who have forgotten. that is what vanilla was like.

If the server is too crowded, I agree it can be a pain.  There's a sweet spot for population ... probably somewhere between 6000 and 8000 people at a time.  Once you get over that number, some of the more popular areas can get a bit packed.

it doesnt even take that many to pack a server, i think the server we played on was around 3k people and he said vanilla max pop was 2.5 k. hopefully they adjust the mob spawns for what ever server cap they do or else there is going to be some serious rage quitting going on.

blamo2000

I honestly don't see how people can view the classic server with modern glasses.  The classic server isn't supposed to be the next WoW, or ESO, or Kotor, or FF whatever.  It isn't supposed to make kids and the modern lovers of current mmorpgs or mmos do an about face and get all giddy.  

It seems these people keep asking, "Where do I fit in to this?"  The answer is - you don't.  Every modern game out there is for you guys to talk about.  This is for the people who want what we think is better...what we once had in the case of wow, and then that just got shit on by kids and people with extremely poor taste in mechanics.  The people who have kept all the older games alive and profitable, and want a new one to add to our rotation of good, or just a place to park we know we will like.  

You guys are vegetarians talking about how the new meat lover's restaurant is going to stay open when they serve meat.  Guess what?  Not because of you guys.  We know, all sane people know, and you guys seem to be the only ones that don't know.  We want our meat back, and you guys don't like meat.  It really is that simple.