Classic WoW | What's Next?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Hey all!

I’d like to get your opinions on the future of WoW Classic.

I’m a Games Art & Design student writing my thethis/dissertation on the longevity of nostalgia in WoW Classic. I have been playing since 2006 so have some opinions of my own but would love to hear what the community thinks after 6+ months of Classic. I’ve been keeping one eye on the various stances floating around both in-game and on the forums and have compiled what I think to be the potential options (that I don’t necessarily agree with). I intend to use this information to influence my conclusion.

Please feel free to post any alternative suggestions/paths Blizzard could take, correct the ones I’ve provided or just affirm the outcome you’d like to see personally.

Possible Avenues:

  1. Classic PLUS - (Based on the Old School Runescape system). Expand on the existing Classic WoW experience by releasing new content updates/patches on an effectively fresh timeline (completely separate from Retail WoW).

    This idea could maintain the level 60 level cap, preventing lots of the issues surrounding level cap increases, stat and item squishes etc as seen in past expansions.

(Optional - potentially give players the ability to vote on any future content suggestions, including this decision).

  1. Classic: The Burning Crusade - “Azeroth, as it was”. Continue the original story, unspoiled, in WoW’s next chronological chapter.

  • 2a) Separate Servers - Players must start again and progress to the new level cap of 70 starting at level 1. Progression from Classic Vanilla servers is separate and non destructive. Players can hop between Classic Vanilla characters and TBC characters. Classic Vanilla characters cannot be transferred to Classic TBC.

  • 2b) Continuous Servers - Characters formed during Classic Vanilla are automatically transferred over into Classic TBC, adopting all of the features of Classic TBC (exactly like the original retail launch).

  • 2c) Copy + Paste Servers - Two servers exist. The Classic Vanilla servers and the new Classic TBC servers. A copy of the Classic Vanilla servers also remain. (The same as option (2a), but with the option to transfer Classic Vanilla character(s) over with all their progression intact).

  1. Fresh Classic Server Restart - Restart Classic Vanilla at some point after all the content has been released and cleared. Give players another opportunity to experience the level playing field, clean slate that a launch offers with a reset economy and progression.

  • 3a) Server Wipe - Everyone’s player progress gets reset, keeping everything on one server.

  • 3b) Additional Server - Whilst maintaining the original server and progression, create an additional, optional server to house proposed clean slate.

  1. Perpetual Classic - Nothing comes after Classic WoW. The servers remain how they are forever after phase 6.

Personally, it seems as if (1) or (4) would make the most sense. I would love to see Classic + with a player voting system on content updates to gauge responses (with Blizzard having the final say in certain areas).

With regards to (2) releasing classic versions of the next expansions, I feel as though the big question is “At which expansion do we stop?”. I would wager a lot of people would stop at WOTLK, but it’s very subjective. What about after that? I fear having any system, like (2a) which separates servers by expansion will scatter the player base too much and spread them thinly across Retail, Classic Vanilla, Classic TBC, Classic WOTLK etc etc. (2b) is more likely in my opinion, but would make Classic Vanilla obsolete again.

(3) Might work for a time, but again it involves either splitting up the player base again and again, or wiping peoples progresssion in favour of a fresh start, regardless of their consent, which doesn’t sound favourable.

Let me know your thoughts.

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Don’t forget that 200 word essay you have due for tomorrow.

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Well I dunno why you’re saying all the things you’re saying but TBC.

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Cool. Would you replicate the original launch and have everything shift over to TBC, have the two expansions on separate servers or release TBC and have a copy of the Classic Vanilla server?

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Two options for me:
One - After Naxx let classic be and let people transfer a copy of the character list to a TBC server.
Two - After Naxx dig up the old notes and expand classic with new raids and events that don;t power creep the game too much.

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2c, able to transfer carather to tbc and new classic fresh server for ppl who Want to start again

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Anything 2 could happen. The rest are just pie in the sky.

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Classic+ is very unlikely, there’s no point developing two massive mmorpgs at the same time.

BC is going to be the next one, if they do continue it.

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Already mentioned that…

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Any of the options from 2 are the most realistic.
Whilst i’m sure many of us would like to see it, Classic+ won’t be a thing and if it does become a thing it would be much better to use TBC or WotLK as a base to build off of, since both expansions were vast improvements over the original game.

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#nochanges
tbc comes

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I’m voting for 2c, otherwise we’ll come to the same classic community problem as it was.

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I must admit, if they did move onto Classic TBC and even WOTLK thereafter, I would certainly play. To those suggesting any outcome from option (2), at which expansion would #nochanges stop? I haven’t heard anyone ask for Classic Cataclysm and beyond.

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These words are so damn stupid. What does that even mean? When you have millions of players, and a couple of thousands on each realm, the game is already split in thousands of pieces.

There are enough players for hundreds of versions of this game with healthy realms.

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You’re right that it’s probably not as bad as it sounds, maybe I’m being pessimistic. I’m just trying to look at this with the future in mind. So if we were to have a copy of each ‘Classic’ expansion when the following one is released, we would eventually end up with 8 ‘copied’ servers and retail WoW, each having a set amount of realms to manage and share the finite WoW population.

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NN thx,Vanilla is alive for 15+ years,so dont need anything.

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2c most likely as I don’t see people starting again from 0 in TBC and re-do everything in order to get the “new content”. Also it would be best for ppl who only liked Vanilla (which are a good lot) that would otherwise be pissed ofc and leave.

Classic+ is the option I see as less likely to happen because it would mean to design new content and spend resources on a different game.

It’s pretty clear thatClassic is just a way to keep subs up, and so you must think about how to maximize that at the minimum cost.

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How about no changes

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if i was blizz Boss, i would hire a new and the best possible team to start develop new expansion right now to realese after wowtlk.
Retail is dead and is less an MMORPG then vindictus or dragon Nest

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harsh opinion: everyone who wants classic+ instead of TBC is braindead

it will NEVER be half as good as TBC
NO MATTER what they do.

you know it, everyone knows it
now stop trolling