Given the massive (seemingly) unexpected success of WoW Classic it got me thinking today.
If interest/popularity grows enough, I could see the devs being motivated to go through phases faster to approach a classic+ scenario if they see that as a path to more revenue. Especially since there's lots of sections on the vanilla map that simply don't have zones tied to them yet.
Thoughts?
In my book, Classic+ is not really a thing, its more a community concept that has a bit of traction with the non-puritan segments of the Classic community, just like TBC/Wrath continuations are popular with other segments, and cycles of classic are popular with others.
The way i see it, is that Blizzard (Activision) will milk this as much as possible, while attempting to limit its impact on retail popularity. I would imagine a conservative schedule, that sees Retail content releases during Classic down periods, and Phase inclusions during slower parts of Retail. This has potential to bounce people between Classic and Retail, and would be a good way to retain revenue.
I think, at least for the coming year or so, that Classic will unfold at a relatively stable and conservative pace - without ruling out what happens next; be it Classic+, TBC or a restart.
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Great points. I do foresee blizzard trying to push people back and forth between editions with content releases. The question is - is that realistic?Xcellers wrote: ↑4 years agoThe way i see it, is that Blizzard (Activision) will milk this as much as possible, while attempting to limit its impact on retail popularity. I would imagine a conservative schedule, that sees Retail content releases during Classic down periods, and Phase inclusions during slower parts of Retail. This has potential to bounce people between Classic and Retail, and would be a good way to retain revenue.
I think, at least for the coming year or so, that Classic will unfold at a relatively stable and conservative pace - without ruling out what happens next; be it Classic+, TBC or a restart.
The few friends of mine that are still exclusively active retail players don't see classic as something that will succeed "long term" - I continually hear from them that classic is a fad that will die, and that "then everyone will move to retail." This is obviously insane: I think the vast majority of people still playing classic are not interested in switching over. I also think that any supposed "Quality-of-life" improvements (including any classic+ content) from retail will be extremely controversial and possibly not worth the trouble to implement in classic from Blizzard's perspective.
Making Classic revamps is like printing money. Low effort, high reward. We will likely see Classic TBC. We probably wont see Classic+ content. There is a possibility that we could see both. If I were a betting man, I would bet that TBC gets re-released. Why? Because businesses like money and Blizzard is a business. There is very little overhead to rereleasing content. The Classic team was small, the financial yield was very large. The TBC team would likely be smaller because they have already solved many of the issues that releasing TBC would present, yet the financial yield from releasing TBC would be relatively high.
We will see TBC because TBC would generate a lot of revenue and requires very little effort in contrast to building new content.
But... there is always a possibility that a massive organization uses their heart to make decisions and tries to create some frankenpatch version of vanilla taking all of the best aspects of each game and patchworking them together to make a super fan project because they dont care about money and they just want to make a reaaaaally cooOOooOoolll game...... .................... /s
2000 IQg0bledyg00k wrote: ↑4 years agoNever making a single investment again until I 100% know it pays off.
That's indeed insane, and quite delusional.Frosted wrote: ↑4 years agoThe few friends of mine that are still exclusively active retail players don't see classic as something that will succeed "long term" - I continually hear from them that classic is a fad that will die, and that "then everyone will move to retail." This is obviously insane: I think the vast majority of people still playing classic are not interested in switching over.
I don't see that happening. They will most assuredly progress through the phases gradually (as they declared they would) and then maybe release TBC servers 2+ years down the road.pan0phobik wrote: ↑4 years agoIf interest/popularity grows enough, I could see the devs being motivated to go through phases faster to approach a classic+ scenario if they see that as a path to more revenue.
Most players right now just want to play Classic, they aren't thinking about what the future brings. I doubt anyone at Blizzard is seriously discussing Classic+ at this point in time, so I don't see how this "motivation" to blow through the phases is even within the realm of possibility.
I just wanna play the game, and right now I don't care about what will happen in 3 years.
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I'm not confident because Blizzard is a shit and doesn't understand what people liked about Classic in the first place.
Edit: The title of this thread vs. the actual original post feels very misleading, so below I have an answer to the question of the title of the thread. All I'll say is that most of the Classic+ or otherwise chatter on this site has been pretty much canned just because there's hundreds of pages of speculation already here and on Reddit about it and more speculation doesn't get much done. I'm down for Classic+ or BC, whatever. But speculating when it won't happen for 2+ years seems silly.
I think Phase Scheduling will hold just fine. I think that with every content release you'll have people kicking down the door super fast and clearing whatever raid in a day or two. But that's always been the case. I think the 2.5-3.5 months between phases definitely makes sense, though I'd expect a pretty quick implementation of Phase 4 after Phase 3, b/c the time between the release of BWL and ZG was only 2 months. And casual players won't be in BWL but they will be in ZG and will probably need more content by that time.
What schedule? Did blizzard even publish a date for phase 2 yet? Did I miss something?
i am as confused as you are. No, nothing has been announced.
The only way i see them releasing phases at a faster pace would be if subs started dropping.
Even so there is no calendar yet. We’re barely a month in and i imagine phase 2 won’t be around too soon.
And after that yes, probably classic TBC. Which i have mixed feelings about.
If anything the decision of developing Classic+ would make Blizzard slow down on the phases release schedule, as they would need time to assess the topic and actually develop the content. If they were to actually develop Classic+ they surely wouldnt want a prolonged gap between phase 6 and Classic+.
All that being said, stfuppercut allready explained why Classic+ is unlikely and "TBC Classic" is to be expected.
Regarding the release schedule in general: Blizzard stated their intention of recreating the original schedule. Its reasonably to assume this includes not only the release order but time frames as well. Looking at the original time frames, we would expect the phases to last roughly 4 months, give or take 1 month. Not following that would suggest that Blizzard prioritizes other factors - for example keeping layering around longer than initially expected, without breaking their promise to remove it before phase 2 drops.
It's been ballparked at around 2-4 months per phase, though the amount of content per phase and the calls for more content from the playerbase could push them out quicker. But I'd reread the original post, because you, and I as well, initally responded to the title, but the content of the post seems quite different.
Man, classic+ is THE REAL you think you do, but you don't. Do you guys really trust Blizzard not to fuck classic+ up? Because thats how you get the cash shop in classic wow.
Just let us play the game as it has been when Blizz was actually worth their salt.
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That's literally not possible because it's a self-contradictory and nonsensical phrase. "Classic TBC" makes exactly as much sense as "Cataclysm Legion".
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/facepalmBlack Monarch wrote: ↑4 years agoThat's literally not possible because it's a self-contradictory and nonsensical phrase. "Classic TBC" makes exactly as much sense as "Cataclysm Legion".
I don't think you understand the term Classic and how it relates to World of Warcraft.
Using Classic in front of TBC or Wrath is acceptable.
We are going back to the past to relive a particular time in World of Warcraft history.
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You're being pedantic.Black Monarch wrote: ↑4 years agoThat's literally not possible because it's a self-contradictory and nonsensical phrase. "Classic TBC" makes exactly as much sense as "Cataclysm Legion".
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To the surprise of no one.Pippina wrote: ↑4 years agoYou're being pedantic.Black Monarch wrote: ↑4 years agoThat's literally not possible because it's a self-contradictory and nonsensical phrase. "Classic TBC" makes exactly as much sense as "Cataclysm Legion".
I'm sure there will be changes. I'm REALLY hoping long-term that we will see a kind of alternate history development, where the core gameplay stays consistent, we just get new content, story, and raids.
I see separate burning crusade servers as the best option
Classic+ would be very divisive, even among classic + fans, because they all have their own thoughts on what should be included.
The moment something like transmog or balance changes happen (or dont happen) youll have unhappy people one way or another.
Classic + would also be much more expensive than burning crusade servers.
My 2 cents
My thoughts after Classic World of Warcraft, if they do anything after this, would be them launching/re-releasing Classic World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. It makes sense and allows us to continue our journey to the next expansion. It easier on blizzard, what's in and what's out is clear, the story, the adventure....so forth is already laid out for us and will have alot of content to go through versus creating small Classic+ content...I don't see them putting much effort into creating new content for Classic WoW when they are already doing this in current/retail WoW.
Plus, Classic World of Warcraft was just to bring back what was once missed, so following that logic it only make sense to bring back TBC since there is an audience for it, myself included! Classic TBC should be just as huge as Classic is doing right now, my opinion of course.
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I created the thread under the presumption that the phases will take at least 2ish years to go all the way through until we're at the point of clearing Naxx, etc. I know there aren't hard dates set but that seemed to be what I took away from the phase explanations. I guess I can see how it was interpreted otherwise. My worry was about them just simply rushing through classic faster than intended due to all of its popularity and their eagerness to capitalize on it.
I hope they don't rush it either!pan0phobik wrote: ↑4 years agoI created the thread under the presumption that the phases will take at least 2ish years to go all the way through until we're at the point of clearing Naxx, etc. I know there aren't hard dates set but that seemed to be what I took away from the phase explanations. I guess I can see how it was interpreted otherwise. My worry was about them just simply rushing through classic faster than intended due to all of its popularity and their eagerness to capitalize on it.
If you remember, after Naxx was released, TBC wasn't far behind it, which made Naxx irrelevant when your leveling to 70.
They should, whether they do it or not, take it slow with the phases, but not too slow.
They just need to have a good gap between releasing Phase 6, the last phase i think, and what they plan on doing next, if there is a next...so the slower people can catch up and experience it...it should be better now since we know the strats unlike when it was released people had to figure out what to do and make sure they have great gear to complete it
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I absolutely do. Classic = vanilla = 1.x
This has been the case since at least 2009.
Hahaha no.
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On the Blizzard WoW site, it says this:
It seems like they refer it to the past, what it once was...what it used to be...not retail...TBC is also Azeroth As It Was (during the burning crusade time)....Blizzard Entertainment
WHAT IS WOW® CLASSIC?
Azeroth As It Was
TBC is a Classic in Blizzards timeline...
Do you think there is a possibility of WoW TBC the 2nd Coming, WoW TBC 2.0, or maybe they will call it WoW Classic: TBC (expansion)...?
Still a Classic...so like the posts before its acceptable for us to use Classic TBC as a term if/when they re-release World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Expansion.
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