The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Gone are the silly notions of heroic dungeons, non cookie-cutter talents, heirlooms, and ret paladins. Blizzard is bringing back Vanilla in a legal manor.
No more are the days of overcrowded Nostalrius with the chance of getting your account banned. In with the days of paying to play original content all over again.
At an unknown date, Blizzard is launching World of Warcraft Classic. This is great for those of you who already quit, or just can't stand the direction WoW went in past their favorite content. Be prepared... for long queue times.
The beta/demo will have a level 15 character and class of your choice. Playable are the zones of Westfall for Alliance and Barrens for Horde, PVP will be duels only.
Just like those at the show, players will be playing the demo on a short time only. Blizzard will have another beta for everyone at home at an unknown date without a time limit.
World of Warcraft Classic will launch August 27th 2019.
I kind of like the idea of going back to simpler times when the world was much smaller and all the zones were still in play. But playing the actual vanilla build of the game is another story, I think that's going to feel really rough. It sounds like the tech infrastructure of the game will be new but all the gameplay systems will be old, tedium intact. I'm nostalgic for the old days but I don't think I have the stomach for that.
I kind of like the idea of going back to simpler times when the world was much smaller and all the zones were still in play. But playing the actual vanilla build of the game is another story, I think that's going to feel really rough. It sounds like the tech infrastructure of the game will be new but all the gameplay systems will be old, tedium intact. I'm nostalgic for the old days but I don't think I have the stomach for that.
I kind of want a vanilla perfected
Some of the talent trees were a mess or not fully touched at all
I want the updated character models from at least Cata or better. There are a bunch of quality of life things that have come in the history of wow that would have improved the fun of vanilla back then
But we really know nothing of what blizzard is planning for it or in what state will they bring it out in from then.
+8
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
I kind of like the idea of going back to simpler times when the world was much smaller and all the zones were still in play. But playing the actual vanilla build of the game is another story, I think that's going to feel really rough. It sounds like the tech infrastructure of the game will be new but all the gameplay systems will be old, tedium intact. I'm nostalgic for the old days but I don't think I have the stomach for that.
I think the world is going to enlarge, not shrink. Flying contracted the world massively, especially with modern draw distances. When you can actually see the hard boundaries between zones where biomes meet and change unnaturally, it becomes far less immersive.
+3
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
I'm saving my Christmas present from my sister for when the Classic servers launch. She gifted me a 2 month game card and I don't want to spend it on current gen WoW.
I'm saving my Christmas present from my sister for when the Classic servers launch. She gifted me a 2 month game card and I don't want to spend it on current gen WoW.
That is one of the many questions I have as I really don't see them charging the current subscriber rate for vanilla
Brainleech on
0
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
I'm saving my Christmas present from my sister for when the Classic servers launch. She gifted me a 2 month game card and I don't want to spend it on current gen WoW.
You're aware you could waiting as long as 2019? Nor do we know anything about how we'll even pay for it.
I’m most looking forward to it because as much as I love wow the current game is just to big. For some it must be amazing to log in and have so much to do everyday. But for me I feel like I can never complete something or even if I do there’s still so much left undone. Look forward to just the simple raiding / dungeons.
Not entirely sure if this is the best place for it, but here we go...
I was bored this weekend and decided to play through the wc3 campaigns again, and I am like 100x more pumped for classic servers than I was before. Playing through just felt very warcraft to me, and I think that is something that got lost along the way. Not that current wow is a shit game or anything, it just isnt quite warcraft anymore.
I know really nothing will be that new when I play classic, but I just cant wait to dive back into that world again. And who knows, i could end up playing a class I only dabbled in the first time around and that would be a whole new learning experience since it’s so far removed from today.
At this point im basically praying there will be some good news about classic by the time i get bored with monster hunter which comes out on friday. Wc3 is so much fun and i havent even done the expansion campaign yet which is my favorite (playable murlocs and naga ftw). Im like a whole nutha level of hype right now.
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
I just realized, what patch are they going to use for this? If it's pre-Windfury Weapon nerf I will be pleased. It wasn't a real nerf during Vanilla, they just removed the animation and audio effect at one point. You used to watch your character swing fast and hear the CLUNKCLUNKCLUNK of your mace. I kinda miss that.
i've enjoyed basically every wow classic thread since blizzcon just sort of go "Uhmm...so...anyone have something to talk about? How about...do we know what patch it'll be on yet? No? Okay...."
honestly anything that they say other than "beta starts X" will be met with a total shitstorm. They announce which patch, everyone on each side of the argument will just vomit hate all over each other and blizz. And that will go for almost every decision they could make from the number of servers, server cap, progression vs static, graphic update toggle vs any variation of it, and just whatever else people are making suggestions for.
Personally I'm fine with "close enough" to vanilla. Graphics wont bother me one way or another. Patch doesnt matter too much to me. Just no cross realm and phasing and it should be fine. I also dont want them to put in a dungeon finder either, but if they did id be fine so long as it doesnt port people into the dungeons. I think having to experience the world for good and bad was an important part of the vanilla experience, even more so on a pvp server. I just hope the community somewhat balances the pvp servers or it will just be boring for one side and too frustrating for the other.
honestly anything that they say other than "beta starts X" will be met with a total shitstorm. They announce which patch, everyone on each side of the argument will just vomit hate all over each other and blizz. And that will go for almost every decision they could make from the number of servers, server cap, progression vs static, graphic update toggle vs any variation of it, and just whatever else people are making suggestions for.
Personally I'm fine with "close enough" to vanilla. Graphics wont bother me one way or another. Patch doesnt matter too much to me. Just no cross realm and phasing and it should be fine. I also dont want them to put in a dungeon finder either, but if they did id be fine so long as it doesnt port people into the dungeons. I think having to experience the world for good and bad was an important part of the vanilla experience, even more so on a pvp server. I just hope the community somewhat balances the pvp servers or it will just be boring for one side and too frustrating for the other.
I do like that the Will of the Forsaken nerf is an option to check when you unsub after all these years.
0
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Heroic Argus down, whee!
Except like 3 people just left for RL reasons so now we have to recruit people to start Mythic, QQ life is hard in video games.
honestly anything that they say other than "beta starts X" will be met with a total shitstorm. They announce which patch, everyone on each side of the argument will just vomit hate all over each other and blizz. And that will go for almost every decision they could make from the number of servers, server cap, progression vs static, graphic update toggle vs any variation of it, and just whatever else people are making suggestions for.
Personally I'm fine with "close enough" to vanilla. Graphics wont bother me one way or another. Patch doesnt matter too much to me. Just no cross realm and phasing and it should be fine. I also dont want them to put in a dungeon finder either, but if they did id be fine so long as it doesnt port people into the dungeons. I think having to experience the world for good and bad was an important part of the vanilla experience, even more so on a pvp server. I just hope the community somewhat balances the pvp servers or it will just be boring for one side and too frustrating for the other.
I'd be fine with the what, late vanilla or early BC era dungeon finder I think it was? Where you could "queue" for dungeons but all it really did was put you on a list where people could browse/see who wanted to run stuff, but you still had to actually /w and talk to the person/invite them and get to the dungeon. I'd really rather not go back to the LFG channel method, though having that in addition to the tool wouldn't be terrible.
honestly anything that they say other than "beta starts X" will be met with a total shitstorm. They announce which patch, everyone on each side of the argument will just vomit hate all over each other and blizz. And that will go for almost every decision they could make from the number of servers, server cap, progression vs static, graphic update toggle vs any variation of it, and just whatever else people are making suggestions for.
Personally I'm fine with "close enough" to vanilla. Graphics wont bother me one way or another. Patch doesnt matter too much to me. Just no cross realm and phasing and it should be fine. I also dont want them to put in a dungeon finder either, but if they did id be fine so long as it doesnt port people into the dungeons. I think having to experience the world for good and bad was an important part of the vanilla experience, even more so on a pvp server. I just hope the community somewhat balances the pvp servers or it will just be boring for one side and too frustrating for the other.
I'd be fine with the what, late vanilla or early BC era dungeon finder I think it was? Where you could "queue" for dungeons but all it really did was put you on a list where people could browse/see who wanted to run stuff, but you still had to actually /w and talk to the person/invite them and get to the dungeon. I'd really rather not go back to the LFG channel method, though having that in addition to the tool wouldn't be terrible.
Yeah the meeting stone activated lfg thing wasnt used much but i guess was useful to some people. It really was a logistical marvel when you had 3 people in 3 different zones in your level range posting in each zone chat that they were looking lfm for whichever dungeon. People loved my warlock summons lol.
One big question is how much will it cost. Will it be bundled with a normal WoW sub? Probably not, as this is Activision so you can expect a standalone sub fee that gets a small discount if you're also playing modern WoW. Shit, you may have to repurchase WoW to play Classic. We simply don't know yet, and Activision is greedy enough to try it.
I think it will have a decent opening from curiousity, but quickly shrink as people realize that Vanilla isn't that great, especially since it's effectively a dead-end for new content. From there it will have a smaller, dedicated community, but I think people don't realize how much of a factor the whole "free" thing is when it came to the population numbers for private servers.
Cost will definitely matter, but I almost think they will just put it under the umbrella of a regular sub, especially if they are trying to make everything for it run on their modern infrastructure. I could possibly see having a classic only sub be a little cheaper than a regular sub, with the option to "upgrade". I think the goal is mainly to get back older customers they have lost that arent into the new stuff, while also giving newer players something to do during content lulls. So one sub granting both can keep people playing both for longer.
I think if they made people buy classic wow their servers would be hit by an unprecedented and sustained amount of ddos and other attacks, not to mention the internet would explode. I dont think they could from a PR perspective.
I definitely agree it will have a massive number of people try it out initially, which will be kind of funny because it will mirror the original launch in lag and unplayability. I see people make the private servers are free argument a lot, but the flip side is also that a lot of people don't want to risk downloading some bad shit onto their computers by dealing with private server stuff. For instance, I think they are too shady to mess with, and too easy to slip something malicious into, so I've never done it. But I would pay to play on official servers in a heartbeat. Time will only tell where the numbers on both sides stand.
I still just think vanilla and retail wow are good games just for completely different reasons. I think the target demographic is a bit different, and certainly cater to different playstyles. I think there still will be some overlap of the playerbase, but I also don't think it will shrink nearly as much as people say it will. Though that will depend how they decide to roll it out.
I could easily see it running pretty well for at least a couple years. I see people kind of falling into the regular grind, then people will get bored and start alts, then repeat everything. Then as a community a bunch of people will probably organize a mass rerolling of the opposite faction to shake things up again. After that it will probably be more in blizzard's court as to whether they want to try out an alternate continuum content release for vanilla, maybe do a TBC upgrade (doubtful), or something else altogether.
I'm definitely the sort who would prefer a "Classic only" subscription at a discounted rate; after all, if their goal is to attract old players who don't like newer content it hardly makes sense to force them to pay for said new content.
I had assumed it was just going to be tied to the regular monthly subscription. May or may not involve a purchase of the Classic game client, but I doubt it. The target demographic here are the people who aren't currently interested in playing modern WoW, so it's enough just to get them paying the monthly fee again.
I expect them to both be on the same monthly sub, probably with a one-time purchase for the vanilla 'box.'
the price of an mmo sub seems to be pretty inelastic: people who're willing to pay anything are willing to pay 15 bucks but they're not willing to pay much more, which is why that's been the price for basically every subscription game. Doesn't seem to really make sense to charge a sub for each if most players will only pick one.
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
I'm definitely the sort who would prefer a "Classic only" subscription at a discounted rate; after all, if their goal is to attract old players who don't like newer content it hardly makes sense to force them to pay for said new content.
Yeah but consider this: What if psychologically speaking it's easier for the consumer to justify also buying regular world of warcraft once they're paying a sub for it.
They could do something like $7 a month if you dont have a wow sub, its included if you do have a wow sub. Might get people to pay a bit more for the regular one and give them more numbers to show off in reports.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
Are blizzard actively courting vanilla players or just establishing an alternative to the illegal pirate servers? I can not see blizzard charging less for anything let alone their bread and butter wow.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Are blizzard actively courting vanilla players or just establishing an alternative to the illegal pirate servers? I can not see blizzard charging less for anything let alone their bread and butter wow.
Pretty sure it's the latter. They want to protect their IP without generating too much negative publicity.
I'm still extremely surprised that they are doing this though.
0
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Including vanilla with regular sub (or including regular wow with a vanilla sub, depending on your point of view) even if only for a limited time, is a fantastic way for blizzard to get existing players to try vanilla, and for vanilla players to try modern wow. You'll get players for both that otherwise might not have done so.
If it wasn’t Blizzard, I could see them making it free actually.
That doesn't help them get players into modern WoW, which is a goal that makes a lot of sense. If people pay the same cost and get both, and you're a long time ex-player who comes back for Classic you might as well spend an afternoon poking around on modern WoW at one point or another.
If it wasn’t Blizzard, I could see them making it free actually.
That doesn't help them get players into modern WoW, which is a goal that makes a lot of sense. If people pay the same cost and get both, and you're a long time ex-player who comes back for Classic you might as well spend an afternoon poking around on modern WoW at one point or another.
This is what I think is most likely to be their decision.
edit: man I found a real awkward way to say that didn't I
free for "limited" is pretty standard marketing. free vanilla, upgrade to current wow for a 3 month subs or something could get a large number of people to come back.
Posts
I kind of want a vanilla perfected
Some of the talent trees were a mess or not fully touched at all
I want the updated character models from at least Cata or better. There are a bunch of quality of life things that have come in the history of wow that would have improved the fun of vanilla back then
But we really know nothing of what blizzard is planning for it or in what state will they bring it out in from then.
I think the world is going to enlarge, not shrink. Flying contracted the world massively, especially with modern draw distances. When you can actually see the hard boundaries between zones where biomes meet and change unnaturally, it becomes far less immersive.
That is one of the many questions I have as I really don't see them charging the current subscriber rate for vanilla
You're aware you could waiting as long as 2019? Nor do we know anything about how we'll even pay for it.
I was bored this weekend and decided to play through the wc3 campaigns again, and I am like 100x more pumped for classic servers than I was before. Playing through just felt very warcraft to me, and I think that is something that got lost along the way. Not that current wow is a shit game or anything, it just isnt quite warcraft anymore.
I know really nothing will be that new when I play classic, but I just cant wait to dive back into that world again. And who knows, i could end up playing a class I only dabbled in the first time around and that would be a whole new learning experience since it’s so far removed from today.
At this point im basically praying there will be some good news about classic by the time i get bored with monster hunter which comes out on friday. Wc3 is so much fun and i havent even done the expansion campaign yet which is my favorite (playable murlocs and naga ftw). Im like a whole nutha level of hype right now.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
PSN:Furlion
Personally I'm fine with "close enough" to vanilla. Graphics wont bother me one way or another. Patch doesnt matter too much to me. Just no cross realm and phasing and it should be fine. I also dont want them to put in a dungeon finder either, but if they did id be fine so long as it doesnt port people into the dungeons. I think having to experience the world for good and bad was an important part of the vanilla experience, even more so on a pvp server. I just hope the community somewhat balances the pvp servers or it will just be boring for one side and too frustrating for the other.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
I do like that the Will of the Forsaken nerf is an option to check when you unsub after all these years.
Except like 3 people just left for RL reasons so now we have to recruit people to start Mythic, QQ life is hard in video games.
I'd be fine with the what, late vanilla or early BC era dungeon finder I think it was? Where you could "queue" for dungeons but all it really did was put you on a list where people could browse/see who wanted to run stuff, but you still had to actually /w and talk to the person/invite them and get to the dungeon. I'd really rather not go back to the LFG channel method, though having that in addition to the tool wouldn't be terrible.
Yeah the meeting stone activated lfg thing wasnt used much but i guess was useful to some people. It really was a logistical marvel when you had 3 people in 3 different zones in your level range posting in each zone chat that they were looking lfm for whichever dungeon. People loved my warlock summons lol.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
I think it will have a decent opening from curiousity, but quickly shrink as people realize that Vanilla isn't that great, especially since it's effectively a dead-end for new content. From there it will have a smaller, dedicated community, but I think people don't realize how much of a factor the whole "free" thing is when it came to the population numbers for private servers.
I think if they made people buy classic wow their servers would be hit by an unprecedented and sustained amount of ddos and other attacks, not to mention the internet would explode. I dont think they could from a PR perspective.
I definitely agree it will have a massive number of people try it out initially, which will be kind of funny because it will mirror the original launch in lag and unplayability. I see people make the private servers are free argument a lot, but the flip side is also that a lot of people don't want to risk downloading some bad shit onto their computers by dealing with private server stuff. For instance, I think they are too shady to mess with, and too easy to slip something malicious into, so I've never done it. But I would pay to play on official servers in a heartbeat. Time will only tell where the numbers on both sides stand.
I still just think vanilla and retail wow are good games just for completely different reasons. I think the target demographic is a bit different, and certainly cater to different playstyles. I think there still will be some overlap of the playerbase, but I also don't think it will shrink nearly as much as people say it will. Though that will depend how they decide to roll it out.
I could easily see it running pretty well for at least a couple years. I see people kind of falling into the regular grind, then people will get bored and start alts, then repeat everything. Then as a community a bunch of people will probably organize a mass rerolling of the opposite faction to shake things up again. After that it will probably be more in blizzard's court as to whether they want to try out an alternate continuum content release for vanilla, maybe do a TBC upgrade (doubtful), or something else altogether.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
the price of an mmo sub seems to be pretty inelastic: people who're willing to pay anything are willing to pay 15 bucks but they're not willing to pay much more, which is why that's been the price for basically every subscription game. Doesn't seem to really make sense to charge a sub for each if most players will only pick one.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
With the lukewarm reception BfA is getting I would not be surprised if they bundle it in with it
Yeah but consider this: What if psychologically speaking it's easier for the consumer to justify also buying regular world of warcraft once they're paying a sub for it.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Pretty sure it's the latter. They want to protect their IP without generating too much negative publicity.
I'm still extremely surprised that they are doing this though.
That doesn't help them get players into modern WoW, which is a goal that makes a lot of sense. If people pay the same cost and get both, and you're a long time ex-player who comes back for Classic you might as well spend an afternoon poking around on modern WoW at one point or another.
This is what I think is most likely to be their decision.
edit: man I found a real awkward way to say that didn't I
Blizzard: Pailryder#1101
GoG: https://www.gog.com/u/pailryder
BoA is shaping up to be a dud like cata it seems so it would not surprise me if they bundle it in or release it in a desperation move the road