This option has been discussed in this forum before. A bunch of players supported this idea for TBC. So this was one of the choices considered by Blizzard as part of TBC. Blizzard considered this product and decided not to create it and offer it to the public.
Yes. Everyone has known that for months. Blizzard knows that too.
But that isn’t the business Blizzard is in. Blizzard does not “create customized games for groups of players that want different rule sets”. They simply don’t do that. They aren’t set up for doing that.
I started on a newly released server prior to TBC launch back in the day after playing vanilla on a different server, and I would very much like to have the same experience. If the argument favoring boosts from Blizzard is that they want to allow existing players to be joined by their friends, I feel not only does offering this satisfy that goal, but it would also be authentic to the original experience.
Also, being able to start on the same footing as everyone else, as someone who played classic for six months but then stopped, would be a much more positive experience. I enjoy world PvP, but getting to Outland and fighting all of this old money that has epic flying (or even regular flying) aeons before I or a lot of people will doesn’t seem fun.
I never understand people that act like spinning up servers is some difficult task that takes hundreds of hours and tons of resources in time. On top of that turning flags off for transfer and even boosting is just as easy.
Sure, I could get behind some fresh servers, without the boost on them. Makes sense for anyone that wants the New server experience. I do not see how that can hurt anyone and if there is a significant population of players that want it, then why not.
For the record I am Pro-Boost as well and see no problems here. Again, each person is free to experience TBC the way they most enjoy and if a fresh server helps with that enjoyment, then more power to you. Even one that does not allow a boosted character on it. It all sounds like a resonable request.
It’s a strange argument to make against fresh servers. Like it’s some massive undertaking. Why are people against a fresh option? Still haven’t figured that out.
I cannot argue with that logic. It is as simple as it is effective. Give the Anti-Boosters Fresh servers with no boosts. Let those that do not care or do not have issues with boosts use the remaining servers.
They would need to flag said servers in the selection menu, so that after a few months, anyone coming in new will not get a big surprise when they want to get a boost and can’t due to the server they chose. Call them Classic TBC (Restricted) or something.
WTB fresh server. LF server with no boosts or transfers. Will pay. Won’t pay for boosts. Will pay for a fresh server with no boosts or transfers. Please Blizzard, please, for us RPG nerds.
Fresh servers without boosts or any other cash shop conveniences for the RPG crowd while keeping the original servers for the min/max and Retail tourists.
It does sound win/win to me and an easy solution to the pro-boost/anti-boost arguments going on here on the forums and on others. With the huge number of likes this threat has garnered I do think there is a sizable market for new servers with no cash shop conveniences on them. I cannot see this costing Blizzard that much and would most likely guarantee you some more subscriptions for the long term with TBC Classic.
I think the best way to roll out TBC would have been to make a separate, standalone game and leave classic as-is. The bnet launcher would have World of Warcraft Classic, and then a separate game: Burning Crusade Classic. Fresh game, everyone starts new at level 1.
Then, players could optionally pay to transfer/copy their level 60 characters from classic to TBC, with all of the existing transfer limitations we have now.
I genuinely expected a system like that. Too bad corporate greed is a thing.
I remember discussing how they would implement TBC Classic in Discord with several people. A number of them would not have not played TBC Classic if they had to start over again. Now, most of those were min/maxers and I understood why they wanted to move straight into TBC Classic with their original characters as they were wanting to start Karazhan on the first or second week of the Dark Portal opening. But there were a number of people who simply would have stopped playing if Blizzard had made the TBC Classic servers all fresh and required people to start over again.
I also spoke with a number of people who were hoping for a fresh new start with TBC Classic. Many of these people were going to change their mains or start over again as Blood Elves/Draenei and were hoping for a new, fresh environment where there would still be a good number of people still in Azeroth to level and do dungeons with. I am definitely in the latter camp as I also intend to start over as a Draenei and it would be good to have some people still in Azeroth to group with.
The sad thing is the Retail tourists and min/max crowd got their wish, while the RPG crowd got left out. Opening a few, new fresh servers without any cash shop conveniences on them for the RPG crowd while keeping the original servers the way they are for the min/max and Retail tourists would make both camps happy as far as I can tell.
It’s just a matter of how much Blizzard wants to actually retain the subscriptions from the RPG crowd versus the amount of money they know they will make from the min/max and Retail tourists in their cash shops. I feel they know the latter is guaranteed while the former they may still view as a gamble. I am hoping that threads like this one (with over 4K likes) and others on the forums might help persuade them that it is actually worth it for them to setup a few new servers for TBC Classic in each region.
The problem is using not playing as a way to try to convince Blizzard as a way to get what you want isnt really going to work in the long run. For people that do want to play quitting over the lack of new servers just gives blizzard less of a reason to go down that path. As we get closer and more people get excited the more people on the servers the more likely we are to get a server.
By people saying they are going to forgo playing, blizzard just hears. Less people playing less need for a server. I do belive that as people move off PvP servers that there will be a Need for a New server. I just hope it doesnt turn into a target transfer server because Pagle pop is making it impossible to log in.
They could use the paid service, then, to transfer existing level 60s onto TBC realms. These people are most likely all paying for a boost either way. I think a whole lot of people would pay to transfer as admission price, so to speak. There could be designated realms just for level 60 transfers to land, with some realms designated fresh/no xfer.
That way there is still revenue rolling in. I’m sure the transfer service would be in high demand and highly utilized.
e: And in essence, it has been implemented, just the other way around: pay to transfer/copy to Classic Era. Man, Classic Era is such a stupid prospect when you think about all the other ways they could have launched TBC.
I understand that reasoning, and I am honestly not trying to hold Blizzard over a barrel with my subscription. It’s just that I enjoy playing MMORPGs. Retail WoW is no longer an RPG and can hardly be called an MMO anymore with the exception of instances. If they go down the same road with TBC Classic, I will most likely find an MMORPG to play is all.
The Burning Crusade was my favorite expansion in the history of WoW. I would really love to play it again and my wife has never seen the expansion (she started playing towards the end of Wrath) so I would love to show her Outland and play through my favorite expansion with her. But I would rather do that with a fresh, new experience with no cash shop conveniences the same way I did all those years ago.
And I know the lack of my subscription will not mean anything to Blizzard in the long term. Between the min/max crowd and Retail fans, Blizzard could announce a patch where you HAD to manually jump your character every five minutes or they would instantly die, and millions of people would STILL subscribe and buy things from their cash shop. And Blizzard knows this full well. In fact, they are counting on these people as they allow Blizzard to do whatever they want with their games knowing they will still have millions of faithful followers who will continue to pay them with their money and time no matter what Blizzard does.
So, while I don’t mean my subscription loss as any kind of threat and would really love to continue to subscribe and play TBC Classic, I also feel that Blizzard needs to understand that not ALL of us are die-hard fans who will continue to pay them no matter what. For some of us, there is a line in the sand and there ARE alternatives to playing Blizzard games. Their die-hard fans may have blinded them to that fact.
