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Making vanilla profitable to Blizzard.
Abuz0r
Member UncommonPosts: 550
Without arguing about opinions on the subject of an official vanilla server, I'd like to pursue ideas about making it profitable for Blizzard and therefore a priority. Many of us would shell out big bucks and reopen multiple accounts to play vanilla again.
Here are my ideas, please share yours:
1) Official licensing proposals to Blizzard. 3rd party host and customer service paying fees to Blizzard and charging customers similar to the situation with Darkfall.
2) Kickstarter or GoFundMe for the estimated setup costs to contribute to Blizzard in exchange for a commitment to bring vanilla servers online if targets are achieved.
Thanks for helping, I loved playing World of Warcraft and no longer have a game to call home.
Here are my ideas, please share yours:
1) Official licensing proposals to Blizzard. 3rd party host and customer service paying fees to Blizzard and charging customers similar to the situation with Darkfall.
2) Kickstarter or GoFundMe for the estimated setup costs to contribute to Blizzard in exchange for a commitment to bring vanilla servers online if targets are achieved.
Thanks for helping, I loved playing World of Warcraft and no longer have a game to call home.
Comments
You can scratch #2 because Kickstarter doesn't allow for that. At least not the last time that I checked their TOS.
On the first item, I don't think that you ever get official licensing from Blizzard. Nost had, what appeared to be, an opportunity to work with Blizzard. My assumption is that it's more about Blizzard not segmenting their users than it is actually getting a couple bucks out of it.
That's why I would question whether you'd even see Vanilla offered by Blizzard. Maybe if they did it as an additional $5 surcharge on top of the current $15? So you'd be paying $20 monthly?
Crazkanuk
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If they want it way more popular they make a good graphics upgrade but leaving everything else as it was and skip ever releasing the expansions. Maybe a bit new material like dungeons at times.
The thing is that too many expansions hurt a MMO and while some love them not all players do. A graphically updated vanilla would keep at least a million players which easily would earn in any cost fast. Blizzard wont do it though because their point is that Wow is better then ever and releasing a prettier vanilla might contradict that.
In fact, chances are that it would pass current Wow and you can't make expansion money on a vanilla game.
We wont see a vanilla Wow except by illegal private servers.
I'm sure WoW is better than ever, but it's not the game I originally signed up for, and it's been made easier and easier as far as grouping ETC. I like the updates, I like the cross-realm PVP, I like WoW in general, but if vanilla were an option I'd subscribe my account and play that. Expansions are super painful because it's such a reset. I've only ever quit right before an expansion. It may seem like a great 'expansion' but it's also a great time to cancel and leave.
You can play it sans the subscription right now.
True, there's a timeline for those, though. So they should be available eventually. And, speaking from experience, there's no issue with the server. I don't remember vanilla originally having cross-realm PvPing. I was pretty sure cross-realm grouping was something added much later.
They CAN do it but they wont because for them it doesn't make any sense to from a design standpoint. As someone in the thread mentioned earlier, they don't want to admit that rereleasing a state of the game from 10+ years ago would be fun or popular. There is a clear want for the product and people are more than willing to pay for it and it would also solve a lot of issues they have with some private servers. But they don't want to be caught with egg on their face at the end of the day.
I need to see MANY changes before i want to play a game called Wow.
Better graphics,daily PVE "server wide" events ,NO dailies nonsense,housing,NO linear questing,NO xp for doing quests,far less instances and NO linear progression to do the NEXT tier of content as you SHOULD be able to pretty much do any content with NOOB gear by playing your class well and with lots of quality spells and abilities to guide you through tougher content.
OPEN world content instead of ALWAYS aiming at instances better combat design with more depth for player to player team work.
So yeah Wow needs LOTS of help before i would consider it even remotely a good game and one i would play.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I made this thread to brainstorm ideas about how to sell the project to Blizzard not to make assumptions about how Blizzard feels or why they will or won't do it. Every company has sales goals and you guys keep attaching petty emotional flaws to a giant and otherwise impersonal company.
I think subscriptions are their number one priority and they are primarily worried the vanilla audience plays vanilla because they're getting it for free and not because they like vanilla. We have to show them that's not the case.
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/blizzard was always about being as good as they can, and yes, they made mistakes too.
non the less, they always tried to set a new scope for upcomming games, and they did so quite good.
"vanilla WoW", as you like to call it, was way from perfect.
i actually doubt you remember it ^^
blizz has advanced the game for over 12 years or more now, and they will not go back on that process.
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
I play on one that's Rock solid......Stable, packed with players and less than 2% broken quest. I don't even think that.
Well I do remember both vanilla and tbc not being perfect nor even aiming for perfection really. But I also remember it to be lots of fun despite it's flaws. You could say that I probably just got tired of the game which is why I prefer vanilla/tbc and skip i.e. Legion completely but then modern WoW is just way too fast to enjoy for me - that was not the case of vanilla. Note that there are still some games with slower progression through content and yes - I do enjoy them so much more than modern WoW. Just like I did enjoy WoW 10+ years ago
Its not money, Blizzard could fund vanilla if they want to. Its not resources either - Blizzard could hire more devs if they wanted. Lets say they do and:
Blizzard open - or allow a third party to open - vanilla servers.
The servers are flooded (lets assume) as a mixture of nostalgia and novelty rule.
Problem Phase 1:
Desolation sweeps the official servers. Those not interested in vanilla are left bemoaning the destruction of guilds and the lack of population. They want mergers and they want them now!
Problem Phase 2.
Fast forward a month or so.
As the nostalgia and novelty pass players leave - not everyone of course. Basically think of vanilla as a new mmo - initial surge then a huge drop off.
Some vanilla players stay; some leave; some leave but go back to the non-vanilla servers - were chaos reigns.
Problem Summary. Chaos and Risk.
Huge population issues to manage.
Damage to the current server populations. Post launch population vanilla server population issues.
Possible: net loss of population. Has happened in the past when servers have been merging etc., new-old servers being introduced etc. Whether or not this does happen Blizzard will peg it as a risk and want a solution to prevent it.
Solution Maybe?
My thoughts are that:
- Blizzard would have to restrict access to the current WoW population. Basically make the vanilla server experience a glorified Time Walking episode.
- As a minimum limit the size of the vanilla population initially- a hard numerical cap. As such some system will have to be put in place to decide who gets to go, who doesn't. e.g. continuous months subbed; or historically months subbed; a combination of current + historical; random lottery - possibly quest linked, some new quests or based on old quests.
- the hard cap could be raised over time;
- make it easy for people to stay in touch with any friends or guild.
The aim is to avoid the chaos.
This approach though would almost certainly have people complaining that they want to play vanilla "now" and under whatever rules Blizzard device they won't be able to for x. y. z. Unhappy people making unhappy posts. So Blizzard would have to sell the message and keep pushing the message.
Ultimate question: would they make any money? Everyone would have to be subscribed. And they could lock the Time Walking experience behind the latest expansion. So vanilla players would have to sub and buy the latest expac or even expacs.
Would it work even if they believe they could make a profit? Not sure.
Right because it's not like vanilla started it all and had millions of people paying to play it, oh wait...
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
I did it once when it came out and enjoyed it, but these days those design choices don't really fly. I still think they should offer a vanilla server and a year later open a BC server. Maybe make some changes to make certain things a little less painful.
If Blizzard added vanilla, current WoW would be a ghost town, as so many multi-box for the illusion OF a MMO. As soon as Blizzard has an Overwatch promo, WoW empties. So the game really doesn't have many humans playing to split between old and new WoW.
Then what tech or new content will keep their designers happy creating?
So they're stuck in new WoW and anything else old will have to be third party (which Blizzard is very greedy about not doing).
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