I agree with removing the cloning fee. Please remove.
2 Likes
Way too late to have any effect at all. Would only allow people who had characters on May 17, 2021, which they have never played in Classic Era, to activate those characters from that snapshot.
If they have continued to play those characters in TBC all of this time, having them revert back to level 60 (or whatever level they were on May 17) might not be what they are expecting.
The time to have done this was when TBC went live, not now. That would have let people have the option to play both games with their existing characters.
I believe it was the expectation and intention of Blizzard to have everyone move on to TBC and not keep Classic Era around at all, until enough people complained, so they came up with the idea to keep both games around but force you to choose, with a strong nudge for you to choose TBC.
So sure, if they invent a time machine first, then go back and remove the clone fee from the outset, I agree. Otherwise, it is a waste of time that would not change anything.
I would like the fee removed as well, because I am having a ton of fun raiding and pvping in Classic Era.
If I were to guess, I would say that the fee was put there intentionally to discourage people from playing Era because Blizzard can’t sell boosts and can only get the sub money in Era. So, put the shiny “new” thing in front of the player (TBC Classic), player chooses shiny new thing, and discourage player from going back to the less profitable version via what is essentially a $15 penalty.
I think anyone’s opinion on whether it is “too late” or not is irrelevant. You can’t know how many people would or would not play. Stick to the topic of removing it. It can only help.
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Just to make you aware, but as an active Classic Era player (I’m not sure if you are or not tbh), I have regular conversations with people who are either referring to themselves or more often family/friends who are considering playing Classic Era but the absurd Clone Fee is smacking them in the face.
It’s not 1 character. It’s usually multiple ones since classic folks usually had ‘support toons’ for their mains.
I ‘work’ in recruitment for my guild. This is literally my business when playing.
Just LAST NIGHT I had this very conversation yet again with a new guild member who came from TBC (after quitting it) and is now trying to talk family members into playing by paying the clone fee.
I myself have IRL wow friends who don’t want to pay it but want to play (with their old characters) and feel ‘unhappy’ about tbc and stopped playing it.
Is removing the cloning fee going to cause a stampede of players to play Classic Era? No, of course not. I dunno why anyone would think that.
Will it give an extra drop to our trickle of players? Yes.
Does it make sense to have this still in play given the dying nature of the game? No.
3 Likes
I had a ton of characters in Classic before the TBC split. I activated some in TBC and some in Classic Era, thinking I would play both. I decided instead to only play Classic Era. So those that I activated in TBC were stranded there.
I did pay the clone fee for a few of those characters to be able to play them in Classic Era after I realized my mistake.
I was still playing Classic Era but decided to play SoM for a while - to get the new server experience and lots of characters leveling. I have not totally abandoned Classic Era but I only visit infrequently.
I am not against them dropping the clone fee. I just think that it is way too late for it to have any effect.
You could be right, but we don’t know. At the moment Era is one big What if…
I’m pretty close myself to just throwing in the towel…
It would be crazy to charge a fee in order for us to keep our seasonal character’s on dead classic era realm’s . When we already pay our subscriptions for a full year . 20$ x 12 = 240$ a month give or take .
Nope.
They have to keep Era to protect their IP and have publicly stated that they will keep an Era server forever.
Clone fee is pure greed, no other motive needed.
3 Likes
Ah, well that makes sense then.
Companies typically don’t do things that aren’t profitable, unless there is some external or intangible reason, such as customer goodwill, regulatory compliance, or liability or other legal issues.
Placekeeper for your intellectual property so someone else can’t claim you abandoned it and it is therefore up for grabs is one such external reason.
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A slight quibble: companies NEVER do things that aren’t profitable.
Dropping the cost to 0$ would still be too little too late at this point. Players are not coming back to dead realms then paying for a transfer. Any new work can’t be taken to crusade either. They did 1 save state and that’s it, terrible. The way they handled classic doomed it long term once crusade came out. Crusade will follow it to the grave once wrath arrives.
“TBCC will not go to the grave because TBCC is a “Progression” server which will keep changing and will change into WOTLK. So, Crusade = WOTLK.”
-You misunderstand. When crusade came out, the realms did not patch to crusade. You were given a choice to stay or move to NEW realms which did crusade. If this happens again with wrath, then these realms will not patch to wrath. These realms will be left behind, just like the classic ones were.
“Also, players that come back do not need to pay for transfers because there are free transfers from all realms into Whitemane for PvP and Mankrik for PvE.”
-Wrong again. Many realms, including mine, are not on the list.
“No, you’re wrong. If you’re in Oceanic or NA, you are either already in Whitemane or Mankrik’s clusters or you can transfer to them for free. Same goes for EU but with different destinations.”
-I’m not talking about a “cluster.” I’m talkin about the realm itself. You’re not moving the goal post on me.
TBCC will not go to the grave because TBCC is a “Progression” server which will keep changing and will change into WOTLK. So, Crusade = WOTLK.
Also, players that come back do not need to pay for transfers because there are free transfers from all realms into Whitemane for PvP and Mankrik for PvE.
Dropping the cost of cloning will effectively leave the door open for anyone interested in checking Era out, which is the main goal here. A minority of people will play Era if the cloning cost is dropped, although most will probably not play it.
Still good to drop the cost to be able to recruit more people into Era.
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Wrong again. Many realms, including mine, are not on the list.
No, you’re wrong. If you’re in Oceanic or NA, you are either already in Whitemane or Mankrik’s clusters or you can transfer to them for free. Same goes for EU but with different destinations.
I am playing TBC. I would also play Classic Era if there was no cloning fee AND they actually connected all realms or gave free transfers to the main PvP cluster (multiple realms preferably to support players with both Horde and Alliance toons).
2 Likes
The issue you’re describing, can’t use a Free Transfer because of Faction Conflict, is not uncommon. I’ve created a thread that could use your support as an affected party addressing it here: Classic Era Transfer Issue #1
Being an Alliance on Sulfuras, your only ‘free transfer’ option is to Whitemane, but as you stated, have Horde on the server.
The thread above has proposed 2 different but effective solutions to this problem. Once implemented they would be handled via the automated system.
They transferred to Whitemane but they disbanded shortly after. There are other active Alliance guilds on Whitemane (PvP West).
My Horde guild was on PvP East 1 (Benediction, Faerlina, Heartseeker, Incendius, Netherwind) but we’ve begun moving to Whitemane as well. We were the last active guild there. It’s now a dead zone. Whitemane has an active population and the horde are very receptive to new guilds/players.
For PvE Alliance and Horde, the free transfer destination is Mankrik. It also has active horde and alliance raiding guilds.
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I’ve literally lost 3 core guild members with our server transfer who refuse to use the transfer on moral grounds and one also from a faction conflict. They consider their actions an active protest on the treatment Classic Era has received.
2 so far have canceled their subs.
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Respect.
But I’ve got a bad feeling Blizz isn’t gonna do squat to relieve this.
lol we had 2x guildies transfer off to whitemane in a tantrum :X it’s a slow death for dead realms. Thanks blizz.
Yeah, it’s insane. They won’t even take 2 minutes to fix bugs like a mount’s sound. The state of Era abandonment and degradation is unbelievable.
3 Likes
Psst, blizzard drop the clone cost.
3 Likes