It’s already been dead for a long time. All left is a proper burial.
Ironically that is the draw for a lot of retail people. The feeling of progressing even with marginal playtime.
Most of what a lot of us feel is “wrong” with Retail is that the game is designed to ensure that 100% of the player base can experience 100% of the content, regardless of their playtime/commitment. When everyone gets to see/do everything, nothing means anything. In a lot of the cases with Vanilla, you only saw certain content if you put in the time (how much of the vanilla population saw Naxx40 in Vanilla era? Or even AQ40?).
The “turning point” for this change in design was essentially at the end of Burning Crusade. Blizzard posted an article (wish I could find it) about how only a small percentage of players “go to see” Black Temple. They didn’t like that. They wanted everyone to see everything, and that’s where the “I pay my $15, I should get to <do/acquire thing>” became validated.
That design philosophy has been driving Retail ever since. In Vanilla, the game didn’t care that you paid $15. It only cared if you put in the time.
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No and it probably never will die. You guys are rediculous with this whole “bfa is dead” thing. Its still doing better than every other mmo besides classic.
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Retail is cookie cutter same quests everyday, same paths, same everything…
Everyone can heal, everyone has the same abilities… Classic classes were different. I am enjoying it.
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It was already dead before Classic
All that remains playing retail is a few toddlers because they’re not big enough to play in the big pool
True, but retail is dead. The only thing keeping retail going is the whales that keep shelling out money for pixels and other nonsense. They have admitted that while they keep losing players they are making good money, and that is from the brainless people who play BFA.
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no, lots of people there, check it out for yourself.
I remember reading that article as well, while its a commendable notion, its not really practical. As you said, once everyone is able to do everything, it means nothing, no real sense of accomplishing anything, because there was no challenge. in vanilla the challenge was not just time, but getting a group who wanted to teach you the new raid, if you were not part of the primary raid groups already, you sometimes had to either hope they got it on farm and ran it that way on free raid nights (which my guild did, they got a group of ppl on saturday night and did a quick poll for what raid to run and tried to get as many non raiders as they could a chance to experience them) or hope another guild was having a hard time filling a spot for a raid and was lfg in chat. Also spec, how prepared you were, that all mattered as well. (to be fair, my guild never got naxx completed by the time TBC was out)
But every person that got to experience those raids always came out feeling like they accomplished something, even if it was just a farmed raid for the guild. it was awesome hearing how excited they got over a drop some of us had seen multiple times at that point. Even trash items got people excited, Vendorstrike always had someone happy to get it, even if it was just so they can feel like a part of the meme.
If you think Retail is alive and breathing, you must be delusional. It is just a lifeless husk of something once was.
Incorrect, buffoon.
Well for starters, just because people enjoy retail doesn’t mean they’re shills. Classic players are literally paying a subscription for a game that Blizzard never has to do any huge updates for the rest of its existence. Imo, that’s more so free money than Retail. Classic players can’t even use in game gold to buy themselves a WoW token, so they’re quite literally paying out of pocket for Classic access on a monthly basis. Also it wasn’t too long ago thousands of people were tuning in to the 8.2 world first race and even the likes of Asmongold were running Eternal Palace and doing the new content. Retail is still alive and kicking, and is destined for future content and expansions.
No. I have actually seen a fair amount of personal friends and guildies head back to retail.
Been watching retail on 3 servers (technically 7 servers as 1 server is by it’s self, 1 is 2 servers, and 1 is a combination of 4 servers), on both horde and alliance. And yeah the first week of Classic retail felt like a graveyard. But it’s been slowly filling back up, and over the last week I haven’t noticed any difference in population compared to pre-classic. So at least for the retail crowd who went to classic, seems a LARGE percentage of them have returned, and I even have a few friends who re-subbed for classic who have now joined me in retail.
What about her comment says she doesn’t know anything about Classic? Stop gatekeeping.
@Skoosh
I played original WoW…have an Alliance Lt. Commander PVP title on a now unplayed Warlock. I raided MC/BWL/ZG heavy. Never did get to original Naxx though.
Also did the original Warlock mount quest line in original WoW. I do know what I’m talking about. Just because I choose not to play Classic doesn’t mean I don’t wish anyone who does anything but best wishes! Go for it and have fun! I just choose not to play Classic for my own reasons.
Retail was dead even before Classic. Even with all the realm consolidation they’ve done it felt empty.
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My flat mate has been playing retail since vanilla.
Pre classic launch his guild was cruizn through BFA content raids / mythic.
Post classic 3 weeks later, all I hear down stairs is cursing and swearing “#$& classic this $*#” classic that…can’t even get 5 mans for a mythic. Bloody PvP ques for 40+ mins. Nobody logs in to raid any more…
I just giggle and yell back to him…”Blizz Like”
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I haven’t had any trouble getting groups for stuff or anything in retail.
It is not even close to dead, that is a stupid question. Both versions of WoW have their own followers including those whom play both. Overall it is good for Blizzard not one versus the other. Given you even think that way shows how small minded you are. By the way, viewers versus active in game accounts are two different things and twitch means absolutely nothing. You are going to have players that will get their nostalgia fix by watching and have no interest to actually play classic wow again.
don’t you ever wish for the convenience of retail but maybe the flavors of classic ? like talent trees ? more class fantasy less streamlined less talent cropping ?