Going back to LSD to relive those wild and fun times.... almost never works for most. Good luck!

I am not really feeling a need to go back to WoW, classic or otherwise, but that anniversary Ragnaros statue looks awesome. Looks like they sold out of those instantly though...

Jonjonz wrote on May 15, 2019, 07:07:
I fully expect this to crash and burn, just like every other 'classic' server out there. there is always a vocal minority who say they want these, but if you have played any MMO's classic progression games, you know what the drill is:

* day one, every hardcore hammerhead with an interest shows up, guilds up and it is a race to cap, and firsts
* Any other players are left in the dust to flounder
* Game becomes the private play ground of a handful of hardcores
* Other players quickly realize they are better off going back to the current version of the game

At some point Blizzard/Activision will have to show their hand on this regarding how they plan to monetize the added cost of the development, maintenance and server infrastructure for this. I can't believe they are going to do all this for free, and I seriously doubt it will bring in substantial new subscriptions.

If it works with EverQuest, it will work very well with WoW.

fujiJuice wrote on May 14, 2019, 21:28:
Me, like a lot of people, have been asking for this for years. They initially didn't want to do it.

Yeah, but I got my fix on private servers now. Will be another 5+ years before I want to try again.

Verno wrote on May 15, 2019, 11:22:
If other people want to relive this sort of pain then fair enough I had enough of that silliness to last a lifetime. Fond memories of my guildmates but there is no recapturing that time for me.

Yep. One of, if not the, best gaming experiences of my life. I'd gladly pay to have that experience again, but I can't without a brain wipe...

Verno wrote on May 15, 2019, 11:22:
If other people want to relive this sort of pain then fair enough I had enough of that silliness to last a lifetime. Fond memories of my guildmates but there is no recapturing that time for me.

this 100%. i ran a huge raiding guild, we were very good and enjoyed doing it. i was also a lot younger than i am now, and didnt have a kid :-)

If other people want to relive this sort of pain then fair enough I had enough of that silliness to last a lifetime. Fond memories of my guildmates but there is no recapturing that time for me.

fujiJuice wrote on May 14, 2019, 21:28:
Me, like a lot of people, have been asking for this for years. They initially didn't want to do it.

This. My wife, kids,and a bunch of my friends are coming back. We quit when Panda was announced. Looking forward to taking our sweet time leveling, enjoying the progression, and yes (eventually) raiding.

I'm surprised by how much misplaced push back there is not only in regards to how Blizzard finally folded to the pressure of a classic experience but also those who expect more to vanilla than the vanilla experience itself.

Jonjonz wrote on May 15, 2019, 07:07:
I fully expect this to crash and burn, just like every other 'classic' server out there.

I'd argue that Old School RuneScape is far more demanding for players and it's thrived since release several years ago. It has a very populated community, does surpsisingly well with streaming and in spite of looking like a dumpster fire it's showing no signs of slowing down.

I've never played Everquest 1 or 2 so I can't speak as to how well the original servers are doing.

There's also a huge selling point that Classic won't be shut down like all the other private servers. Peace of mind for $15.

I'm sure Classic will have an initial surge of players and will eventually settle in to a niche community. I doubt that it'll ever come near Live numbers even when we look at how bad BfA is doing.

Kxmode wrote on May 15, 2019, 06:36:
Also looking forward to the original Alterac Valley and the opening of the Ahn Qiraj gate world event. Those remain my absolute favorite moments in WOW.

Sort of original Alterac Valley. It'll be using the 1.12 version which has a fair share of improvements such as the graveyard placement but also removed npcs.

This comment was edited on May 15, 2019, 09:11.

I fully expect this to crash and burn, just like every other 'classic' server out there. there is always a vocal minority who say they want these, but if you have played any MMO's classic progression games, you know what the drill is:

* day one, every hardcore hammerhead with an interest shows up, guilds up and it is a race to cap, and firsts
* Any other players are left in the dust to flounder
* Game becomes the private play ground of a handful of hardcores
* Other players quickly realize they are better off going back to the current version of the game

At some point Blizzard/Activision will have to show their hand on this regarding how they plan to monetize the added cost of the development, maintenance and server infrastructure for this. I can't believe they are going to do all this for free, and I seriously doubt it will bring in substantial new subscriptions.

I will wait for the mobile version since I have a phone.

Mr. Tact wrote on May 14, 2019, 22:51:
I'm sure it will be a success to start with. The question is, will it have staying power? Or will people come to the realization their nostalgia for Classic WoW doesn't live up to the reality.

How many times are you guys going to keep bringing this up. Yes, it will have staying power. At its peak, which is pretty much around the time it closed, Nostalrius had an active player count of 150,000 (they considered active unique accounts that logged in within two weeks), and a concurrent player count of 13,000 (something classic WOW was never originally designed to handle). The only reason people stopped playing was because they were forced to. There's PLENTY who want to go back to the original WOW. I am personally looking forward to the classic 10-player dungeons like Stratholme and running Southshore / Terran Mill and Crossroads PVP skirmishes. Looking forward to 40-player raids to Molten Core. Also looking forward to the original Alterac Valley and the opening of the Ahn Qiraj gate world event. Those remain my absolute favorite moments in WOW.

VaranDragon wrote on May 15, 2019, 05:14:
I think Blizzard kind of dropped the ball with this. From what I've seen graphically the game is exactly the same as the original WoW. There have been absolutely no updates to the textures, models or meshes of the original game.

I understand why they did it, they wanted to give the gameplay experience of playing vanilla WoW back to the fans, but why not update it to modern standards from a graphical standpoint? Considering the development time they spent doing this "port" they could have done all of that and made it look like a modern game.

Classic players DON'T want the updated graphics. Why in the hell would you even think something like that would be okay on classic servers?

The port is minimal at best. Basically the legacy framework doesn't work with Battle.net's modern infrastructure. Some of the UI is modern but most of it is the classic data.

Steele Johnson wrote on May 14, 2019, 20:08:
When you can’t think of any games to make, just go grab a previously successful game off the shelf, blow the dust off, and sell it again.

What an asinine comment. Classic is happening because of Nostalrius and the community's effort after it was shut down. Plus the Blizzard senior staff like Michael Morhaime meeting with the Nost crew, and Mark Kern meeting with Mike to talk about Classic and hand deliver the over 250,000 petitions from people wanting official classic servers.

I think Blizzard kind of dropped the ball with this. From what I've seen graphically the game is exactly the same as the original WoW. There have been absolutely no updates to the textures, models or meshes of the original game.

I understand why they did it, they wanted to give the gameplay experience of playing vanilla WoW back to the fans, but why not update it to modern standards from a graphical standpoint? Considering the development time they spent doing this "port" they could have done all of that and made it look like a modern game.

Bill Borre wrote on May 15, 2019, 00:49:
I wonder if they might make classic WOW F2P and keep the sub for regular version.

Almost certainly not, and definitely not initially - they've already stated back in the initial coverage that you'll need an active WoW sub to also access the Classic version.

I wonder if they might make classic WOW F2P and keep the sub for regular version.

I'm sure it will be a success to start with. The question is, will it have staying power? Or will people come to the realization their nostalgia for Classic WoW doesn't live up to the reality.

Me, like a lot of people, have been asking for this for years. They initially didn't want to do it.

When you can’t think of any games to make, just go grab a previously successful game off the shelf, blow the dust off, and sell it again.