I really hope that they decide to create seasonal servers for classic (and retail for that matter). The problem with both classic and retail is that the initial “day-one” experience can never be repeated.
I think a big part of what I remember fondly about vanilla was leveling up in a world where everyone was leveling up together. I created this character day 0 of Vanilla, so finding dungeon groups wasn’t too hard, even with the primitive (general chat) tools that we had at the time. The item and gold economy is so much different on a fresh server compared to a mature one that it feels like a completely different game.
The problem is, three months down the road any new character is going to be leveling up in a world where everyone is already at max level. Low level resources, items and gold will be relatively abundant. It just isn’t the same. If given the choice, I would rather start a new character on a “seasonal” server where everyone was starting fresh level 1 characters together. No twinks or high level gankers to worry about.
At the end of the season, the server could “reset” and all of the seasonal characters would transfer to another normal server; either another server that you already have a max level character on, or a set of low-population servers.
They could even consider using seasonal transfers as a mechanism to create faction balance. Only allow transferring seasonal characters to servers where that faction is at a disadvantage.
To be clear, nothing would be “lost” per-se. You would keep your character and all their gold and items, that you leveled on the “seasonal” server. It would just transfer to a different server at the end of the season.
The problem with classic wow is that it will only happen once: on Aug 27, 2019. If you miss that start date, you are going to have a very different experience than someone who started day 0. That opportunity will never come around again.
3-4 years seems like a long time.
I would just rather see a “pristine” server created every few months, so that new players, either alts or people just playing WoW for the first time have the opportunity to play the game from ZERO. The experience is VERY different when everyone is starting from the same place. No high level characters to feed gold and items.
Now, just because a new seasonal server is created every few months, doesn’t mean it needs to be reset and “merged” on the same cycle. They could have a rolling window where they are created every three months and reset every year, for example.
The problem I have is that private servers commonly have a cycle of older servers being abandoned wholesale because of the whole FRESH mentality.
At some point Lightshope had to merge multiple servers together just to get an average of about 500 players online at any given time while the FRESH server had 10k+
I think the problem is going to be that WoW Classic is going to be abandoned altogether because there will never be anything “fresh” after launch.
Forget classic. If I could roll a new character on retail, today, and I could choose between rolling it on an existing server, or one where I knew everyone else was going to be starting new characters, I would 100% roll on the “fresh” server. Even if this implied that I’d have to transfer it to a different server in a few months.
A server where there was no gold inflation, no tokens for sale, no heirlooms, no high level items available on the AH, no one had mounts yet. OMG yes, give me that! If it was retail I would just hope they also make the game a bit harder at the same time. Difficulty is what builds a community. No reason to work together if everything is soloable.
Maybe “fresh” servers will be niche that private servers will continue to fill. I wouldn’t play a private server, but I’d play a fresh server if Blizzard made them.
So, you really thing that a guild that is progressing through NAXX is going to disband because a new seasonal server starts up? You think everyone would just jump ship and start over?
I would think that seasonal server would appeal most to people who want to create a new alt, or for people who are starting the game for the first time.
Remember, WoW will die if new players aren’t attracted to it. Starting from a day-zero experience sounds like the best new player experience I can think of. Then, after a while their server will be merged into a more mature server and they will be there with all their friends they’ve made along the way. Honestly, sounds ideal to me.
This post screams “Blizzard I’ve joined Classic 3 months post launch and there is no one around my level to do dungeons with. Please bring in Dungeon finder”.
Many player abandon because yes it is the the “fresh” new server and many players abandon because Naxx is the worst part of Vanilla. It is not the same gearing and playing a fresh 60 on a server with half the people in t3 and naxx gear. The raids and dungeons are even more of a faceroll when your dps is doing almost 2x to 3x the dps of what a player geared to the content would be.
I don’t think the sever should “reset” New sever that come out are cool, like a new start…
but I’m sure blizz has a 6 year plan with Classic, TBC, WOTLK… It would only be smart on the Corp level … and then maybe they would go back to classic and start over “maybe”
That’s precisely what this post is. I’m not trying to sell it as anything else. Why do you think that is a bad thing? You want the game to die after three months?
The whole point of this suggestion is to allow the “classic” experience to be re-experienced “forever”. August 27th is awkwardly when the school year starts. A lot of gamer-aged people are going to be busy, either as a student of a parent of a student. If they knew that a new “seasonal” server was going to start at the beginning of winter break, or spring break, or summer break, then they wouldn’t have to feel like they missed that “once in a lifetime opportunity”.
I was literally asking you, because I don’t know. I’ve never played on a private server and I never will. I personally don’t think the same logic applies to an officially sanctioned Blizzard server, because the population will generally be larger.
And who cares. If people would rather play on a fresh server than slog through Naxx, why not let em? If it is more fun, then let them have fun.
That was my first point though: It happens on private server, so I’m worried about it happening on Classic too if they also routinely open new servers.
On Lightshope it was so bad on the older servers they had to merge a bunch together just to get them up to ~500 players online at any given time.
The overall population honestly matters very little in WoW. What matters is the server populations.
I don’t care if they end up getting 20 million players worldwide if my server only has 500 online at any given time. That makes it a ghost town, and means my options are to pretty much either join in on the FRESH mentality or forever be doomed to a dying server.