A player-designed game! What a nice idea!
But it can’t be done with WoW. There ARE NO “dev tools to create content”, other than the source code. And Blizzard isn’t going to make its source code public.
In MMOs this is called a “sandbox game” and it has to be designed that way FROM DAY ONE. You are 16 years too late for WoW.
So here are the easy steps:
- hire a dev team to design the infrastructure and create “tools”
- have that team work for 2-3 years
- Create a complete duplicate of Classic WoW in the new “tool-changeable” form. (6 to 8 man-years)
- You’re done! Now, are there any paying customers?
So, when they create new content, they write source code from scratch for everything?
In some cases, this is true, for completely new things… but for Classic WoW, the assets are already made… I’m not talking about new assets being made, I’m talking about creating dungeons with pre-existing assets.
For example, want to make an instanced cave for players to explore…
- select one of a handful of “cave” lay-outs.
- select level range to populate a list of appropriate mob types, drop and drag them (indivdually or as groups) in to spots.
- select from a list of “decoration” assets to set the feel/look of the instance.
- set up some minor scripting for specific events, also from a prefabricated list of options (i.e. upon aggroing boss, he yells “Die fools!”).
- once happy, save and submit the file for the QA/QC team to review.
If it passes QA/QC, the playtesters can rate/vote on it for inclusion into the game at some point. Players can now run this instance instead of (or in addition to) doing say RFC.
No source code required, just a limited tool kit for creating simple instanced content, that uses existing assets. Kind of like Neverwinter Nights and other such RPG games (minus the live/realtime DMing aspect).
Oh look. Can’t play the game I pay for due to a massive queue.
Big surprise that Blizzard has yet again mismanaged things again causing yet another $hit$torm where they get to laugh their way to the bank.
“Cash Rules Everything Around Me
C.R.E.A.M. get the money
Dolla dolla bill y’all”
-Activi$ion Blizzard
Raid naked.
PvE solution to PvE problem.
Im sure it would be nice for some, but whats “cool” to you may not be to me so this doesn’t really work as something long term. Asking for different things is what got retail to what it is, so I would rather get TBC than the possibility of retail lite.
I think they should wait till some time after P6 roll us all to TBC and open new classic servers so if you prefer that you can start your journey over again instead of clearing Naxx for an additional 6 months get bored and there be no one left on classic anyways.
Glinda with the MVP ideas here. If you think this content is too easy just don’t buff 
or try riding with no shoes this next week! The grounds hot in BWL I’m sure it will be a challenge to not burn your feet.
It’s not different though, no fundamental mechanics are being asked to be changed.
Just more content for people to play thru, without needing an expansion which has thus far changed fundamental mechanics of classes and added levels/abilities/talents.
The concept is to create lateral activity, rather than progressive activity. I don’t personally enjoy retail, because of all the changes to the basic game mechanics. I would like more options of activities, without fundamentally changing things.
Ultimately, it’s all subjective, but having more options doesn’t prevent people from doing what they prefer… you can PvP or farm gold or raid or run instances or whatever floats your boat… having more available content doesn’t change how you choose to play the game; as long as it doesn’t fundamentally change the way the game is played.
To be honest, I think a compass would be best.
Appreciate your passion for this, but you have vastly over simplified what it means to create a tool kit that would allow partial development of the game.