Do you think most retail players will last in Classic?
And what do you think will be their undoing that makes them leave?
I’ll start:
“MURLOCS KEEP KILLING ME!” - Elwynn Forest, collecting the medals of the dead guards.
5 Likes
i think it will be popular at the start, but i am not sure for how long.
maybe when they realize one scarlet monastery clear takes half a day ?
just getting there as alli was a genuine project.
1 Like
Anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks, most likely.
3 Likes
Classic will provide people with a challenge, it will be an entirely new experience for those that have not tried it thus far. I expect some will stick around for a day or two, some for week, some for weeks, and some months, if not until the very end. I would not generalize people as each person has a different taste.
7 Likes
I think a lot of players will be in and out of Classic on a cyclical basis. Between patches on BFA or whatever the next xpack will be.
And then slowly over time they will come back to Classic a bit sooner and stay for a bit longer. Till they find they get more enjoyment out of the 15 year old version. Then they will be hooked as many of us are.
13 Likes
Some will like it others not so much.
I would imagine those that complained that a removal of a portal that adds 2 minutes of travel time while they farm a pet on 12 alts will not be sticking around.
On the other hand, there are several guild mates with me that still play retail that are very much looking forward to digging into Classic and will likely stay with it for quite some time.
2 Likes
This is what I think is going to happen for the majority of retail players.
I think that once this gets released they will play it until level ~20-35 or so or however far they get in a week and a half. Then I think around that area you will see a lot of people leave, not all, but a lot. Then I can see that after a month or so we will start to see people gradually start to come back and start focusing more on classic. The reason for this is that I think people will get their fix of classic, go back to retail, run out of stuff to do on retail, and then start to use classic as a filler more and more and possibly even switching priorities onto classic.
2 Likes
Common misconception is that people who played Vanilla will play Classic. Most of the vanilla folk I asked if they’ll play with me, said no, they might give it a try, but they already experienced it and don’t want to commit their time to it once more. I expect that we’ll see far more people who never played vanilla sticking around, ones which people mock here and call retail folk.
You must understand, when vanilla was here, there was no “BFA”, so people had no choice, some vanilla players will play Classic, some won’t, some retail players will play, some won’t. There are plenty playing retail just because they see no alternative, and classic will be that alternative.
2 Likes
I think a lot will enjoy it. It’s the vocal ones about how awesome retail is that won’t. The vocal minority that is. This is all speculation.
1 Like
Anyone who has a problem with the pace of Classic will lose their mind within a week.
1 Like
FTFY 
Who are these really bad retail players the Classic forum keeps talking about? Because there are people playing retail right now who are excited for Classic. There are retail players who clear mythic raids. There are retail players who have spent the last few years farming the same raid over and over to get one item.
I think on average the current retail player is much better than the average player back in 2006. Plus they’re going to have an arsenal of add-ons to back them up. I’m sure some people will have some problems. But people who have raided normal on retail can clear most Classic raids. People who have spent weeks grinding world quests just to get some stupid rep up so they can farm have the determination to get to level 60.
Im sure some will leave. But I don’t think it’ll be too hard for the current average WoW player. A normal raider.
3 Likes
I think most will do fine in Classic, but will ultimately leave because they don’t like the overall design philosophy of the game. I would guess likely they’ll leave because of how slow the game can be.
Vanilla wasn’t this big unforgiving hardcore experience that some people on the forums like to build it up to be, and playing a single casual game doesn’t really mean you’ll automatically be terrible at literally anything slightly harder.
2 Likes
Ugh this again… I don’t think people are suggesting one is ‘harder’ than the other. I think most people are referring to how different the games are and how retail players would quit because they don’t have their QoL stuff to feed their need for GOGOGOGOGO or their need to look bada$$ 24/7.
When they say stuff like “They will quit because they will keep dying to murlocs”, it isn’t like they are so bad they can’t kill murlocs… it’s because they are use to pulling 500000 things and nuking them down and when put in a situation where you have to slllllllllooowwwwwwwwwwww down they aren’t going to like it.
2 Likes
Normally people adapt. So you die once to five murlocs. Next pull you pull one murloc.
4 Likes
A single month subscription should be enough to see how different the game is from retail.
That’s the stereotype though, it’s that retail players ‘can’t’ handle that type of gameplay. They like 20 flightpaths in one zone, 5 graveyards, quests all in one location, mount speed at 50000%, bags that go up to 200 slots, they like to solo elites 10 levels above them . That’s the ‘stereotype’ of a retail player and most people don’t foresee them making it because they will simply not like it.
Forgot where i read this, but one poster said. If they make it past 30-40, They’re in for the long haul, anyone before that is a guess. Most BFA players don’t care about classic, they’re just try it on content drought. Only a few are against it, while the same is said for those who will try it.
1 Like
I don’t really believe they will be there in the first place.
Thing is if a player actually likes the current retail I think there is very low chance that he/she would like Classic. And they likely know this too so why would they even try it.
Now people who still play retail but don’t enjoy it are a different matter.
And that is a way more complicated situation indeed with so many factors it’s impossible to tell.
For each who leave it’s going to be a different thing that eventually makes people snap but for many of these people it might actually be the final chance they are going to give WoW in general.
Besides I like to focus more on things that makes people stay instead of things that make them leave. It’s more upbeat and positive that way 
Realizing how much slower you are in classic vs retail with your heirloom motorcycle and faster run speed.
Orc/troll: Running from the Echo Isles to Razor Hill to pick up the quests to go back to echo isles.
Tauren: Getting bent by the bristleboars in the starting area. If they survive the level 5 onslaught then they will likely rage quit in the goblin mine at level 10.