I know this has been buzzing around since the reveal. But if Blizzard doesn’t copy Jagex with their model for OS Runescape the game will die. As much as i am a fan of my beloved TBC, if they release “Classic TBC” and then “Classic Wrath” so on so forth then the classic community will be split, servers will be ghost-towns, and subs will plummet.
The ONLY way to keep classic alive is to make Classic+ happen. Where there are not changes, #Onlyadditions. They need to ADD on too existing content without changing gameplay, spells, zones etc. They can addon new proffesions, storylines, end game quests, raids etc. but to keep it from feeling like an expansion they canNOT raise the cap above 60, cannot re-do zones, existing gameplay or story.
Hell, Jagex does it beautifully… keep a player-based voting/poll system in major cities and let US help you decide what to add and what ideas to axe. Classic WoW is the last bastion of Blizzard i have hopes for surviving, and i want it to succeed. I want our community to thrive and I dont see it realistically continuing any other way.
We got #Nochanges as close as we could, i am happy. Now there needs to be #OnlyAdditions
htt ps://secure.runescape.com/m=news/gielinor-gazette-july-2020?oldschool=1#_ga=2.67370129.1653654964.1595976127-1344428980.1595593805
This is the Gielinor Gazette. Every month we get to know what the developers are thinking, what they think needs improving, what is working well and what could be added without hurting the rest of the game.
Then we discuss things on the forums, and depending on how the reception goes and what the playerbase suggests the proposed changes get polled immediately (in order not to waste dev time in case of a failure), later with changes, or the idea is scrapped altogether.
But that’s not the only thing they tell us. They tell us what each developer is working on, along with state of completion and estimated time of arrival. They tell us who has been hired, and for what, and who has quit, and why.
Everywhere it is clear how much the OSRS team cares about the game and how much they respect the design principles that made the game what it was in the first place.
Can Classic WoW do that? If not, then an OSRS-style evolution wouldn’t work. That kind of thing requires effort and an active community aware of what is actually good for the game.
News flash TBC “IS” classic+. It’s classic but a whole hell of a lot better.
With that logic, retail is classic+ also
lol
While I agree with this sentiment, the problem is that Blizzard is a small indie developer and simply does not have the resources to make two games.
lol
It will never happen. Blizzard puts all of their resources into retail. To divide their resources and develop Classic+ would be to admit that retail is a failure.
We got Classic with GREAT reluctance on their part. They hate it, IMO. But it has been a very profitable cash grab for them. And TBC will accomplish the same thing, WITHOUT them having to divert resources away from retail, which all those people at Blizzard have been paid to develop and manage. And by releasing TBC, they will also not have to admit that half the WoW population prefers a 15 year old version of their game to retail, with all of its “improvements” that they were paid to develop.
Classic, TBC, and WOTLK all prospered on their own private servers. Same will happen on give-blizzard-money servers.
Classic+ means mission tables, weekly loot chest, mythic+ razorfen downs.
#NoChanges exists to keep mission tables away.
So do you feel that blizzard would do a good job on it? Or would it just turn out to be yet another not exactly finished, not exactly polished, bug ridden mess?
Would they do away with bad components of design like 400ms batching in favor of much tighter modern era batching? Would they address the very long list of still present bugs like LiP potions not displaying their animations more frequently than not? And there are a whole host of other details that blizzard would need to iron out of a Classic+
Realistically leaving warriors with what is effectively unlimited rage is bad, leaving hybrid classes with out armor sets that actually work for them is bad, leaving paladins and shamans without a real melee attack for retribution and enhance is bad, leaving rogues in a busted state of RNG regarding their talents is bad, its why we got a drastic update in TBC, and leaving a plethora of other TBC upgrades out would also be bad.
Not to say TBC is perfect, but it really did iron out a lot of stuff that needed to be fixed. PVP system says HI!
If Blizzard copies Jagex with their model for OS Runescape, WOW Classic will die.
Opinions both, neither any more valid the the other.
(However, if Blizzard offers ANYTHING smacking of popularity votes to add non-vanilla content, I walk away permanently. So it doesn’t matter if it dies of not, it will be dead to me. I wanted vanilla, I’ve got something as close as they can manage apparently. I do not want the modern dev team and demanding players altering that again.)
Blizzard doesnt care if we know or not what the devs are thinking
they dont read their own forums anyway why do you think theyre seen more on social media sites? because its easier to ignore feedback by simply blocking the commenters on twitter etc
Dear Enpol,
We hear you loud and clear and we developed this new 6 month subscription mount and c’thun theme’d store pet to go along with your care for Classic. We here are commited to accommodating all fans of the Warcraft franchise. We can’t wait for you to continue your sub, suggesting changes, and us releasing cool mounts and pets.
Thanks,
Blizzard
Splitting the community will not make subs plummet. It will only split the community.
In fact, releasing those two expansions will probably increase subs, because there are a lot of people that HATED Vanilla but would come back for TBC and/or Wrath.
AB-SO-LUTELY NOT.
Classic “plus” is a terrible idea, because no matter what you change, someone will hate it.
THAT idea will kill subs. Releasing TBC and Wrath are the way to keep subs and get more.
You want new content developed by THESE devs? Use your muscles and pick your brain up off the floor.
The problem with Classic+ is that nobody knows what it will look like. It doesn’t make financial sense for them to go that route now. Maybe after Wrath has run its course, but not now.
Also, if you’re doing Classic+, that means the game play is stuck in Classic mode. Lots of people aren’t happy with the state of hybrids in Classic. They feel like the “hybrid tax” is much to high. You really think they would go back to more of that after they’ve had TBC and Wrath? That’s just one example of something that’s wrong with Classic. There are others.
IMO, if they were going to build on the systems of any game, it should be TBC. We should be asking for TBC+ instead of Classic+.
I dont see hybrid classes as having a tax. Shamans, paladins and druids are hella fun to play. They have the best heals, and unique utility. Being the best at everything means every class is the same. Look at retail. Its garbage.
What if you want to be an enhancement shaman, or a ret pally, or an ele shaman, or a balance druid? See where I’m going with this?
This was never said. I personally think TBC is the sweet spot. Those specs I mentioned are not up to the level of the “parent class”, but they’re pretty strong and bring unique buffs/other abilities.
Edit:
This isn’t a game that really rewards hybrid play. It’s not like, say, DnD where hybrids are valuable. The community has made the game about min maxing. It’s hard to find a place if you’re mediocre at two or three things, but not great at anything.
The community will not be split. At least not for long. When TBC comes out some people will stick around and play classic… but those servers will slowly die out. The VAST majority of players will be playing TBC. Also, I do NOT trust the community to make decisions for the game.
That is literally the definition of a community being split.
Based on pserver population, TBC will be nowhere near as popular as Classic was at launch. There will be a sizeable population of players that will either stay on Classic or just quit the game.
Yeah it will. You can’t base it on pserver populations. There are a few tbc pservers right now but its different. Even the vanilla pserver players want tbc. I’m one of them. TBC is wildly more popular than vanilla. You will see. People get their beloved “class balance” in tbc. Classic will die and TBC will thrive. The communities won’t be split for long as the classic players who chose to remain will slowly make their way to TBC or quit. TBH I don’t care what they do. TBC will bring even more people back to the game than Classic did.
Or perhaps the reason there were so few TBC pservers was simply because the demand wasn’t there?
Rofl not even close. TBC will be min/maxed just like Classic for PvP and PvE. In Arena’s we’ll see 90% War/Druid/Priest/Rogue/Mage/Warlock for 2’s/3’s.
Blood Elves are also stupidly overpowered, so we’ll probably see a 9:1 H:A ratio just like it was on the few TBC pservers.