I can't wait to never play Retail Again

Checking in ;).

I played from launch through WotLK pretty heavily and left largely because I didn’t like the direction Blizzard was taking class, pvp and social interaction balance. I’m back specifically after years of avoiding the game only because of upcoming classic launch. I’ve tested the waters in BFA and found it not to my taste.

I raided a lot in Classic/BC. I obtained the rank of Field Marshal in classic. I’m totally down for years of play in the right sandbox. Retail is not that sandbox for me, but Classic might be. It was in the past.

Just remember that there are people on both ends who enjoy different aspects of the World Blizzard has crafted for us.

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You say that like it matters, lol.

OK. I’m happy for you.

As for me, I’m always looking forward to the future, seeing what comes next. 8.2 looks like loads of fun new stuff, can’t wait.

These threads are blatant bait material.

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Everything is soulbound in retail… What do you think this is, Classic?

I am going to play both, I really can’t comprehend why anyone is going off about how they are going one way or the other. I’ve never had a problem with retail WoW… Maybe some mild discomfort sometimes but in general it is far better than any game i’ve ever played.

I want to run around in classic and make a classic version of this character for fun sometimes if i get bored… but… retail is a whole different game. I love the mechanics of mythic dungeons and the new raid bosses, battlegrounds have always been the same in my opinion… trust me ive been around in bg’s I almost have battlemaster

Idk why everyone has to be so dramatic about one or the other.

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How would you know a true classic retro hipster if they weren’t?

I knew that last sentence was going to be quoted

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No offense, but my comment wasn’t aimed for people to say “No, I will do that!”

I’m saying, prove it.
Not that you wont, don’t take it personal.
But all of the people I have played Classic with over the years have come and gone very sporadically.
The most consistent group I was in raided for about 6 months before just randomly disbanding after we finished AQ.

Its a shame, but the very nature of Classic does not foster long term growth of a single character, and the #1 thing that should cement people around the game is a long term social group.

I hope there will be enough activity around the game to facilitate this, but it is my current biggest concern for the product and likely will be for quite a while.

You are playing classic.

The grind is real.

The RNG is real.

The bugs are real.

The classes are screwed save for few.

What part are you missing? Some non existent trade chat LFG spam?

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That I absolutely agree with. It is the core of any MMO’s viability. And, with how retail currently shards/phases everyone and puts dungeons/raids at the press of a button, there is very little pushing people to interact from a game mechanics standpoint.

In classic, those things are not around so players have to engage in social interaction and fill that gap. From there longer term relationships and play groups/guilds form. Sometimes. Im not sure this will occur in the new Classic as really the way people interact online as a whole has evolved over the last 15 years. But I’m holding out hope.

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Well I guess it is good to have goals…

Ya, sadly a lot that has changed is because of 2019 not the game itself. But it will be more present in Classic for sure.
I just worry about how many people will stick to it, based on what I have seen.

There is really only one thing in the game that requires this type of group in Classic, and that’s raiding. If people aren’t actually going to engage in these types of groups because they aren’t focusing on one toon and getting it through raids, it will be missed entirely.

Socialization will still happen with random people in trade chat etc, but it wont make long term friendships and that will eventually fade.

The issue is classic is too far in the other direction for MANY people. If you look at the patch by patch sub counts. WoW grew arguably the most rapidly when they started adding QoL in BC and hit critical mass in WotLk. If you want a retail killer I think it would be in a BC or WOTLK revamp not a classic revamp.

Good for you OP. I hope Classic is everything and more you wish it to be!

Not touching Classic and I raided in Vanilla, dated game being looked through either ignorant or nostalgia covered lenses. That being said recently a possibly that has been brought to the fore that quite possibly make me stop playing WoW after 15 years of playtime…if this hell spawned bad idea that is a level squish is implemented… I can very much see myself quitting all together if it comes to be…

Wotlk is when WoW stopped growing, and as soon as the lich King was dead, many people quit because they didn’t like the direction it was going. That was the beginning of play the patch, welfare epics, LFD, multiple raid difficulties etc. I knew sooo many people at the time who only stuck around to finish the story.

Vanilla and TBC is where the games growth was rapid and non-stop. There was literally never a month that had less subs than the previous.

Good luck with that infinite content drought.

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Either way Activision wins, either with classic, retail or eventually TBC, they win, they always do.

Genres have a finite number of consumers. No matter how good your expansion is, you will hit critical mass and diminishing returns in your growth. Sure some people may have left because of direction but it held it’s numbers every single patch meaning every patch for every person leaving it also had an equal amount of new players joining at the same time to keep a 11.5m player count.

I don’t think as a genre the MMO industry can support a game over 12m subs. Looking at MMO demographics, it’s just not likely. Especially since starting at end of BC and WotLK you had MMO after MMO trying to be the “wow killer” splitting up an already low population genre across many slices.

The only time wow sub counts hit a worrying drop in history is after blizzard DOUBLES DOWN on the QoL of WotLK in cata. This is the issue. WoTLK found a nice balance that allowed both older wow players and new wow players for the most part enjoy the game. Blizzard sees this success and says, wait, if WotLK is a success and we double down on it, that means more success right? No.