That if Blizzard hired you to lead/design/etc. that Classic would have been actually Vanilla (no x relms, near balanced factions on every server, challenging content, etc.) and super fun.
After seeing everything Blizz has done and heard of where/what they plan on doing with classic, you guys will be playing a retail/bfa version of classic in no time.
No.
There’s more to designing a game than being an armchair quarterback.
No, but I would’ve made it so when layering was removed, the transition from zone to zone wouldn’t have had that atrocious 2-3 second lag.
if a typical good(or bad) player designed WoW, then it’d probably be an unbalanced mess that has the class/race/spec that he wants to play be OP on purpose
it takes more to be a designer than to point out flaws; you need to be able to fix them too, as well as to have something called integrity
We don’t even have to speculate. It’s a free capital market. Perhaps the OP can link to titles he has designed, and we can judge for ourselves.
he said you, not him
Fair. I’m a software developer, but wouldn’t consider working in games, so it wouldn’t have been me.
No, because if blizz hired me to do classic, and handed my 1.112 source code and databases, then that is what it would be, by the book.
They hired me to do Classic, not recreate Vanilla in my own image.
1.12 is vanilla regardless of opinion and 1.12 had xrealm
Faction balance was never under blizzards control, ever.
And this is the content that 1.12 had.
You simply post nonsense.
They have not done much of anything really in the way that you suggest, nor have you heard anything, except for from the voices in your head, about anything strange that they are going to do.
Yes, I vote for this too.
It should be quite amusing.
No thanks. I have no interest in working for Tencent… cough I mean Activision, I mean Blizzard. They’ve already flown this IP into the ground between retail & reforged.
I disagre with all 3 of your claims about Vanilla being different.
I think that Classic is the SAME content, so is just as challenging. Maybe YOU have changed in 15 years, so the SAME game is less challenging for YOU. Classic copies the Vanilla game. No-one can copy who you were back then, or your experiences back then.
Better faction balance? Are you claiming that ALL 250 Vanilla realms had better faction balance than ALL 35 Classic realms have now? maybe that is so, but if so it’s pure luck. Blizzard never did anything in Vanilla to balance the servers’ faction balance. So you or I could not do anything either.
1.12 Vanilla WoW introduced cross-realm battlegrounds. So Classic did the same.
Um, no. I’m nowhere near that arrogant.
I would have absolutely refused to consider layering.
I would have refused to do a pre-pay to get names setup, though I admit the ideas I have for how that could have been better would have been non-vanilla.
I would have started with a better server spread, and more servers because I’d have the data on player interest. (I seriously do not understand how Blizzard repeatedly claims they’re listening and then says they were surprised. Even with no ability to count subs, I’ve seen players predict better.)
I would have had spell batching reworked heavily. (It should not be trying to mimic the WORST connections. Make it mimic the BEST connections back then.) I don’t even PvP. There’s just so many things I’ve given up on having combat feel good, and just assume mobs will get all the benefits while I get all the negatives.
EDIT: BUT, I have no delusions that all the things I’d have done differently would have changed mob behaviors and PLAYER choices.
Also, um, no.
I see things like Kaivax’ response:
That reassures me some, because what they’re talking about is an exploit that wasn’t overly used, but did exist, in vanilla - that is now being used more and, as such, may ultimately be healthier for the game to close the loophole. They’re not suddenly saying “Well, player X wants goblins, so let’s figure out how to implement all these non-vanilla changes to get there.”
Yes to no cross realm, but the others are what they are.
I hate to be “that guy” but. . .
Did you even play during vanilla? Lol there was sooooo many incredibly unbalanced servers.
Gah, they must have forgot to delete their “add 3 seconds of lag” line of code.
It’s pretty arrogant to believe you could have done something better especially when it’s something that isn’t even your profession.
There are certainly a few decisions about Classic that I find questionable. But so far there hasn’t been anything too outrageously out of the scope of vanilla. I think they’ve done well thus far.
There were xrealm bg’s in vanilla. There were zero systems in place to balance server populations. What are you talking about?
No, I do not feel like I would have imposed faction-based caps to the point of losing a large portion of the playerbase because they found themselves looking at “play Alliance or don’t play at all” and chose “don’t play at all.” Nor would I have used an orbital mind-control laser to force people to play Alliance. So that’s “no” to the “near balanced factions” fantasy.
Nor would I have artificially beefed up Molten Core and Blackwing Lair in the name of “actually Vanilla” being defined by being different from the original game. That is an experience one can easily get on private servers.
I might have left out cross-realm Battlegrounds. Don’t care enough about PvP to say. But probably not, since people would quickly have protested that queues were hours long, in addition to all the complaints about Battlegrounds they’re making anyway.
No, I’d have killed both Retail and any thought of Classic and done a new game entirely. One which was modern but which encouraged the fun that was had in Vanilla. A game where people had to cooperate and be social to get stuff done but without a lot of the antiquated systems and bugginess of trying to emulate Vanilla.
Its the left over sharding/layering code that they didnt bother removing. Its actually a lot more prevalent than most think, but I guess most dont realize its there or ingore the impact.
Is it now? Well I’m glad that you’re a Blizzard engineer and you stopped by to let us know this.