[Sorry I didn’t really proofread this, if it ever read goofy that’s why]
Background, Opinions, Biases:
- I’ve played a lot of classic WoW, in the 2019 launch going into 2020 I calculated that around 60% of all of my time was playing Classic WoW, the rest was probably sleeping. I freaking love Classic WoW - for reasons I’ll detail in this post. I’ve done PvP grinds, SoD, SoM, SoM hardcore, all raids, parses, Roleplay, founded a role-playing guild, Have given roleplaying speeches to over 100 Horde, I’ve been on loot council, I’ve been a loot ninja, I’ve killed bots, exposed mass bracket-boosting rings, and have… yes… pulled many whelps on Onyxia… left side… we didn’t handle it.
- My main opinion, detailed throughout the wishlist, is that Classic offers a never-replicated, unique, fundamentally “MMORPG”-like experience that players love. Its D&D origins are some of the most compelling points of the game. It’s hard to describe in a single sentence, but its fundamentals are the ease of play, the journey being more important than the destination, everything making lore/RP sense, friendships being essential to survival, and that while everything is easy - mastery is very difficult.
- I’ve been arguing for a “Classic Fresh” or “Classic Plus” for a long time, and have supported every effort Blizzard has made in walking us towards that dream. If Classic Plus were to someday be made with the below ideals in mind it would be my main game for years. I’m biased because I deeply want this, and might not see potential pitfalls, or these opinions might sound awful in writing… but ultimately I believe they would play well in the Classic WoW ecosystem.
I’ll do my best in each point below to detail an item and explain why I think it fits the philosophy of Classic WoW and supports what makes Classic WoW so great.
The Wishlist
- Forced max of 55/45 on PvP servers. This would support world PvP and player interactions. World PvP is at its most fun in Classic WoW and I think server balances like this would keep things entertaining.
- More Character Customization, no Transmog. A handful of more skins to use for each race could go a long way to show more diversity in character identity. One of the beautiful things about Classic WoW is the in-game player interaction. If I’m walking in Orgrimmar and see someone with (did someone say?) Thunderfury, or Ashkandi it’s obvious to me what the person has achieved or is capable of (in a PvP setting let’s say). Also it’s fun to see some bozo decked out in greens, or looking all goofy from questing gear. It’s a visual character progression which adds a sort of end-game to have all BIS because… my god do you (finally) look cool and whatnot. It’s a shared experience. Adding transmog would add a veil between the players and would require player inspections to see what’s actually going on.
- More Roleplay Items. Not the usual like “transmog into a murloc” item, but things like rolling pins or beer mugs. These would be actual items the player could achieve and then have in their bags to pull out at the next RP event. Make these fun to get! For example, an epic beer mug might be obtained by doing a quest which requires drinking ever beverage in the game, or drinking 1,000 beers from a shady vendor.
- Change how Worldbuffs Work. Worldbuffs are a good thing. It brings players together for socialization, organization, timing, and overall networking. Players being rewarded with buffs for being interactive and solving a puzzle on how to taxi people around & make things happen at a certain time makes sense. Furthermore, buffs allow for max players to visit otherwise dead zones, and allow for them to interact with the world in ways they otherwise wouldn’t. The only things that really suck about worldbuffs is that if you don’t have them you’re useless in comparison and that you are forced to raidlog. So let’s have worldbuffs only tick down whilst in a raid instance, and make them non-dispellable, and they do not clear on death. This is similar to Chronoboon, but just bake it into the game - making (some if not all) worldbuffs a raid-only thing which appears whenever zoning into a raid. I think PvP doesn’t need worldbuffs to remain sweaty and quirky, and not a lot of people were really using worldbuffs for dungeons anyways. Seperate, weaker, world buffs can be created for leveling purposes, similar to the gem turnins in Durotar. Finally, change the world buffs to fit this new system. Instead of the player picking up a songflower, we collect a songflower to give to an NPC that promises us it’ll be useful in our next big encounter. Make Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer the promise from our faction to ready us when we seek to vanquish our next mighty foe… or something. I think this last component is important to make buff distribution still “make sense” which Classic is really good at - making everything just make sense!
- Short-Distance AOE Looting. AOE looting only for mobs that are like right within arm’s reach of the character. This is because it only makes sense that a tiny little gnome can’t AOE Mr. Fantastic their way into looting an entire block of Stratholme. One of Classic’s beauties is making things make sense - and it makes sense that a player could scrounge up relevant items right below their feet, but from far away they cannot.
- Guild Banks. Makes sense, maybe add in some unique flare onto this to make it feel “Classic”. I think this will just prevent the need for third party addons & sites to view what’s in someone’s bank. Maybe with the Guild Banks we could have a simple system for requesting items from the guild bank along with a note. Classic involves a ton of crafting gear and whatnot and if there were an in-game way to request items it would not only make sense in terms of the lore of the game, but also would be a bit more efficient and less tedious for guild leaders.
- More Minigames & Things. Add cute stuff. Everyone queues for PvP in the Hall of Honor, why not add a little jump puzzle there for something to do? Or add in Darkmoon Faire games, or something? No meta-connection, no insane rewards, just fun casual stuff to do.
- Add Hunter Focus. Hunters are just infinitely more fun to play with builder/spender focus bars. It doesn’t make sense that Hunters use mana, and even if we theorycraft our way into it making sense idk if it’s really more fun than just having focus.
- Stronger Day/Night & Weather Systems. The rare rain in Stranglethorn is such a mood. Could we have darker nights, and some weather events elsewhere? Maybe stronger sandstorms in Tanaris? Would just add to the immersion of the game, and would make sense for two smallish continents in the middle of large oceans. I know darker areas was intended in the Alpha builds of Classic WoW, with players being able to light the way – this is still a crazy cool idea.
- Modify Old Honor/R14 Grind. Okay hear me out. We should keep having the bracket be static, and honor caps be deterministic. Yet, there should be more competition and I think there should be the fear that your honor will decay if you miss a few weeks. I think the current system is far too deterministic where it’s essentially guaranteed that everyone will become a HWL… and it feel’s kinda’ lame. I want something “Gladiator-esque” in Classic where you see a PvP achievement and you’re like “my god that’ insane” - and that feeling is kinda nullified with how easy the honor grinds are now.
- Specialized, Additional, Bagspace When Mounted. Again this is something that only makes sense. It makes sense that if you’re mounted the mount may have more bags attached to it. Players can opt to keep gear-switches, pets, backup consumes, or something else in their mount-bags. When players are in a raid, or dungeon they may not be able to access these bags. This is a good yin/yang tradeoff that fits the narrative of Classic and would allow for people who like RP (for instance) to have RP apparel stored away where they could get a change of clothes or a fancy beer mug.
- Achievements & Guild Achievements. I think this adds another meta to the game that is mostly cosmetic and optional. It can bring players across Azeroth to do different things. I think guild achievements can give communities something to rally around. Let’s add achievements beyond “Have the guild kill Big Bad” and into things like “Share alcohol with a guild member 10,000 times” or something. Let’s make these achievements fun and widespread across the gaming communities not just PvE/PvP.
- Threat Bar. Threat is a huge mechanic in Classic. Add some sort of neat and organized indication for how much threat someone has, this way addons don’t really need to be used and these addons are mostly just using estimations that aren’t always accurate. Also this would help new players a ton, and would make taking more enjoyable.
- Remove Spell Batching. We tried it, it was a good idea, we ultimately didn’t like it.
- Faster Mail. Maybe connect faster mail in with guild perks or something. I don’t think mail should be “instant” as like it doesn’t really make sense… maybe it’s instant if it’s from the same mailbox but like a little delayed as it goes out to different mailboxes? God that’d be hard to program but would be so cool. So like if a player wants their mail faster they’d need to travel closer to from where the mail originated. Makes sense! Also, if we’re mailing stuff to an alt, I imagine it’d be pretty much instant from the main city anyway.
- No NPC Debuff Limit. It’s just lame. I can’t use bleeds just because it might push off Sunder Armor? It doesn’t make lore sense, it’s just weird and should be thrown out.
- Keep Raiding (Mostly) Easy. I think this is the biggest lesson from SoD. As content gets harder, elitism and meta-gaming balloon because the cost of death in Classic pretty high. Keeping raids fairly easy and obtainable make it so people are more chill about inviting random classes and specs and prioritizing friends and players over the meta. I ran an RP guild of only Undead (Called “Forsaken”) - it was really cool and we had a bunch of fun in SOD S1. Yet, when it came to raiding it was almost impossible to get people or anywhere near efficiently clear the raid because Druid/Shaman WF buffs were so strong. It’s cool for them to be strong, but it’s not cool that many bosses are much more difficult without the buff. Just a little bit of balancing can go a long way into allowing players to play how they want to play. This all said, end-raid bosses which involve bigger guild commitments more than just 5-10man groups should be rather difficult until players get gear to overcome Nax or AQ40. More mechanics in the “end-raid” sort of scenarios would be welcome.
- Lower/No Respec Cost. I like the way this worked out in SOD, I think there should be gold sinks, but ongoing costs for just trying out different talents is lame.
- Beware Button Bloat. One thing I didn’t like from SOD was how much button bloat there was. One of the beauties of Classic is that things are simple and digestible! Adding into complexities, runes, etc. make it feel way too complicated & more like a retail-tuned rotation rather than a very simplistic rotation.
- More Massive Questlines. Similar to the AQ Gate Quests - long detailed questlines that players can follow for some sick reward are like the quintessential “Classic” experience. I like attunements, lore setups, consumable unlocks, all of it.
- Unleash the Devs. I don’t know if this currently exists, but maybe consider having like every Friday or like for a week out of a month developers can just go wild and create a bunch of stuff keeping in mind that the world is the main character. One might decide to make new trees, another might add in some wonky item that turns people’s hair pink, another might add a new fishing bridge minigame - all valid. I think this is some of the beauty of Classic - the world feels like a… world! Adding in nonsensical little things, inspired and generated out of creative thinking can really sell the world more.
- Keep Open Space, No Flying. I think in retail things are so insanely packed where every corner has something going on. I like Classic because some of the world is just dirt, no mobs, no flora, nothing but… dirt. It makes traveling feel like traveling, it sells that there is work to be done in areas, and makes the world feel so big. The ability to fly, zoom around, and packed places with SO MUCH going on… makes it feel cramped and “Arcade-y”. Keep the silence at times, and keep the space to make the cities and packed places feel more unique. I think in SOD we had so many runes and additions that we lost some of that space and lonesome-ness.
- Summoning Stones. Traveling should feel like traveling, and it should take a solid amount of time to get from place to place. Yet, when it comes to large instance raid nights or something it adds a significant amount of downtime that idk if really need. Maybe we can come up with a creative solution for summoning stones, have them make sense in the world a bit and how a warrior can understand to interact with them the same way a mage might.
- More BGs, Beware Arenas. BG’s feel like the natural battleplace for any MMORPG. Arena’s feel like forced e-sports. Matching up a warrior against a mage in Classic PvP feels weird in arenas, then when we have that players feel like everyone should be balanced to all be equally valid in arenas… and then we basically have the same problems we have today. In BGs, Warriors working alongside a whole team makes more sense. I think if we added more BGs this would be very fun in Classic. Maybe instead of formally added Arenas, instead adding more spaces like the Gurubashi Arena or in-city arenas would be enjoyable for duelling & testing individual might.
- Zones, Raids, and more “Stuff”. Of course let’s have Hijal, more to do with Timbermaw, Let’s go into Karazhan, the crypts, and develop the map outwards a little. The main thing with new content being added is to keep in mind that the player journey is so much more valuable than the destination. I fear that we’re constantly building new end-games to explore rather than building things horizontally or alongside the old. We should never, in Classic, seek to completely make the entire game irrelevant with the exception of the new content. Part of the beauty of classic is that an Old Molten Core sword may still be great for PvP, or that a trinket in AQ40 is still relevant far beyond it’s time. Honestly, even if new zones were made with just nature, bars, benches, and a little minigame it would be a sufficient and successful patch for classic. We don’t need to tear the entire wallpaper off to remodel. I feel like SOD was wayyy too many changes and tweaks where it’s left a lot of our heads spinning.
- Poll, Poll, Poll. Runescape does this where they literally have ballot boxes in game for players to cast votes on what they’re thinking about things. I know that player communities can often be very diverse so much so that clusters of players don’t necessarily map onto a “majority vote” dichotomy. Yet, I still think it’s important to collect the feedback, and always be open to changing things around.
- Force Server Transfers. If you need to shut down a server, or are going to stop character creation & allow free transfers to a new server, Please just force the character transfer instead of drawing out a long and depressed server. When my server was forced to transfer to Crusader Strike it killed a ton of communities because people transferred at different times and it just was noisy and we lost so much. If everyone were to just be picked up and dropped off on a new server it would be far less headache and our communities may still be interconnected.
- Harsher Bans for Gold Buying / Allow GDKP. GDKP in of itself is not a bad system of playing the game. If players want to auction off loot in a raid with their gold I think it’s a completely valid way to play. The primary concern is when GDKP runs have in gold-buyers to artificially raise auction prices, or gold buys join covertly to outbid anyone on anything. The bans for buying gold are far too lax. Frequently we hear about gold buyers only being banned for a few days, or two weeks. I understand that the primary offender is the gold seller but it seems obvious to me that if players were deeply threatened about losing their account due to gold buying both the buyers and sellers would be heavily reduced.
- No Store Anything, Ever. No services, no cosmetics, no pets, no mounts, no anything ever. No WoW token, nothing. I don’t want to rehash the whole debate here, but basically it feels really awkward and weird in Classic - to have any amount of these things. I instantly stop caring about the game whenever the integrity is lost. I don’t care if you have to raise my WoW Sub or whatever to make this profitable, I’ll shell it out, just no store or anything ever.
- Keep World Bosses As They Were. It’s interesting player/guild interaction to have people scout or time out world bosses and then have an epic World PvP fight over killing it. If we determine that this is lame because of resetting the boss, healing Azergos, or something else, then let’s address those mechanics specifically rather than nerfing the entire player interaction. World Bosses should be epic and difficult encounters, not free loot pinatas with forgettable mechanics like in retail.
- No Dungeon Queue/LFG. It’s better player interaction to have to seek out friends, make connections, join guilds, and (yes) type in chat to find people to join up with. The efficiency of finding a group leads towards being selective in group composition, among other things. I’ve made some of the greatest friends by just saying “Hey can I add you and invite you next time?” - creating a solution for the “problem” of long group formation times. In retail, no group members ever talk to each other, kindness is rarely shared and players are seen as obstacles rather than resources. We can’t replicate this system in Classic, so no group queue or LFG.
- Only Ever One Difficulty Mode. It doesn’t make sense to clear the raid on “Normal” and then have to do “Heroic” or something similar. It ‘makes sense’ to just have the fights as they are. It’s a shared experience among players, and doesn’t invite doing the same content twice just because one is harder with better rewards. If we want harder content with better rewards - make a new dungeon or raid. It’s okay for players to be “done” with the content, and even have everything from an instance. If we do feel the need for a challenge, then create optional challenge modes in a dungeon. Beware adding special rewards for this (beyond cosmetic), as most players I don’t think want to do hard mode Hakkar on the regular - but once or twice for an achievement? I’m game!
- Keep Leveling Slow-ish. In SOD leveling and, therefore, a significant aspect of the “journey” was so rapidly advanced with buffs that we essentially skipped over whole chunks of the game with each patch. What’s cool about classic is the shared experience, you know that everyone who reached 60 struggled with murloc and those god-awful gnolls the same way you did. It’s a sort of unspoken handshake among class members that we have something in common. Allow the game to be slow-ish and sluggish and take time to level up to 60. The journey is where we make all of our friends, grouping for dungeons, finding a healer whilst questing… all leading up to relying on those networks to overcome a raid later on.
- Let Us See In-Game GMs Again. Goes for retail too, but in-game GMs created so much positive interaction between players and Blizzard. I don’t mind if they create giant chickens for us to fight or pop in to tell us jokes. Every players remembers where they were the first time they saw a GM - if they’ve ever been lucky enough to see one! Can we have this back? It always brings positive press and interaction.
- Add Something Cool for Off-Cities. Most players don’t really hang around Undercity or Thunderbluff. Off-cities are cool and I always wondered if there isn’t some sort of perk or cool thing that could happen in these off cities that might drive some small amount of attention. Something like crafting being 1% faster in Thunderbluff or AH taxes being 1% cheaper in Ironforge. Something small and neat.
- Nerf Mage XP Boosting. It’s just lame, let’s find a good way to nerf it.
- Respawn Inside Instances After Wipe. I don’t think we really need the added punishment of an out-of-dungeon runback after a wipe. The time loss & failure of killing an encounter is enough punishment. If we care about the spirit-rez lore, we can add one at the start of every dungeon that you can see when you’re dead.
- Make World PvP Events. Have certain days or hours where guards take a break from Goldshire or something and players are allowed to either battle or party together in Goldshire (and Crossroads or Brill!). Maybe make this only for PvP servers.
- Slightly Adjust Dishonorable Kills. DHK’s were added to punish players for pushing too close to questing areas & killing essential NPCs. This is a valid concern, and annoying if you’re trying to level and this happens. Instead of DHK’s where griefing and misuse could happen, connect the DHK punishment directly to those NPCs which we want to protect. Also, only apply the DHK to someone who has done damage to the mob. This way, players can PvP closer to main city hubs without the fear of being randomly nuked due to some old farmer wandering too close to a mage’s AOE.
- Keep Exclusive Classes & Faction Rivalry. I think it’s cool, it’s unique to our MMO, and is fun to play around. Of course, balance the classes so it’s not obvious that Shaman or Palidan are better/worse. I think it’s cool to know anytime I see pink it’s one of those Alliance nerds. I think it’s also cool that factions can’t talk to each other. We could have more emotes to essentially communicate a bit better, but as it stands I think the faction differences are pretty good and unique.
Okay! That’s the list, thanks for reading if you did. I think by now it’s clear that the few things I love about Classic (outside of nostalgia) are:
- Game mechanics make RP/lore sense and are interconnected in an immersive way.
- It’s easy to play, and sometimes hard to master.
- It poses challenges that require players to work together to find solutions. Players are heavily incentivized to work together, network, and forge friendships to more efficiently handle future tasks.
- The journey is more important than the destination.
- The world is the main character.
- It’s free of modern gaming tropes - online cash shops, tokens, skins, and purchases. it’s a pure gaming experience throughout the cycle and your progression in it feels relatable to others & meaningful.
Thank you classic team for all the work you do & have done. Let’s keep the memories coming, see you on the battlefield.