Two questions about game direction

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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  1. Do you think WOW could survive today with all the new content, but with systems and game design consistent with Vanilla?
  • By this I mean if we took the identity of Vanilla, with slow, linear character progression-Slow incremental gearing-Heavily reliant on group activity-Challenging content every step of the way-systems that allow players to play how they want rather than doing a little of everything…if we put all that in place and just released new content (zones, instances, classes, etc) every xpac, would WOW survive? Of course we would allow quality of life changes and minor tweaks.
  1. Do you think we will ever see anything on the scale of WOTLK from WOW or any other MMO any time in the near future? Like within the next 3 years?
    -Just thinking of this as I was flying through Northrend. Just the vast size of the continent and how long it took to fly from the end of one zone to the other. And the land is actually full. Crazy elevation changes, floating pyramids, temples hidden in mountains. Just a huge area filled with tons of stuff. And then you have just the idea that the first tier of raiding had 4 raids, and then went on to add a new raid with each content update. Will we ever see that kind of scale in terms of actual size and volume of content from WOW or other MMO’s again? Or have they come to realize it’s just so much more cost effective to create limited, shallow content for people to repeat until they get bored, supplement income with shop items, and just be ok with it when players walk away because the front end investment is so low?
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The first tier had 3 raids.

And they were all so easy my server first for each was pure pug.

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I include Naxx, OS, Malygos, and VOA all as first tier. They might not have been release all at once, but the item level window was there.

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VoA isn’t a raid.

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Ok sure. It’s not a raid. But there is a boss in there who drops raid gear. And that fact doesn’t change my two questions at all.

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Honestly with today’s playerbase? No. They don’t like grouping up, considering it a chore; and they complain about balance as is with classes all close to each other, let alone doing it vanilla style.

As for wrath. About the only thing wrath got right was story telling and ulduar.
Classes were given everyone has everything and homogenization hit stride.
Dungeons were made straight up easy mode with the onset of aoe tank and spank being made the go to option.
1sr raid tier was a joke and beyond easy.
2nd raid tier was arguably the best raid ever.
3rd raid tier was arguably the most hated raid ever.
Icc, after all that build up, all but 3 bosses were a joke.

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I have to agree with you about the raids in WOTLK. But what about outside that? Like the sheer size and breadth of activities and insanely diverse landscapes?

Also niche content. Like I remember there was that polar bear jousting daily you could do, that gave you a bag on reward with a real small chance to have polar bear mount. And it seemed like less than half of people knew that was a thing.

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Meh, the best zone was the crater. Other then that. Story telling was great

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I thought Icecrown was a very cool zone. Lot’s of elevation change, huge structures with quest bosses hidden inside. Felt very Mordor. Super on board.

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That was 3rd for me. After the crater and peaks.

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I quit WoW mid-BC. I would love to see Classic expanded with new content but vanilla-style gameplay. That would mean changing a lot of itemization, dungeons, and raids. It’s not impossible, but it’s also nothing I’d expect from Activision and their bean counters.

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I agree with you, OP, about the scope of the continent in Wrath, and the stories/questing there that spanned multiple zones. Horde-side Wrathgate was close to devastating for me-- I didn’t see it coming at all. I remember standing there in shock for a moment after the cinematic listening to all the screams.

And no, I do not think Blizzard will ever do anything like Northrend ever again. Pandaria was maybe half its size, then the Broken Isles half that.

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  1. yes
  2. no
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  1. Hard to say. Most of the current player-base would leave within months if not sooner and I’m not so sure they could pull back enough of the people that left the game in disgust over the years to carry on.

  2. Not from WoW, it’s possible some new MMO could come out of the box with all of those features and then crash when the time comes to expand. It wouldn’t be the first time…

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Interesting feedback. Let me ask you your opinion on a couple things:

  1. What do you think it is about that kind of game that the current gamer cannot get behind long term? What kind of expectation/paradigm shift has happened?

  2. Why do you think that games can come out of the package with crazy levels of quality content, but then refuse to commit to continually create that same level of product for each new expansion? Despite very very good response and profits.

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I do not think we’ll see anything on that scale without an equivalent social phenomenon (as big as the concept of an MMO was).

These days the crowd has far more options for both socializing and gaming.

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  1. The current player base is far too used to all of the instant gratification QoL to stick around in an “old school” game where they have to do things like actually spend time going from city to dungeon etc.

  2. Time is money friend…

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True enough, but if spending that much time/money worked out great for you the first time…wouldn’t you continue to do so until it stopped working out?

We can sit here and hypothesize that the player base changing attitude and game subs being gutted was inevitable, so them cutting back was the right idea. But we will never know because Blizz never tried it. They never said “Hey, if we double down in the other direction and just commit to creating a long term tradition, to constantly creating content of this quality and just improve on the initial template…maybe players will stick around.”

But we never know. Whenever a big name dev has a game that booms, they take the money and run. And then the bubble pops and we have no way of knowing if deciding to cut and run was the right idea, or if there is just a ton of wasted opportunity out there.

Think about LOL, Riot has committed to a long term tradition. They want the game to rival traditional sports in terms of popularity and longevity. And so far it seems to be working out great. I don’t see why big name devs with tons of resources wouldn’t jump on board with that idea.

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While I don’t think a static Classic will be the second coming of video game Jesus, I think that if they had a Vanilla minded World of Warcraft that was being actively developed and stuck to the philosophies of Vanilla it would not only work it would do better than BfA.

It would take a few things that would need to give though:

  • Systems like transmog would need to be there
  • Hybrid’s non healing roles would need to be more desirable in raids
  • I don’t think the current playerbase would go for no flying ever.

The biggest thing would be adjusting to the old style of doing things, which as we saw in Cataclysm there are a lot of complaints in the short term when things get harder.

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What got harder in Cataclysm?