I remember back in 2004 when World Of Warcraft launched it was so popular it was nearly impossible to get a copy (back in the day of box copies). It was so popular it was next to impossible for any shop to keep a copy. It was thankfully on boxing day of 04 some obscure store had a few hundred copies and I snagged one (finally).
One of the biggest mistakes Activision Blizzard is making is underestimating the potential for classic wow. Scarcity is no longer a problem, all you need to do is get a subscription and download it. For a company that has done virtually no marketing for this product (probably because they don’t believe in its potential for success) they sure have a large amount of people interested.
Imagine when it launches. Despite the lack of marketing word of mouth will spread like wildfire. People who played back in the day return because it will only cost them a subscription. North America has how many servers? 12? (I don’t count Oceanic).
How the hell do you plan on getting rid of layering on servers with up to 50k concurrent users? Sure there will be a bit of drop off. New people trying and figuring out its not for them. People actually think these servers are going to die? NOPE!
For every person that leaves two more will likely take that persons place. There will be a massive falloff within the first two weeks, many people will quit before level 30. However those who hit level 60 will see there is much more to do besides raid (see my Completionist Guide for details)
Now imagine they did some advertising and actually put a little faith in this product? Blizzard please do not underestimate this release. You will need more servers. Honestly you should have done it like you did in the day, release 100’s of servers without layering.
The big problem becomes layering. You are layering yourself into a corner. You won’t be able to get rid of layering and that alone will send people into a fit of rage, and rightfully so. Your sheer incompetence and lack of willingness to believe in your own product has doomed classic to so many problems down the road.
But hey I’m sure you’ll offer paid transfers to the new servers you will open up. Make the people pay for your mistakes, it seems to be a good company moto.
You have 11 days before Classic, think this through. You need to double the amount of servers to begin with. Spread people out, you can’t just count the people who reserved names. There will be hundreds of thousands of people who either decide to play spur of the moment, or didn’t even know this was a thing because you failed to do any marketing.
Mark my words. They will not read this post, and there will be a massive mob of angry neckbeards when they announce layering is going to stay because they completely underestimated the success that classic will have. This forum is going to be a mess on launch day, guaraunteed 20 of the same thread will be made every minute with the title “We need more servers” because the queue time is over an hour.
