Here is a major developer who is running an active and arguably successful retail subscription MMO in WoW BfA… and their top competition for 2019 is the stripped down base version of their product. They’re having to accept that a large number of players prefer the game with all 14 years of updates and ideas gone.
That’s got to be a downer for some folks, but how neat would it be to get that fresh canvas… basically WoW is rolling an alt.
Here’s the thing though… once WoW classic hits all of the phases planned… then what? Live in a Naxx end state pre-BC game forevermore? Or do they actually start looking at how/what they could have done better and differently in this weird alternate world that exists outside of retail. Do those changes start moving into the next xpac for retail? Does classic start to move past the last Naxx patch into new and uncharted territory?
I don’t know that any large highly successful title has had such a unique opportunity to really go back in time and rethink things.
They said recently they haven’t decided what to do after Classic is done, whether or not to continue the cycle of TBC then Wrath or keep the game at level 60 and work on newer content.
Personally I hope they create new content 6months or so after Naxx
You start adding content to Classic, you’re trashing the Vanilla experience people have been asking for all this time. No dice.
These scenarios always ignore the fact that there are a lot of people playing BfA who are actually enjoying it. I know, I know…a lot of people who think its the worst expansion since the last worst expansion can’t really wrap their heads around the idea that anyone would dare to have a different opinion than they do…but it’s true.
If you change how that product is developed in some vain attempt to integrate the design principles of old-school WoW back in, you chase those people away. That’s not good business.
The Classic+ vs TBC/Wrath is largely going to be down to popularity. If Classic is weak, nothing. If Classic is middling but supports a decent population, TBC and Wrath. If Classic blows away the market, Classic+.
But discussion is a moot point until we see sustained population.
I don’t think they can, honestly. There are too many who like it easy mode. Plus the ones who made the original game are gone, and with them went the creative genius that made WOW such a great game.
Let’s just accept that they gave us this wonderful opportunity to experience the game as it was, or at least as close as they can considering today’s technology.
Here is my suggestion: after all classic content phases have been rolled out, wait a couple years, let people play it to death. THEN announce Burning Crusade Classic(BCC). But DO NOT release BCC on the WOW Classic servers, instead, open a new set of BCC servers and allow people to copy or transfer their WOW Classic characters to the BCC servers if they choose. I am not sure which would be better, a copy, or a transfer, but one or the other. That way the players who want to continue with a static, eternal WOW Classic can, and those who want to move onto BCC could do so, using their WOW Classic character, instead of forcing everyone to start at level 1 for Burning Crusade.
That’s a neat idea… another one I had rolling around in my head would be to adopt sort of a Diablo III seasonal approach. Not sure how that would work, but give people incentive for re-rolling and trying new and different playstyles/roles.
Noooo idea how that would work… but some mechanism to have certain servers patch up/reset on a timer might be interesting…
This is not something new, EQ has been doing Time Locked Progression servers for years. In fact they just launched their newest one in the last year. It starts are the base game and progresses at pre determined intervals to the next expansion. Mind you they have 26(i think) expansions.
Granted EQ is not as big as it once was, but it still has a good base of players, they also require a subscription to access the progression servers. Then once they hit current expansions they are merged with a live server. Last time I checked there was 5 servers active under the time-locking umbrella.
They also have many different formulas they use as well iirc. One was set times for expansions releases, one was set goals to be achieved to put it to the players on that server to vote if they want to move to the next expansion, and one that just had marks to hit to unlock the next expansion.
yup and their system is a great model any type of progression/classic servers should follow. they proved there is a market for it even amongst an older, almost dead game, so there definitely is for wow, especially classic and tbc/wotlk.
Although… if you’re going to advance up through content I think there need to be some things kept off the table to keep things from going all pear shaped…
Cross realm… anything… should just not happen imo. Losing individual server community/culture was a big thing that got me out of WoW to start with.
I don’t understand this. It’s like saying the top competition for the Big Mac is the Quarter Pounder. McDonald’s doesn’t care which one you buy as long as you’re eating at McDonald’s.
Some people have it in their head that Classic is just a better version of retail rather than it just being a different game that will appeal to a different audience.
How about not releasing TBC or WotLK at all and focus on a new expansion that rides on the back of Classic where it simply takes the WoW universe into an alternate storyline?
One where the Burning Legion had far more success?
Because retail and classic wow are nothing alike once you removed the combat style. If blizz releases wow classic with other name and other models, no one would believe that retail was the same game.
Classic+ content would be expanded with classics design philosophy.
I understand this and I don’t even want classic+, I would rather have TBC
