Yet they couldn’t even prepare for the launch properly and screwed everyone over by only have 5 available servers to play from. Then AFTER launching, opening over 25 NEW servers, splintering everyone’s friends and guilds.
Then after they “fixed it” open up paid server transfers after people already invested time into it. REALLY skeezy.
Crummy to put it mildly. I would say rather exceptionally greasy and calculating.
I mean I I get the impression nobody is gonna sway you in your opinion so I will just leave this here.
Why would free server transfers splinter anyone? I mean everyone could have made the move. My guild discussed it but decided to stick it out on our current server instead. I agree having paid transfers this early on is probably a bad idea.
Definitely not. If they wanted to fix it, they would have allowed free server transfers to a server of your choice at the bare minimum.
I understand they have to worry about server health and stuff, but the launch was a complete joke. 25 servers AFTER you let people subscribe a month prior to “reserve names” and “pick realms” and stuff?
They knew from name reservations alone that there wasn’t going to be enough servers and still waited until AFTER launch to open over 25…it’s disgusting.
A month prior Blizzard allowed people to subscribe to reserve names, pick servers, etc. even a week later and 25+ new servers AFTER launch there were still ques of 10k+ people so people got splintered into new servers just to be able to play.
Now Blizzard is offering free server x-fers but ONLY from one specific realm to another specific realm, people have no choice. So if your friend group got splintered, there’s still no way to play with them unless you want to get a paid server transfer. It’s just a bunch of small crummy things they’ve done that look real bad.
Looks like more than a single realm, that list has about a dozen US realms listed. Maybe they are doing them in stages? And if your server was one of them and you transferred and your friend didn’t, that’s not Blizzard’s fault. I agree the launch went badly but honestly, everyone knew it was going to be rough. They even told us that if any where near the numbers of people who reserved a name tried to play that there would be issues. Which is why I sat out the first 3 days to avoid it.
When I checked it was from my server to a single other server and you’re completely negating the fact that people got splintered before the transfers were even available purely because nobody could even log in and everyone just wanted to play which is 100% Blizzards fault. They knew there weren’t enough servers from the paid name reservations they greedily took on, yet waited until after launch to open over 25 new realms, It’s a complete joke.
Exactly, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to think “We can 100% count on whoever reserved a name, wanting to play and that’s not enough. There’s going to be possibly 2x’s or 3x’s that amount not willing to sub a month in advance and just play as soon as the game comes out”
It was sheer stupidity.
Well they could have chosen not to bring Raf back at all.
Which would have been preferred, honestly. I’d rather get rewards from doing in-game activities, not dangling “Ya gotta give us over $300 before you get all these cool rewards…or have someone else do it”
I mean the new recruit a friend is essentially easing people into the idea of cash shop aesthetics. Which is fine if we weren’t paying $15/mo for a sub as well. 
Not really you do get free game time with it and your friend does too and they get a level boost with it. I don’t get where the three hundred dollars comes into play for Raf I have Rafd myself when the game goes on sale and it didn’t even cost me 30.
If you want all the rewards, there has to be over 12 months of sub time. Look at how the new system works.
People have been asking for backpacks in game since its inception and 15 years later they’re going to add them…IF you pay them for 10 months of subscription.
I mean, It’s literally banned in some countries because It’s classified as a pyramid scheme.
Name reservation does not equate to the number of active players you will have on day one. Like I said, I waited several days (to avoid the crush in starter zones) and I have friends who are on retail that reserved their names and still haven’t played.
Hell, I reserved my name on several different servers just in case 
Uh, people putting forth the effort to reserve a character name tells you they’re at LEAST interested enough to reserve their name to try it, dude.
That’s fine, but ASSUMING only half the people who reserved names are going to play is insanely dumb. You can’t convince me or probably anyone else that it’s a smart idea and making an assumption that stupid was proven to be wrong a million fold. They had to open almost 3x’s the amount of servers they had “thought” would be enough.
They knew it was going to be big. They even said they were surprised people were putting in so much effort and leveling to max in the beta. Point is, it was totally avoidable, they messed up and instead of trying to make it right, continue to try and squeeze money out of customers. It’s insane.
I mean, they even had the audacity to release a new pyramid scheme recruit a friend where they offer a backpack that people have been asking for since the games been out…locked behind forcing people to get someone to pay for 10 months of game time.
It’s disgusting.
Why would you be able to anyway there was no Recruit A Friend during Vanilla?
No it doesn’t. I have games sitting in my steam library that I paid money for and never played. Name reservation is just people saying “if I decide to play classic, I want my character name” and nothing more.
Look I agree that the launch was horrible, they seriously under estimated the interest and then brought up new servers once they were sure the demand wasn’t going to plummet.
Wrong. They added servers literally the day of launch. They messed up and they knew it right away. They were adding servers throughout almost the first week. It was pathetic. They KNEW it was going to be huge. Every big streamer had been saying since the private server debacle that they’d stream vanilla non-stop and all their followers were on their backs.
They messed up huge and instead of trying to repair it, they’re squeezing more money out of the player base, period.
My apologies I didn’t realize they had changed I did skim over them, you are right, and the new program wreaks of desperation for new subs
Bad form Blizzard, bad form.
Honestly, when I first saw RAF coming back, I didn’t understand why people were mad.
Then I read a Kotaku Article mentioning the timing (I hadnt read any forum threads about it), and realized why people were mad.
Yea, that was honestly a really messed up move on Blizzard’s part.
They should allow anyone that joined in the past month as a new subscriber, or anyone who returned that hadn’t had an active sub in the past 2 years choose one active subscriber as their RAF buddy tbh. That’s the only way I can see them making this right.
I 100% agree. I was furious when I heard this because I had just convinced my friend to play classic a week ago.
Yes indeed. Normally I’m fine with whatever Blizzard does, but I find this highly suspect. 