A "classic" "classic" retail experience? would that be possible?

a “classic” “classic” retail experience? would that be possible? is it something you would play? just curious, don’t bite me XD

first of all, no, I’m not talking about a classic cata or something like that.

Hi, well the idea is a classic retail mode, what does that mean? well that they would just add expansions, but keep the soul of classic wow. I mean, they already have the content, they already have the expansions, they would just need to adapt it, which is much less work than making something new.

bc, wotlk, cata, mop etc etc, but all with the essence of classic, and no, I’m not talking about classic cata for example, I mean classic, how? well I don’t know, some examples.

-disable flying, if there is a place where you have to get to no matter what, they should put a flight point, the flying mounts should be aspects when you use the flight points.

-experience focused more on leveling, not putting the dungeon finder, you adjust the equipment so that the damage doesn’t rise too much

-level up, but maybe keep the skill tree of the classic mode?

The idea is to be able to enjoy the whole world that they have created for so many years, but always keeping the challenge, the experience, and the essence of the original wow, making the world feel alive again, and not as dead as it is now… would it be possible? yes, is it something that is wanted? I’m not so sure about that anymore… mind you, that doesn’t mean that the classic mode would disappear, which is there for those who only want to play this one, in short, it’s just another idea that could give a lot of content to this game mode.

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Levelling to 120 without the xp gain from expansions,

Nah I’m good bro

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Adapting existing expansions to the vanilla design is what you’re basically asking.

I think it’s what they should have done, but they didn’t. They didn’t even do it for their Classic+ experiment Season of Discovery.

I think on a fundamental level Blizzard simply doesn’t understand that game, and that’s why I don’t actually think they can. They just have no idea why it works and what makes it tick. This is less of an insult than it sounds like - most game developers don’t, and all these people weren’t there, then. This is why all the copycats kept dropping like flies.

However, I am surprised that they never managed to just make more content without messing around with game systems when starting from vanilla.

That doesn’t mean they can’t make a great game. It just means they can’t make vanilla WoW.

Maybe they’ll work it out someday. If they do, I think reworking the modern game would be a better move, but it’s a tricky one.

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XD, I understand that you don’t like it, and that’s fine with me, but objectively

Don’t you think it could be interesting? One of the problems with classic mode is that whoever enjoys this mode, when they reach the maximum level, they run out of content to do, but if they added the expansions, but with the classic soul, they would have content for years…

how would low/med pop realms cope with no LFD or you asking for yet another split in player base when we have

classic
classic cata
SoD
HC classic
HC classic sf
retail

I really like flying, and the new one also however i’m against flying in any MMO game. It kills the immersion, interactions between players, connection to the world, exploring, attention to the world details, feeling that you are part of this world, and even feeling that is worth going for better gear because you can defend yourself from other faction. That’s why I also hate WarMode off on (old) PvP servers… I love leveling, I hope it would be more important, but now it feels just like another timegating system to finally start playing the game. I’m the old player, I miss the open world PvP how it was classic>wotlk before introducing flying for whole Azeroth in Cata. Something that new player that joined in Legion for example never experienced, and I think will never fully understand. It’s my dream to delete flying, or at least come back to the Pathfinder idea from BfA, where you could fly after some big patches. Not at the beginning of the expansion. World scaling also killed open world. You don’t get the feeling “ohh I want to finally level up there”. Scaling makes world more boring. I don’t care if I’m able to level up as 22lvl with my 55lvl friend, because that’s the part of the world. You are not strong enough to fight that monster.

Disabling flying right now would be terrible for the game, because zones, and mobs placement are designed differently. Honestly retail went so far away from RPG aspect into Seasonal race crap for carrots, that I don’t think it’s reversible.

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Why don’t you just keep disabling/reenabling your xp at given levels and go like that?

It’s funny, like a lot of people in general, I disagree with the current leveling system, and more or less miss many of the old leveling mechanics, but still blitz… well…

I think you’re right when you say that blitz doesn’t really know how the game works, it seems less and less directed to the player, less and less directed to the gameplay experience, and only to get the last final items… that’s why classic mode could be a half solution for this kind of stories and keep your players who love to level up and enjoy the map by giving them lots of content.

As for the server population, I agree with you there, it’s true that dividing the population too much can cause problems, I can’t think of a quick solution like that, but I’m sure that if you sit the right people in a room and get them to look for solutions, something can be done, we’ve built a rocket, I highly doubt that this will be totally impossible to achieve XD

Disabling experience (which is what I’ve done) makes you spend entire expansions without leveling up, without getting equipment, with useless professions, etc. etc., and the world doesn’t involve any kind of challenge, you kill everything, it doesn’t matter if it’s a lame seal, or a 4-meter-tall demon from Outland, they’re clones with skin, there’s no character development, no challenges, etc. etc.

what even is hc classic sf? lmao I only keep up with the most recent version. “Retail” = real wow imo. Been playing since 05, been there done that.

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I think LOTRO takes this approach?
The lead developer was once asked about a level crunch on the forums and he replied “Why on earth would we do that?”

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I completely agree with you there. Even rare mobs that were very strong, very hard to kill and sometimes even scary to walk pass them, they don’t pose any challenge now. You kill them with 4 more spells instead. Woooow so much fun…

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I would like the vanilla wow but with retail graphics and animations but everything else the same

My wet dream ^^

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classic hardcore self found.

but it does not have the expansions, the idea of ​​the classic classic expansions is that you have vanilla, without changes, and the other expansions add maps, history, objects, professions, but they do not have to change the skills, nor the experience, the The idea is, the same, but with more content, and I repeat, that does not mean eliminating classic, but it does mean that for people who love to rise in an immersive world full of challenges, this could be almost inexhaustible content if the leveling is so slow like in classic

It’s the famous classic + people actually want it so badly, this is what you are describing. I think they will do this after SOD.

you think? I don’t have much hope that Bliz will do something like that, I wish I was wrong

Let me give you some objectivity to your nostalgia trip :

Isent that what Retail is ?

Retail is Vanilla + a bunch of expansions that added new stuff and added quality of life improvements. The end result of that over 20 years == Retail.

That is not Vanilla wow. Vanilla wow was never about leveling. It just happened to have 60 levels instead of 10. But once you got to level 60… what would you do ? Sit in the capital ?

NOPE. You would go to Molten Core and Onixias Lair. Which came with the launch of Vanilla. And then they had the “brilliant idea” of offering free patches with even MORE raids… EXACTLY like today. Nothing changed.

Quick answer : NO. Flying stays. Instead do quests in a 3D map. Not in a 2D map like it currently is.

For example : The current expansion is set in a whole cave system. And yet, out of the 3 civilizations (maybe 4 if you include the troll-elves)… NONE thought of building things (like quest givers or quest objectives) in the walls or ceiling ?

The skill tree of the Vanilla era sucked. It had so few options it was just copy-paste from MMO-Champion forums.

Here is the important part :

There IS a world in retail. The “essence” of wow did not go anywhere. Its PLAYERS that are not engaged in it. And it was exactly the same in Vanilla. Once the first year or so passed, most players were at level 60 doing Molten Core and nobody was questing in the Barrens.


Here is the big TLDR : You CANNOT experience Vanilla wow. There is no game in the universe that can replicate what you experienced 20 years ago. Relish the memories. But be realistic.

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If you know where to look, a good classic+ experience already exists. Won’t link it though, but I know Blizzard knows about it because they’re including them in questionnaires they’re sending to us… so not too afraid to mention it. I don’t recommend playing there though, of course.

That’s… putting it so mildly that it fails to address the reality of the situation.

The truth is modern WoW doesn’t even remotely resemble vanilla, to the point where they seem from two different companies. Vanilla is far more like Elden Ring while retail is far more like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

You really really think you do, but you really really dont!