Is what J. Allen Brack said during a Blizzcon.
And I like many others disagreed! I did want to be able to play on a legacy server, playing my favorite version of the game, going as far to even pay a monthly fee in order to be able to play it. I was an active player on Nostalrius and later on Elysium Project. Both successful private servers recreating the most vanilla like experience they could.
But eventually it happened! Blizzcon 2018 Activision Blizzard finally announced the release of World of Warcraft: Classic. And I like many others were thrilled and losing our excrement! A full fledged classic server by Activision Blizzard themselves, our pleas were finally answered and we were all hyped for it!
And finally august 29, 2019 it happened! Classic got released, servers were packed with players, logon queues reaching over 120 minutes of waiting time and finally were able to retread a fond memory of the past!
Butā¦
After a short while, things within the community took a different turn. People started to focus more on their own character and personal progression rather than experiencing a sandbox mmo with a living community. What is a sandbox mmorpg? Iām sure many of you know what it means but for those that donāt, a sandbox mmorpg are usually large scale mmorpgās that have no loading screens and heavily rely on the community to create the game for themselves. Sandbox mmorpg frequently lack content to maintain a solo experience for the long haul, sandbox a great example of an mmorpg like this would be Black Desert Online, a beautiful looking mmorpg but when it comes down to content itās either grinding or imbalanced pvp or one of few world bosses. Classic was in a sense just like a sandbox mmorpg, sure it had content. It has dungeons, raids and 3 battle groundsā¦ but thatās it. Oh and the journey from 1 to 60. Other than that thereās no content. Large scale world pvp? thatās not content created by the game, itās an event organically created by its community to create more activities to do. Many people seem to forget that many of the re-occurring events retail WoW are based of community events in Vanilla. In Vanilla the community made the limited game work on the long run.
So what is BFA? well BFA is what people often refer to a ātheme parkā mmo. Meaning itās an mmo with pretty straight forward linear experience and heavily relies on new content being added frequently to keep its player base satisfied and entertained. BFA has tons and tons of content to do. Thereās the level journey, thereās world pvp this time stimulated and organized by the game it self rather than a community event, thereās new zones being added over the duration of the expansion, there over 15 battle grounds to conquer, thereās tons of dungeons all with various difficulty settings and rewards, there are daily quests and world quests, thereās Azerite, Pet battles, Achievements, weekly events and so on. The problem with BFA isā¦ that most of that content is rather boring or poorly implemented or tied to systems no one ever wanted and simply donāt work. ācoughā Azeriteā¦ ācoughā but Iām not going in depth over BFA Iām here to talk about legacy server, Iām only using BFA as an exmaple to point a problem in legacy servers and why we or at least I no longer want them.
BFA is more accessible, more solo driven and the over-all mmo experience is BFA is a solo experience with a online lobby, you que while youāre afk in stormwind or Orgrimmar until you hear the dungeon queue pop-up while youāre in the kitchen and you lazily walk back to your computer to hit the enter button.
Now people have been used to socially distancing in Wow for quite many years now, not just since BFA. Wotlk introduced the LFG as we know it today, granted TBC had LFG but it was rather limited you still had to have a conversation with the people in LFG in order to see if they were up for it and knew what to do and so on. TBC didnāt have a LFG system where you just queue up and get a random select of people to face-roll content with. So thatās why Iām not including TBC as a start of the cause. Wotlk however, did introduce a full fledged auto-select LFG system and the social interactions went all down hill from there. Wotlk was just the beginning but Iād say Cataclysm was the real cause for expanding on the feature by adding LFR and popularizing the less social route for every expansion that followed getting even worse with each new installment. Now why am I making a huge deal out of this?
Well like I said classic is more sandbox mmorpg than todayās themepark mmo BFA. But the Wow: Classic community are playing classic with the themepark attitude and mindset. Disregarding a large breathing social community to focus on their own character progression. People hardly run any level 16-48 dungeons them selves and simply buy boosts. Boosts are now a mechanic to extort lazy players by having them pay for exp without getting any of the loot. Where as boosting in classic was more a means to support and help one another, I remember boosting people for free because they were struggling with the transition from Duskwood to Stranglethorn. Running them through a dungeon in the same level bracket allowed them to level-up get some gear to empower their character so they stood a better chance of venturing forward. Not to make easy gold and empty other players their pockets. And without a community creating these social community events or let alone just socially interacting at all. The more primitive versions of the game wonāt be entertaining. Sure, the first few hours are amazing, sure the first dungeon is lovely, sure the first raid is awesome but than what? You canāt be bothered to organize a social event, you canāt be bothered to talk to strangers, you didnāt befriend people during your journey to 60 because you were too busy focusing on your own character, you only invited people to your group when they were killing the same mobs for your slay quest and as soon as you finished it you removed them without even saying gg thx! Youāre now stranded in a mmo with limited content for solo players, as a solo player. Now youāre bored and I donāt feel like only logging back in for the raids you already cleared 20 times or the same 3 battlegrounds for honor points knowing you no longer have enough time to farm top rank.
Conclusion: Only after the nostalgia runs out, youāll realize that the retail wow mentality has manifested within the community too deep to a point of no return. That these legacy games canāt live up to, resulting in many people abandoning the game after just a couple of months, 10 of my Vanilla friends came back to wow to play the game they once loved. Guess how many are left and still playing? just 1 and no itās not me, and heās only logging in once or twice a week for raids nothing more.
So you think you want it, but you donāt.
Is a statement I come to agree on after experiencing how the community has changed and no longer works with the more primitive versions of the games.
The re-release of classic as a game is fine, dare I even say great? Activision Blizzard did their best to recreate the experience as they could based on old and forgotten data. And for the many, many and I repeat maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaany bad things theyāve done in the past recent years, they finally released something with respect to the source material and consumers, Activsion Blizzardā¦ well done.
So why am I posting this now nearly year after classic release?
Well you all might have heard the rumors over a TBC legacy release.
Not gonna lieā¦ even Iām hyped for TBC, TBC was and always will be my favorite experience in the world of Warcraft universe and Iād pretty much would love to relive that part of my memory again. But knowing how classic back-lashed Iām too affraid of even touching it, Classic has ruined any hopes I had of reliving nostalgia, and I fear the community will just bring the retail mentality to legacy, ruining yet another ācould have been greatā experiences I had hoped for.
So Iām actually on the same boat with J. Allen Brack all those years ago,
I think I want it, but I donāt.
Iād rather have the fond memories intact than seeing the retail community butcher my nostalgia. So if TBC legacy really comes out, Iām staying far far faaaar away from it. And it will come out, Activision Blizzard loves money and minimal effort, running a legacy server costs little to no expenses and people are willing to pay 12,99 just to play legacy classic. So they will release it eventually, itās now being rumored and hinted over in customer surveys sent to players via mail because thereās and obvious decline in the classic player base, probably for reasons I just covered. With that said, Iām out.
Do whatever you want to do with this POV.
PS: Iām sure some oneās going to comment: āIām always having fun with my friends or my guild, youāre just being stupid!ā
Ah yes, Iām sure youāre welcoming every new player in to your select group of friends, Iām sure youāre willing to listen and interact with all new players.
The problem here is you entered the game with a select few of players you probably previously met and know. And youāre now focussing on the game with them which is great, this is also happening in BFA, guilds with a core disregarding any new member literally ignoring any messages in the guild chat, cus screw new people.
But Iām not judging Iām just shining in some reality there, just because you have a different experience doesnāt mean the majority does too.