In my opinion, there’s a fundamental flaw with Classic… Well a few fundamental flaws. This is because it was and always will be an unfinished game. Here are a few of the reasons that I think people will, eventually, quit in droves.
Class imbalance. Classic made a huge mistake by not making all spec-lines SOMEWHAT viable. Rather than correct this imbalance they introduced PVP gear that only favored certain spec-lines (EX: Shadow gear for priests, Feral gear for druids, etc.) and raid tier sets that did the same (EX: Resto druid, etc.). This makes it so playing what you want isn’t viable for a lot of people. I don’t think the masses have found out yet, but they’ll find out sooner or later that their character stinks and either respec or quit. Sorry guys! This leads me to my next point of…
Gear imbalance. In order to be viable in PVP or PvE you have to have certain gear that can only be obtained in raids. To make matters worse, if you’ve chosen a spec that isn’t optimal, you won’t be invited to said raids to obtain the gear you need unless you’re willing to respec for that raid. I can only imagine the chaos of a druid needing on dps gear as resto in PUG raids. This is not a viable or sustainable way to obtain the needed gear to compete in end-game content.
PVP imbalance - This has been the bane of this forums existence. A non-stop churning of complaints first by the Horde and now by the Alliance. the Horde have distinct PVP advantages via their better racials and AV map benefits. They complained so much about Alliance premading that Blizzard tried to stop it and now the Alliance struggles. The issue wasn’t premading, it was the imbalance that exists from an incomplete game.
The GRAPHICS! Oh my goodness you have to admit this game looks horrible in comparison to modern games and even modern WoW. It’s hard to play a 10 year old game as in technology terms it is “obsolete.” I think at the very least if Blizzard was going to do #somechanges, which they have, they should have upgraded the visuals to modern day.
I hope this is helpful and creates some good dialogue. If you’re still enjoying classic I wish you well and hope you continue to do so.
EDIT I think you guys are making some great points, but I don’t think the average WOW player was around during classic and is trying to see what all the hype is about. This is why I think a lot of people will quit.
I actually like the graphics better, imo it amplifies the grit that it takes to move through the game. I haven’t played anything post MoP, hopped on for two minutes on retail a few months ago, and it just looks too candyland-ish to me. To each their own though!
Exactly! I forgot to add, I did like the graphical improvements made from Cata trhough MoP. They weren’t over-bearing.
Plus, in reference to OPs post, the “poor” graphics mean you don’t need a $2500+ gaming rig to enjoy the game. Not that you need one for retail either.
I’m still having a blast with Classic. I came back after a few year break (I thought I was done for good) specifically for Classic. For the most part, the reasons you’ve outlined for not liking it are exactly why I came back. The “imperfections” give the game flavor. Each class has it’s own feel. The talent tree system is more fun than the watered-down thing Retail has.
There is significant faction-imbalance, but this isn’t new, and due to the min/max culture, I expected it. I played on Shattered Hand back in the day, and that was dominated by Horde. Retail has a number of features that address (or attempt to address) this issue.
Most people claim that there are map imbalances, and racial imbalances in PvP situations. I feel that these complaints are grossly blown out of proportion. Alliance characters have some pretty impressive abilities for PvP, but they’re frequently ignored. In the end, the folks crying the most about this are the ones who are trying to avoid participating in actual PvP when in PvP situations.
I actually turn the graphics down a bit. I enjoy the way thing were more than retail!
Umm you realize how many private servers were running this? Who care if people leave. The people who enjoy this will probably roll fresh and do it all over in 2 more years.
I find it really odd that people say this. BfA took a more realism based approach to graphics compared to Vanilla.
Drab Drustvar with hanging bodies: https://i.imgur.com/FcvRrvV.png
Lady Waycrest, no NPC in Vanilla looked this sinister: https://i.imgur.com/LVgvZS9.png
Even the color scheme is more muted/less cartoony. Tree comparison, BfA models on the left and original Vanilla models on the right. Border of Southshore and the new Arathi Highlands: https://i.imgur.com/3B9VDu9.png
Gotta concede to lay away my statement in regards to those photos! I should have been more specific in regards to character models in BfA compared to Classic.
But gameplay and class immersion > good graphics and shamans being gutted.
Agreed. I have no interest in BfA other than flying around and taking pretty pictures. The game is a convoluted mess of over-engineered systems and experiments.
If only the OG dev team designed allbthe expacs… how things would have been so vastly different. I feel even the OG devs would have made progressive QoL changes but with the fundamental thought process to retain the spirit of Vanilla.
