What was the intent of Classic?

WoW Classic Cataclysm Classic Discussion
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Why was Classic created?

If you ask me, Blizzard honestly thought that they had the game in its best state, appealing to the same audience since 2004 as of WoD, a la “You think you do, but you don’t.”

Private servers, Nost, in particular, proved differently. They demonstrated clearly that their was a large appetite in the player base, and even beyond into the territory of new players, for an authentic recreation of the game that is considered the best MMO in the world, in its original state.

Blizzard even met with the administrators of Nost to discuss their project and their experience.

Then, in light of all of this, they created Classic, and stated clearly that boosts, LFG, cross realm grouping, achievements and beyond were not in keeping with Classic.

Now, at the very announcement of TBC, that has changed.

To those of you that support the boost, I would ask one thing of you, and I’m curious as to how any of you will reply and rationalize your position…

What systems or changes, if added, would ruin the point of why you play Classic and not retail? For you personally?

There has to be an answer as to why you are playing an older, more dated game instead of the new, optimized, ultra convenient one.

From this, I think the argument against the boost is twofold:

  1. If you support the boost, but oppose, say, LFG, the Token(which is already on the Chinese client), or cross realm play, how can you argue for one but against the other with any objectivity? That one is advantageous to you and helpful to the company and another isn’t as advantageous to you, or doesn’t “feel good”? Is the hypocrisy here not evident?

  2. If it can happen to one person’s hated retail system, it can happen to yours, too. If Blizzard can go back on what they told the community in that boosts are not in keeping with classic, then they can do the same with any other feature they have previously stated doesn’t belong in classic by the same means, and with the same justification. Ones they haven’t explicitly said they wouldnt add could be added without any justification at that point at all!

It just requires a bit of empathy, in my opinion. Put yourself in this situation, and suspend disbelief for just a moment:

Blizzard just announced that whatever particular thing it is you dislike about retail is going to be added to Classic. What argument would you make that hasn’t been made by the community opposed to boosting? What would you think of the people telling you to just shut up about it already and that is actually a good thing for the game, and you don’t know what you’re talking about?

If you love the game and don’t want to get the same feeling from it that you do from retail, wouldn’t you feel obliged to try to say or do something to protest?

How can you rationalize the boost, without throwing away the only legitimate defense we have against Blizzard adding as many retail features as they think they can get away with?:

You told us that you wouldn’t. It isn’t in keeping with the entire point of Classic. This isn’t what you told us you would do. Don’t go back on your word.

Blizzard, please. Don’t add the boost. You think you want it, because it’s a quick buck and the player base won’t really mind, just like in retail…

You think you do… But you don’t.

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For nostalgia, not some sense of morality or accomplishment.

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Why couldn’t you ask this in one of the many, many booster vs anti booster threads?

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That’s a rational question. Why are you asking it here?

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It’s entirely possible to think that not every single change ever made to retail is without merit. One can think that the direction as a whole taken by the game is bad, but think individual things are good.

Transmog for example I think is a very good feature. Not just for me personally(though I do like playing dress up with my virtual dolls =P) but as we get into expansions especially it keeps old raids relevant. Transmog is easily one of the best features ever added to the game.

and I’ll post for the record: I was against changes in Classic. I’ve maybe lightened ever so slightly on that stance, but still think that any and all proposed changes to TBC needs to be A. heavily scrutinized and B. done through the lens of TBC design philosophy.

Hybrid DPS should never be buffed to be on par with pure DPS specs, for example. That’s not what TBC set out to do with hybrids.

I also get the whole “One person’s best change is another’s change that ruined the game” thing. I’m just pointing out the thought process behind why somebody can support the boost without it being hypocritical that they don’t support literally every other retail feature.

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I am not here to endlessly troll the forums. Mostly just relax and sometimes figure out what goes on.

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Most of us play both. And judging from what Activision has said that is exactly what they intended and definitely want from TBC.

And as a player of both, I for one want boosts added to encourage more players from retail to try TBC. Boosts will do that.

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Oh sweet merciful crap, another one.

I’ll say it again.

That was then, this is now.

Don’t buy it if you don’t want it.

Stop complaining, it’s happening.

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These people want instant gratification, your reasonable thought has no place here.

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I am always amused at this expression. It’s as if delayed gratification is inherently better. It always sounds like something a dominatrix would say. :slight_smile:

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No, it’s really not. These are all features of retail and convenience, but they didn’t all do the same amount of damage to the game, nor do you need to neccessarily hate all of these things if you hate one of them.

Boosts and tokens are both money for an in game feature, for example. That’s not really the same thing as an automatic grouper like LFG, or cross realm play. The only thing these features really have in common is they were added later, and people consider them damaging- but for very, very different reasons.

There’s no hypocrisy in thinking Boosts/Token is pay to win, but LFG/crossrealm made it easier to get groups, for example. Those are different concepts. The logic doesn’t follow that because I dislike boosts, I must also dislike LFG. The thing they have in common is they are all things you dislike, or perceive as making the game worse, not that they are the same problem.

For example, I think the boost (as it is limited now) is fine, and that Blizzard in general has avoided letting you buy max level characters, or gear with stats, or in game achievements directly for over 12 years now. So I don’t buy the slippery slope because we have over a decade of evidence.

I’m less happy about the token. I don’t think the solution has really worked in retail in putting the gold sellers out of business, so much as changing what gets sold instead. But thinking the boost is fine and a token is not isn’t hypocrisy either- a token goes a lot farther than I am comfortable with. It’s not anywhere near the same degree of effectveness as a limited level boost.

It’s not hypocritical to drink hot coffee at 160 F but dislike scalding boiling water being poured down your throat at 200F. To act like they are the same degree of problem is missing nuance and reality in favor of an argument that doesn’t hold up to those things.

There’s so much wrong with this statement.

First, Blizzard making an announcement in 2019 for WoW Classic does not mean said announcement applies to projects that weren’t even in development at that time. TBC classic is NOT classic. WoW Classic is not getting boosts or monetization. It’s incredibly foolish of you to believe this would apply to every single game they make from now on when the company’s been providing a boost with every version of the game they’ve made in the last 12 years, to get you to the current expansion.

Did you ever consider there’s no boost in WoW classic because there’s nowhere to boost you to that counts as the expansion before classic?

Second… of course! And it can happen to any system! And we do not have any real power in the relationship, other than to stop consuming and quit if we no longer want to play. They are going to do what they think is right for the health of the game, and if you can’t accept that you’re going to have a bad time. We had the ectoplasmic distiller changes, the Gorshenk farm changes, the ignite changes, WSG fixes, all kinds of things changed in classic despite being a “nochanges” philosophy.

You speak of empathy, but that’s not what you’re asking for. You’re asking for people to take your side, and ignore the feelings of anyone who wants differently. The friends who would like to play TBC, but don’t have a taste for classic? They should be told the boost blizzard said was coming, that was promised at blizzcon, is cancelled, because your feelings about what is good for the game are more important than letting them have an extremely limited boost.

Empathy considers the feelings of all those involved. I would say the proposed boost is already a compromise- 1 per account, no professions, slow mount. You don’t want the comprimise. You want your way or the highway.

And you ask for “empathy”. What a joke.

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classics purpose was players picked PVP realm at start then they go to PVE

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I thought classic would be like vanilla.
I was very wrong, the game itself is very much the same but the community is very much different.

Instead of having competitive bgs, we have honour zergs. and Razor hill bot farming for bracket boosting.

Instead of lfg we have selling boosts.
Instead of farming raids for loot and wiping, we have the buff meta and people raid logging.

The modern “meta” gaming community is seemly about maximum reward for minimum effort.

Call me a Boomer, im 37 and played in Vanilla.

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Classic was not for the players stop thinking for a second it was. Blizzard is going to milk the hell out of this.

Majority of changes will be for them to make more money not what is good for the game or the players.

People need to stop thinking they have a voice because you don’t.

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answer to title: cash grab. we can all see that now.

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Because Retail is crap and A-B needed to re-release an actual MMO in hopes of saving their franchise.

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What do I like about classic? The game mechanics, the story, and that there are nice people playing it. What don’t I like about retail? The game mechanics, the story, and that there are toxic people playing it. All the other stuff that is or isn’t in either game is neither here nor there for me. Blizz can’t/won’t control who plays. If Blizz said they were going to dumb down the classic game mechanics and story, I wouldn’t be writing this piece because I’d no longer have a sub. You folks that scream and yell and carry on over and over again about Blizz adding or not adding something to classic from the retail side need to get a life.

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It is a form of protest clearly.

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Retailers with their quality of life in retail will demand those changes of Classic. I prefer less of them play to be honest.

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Because Classic isn’t like retail. It take time, content feel better, progression is better & it’s not a fast-food MMORPG.

I played SL : in few days i was already doing the weekly routine. Didn’t tried to raid in Mythic but the rest was : easy & too fast to consume.

It’s so sad to have a new game that take months/year to develop being consumed in few days.

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