When Ion gets on stage and talks about making engaging experiences that value players time and maintaining trust, clearly he’s not talking about World of Warcraft fans.
For 2 years now SOD has attracted players that wanted new content in a version of the game that isn’t too dissimilar from the original. After those couple years, we get told to go play a decade old expansion set and wait around until presumably late 2026/27.
I can’t fathom the minds of the people sat around the table that decided this was a good course of action. I think most of the community can agree that a Classic + version of WoW would be something we would want the team to take their time on rather than rush out another slopfest as has become a Blizzard specialty - but to ask the SOD playerbase to hang around for a couple years playing the same content we have repeatedly said we aren’t interested in playing anymore without offering any alternative is silly beyond comprehension.
Mists of Pandaria and Classic Anniversary are both things that I repeatedly hear players expressing they have no interest in picking up. SOD has maintained a healthy raiding population throughout and even till this announcement - A lot of people have been dipping their toes in and trying it out. I have ran so many dungeons with people who tell the group that they are new to the game.
Yes SoD was meant to be temporary, it’s in the name - however plans can change and currently the decision being made means a lot of people are going to be dropping off over the coming weeks and many, including myself are most likely going to cancel the subscription because as stated; the other game versions offer no appeal.
I can’t help but wonder; why not keep Season of Discovery going until Classic + or another announcement is closer to launching? We do not need by-monthly updates. A lot of people in SOD are quite happy having multiple alts to play on and very few people have completed their Scarlet Enclave gear - a few months between updates would be a lot better than 2 years in Panda Land for most SOD fans and is simply too long to wait without any additional offerings.
I don’t think it would be a huge ask to set aside a few developers to continue messing around with SOD, plus functioning as a further test-server for Classic + features that could be added. It’s not as though the team was ever that big to begin with, and content sparsity has been a problem during SOD anyway, presumably as the team didn’t have the resources needed. Even some of the content that was added has been extremely lack lustre.
Scarlet Enclave was a great addition, even if it was only done to avoid embarassment ending on Naxx and Kara. We want more of this.
We don’t want to be shuffled off to MOP and Anniversary. If Ion isn’t full of it when he talks about respecting players time and building trust, then continue to add minor updates and a few pieces of content for us to enjoy while we wait for you to work on the next variant of Classic.
Nostalgia only works if I haven’t played the same game 3 times in the last 5 years.
I encourage anyone else to express their views on the subject as apparently moaning on forums and twitter is the only way these guys listen.
The problem is, SOD is basically classic +. The more you have them run SOD and create new phases/content etc the more you cannibalise classic + to the point that you will make it completely ineffective as a new product.
Sod must die for classic+ to live. Understand that, deal with the emotions of losing a character and move on. Be an adult.
It’s nothing to do with being an adult. Just because you’re willing to sit around in decades old content for 2 years doesn’t mean the majority of the player-base accrued by SOD also is.
the problem isn’t specifically SOD being canned, but that there is no alternative during this period. Therefore, why not keep those players engaged during this time rather than let the subs gradually decline?
Clearly a lot of people going by the replies to Aggy’s post don’t want SOD to end and don’t wish to play the other offerings either. So let us have something to play in the meantime.
If you’re happy to go play Anniversary, you do you boo.
It’s all about being an adult here.
You need to read the room from blizzards perspective. It’s done, finished, the end. Now you have a choice to either unsubscribe and play something else, play mop, play anniversary or retail.
As an adult, the choice is yours but writing post after post for something that isn’t on the table is foolish and a waste of time.
A lot of people ? Even there is 500 people writing that they want SoD to continue its below %1 of the player base… If you dont want to play other versions then just stop until they release a version to your taste.
I mean, bro… I don’t really understand why you replied.
This sounds more like a superiority complex than a genuine response.
Classic was never on the table, how did that happen again?
It’s players that roll over at every turn and praise mediocrity that encourage 85 Level Boosts and Brutosaurs. I wish you all the best during the 2 year waiting room for a decent experience.
If every player shared your mentality, we wouldn’t even be playing Classic to begin with.
Ok good luck on your sod wish list 
By all means brother, log in to SOD and go ask some people about it
I’m sure you’ll find people okay with it ending, but you’ll also find a lot of people who don’t want it to end and don’t want to stick with the other versions.
2 Years like I’ve stated is a long time to wait around for a game… At that point I’d imagine most people will have moved on to other things. Fact is, the experience I and many want to play has already existed for the past 2 years… It’s a fun time overall despite it’s flaws, and would be a better time than AFK 2 years or go play panda.
It was However just a seasonal server. We knew it would end. We saw it diverged from original vision in places becoming more and more close to retail. We saw the open world aspect of Azeroth becoming more and more marginalized. First by Incursions, then by Rune Vendor (preceeded by removing most of runes requirements) and finally by Invasion boosting. We saw with Naxx and SE that the dev team drives themselves into a corner with power creep (First when they introduced Sanctified as mechanic which forced everyone to abandon their previous Tier Sets despite T3 having mixed level of quality and then with SE when the actually strong T3 Pieces were nerfed to make place for T 3.5 ones). Considering how little care Cataclysm Classic received compared to SoD (And Cata still has more active raiders than SoD at this moment) It sadly makes sense to stop develop SoD further and Focus on Classic +. Unless you really wanted anything even mediocrity from both. Because ultimately SoD could never truly become Classic+.