Well I admittedly don’t work at Blizzard so yeah It is a guess.
No…it’s basically confirming that Blizzard recognizes some things they did that work for their goal with classic and some things they did that don’t.
That’s not irony, that’s just you misinterpreting their actions based on personal bias.
I have to respectfully disagree with you.
Yes it was a late addition to the game but that doesn’t mean it is not an iconic one.
There is no doubt in my mind that WoTLK was a bridge between old wow and the new. However, if Blizzard is going to recreate a classic version of that game then imo they ought to cater to that customer base and capture that shift authentically. Many people left WoW at WoTLK and many joined.
Of the people that would be interested in a classic recreation of WoTLK those that joined at that point would be a sizeable chunk. I think it is reasonable for Blizzard to recreate the expansion without alienating that market. The LFD was an iconic and divisive feature and it seems remise to not include it in a classic version. Warts and all.
It seems unfair to those that no doubt have waited for this expansion and all it’s trappings.
I say all this as someone who views cross realm grouping is the single biggest cause of the demise of the MMO - so I’m not coming at this as someone who is fond of the feature. It just seems wrong not to included it in a Classic WoTLK.
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I didn’t imply or say it was anything the inverse to “iconic”, I just said it was controversial.
In fact I’d go so far as to agree that it is indeed iconic, but for all the wrong reasons to many.
I really don’t care if they end up adding it, even though it seems unlikely, but my opinion will likely be impervious to change: WOTLKC is gonna be just fine without it.
The more interesting discussion to me is whether RDF improves WOTLK as an expansion outside of the context of Classic, and to that I’d give a resounding “no”.
Sure, I guess I am one of those that thinks the warts should be on display in a classic version. #somechanges to me is always bound by the design intentions for the game. Increased accessibility for casual gamers I think is in the remit of “intended by design” for WoTLK.
Probably. Though it wouldn’t surprise me if a good chunk of people will be put off by this. Especially among those that came into WoW at WoTLK (who are surely a group Blizzard want to capture?).
I don’t know Blizzards internal numbers on this but I’d be surprised if it didn’t put a good chunk of people off. Having said that, it actually makes me a little more likely to play it ;p I met a number of good friends through Vanilla classic group finding. But, I come back to thinking what if the opposite happened? What if Blizzard introduced a cross realm RDF into my favourite expansion - TBC? It would put me off. I don’t think there’s right and wrong preferences here. The WoTLK lovers have as much right to their preferred gaming model as I do mine.
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Wotlk will have RDF and you lfd haters can quit over it if you dare 
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This is where Zipzo has a strong point, the devs presumably don’t think there is a problem to fix in not adding an LFD system. It’s just a convenience feature, that they think the game would be better without. Previous WoW versions were very successful without it and had stronger local server communities, and lower sub turnover, so they presumably view this as a valid #somechange to improve on the original. It’s a cheap solution to the problem they believe WoTLK had of a less loyal customer base and less engaged communities (recall there was higher subscription turnover in WoTLK than in TBC or Vanilla).
My own issue with that is that an open slather #somechanges without respect for design intentions of the original is both disrespectful to the original devs and waters down the value of a classic version of the game to the customer. But I have a stricter view of what constitutes an acceptable change than Blizzard appears to - they keep their change scope heuristic frustratingly close to their chests.
Also I don’t think it makes good business sense to make controversial changes to Classic. Anything not controversial like scrapping batching - knock yourself out. If it’s controversial they should just default to the original, then even if it’s bad they have an out - “it’s how it was”.
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Well the irony is now blizzard doesn’t have “that’s how it was” as an out. And I would strongly disagree that the devs don’t know there’s a problem. LFD was added for a reason not just on a whim and those reasons are popping up again in classic.
The issues things like LFD were meant to address were very real despite rose colored glasses.
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Honestly. I think that would be the most fair. It would be the most “original experience”.
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Some* of us feel it is harmful
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Why you hate wrath?
You never explained why and you don’t seem to know the reason the tool was put into the game in the first place. The whole idea of LFD is to 1)automate the group finding process since people just want a full group 2) increase the pool of players for each level of content across 80 levels. 3) get more people actually playing the game rather than the tedious task of forming groups.
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I have an idea, how about Blizzard designate RDF realms and non-RDF realms. That everyone can have it their way, or whatever the burger king said.
You’re using too much logic and reason for the classic dev team and some people in this forum. Be careful.
That would already exist. Wrath Classic would have rdf and eternal Classic wouldn’t.
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I actually would posit the suggestion that Blizzard knows they will put that group of people off and [respectfully] doesn’t care, based off of their responses to the “backlash”. They want to keep the classic experience different from the retail one, and RDF simply brings it one step closer to redundancy. This could be seen as unnecessary given we have proof that the expansion can successfully exist without it, since that’s exactly what it did for most of its actual patch cycle.
I very much did in the first post right after the exact words you quoted…
You can feel free to disagree but don’t say I didn’t give you a “why”.
Honestly, not a bad idea, but I think Blizzard would view this as sharding the community too much.
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This is a case where we can only hope the accounting department steps in and says “yeah intentionally pissing off a lot of the player base for nonsensical reasons like the spirit of classic won’t fly”
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Theyre not trying to make bank on Classic. And even if they were it would be better for them to look long term and not just appease a bunch of tourists who are the next bus outta here when the next shiny is presented.
I just want to get back to this point a little bit though.
You see, I spent this entire expansion having #somechanges rammed in to my head, and I would be lying if I said it hasn’t actually somewhat changed my perspective a bit, despite the utter logical incompetency of those arguing for the actual changes.
I have brought myself to be mentally sound with #somechanges now, as long as it doesn’t too strongly disfigure the expansion and has a positive impact on the gameplay state of the expansion.
Since I don’t view removing RDF as having a negative impact on the experience of WOTLK, given WOTLK shot through most of its content without it, combined with the fact that I strongly disagreed with its implementation to begin with, I see it as a net-win for a potentially unique and better WOTLK than the original was.
From where I’m standing, everyone just looks like a hypocrite. They spent the better part of the last year twisting me in to being okay with changes, and now I’d say that I am conditionally fine with changes, and a change comes along that I can heavily agree with, and now I’m being told that they shouldn’t change things.
I stuck with, suffered, and internalized the logic surrounding many of the changes I disagreed with in the past. I actually didn’t want same-faction queues, but I brought myself to a place where I understood why it was a reasonable change. Blizzard made other changes that I would generally consider thoughtful, even though I was very squeamish with allowing changes to anything “as it was” originally.
I am a changed person, and it’s the very people who are flipping the ‘f’ out over them holding back RDF who got me to that state, and now the walls are all coming down. It turns out it was all a giant ruse. I’ve been arguing straight from the heart on these matters, and I foolishly believed others were arguing from theirs. It was all a giant ruse from the beginning.
It was never about being okay with #somechanges. It was always a selfish crusade for nothing but personal benefits. I honestly feel betrayed by the people I’ve been in contention with throughout the course of this expansion, as dramatic as that sounds. I believed in their desire to want #somechanges, but now all of the sudden #somechange comes along that is just slightly out of their framework for what constitutes an acceptable one, and they’re threatening to quit and arguing the completely opposite stance.
Not a good look, and I would consider that my current perspective, the place where I’ve mentally put a stake down and why I believe no RDF for WOTLK will be a good thing, is the bed that those people made.
Time to sleep in it.
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They are most definitely trying to make bank on classic, look at same faction BG’s.
“In the spirit of classic” there was zero reason to add those.
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