WoW Classic in August; Testing Begins Tomorrow

[May 14, 2019, 7:23 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments

Blizzard announces WoW Classic will go live worldwide on August 27th, offering a map showing the times the revival of the original World of Warcraft will go live in various regions. They also announce they will open up character creation on August 13th, allowing players with active subscriptions or game time on their accounts to create up to three characters per World of Warcraft account to reserve character names. For those who cannot wait that long to get their old-school MMORPG on, they also reveal that starting tomorrow they will be inviting select players to participate in small scale testing, and they will be holding the first of three stress tests next week. Here's word on testing along with a schedule:

Beginning May 15, select WoW players will be invited to participate in a small-scale, focused closed beta test. Players will also get a chance to help put our servers and technology through their paces in a series of stress tests running from May through July—you can opt in now through Account Management and select the WoW Classic beta. Subsequent stress tests will extend the opportunity to even more players. Level caps will also be in place to ensure we’re emphasizing the “stress” in “stress test”

—we want to push our tech to the limit, and that means a critical mass of players in close proximity.

STRESS TEST SCHEDULE*

Stress Test 1: Wed May 22–Thurs May 23

Stress Test 2: Wed Jun 19– Thurs Jun 20

Stress Test 3: Thurs Jul 18– Fri July 19

*Dates of each stress test are subject to change.

To fill our pool of beta and stress test participants, we’ll be choosing dedicated players who meet select criteria from both the WoW Classic beta opt-in and the standard Warcraft beta opt-in. Participants will also need to have an active subscription or active game time on their Battle.net Account. While opting-in to the beta is the primary way to make sure you’re in the running to join the test it doesn’t guarantee an invitation to the closed beta test. We may also consider additional factors such as how long a player has been subscribed to the game so that we have the right mix of players to ensure great feedback toward making WoW Classic the very best experience for the community.

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20.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing Begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 18:37

HorrorScope

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

19.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing Begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 17:01

MattyC

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...

18.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 12:26

Muscular Beaver

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.




Sick of waiting for BIS to come back to their senses and do a real ArmA 2 successor.

17.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing Begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 12:21

Muscular Beaver

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.




Sick of waiting for BIS to come back to their senses and do a real ArmA 2 successor.

16.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing Begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 12:07

Mr. Tact

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...




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

15.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing Begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 11:23

Theo

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 :-)




Everyone on Bluesnews is synical, get over it. edit: i cant spell, this is my disclaimer.

14.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing Begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 11:22

Verno

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.




Playing: Subnautica, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Spider-Man Watching: 30 Rock, Good Omens, Peep Show

13.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing Begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 08:36

Medvanis

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.

12.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing Begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 08:36

Wallshadows

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.

11.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 07:07

Jonjonz

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.




There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but things that come out are what defile. Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

10.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 07:03

MrBone

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

Re: Out of the Blue

May 15, 2019, 06:36

Kxmode

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.




William Shakespeare's "Star Wars" Act I, Scene 1: Aboard the rebel ship. / Enter C-3PO and R2-D2. / C-3PO: "Now is the summer of our happiness / Made winter by this sudden, fierce attack!" / R2-D2 — Beep beep, Beep, beep, meep, squeak, beep, whee!

Re: Out of the Blue

May 15, 2019, 06:31

Kxmode

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.




William Shakespeare's "Star Wars" Act I, Scene 1: Aboard the rebel ship. / Enter C-3PO and R2-D2. / C-3PO: "Now is the summer of our happiness / Made winter by this sudden, fierce attack!" / R2-D2 — Beep beep, Beep, beep, meep, squeak, beep, whee!

Re: Out of the Blue

May 15, 2019, 06:27

Kxmode

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.




William Shakespeare's "Star Wars" Act I, Scene 1: Aboard the rebel ship. / Enter C-3PO and R2-D2. / C-3PO: "Now is the summer of our happiness / Made winter by this sudden, fierce attack!" / R2-D2 — Beep beep, Beep, beep, meep, squeak, beep, whee!

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 05:14

VaranDragon

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.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 03:24

MoonSpook

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.

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing begins Tomorrow

May 15, 2019, 00:49

Bill Borre

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

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing begins Tomorrow

May 14, 2019, 22:51

Mr. Tact

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.




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

No subject

May 14, 2019, 21:28

fujiJuice

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

Re: WoW Classic in August; Testing begins Tomorrow

May 14, 2019, 20:08

Steele Johnson

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.

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