Except that if the demand is far lower, the % of players who stick with it will be far higher, because the first people to go will be those also most likely to leave. I’m less concerned with underwhelming launch than an overwhelming one in that respect.
I still think that Classic will hold the attention of 500,000 players. If a given server can hold 7500 monthly active users (40% peak), that’s still a need for 60+ servers.
It doesn’t need to be, but it’d be really beneficial. Not being able to quest makes for a very frustrating a demotivating experience. I made it to 15, but a hell of a lot slower than normal because anyone with 2 braincells moved away from the heard of sheep to grind on mobs and move onto the next area. By the time I was able to move onto the next zone I still saw people trying to group for start zone quests. Twas a mess.
Another big issue that was happening as a result of people grinding on mobs was people who were questing in other areas were now having quest mobs killed.