If this is the route that Blizzard decides to go (upgrade to BC or experience a reset), then I won’t waste my time with playing Classic. If life requires me to take a break for a month or three or six, I’m wanting to come back to Classic with everything exactly the way I left it. I’m looking for the static experience you apparently disdain.
If I wanted incessant change and churn, I’d just go back to playing the current version of the game. It’s the expected stability of Classic that is one of its huge draws for me.
Really. Doing things with friends is fun, even if it’s not something new. Think of it as going to the same neighborhood pub every night to hang with same people. That’s what Classic will be for a lot us.
What others might call “spinning your wheels,” I consider to be enjoying the fruits of your months/years of labor. And I would hope to do everything again on multiple alts if I had the time. I know that’s not for everyone as this thread clearly illustrates, but it’s the kind of gaming experience I enjoy.
And yet you are advocating for a state of the game that did not exist in vanilla, and makes experiencing the game in an authentic museum-esque setting impossible after a 2 year period of time. Quality logic.
Are you really trying to make the claim that there’s no difference between rolling an alt on a top heavy stagnant server and having a character on a fresh realm? That would be a powerfully stupid claim to try and make.
Which is ironic and hilarious, as YOU are the one advocating for disgusting casual QoL garbage to be inserted into the vanilla game… So if YOU can’t handle the way that the game works, maybe YOU should YOUR pathetic and disgusting retail mindset into BfA, the game that actually caters to that nonsense… You may not like my tone, but I find your entitlement and willingness to sabotage the game in pursuit of your entitlement to be abhorrent.
So you want the entire design of the game to change for you, because you, by your own admission, are barely going to play anyhow?
Probably not all that long, relatively speaking. Classic in all likelihood is not getting updates after launch, barring a bug fix here or there.
Fielding 40-man raid teams after the nostalgia-luster has worn off is one of my biggest concerns about the whole thing, especially for upper tiers like AQ and Naxxramas. I honestly think Flex tech is the best solution, but I don’t know how encounters like Four Horseman would work with that.
Talk about projection. You are the one wanting the game to cater to your interests alone. I’m at least willing to allow for optional progression servers for those who want that sort of thing. You’re the one saying, “My way or the highway.”
Also, I didn’t say that I was barely going to play. I said that I want the game to remain static so that if something happens where I have to take a break, I won’t come back to find that a “reset” happened, and all of my progress (items, alts, reps) was lost. I want a MMORPG that has the kind of static nature that an old, offline game would typically have. If Classic gives that as an option (MMORPG + stability), it will probably become my primary game to play.
Resets don’t HELP me at all, beyond keeping the game viable. I don’t particularly like leveling, or the gearing up process, and will be in bis or near bis gear (depending on drop RNG) on my main regardless of what tiers are out or not, because I will be raiding (something else I don’t particularly like) all so I can have better gear to pvp on. Stagnant servers, if they where actually viable, would heavily favor my playstyle. The problem is they just aren’t viable long term, and there a number of reasons for why that is the case… The only argument for keeping them stagnant is out of self interest/pursuit of QoL (which itself comes at the expense of game play/ game health)… Most players in this game, yourself included, have proven themselves completely incapable of making the tough, but necessary choice on these sorts of issues, and so yes, I am absolutely opposed to it being a “choice” in any way, shape, or form.
Thank you for clarifying… Now then, you want a game where a player can take, again in your own words, MONTHS of time away from the game and never be left behind… How do you plan on keeping a stable server population with no incentive for being online and playing? That clock ticking in the background is what creates the impetus to get online, get in game, and get things done.
Sure, but the really good games, people come back to. Skyrim came out in 2011, people are still playing that game, I’ve gone back to it five or six times now, and I have zero doubt that I’ll end up playing it yet again.
Let’s ignore that for a minute though and take a look at all the static games of the past, the successful ones at least. How many of those games even had multiplayer? For the ones that did have multiplayer, how many of them were multiplayer-centric? There’s not many. Most of these games are shooters, and the reason people have left is because there is a new one out regularly. Starcraft would be a good non-shooter example. None of the games have a persistent world though, and that’s a game changer.
A static MMO has never been done before (as far as I’m aware), meaning your past experiences are only partially relevant at best. There’s two things in game that I can think of that directly oppose your assertion, PvP and RP. Some people PvP to rank sure, but for most PvP’ers the rank is a means to an end. They don’t PvP to rank, they rank to PvP, and they will continue PvP’ing indefinitely because it is what they enjoy. Then there is RP, which is literally only limited by player’s imaginations. Even just a couple of people could RP in WoW for their entire lifetime without ever running out of things to do. More People participating only increases the possibilities.
Obviously, not everyone will stay. Lots of people will accomplish their personal goals and then leave. Some will come back though. Static servers ensure that they have something to come back to, and are easily able to regroup with those that never left to begin with.
But the reality is not so much. When you get to that point you’re not really playing a game anymore. You’re essentially just a member of a glorified chatroom.
That’s fine for a few months, but doesn’t work well if that’s all you’re doing for years on end.
Players will login, chat briefly to find out what’s up, then with nothing else to do they logout. Time logged in goes down gradually until most just stop showing up. The game becomes a ghost-town.
Without a challenge to work towards, most gamers will get bored with just chatting pretty quickly.
Seriously. You are going to start in by telling the rest of us what we enjoy? You may not like it. You can leave anytime you like. I plan to play Classic for years.
I’m not telling you what you will enjoy. Only you know that.
I’m giving my prediction on how I expect Classic will play out over the long haul if it is a static game and no new content is added after phase 6 hits.
My experience is from some of the longer “content droughts” between expansions. The longest one was during WoD, before Legion hit. Something like 13 months with no new content updates.
The servers were pretty much ghost towns for the final 6 months. Players would login, chat to find out what’s new, then logout. There wasn’t much actual gaming going on and attendance was very poor.
Chatting with your friends to find out what is new in the lives is fun. But rarely is so much happening that you want to chat with them for 3 hours a day every day.
Challenges are different for different people though. How long would it take me to complete all of the (pre-raid) PVE content available in Classic for every class and race on both factions, rep grinds and all? I’m not one of those players who do everything once on a single main and then consider that the stopping point.
“Exhaust the content” does NOT mean a player has done absolutely everything there is to do in-game.
Rather it means a player has done all they are interested in and capable of doing.
Almost nobody wants to level every class and race for every faction, with all rep grinds. Doing the same content they’ve already done 20 or 30 more times.
This is a game, not torture. When it’s no longer fun players stop showing up.
You really don’t understand many of us. Classic will be there to play. When I eventually tire of my main. I will pick another class to level and gear up. I had fun the first time, I will continue to have fun.
I might put it down for a month or two in between. Or maybe not. I remember how the game played and I won’t really tire of it.
I enjoy the feeling of mastery and familiarity, of knowing every nook and cranny in a vast game world by heart. I leveled alts (reps, profs, etc.) throughout that entire content drought at the end of WoD you mentioned without ever getting bored. I’d help new members of my guild acquire toys, pets, mounts, etc., too.
I don’t object at all to optional progression servers (Classic->BC, etc.) for those who always need something new to hold their interest. Just leave at least one PVE Classic server frozen in time, and I’ll be content there.
If these rumors of retail getting level 60 cap I don’t know if they would release TBC classic with 70 cap. Unless we getting really dirty with fantasies. Then what is next, I can bring my swift spectral tiger from retail to tbc classic?