I’ve been living under a rock for some time. Played Classic in 2019 when there were hour long server queues.
Only returned recently after a long break. Servers seem deserted. Which is fair enough I guess, we always knew it would boil down to a few hardcore fans.
Does “fresh” mean new classic servers? If so, why? Servers seem empty, why can’t people just use the ones that are there?
As I said, I’m not up to date, and fresh seems to be a big thing, so I guess there’s more to it.
Well the idea of a fresh server is the idea that everyone starts from scratch. There are no Lv. 60’s, the AH is empty, and everyone starts the game at Lv. 1 with 0 copper to their name and have to work their way up from there. It’s a completely different situation from a server that’s been out for years. Even if said server would be “dead”, there’s always 60’s that could log on and break the illusion, were you to try to simulate fresh on an old server. Additionally I think people are expecting changes this time around such as but not limited to no world buffs, harder raids, perhaps faster levelling, etc. A fresh now, if it launched with changes, would play out differently than the current servers due to changes, which are likely to come, as evident by the survey that Blizz sent out a while ago where they touched on making changes to upcoming fresh. Hope that answers your question.
I’m on two servers (Pyrewood for my Horde chars that have been gathering dust since September 2019) and Mirage Raceway for my new Ally toons.
I find it quite cool that there are experienced players out there.
I would assume with fresh servers you’d have the problem that a handful of hardcore players would be at level 60 within a few weeks and we’d have the same problem again.
Just to add on to Snowclam’s explanation which was spot on but Fresh also means that the server starts at phase one and the content is slowly released every few months in phases. You could roll a character on any of the current classic servers currently but you will be starting from P6 and a lot of people enjoy the game before all the crazy gear is added especially in PvP the fights usually are over in seconds down to the insane burst AQ40/Naxx gear can give you.
The aim of fresh is to have lots of people start the game at the same time so they play through the experience as a cohort.
It isn’t about making the perfect the enemy of the good. Obviously some people are going to no-life their way to 60 in about 4 days. But that’s not the issue. What people want is a substantial body of players to play with as they go through their 200-350 hour journey to 60. Then the same as they go through the pre-raid gearing process, and on into MC/Onyxia.
On paper nothing stops player-driven restarts. There have been lots of attempts. In practice however they seem to have failed - as people drift away for whatever reason. I’m sure its not impossible - after all if you had say 4 other friends, and the 5 of you all log on at the same times and level at about the same rate, you have all you technically “need” until UBRS. But its clearly not the same experience as having an active populated world, with thousands of people all doing similarish content.
I hope the experience gain stay at 1x. It would be fantastic, leveling slow, take your time, dont rush, just enjoy the game. I can’t play with any other MMO, cuz WoW is the authoritative for me. I beg for normal xp! They can change everything but not the xp please!
