Let’s be real here, this isn’t some new world we are exploring, we all been through this same content dozens of times now. Not that it won’t be fun, just that we won’t be spending as much time blindly wondering around the world learning, exploring and be confused as to what to do next. We all know the fastest path to take on our journey. We will hit our destination a lot faster then when we first started playing. Meaning we will max out our gear a lot sooner and people will lose interest in running raids that no longer provides them with any benefits.
I give it about a year after lunch, maybe two, before the game dries up.
But on the bright side, if they do decided to release the other expansions they could take it in a totally different direction then before. Like keep the talent trees through out all the expansions, just add more to them over time. Sure, that is dreaming big, but all the work is pretty much already done and it shouldn’t take that much effort to change it.
I’m confident saying that Classic won’t “dry up” for a very long time.
There is a substantive, dedicated community of players with a high interest in the content, and assuming they pace out the phases competently that should keep the playerbase occupied for at least 2-3 years.
After that point I could see the numbers dwindling as Blizzard moves on to TBC servers or Classic+ or whatever, but I could also see Blizzard launching “fresh” servers that repeat the progression all over again.
In about a month, the game will settle into a healthy population with most servers around Medium. There will be spikes around Phase releases, the biggest around Ahn’Qiraj. And yes, if Blizzard doesn’t signal that they intend to release more content after Naxx, the population will start dropping rapidly to small core of players.
Not anywhere near the insane predictions of tens of millions, but not the immediate death predicted by the diehard pessimists.
Private servers have been thriving for over a decade. That being said i think they would have to do “Fresh Start” servers every year or so. I also think if classic is successful, we get TBC. TBC was sooo much fun.
Let’s be real here. Go back to BfA Nay-saying Negative Nancy. I mean since you obv think BfA is far superior and you clearly know better than anyone at Blizzard or the other millions of players…right?
I may not be your “average” Classic enthusiast, but my plans are, when I reach lvl 60, with gear I think is adequate, to begin leveling alts.
This allows me to have access to all the professions, as well as all classes, and even specs.
I’ve always found certain classes/specs are optimum for certain content, and I hate paying AH prices for things I know are cheap to make.
I don’t plan on raiding, but will run dungeons. I’m rolling on one each of PvP, PvE, and RP servers, so, it’s going to take me a LONG time to get where I’m going.
Let’s see, 8 classes X 2 factions X 3 server types. I figure at least 5 years to level 48 characters to lvl 60 (as well as leveling their professions)
As I said, I’m likely not an “average” Classic player, but I also know I’m not the only one that has similar plans.
(BTW, roughly 24hrs until launch, 19 until realms open up (the new ones))
“Here we see an archetypal Classic Fanboy in its full threat display, wildly frothing at the mouth and screaming incoherently, completely refusing to actually read the post its attacking…”
Considering Lights Hope had something like 1.4 million players, this thing’ll last for years to come. Realistically all you need is a few thousand concurrent players on a server for it to feel lively.
I give it three months before the numbers start to drop. you have the die hard Classic lovers, and then you have the Let me check this out crowed. The Let me check this out crowed will leave real quick once they discover classic isn’t a welfare state as the game is today.
You have no idea how the servers are going to turn out. Private servers are still running for the last 12+ years and people are still playing on them. This game will die when Blizzard shuts the final server down. Which I hope is not for another 12+ years.
Not all… some people will leave just because they don’t have the time anymore.
Classic wasn’t really hard, it was just… a game of waiting and patience. What you got out of it was usually proportional to how much time you had invested into it - and how much time you COULD invest into it.
I am looking forward for it for nostalgia purposes but I can’t raid - I could barely even raid when I was 16 years old, unemployed, and too lazy for AP/Honours classes. Now that I’m 30 and have to get food on the table the second I get home (much later than I did in high school. ) and lots of other things, by the time I can actually start playing games for more than a quick game, it’s almost 9 PM… and I have an 8-5 tomorrow…
I really don’t think the game will “die” like people claim, but it’s not going to get like, 6 million players like people also claim - most of us just don’t have the time anymore, and a surprising amount of people actually weren’t hardcore back in the day.
You mean… “shrinks” rather than “dries up” - and yes, 6-12 months will probably remove many players.
If you want to be real here, there is a large population of people who have been playing Vanilla for 10+ years despite all of your reasoning.
) and lots of other things, by the time I can actually start playing games for more than a quick game, it’s almost 9 PM… and I have an 8-5 tomorrow…