Classic vs. BfA

[boxa9999]

Do you guys also think that besides the fact that Blizzard will release a Classic server for public demand, they also do it as a very smart marketing strategy to get people to play Bfa and further xpacs? I mean, they're squishing the stats so the numbers are even closer to Vanilla and stuff like that. People will get bored when they see they need 3 hours to get level 10 and weeks to months to get 60 so they could just log in BfA, a more user friendly and filled with a lot more content, so even if they're old players that play for nostalgia, most of them will get bored anyway and won't have no reason not to at least try BfA before their subscription ends or they have decided to stop playing, that's what Blizzard wants, old and new players to at least give live wow a chance, hence why they make BfA the expansion with the most content of all others. Many WoW streamers also said that the majority of people that start to play Vanilla will stop playing in no time. Vanilla was the **** back then, because there were no more casual-friendly also better looking with better mechanics MMO's, like Legion is now and Bfa will be.

Here's a quick scenario: "Doodle, an old WoW player that played in Vanilla and most likely TBC too then quit the game before or after WotLK. Hears that Blizzard will release an official vanilla server so nostalgia hits him, memories with friends back then and **** like that. Starts playing 2-3 months, maybe even 4 then gets bored because he realises that it's not the same feel as it was back then, he's not into spending months getting to max level, he also realises that the graphics are out of their time right now, subconsciously comparing them to newer games and more stuff like this. But more likely the taste of WoW still remains, and even if it doesn't, he's just a few clicks away to try and see "What's all the fuss about new wow about?" and again, subconsciously comparing it to Vanilla, not only at first glance it'll seem a better game so he might as well keep playing a little more, to only find out how casual friendly the low level part of the game is compared to Vanilla, and not only."

Gaming community nowadays is not what is was back then, people don't wanna spend 3 whole months just to get to ****ing max level in a game, fun is not as it was back then, now fun is more about completing stuff, having fancy graphics and game mechanics. Hell, you have living proof here on Warmane, just compare the population of Icecrown and Lordaeron and then ask warmane what is the most profitable realm? Exactly, Icecrown. And don't forget ppl, gaming is a business too. WoW's population hasn't decreased over the years because of some expansion or something, people that started playing in Vanilla got fking bored of the game, no matter the xpac, and it hasn't increased because there wasn't anything revolutionary you could say, that attracts new people towards WoW, as it was wow in 2004 compared to other MMOs. Blizzard just has to do something that will get the peoples interest back into WoW, and they're doing it. I can guarantee you that in the middle of BfA, the population that play BfA will be double than the whole Legion's population at its peak.

[Meowto]

Doubt it, new wow feels totally different from old wow. Could be 2 totally different games. Numbers arent really the issue here, its just how the game plays and feels and so on. Not that new wow is a bad game, mind you.

[Skoobydoo]

Vanilla WOW have its own community that currently exist on private servers.the Classic servers are mostly to get this people not to recruit the current retail players,and YES if the servers share subscription the current expansion number will also grow .about people getting bored of Classic and moving to current expansion its actually other way around.Nowdays expansions have huge gaps in progression where you simple have nothing to do for 1--2 months or longer.not to mention unless you go for mythic raiding progressions (something that very few do since it really feel pointless) your retail playtime will be just few hours of the week.this will be the perfect time to go play some classic where progression is so much slower and you always feel like there is something to do.sure many who start to play on classic servers will quit after some time,but that does not really effect it since the core population will be ex Nost players.you seems to be fixated of the idea that current retail players are going to be disappointed from classic in some way,where in true the servers are mostly for the players who was playing nost.

as Meowto said the games are completely different and give you completely different feel ,but am sure many people will enjoy both BFA and Classic.

[BlackShroud]

Jus to be short, at this point I do not trust the Undead even more. Always scheming behind the scenes, especially the Dark Lady , who was the caused of the Light Lady (somewhat of a good thing).

[ael00]

Replying to op this sounds more like a conspiracy mire than a marketing strategy.

Wow classic is just simply another way of monetizing old content and i would be very surprized if it didnt come with all the qol changes like rdf and simplified gear stats.

[bigbazz]

The difference in Vanilla is that even if it takes you 3 months to get 60 you're not in a rush to get to 60 and the game is well fleshed out and functions with a real economy from 1-60, where as on modern WoW the game is basically in no-mans land and barely functions below max level because of the way blizzard has made everything obsolete, broken the low level game (number squish, cata world, professions) and tries to rush everyone to max.

Maybe in Vanilla you spend 3 months levelling but you're doing that at your own pace in a fully functioning MMO game experience, in Legion (and BFA maybe to a lesser extent, I'm not sure) you've been highly encouraged to play everyday for considerable periods of time, infact at the launch if you weren't playing you were falling behind and pre-raid gearing was arguably the toughest/most grindy expansion to date..

Legion was easily as grindy as Vanilla, if not more so. From my social group my old guilds main tank who had played since vanilla EU launch had to quit during Legion because of the pressure put on him by the raid to grind out his 54 artifact traits (version 1.0 artifact), and due to him having a job and responsibilities he simply couldn't keep up, in previous expansions he had done a lot of raid-logging, which was fine because those expansions didn't require that players are grinding out artifact power on a daily basis.

[Skoobydoo]

The difference in Vanilla is that even if it takes you 3 months to get 60 you're not in a rush to get to 60 and the game is well fleshed out and functions with a real economy from 1-60, where as on modern WoW the game is basically in no-mans land and barely functions below max level because of the way blizzard has made everything obsolete, broken the low level game (number squish, cata world, professions) and tries to rush everyone to max.

Maybe in Vanilla you spend 3 months levelling but you're doing that at your own pace in a fully functioning MMO game experience, in Legion (and BFA maybe to a lesser extent, I'm not sure) you've been highly encouraged to play everyday for considerable periods of time, infact at the launch if you weren't playing you were falling behind and pre-raid gearing was arguably the toughest/most grindy expansion to date..

Legion was easily as grindy as Vanilla, if not more so. From my social group my old guilds main tank who had played since vanilla EU launch had to quit during Legion because of the pressure put on him by the raid to grind out his 54 artifact traits (version 1.0 artifact), and due to him having a job and responsibilities he simply couldn't keep up, in previous expansions he had done a lot of raid-logging, which was fine because those expansions didn't require that players are grinding out artifact power on a daily basis.

I don't agree with you that legion and vanilla have similar grinding.There is no real grinding in classic.gearing up can take a lot of time because bosses drop 3 items for 40 people but you cant say this is a grind.you can play 5 times less then someone else per week and have same gear progression.leveling takes 3 months only if you play casually and spend a lot of time on side activity then actually leveling.if you focus on leveling you can hit 60 in a week.

Legion on other hand with its AP system and m+ spamming is absolutely nothing alike vanilla.in Legion the more hours you put in the game the stronger you become.

[boxa9999]

I completely agree and i see your point is well made, wich i respect. But taking in consideration that BfA might and most likely will bring new players, wether it is from old players that played Vanilla or completely new players, their goals won't only be centered around mythic raiding or end game, because they'll have so much **** to do, like collecting mounts, maybe transmogs, achievements, some of them pvp, etc. But yeah, for many the retail play time with be only few hours a week. But who knows, we'll see anyway. Have a great day :)

[boxa9999]

Also, what do you guys think will happen after classic servers reach the point where most guilds have finished end-game content and the servers have been up for like 2 years?

[Ostlimpa]

Most likely Blizzard will either make TBC realms and allow character transfers/copies or the vanilla servers will just fade away.

[bigbazz]

I don't agree with you that legion and vanilla have similar grinding.There is no real grinding in classic.gearing up can take a lot of time because bosses drop 3 items for 40 people but you cant say this is a grind.you can play 5 times less then someone else per week and have same gear progression.leveling takes 3 months only if you play casually and spend a lot of time on side activity then actually leveling.if you focus on leveling you can hit 60 in a week.

Legion on other hand with its AP system and m+ spamming is absolutely nothing alike vanilla.in Legion the more hours you put in the game the stronger you become.

Someone obviously didn't do PVP in Vanilla. The point is time investment anyway, it's pointless also comparing gearing the games are vastly different and you're arguing that Legion is more grindy against my post where I was also pointing out how Legion was more grindy, I'm not sure what battle you're fighting.

[brian211]

Purchase BFA to play legacy servers = $$$$$$$$.

[Disktrasa]

Blizzard will most likely if not have to, change alot in their old Vanilla version, (not enough quests to max level, 70% of the specs instantly kicked from raids cause of the terrible balancing in dps/ heal/ Tanking, not even 1% of the whole population being able to complete Naxxramas)
Not to long ago I saw a video from blizz on youtube where they explained how to improve the early game content (quests and dungeons) to not feel so old and outdated, and very likely even take that into the legacy servers.

When Vanilla got released the RPG game scene was quite fresh for the most of ous, and Questing, Leveling and exploring the world at the same time was quite huge and cool gameplay, but now? more then a decade later, people hate questing and leveling, and if they have the old x1 rates where it used to take people 4-6 Month's to reach lvl 60 (not speaking of you lowlife speed levelers) a huge amount of people will drop out from sheer boredom of leveling / running without a mount until your level 50+ (yeah cause no one could afford mount at lvl 40), and that's if you have good economy.

A lot of things have changed since Vanilla and even if you get 5 million people on those legacy servers, it's NOT goin to be the same as it used to.
Biggest problem in vanilla was that no one knew anything, everyone was new to the game, addons was even a rare thing, Deadly boss mod is a huge handicap that didn't even exist.
But with "new" legacy servers, almost everyone will have their favorite addons remade to fit Vanilla, Everyone knows what classes are best and realms will be dominated by Hunters, rogues, priests and mages, might have a warlock here and there too, Unless Blizzard fixes the balance issue that was, lets just say it, Game breaking.

But even at that time, the ammount of "noobs" that used to get our satisfaction when we kicked butt in pvp, will be A LOT fewer.

[Ostlimpa]

I can't wait for Vanilla. ^^

[Mercy]

Doubt it, new wow feels totally different from old wow. Could be 2 totally different games. Numbers arent really the issue here, its just how the game plays and feels and so on. Not that new wow is a bad game, mind you.

I think that the Vanilla and BFA being two totally different games (they really are) is actually more of an incentive for people to try it out. Just the same as the people who play on Legion may go and try out Overwatch, Diablo, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and whatnot.

I don't agree with you that legion and vanilla have similar grinding.There is no real grinding in classic.gearing up can take a lot of time because bosses drop 3 items for 40 people but you cant say this is a grind.you can play 5 times less then someone else per week and have same gear progression.leveling takes 3 months only if you play casually and spend a lot of time on side activity then actually leveling.if you focus on leveling you can hit 60 in a week.

Legion on other hand with its AP system and m+ spamming is absolutely nothing alike vanilla.in Legion the more hours you put in the game the stronger you become.

You can say Vanilla isn't as much of a "grind" as Legion, and I'd agree. However, I would also say that Vanilla is more focused on the "journey", whereas Legion is focused on the end of said journey.