Official word on classic servers for WoW
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 21st 2008 at 8:01PM
We've hit on the topic of "classic" servers before, and there are even players already carrying the idea out in game. Not everybody thinks Burning Crusade is the greatest thing since Molten Core, and so there are still quite a few players who wish they could play on servers that didn't go past level 60, where Naxx and AQ were still the main endgame, Bloodfang was the hotness, and Atiesh was more than just a few splinters taped together.But while people have asked for classic servers before, Drysc repeats what some of them might not already know: that though Blizzard has "seriously" considered the idea before, they eventually determined that it would be too much to run two majorly different versions of the game at a time.
It's worth stating that you can definitely still run vanilla WoW without installing Burning Crusade at all, but even if you do that, you'll still see Blood Elves and Jewelcrafters running around, and people in the battlegrounds at level 60 will probably trounce you with all of their shiny Outland gear. It might be nice to experience the old endgame the way its meant to be experienced, but at least until WoW's population slows down and Blizzard determines they have the resources to do so, you can't go back to Old Azeroth again.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Expansions, The Burning Crusade, Lore
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Matthew Feb 21st 2008 8:25PM
God, just go play SNES if you really want to live in the past. That's what most people do.
niko Feb 21st 2008 8:56PM
LOL, nicely put.
I do love old school as much as the next guy, but there's nothing wrong with BC (and soon to be Wrath). It's change, people, just buck up and keep up with the pace. :)
Alchemistmerlin Feb 21st 2008 9:23PM
Eh, I believe most people's complaint is that the old world content is, largely, ignored in the face of all the shiny new stuff in Outland. It was hard enough getting 40 people together to raid BEFORE BC, now it's damned near impossible. And yes, you CAN do it with 15 people now, but that feels cheap and inauthentic. Yes, there was that guild that showed up in a recent WoWinsider article, but they're a rarity at best.
I don't agree with the idea of "classic" servers, but I can understand why people would want it.
jrb Feb 22nd 2008 4:29AM
it's easy to see why blizz have slammed the door shut on that the idea of classic servers; there's no money to be made from it. With no new content are people really going to be continually paying for the same content month after month after month?
the obvious answer is a flat no. However, my own personal experience is that i started playing wow in public beta, and signed up from release where i slowly lvl'd a lock to 60 on a pvp realm, and did some lower lvl end-game instances, along with working towards my epic mount. Then more friends joined and i re-rolled a pve hunter. I gave up the game before AQ and BC went live, and have missed out on all that content.
has the excitement of AQ and BC bought me back to the game? no way. I love the old nordic style lore, and long for that 1-60 content, and i'm so far loving it. The stylings of BC. I've taken my hunter in to outland, and whilst i admit the gear there rocks, the stylings and looks of it do not, and to be honest i've returned my 61 hunter the old world areas that i've not touched yet, which should see me through to 65.
However WotLK hopes to address that and return to the stylings and looks that i like.
In terms of classic, i think just capping the lvl again on classic realms to 60, and closing the portal would be enough. that still opens a lot of cool gear through pvp, but not through crafting, raids or AH. it's really not that much work for blizzard to implement at all; as i said, they're just scared of people not willing to pay for stale content. :-)
Stoneblade Feb 21st 2008 9:33PM
Meh... I think Heroic versions of the Vanilla WoW Instances would serve more purpose and be more useful in regard to bringing people back to the old world than a Classic server would.
But that's just me... /shrug
jtrain Feb 21st 2008 11:10PM
/agree
Starayo Feb 22nd 2008 12:43AM
Give me my heroic deadmines!
Jamie Feb 22nd 2008 4:06AM
I'm astonished they haven't done heroic versions of at least the end game dungeons and raids, obviously it would be a bit of work to do the whole lot, but it has masses of potential. I thought it would be inevitable.
Sean Riley Feb 21st 2008 10:26PM
I admit, I'd kind of like a 'legacy' server, but I wouldn't want it at pre-BC WoW. I'd want it at LAUNCH WoW, just to see how far we've come.
fLUx Feb 21st 2008 10:43PM
I think heroic or even nerfed old world content would be good, for 70s to do! ;)
I have never done any end game 60 content, and proberly never will, but I would love to run a nerfed old world raid with just 5 or 10 other level 70s, and buffed old world 5 mans.
Doesnt seem like much work to me, Blizzard would litrally be creating double the amount of content for 70s with little work, plus it would give people a reason to go back to azeroth.
Avery Feb 21st 2008 10:45PM
LOL! Speaking of Classic, that guy is from KelThuzad the very first pvp realm :D And that guild has probably been around since launch too.
Milktub Feb 21st 2008 10:51PM
Hmmm ... I'm trying to think about this.
If a "Classic" WoW server were launched, what patch changes would be included in classes?
More so, how about class changes brought about either by the shaman/paladin introduction to alliance/horde?
If you only have a vanilla WoW account, how does that affect you? I never really thought about this, assuming that if you own WoW, you own the xpac, and when the next xpac comes, you'll buy that ... etc.
But I support the idea of Classic WoW, the Server. My main was Naxx attuned a month before TBC launched, so even if I was "Naxx Ready" gear wise, there's no way any guild was running Naxx any more in preparation for the xpac. And sure, you can have a classic guild, but how do you deal with leveling up? It's not really classic WOW if you're level 66 from mob kill XP by the time you finally enter Naxx, now is it?
Jones Feb 21st 2008 11:27PM
I like this idea, I really love the classic 40 mans, I just don't find raiding as fun as it was back in the day. Downing Rag and Nef actually felt pretty epic, but downing Prince and Gruul was like "Neat. Wanna try SSC now?". Vent literally exploded when when killed Rag for the first time, not so much when Prince died. What I would do if I did this is the current class changes but don't include any of the new spells past 60 and keep the talents like it was in the last patch right before BC launched. I would be down Draenai/Human Shaman and Blood Elf/Horde Pally in it, would make it more interesting, plus remember the last patch before BC? Alliance were getting Shaman loot and Horde was getting Pally loot before each faction even had those classes. I would def. roll a char on a classic WoW server or they could just make a "heroic" version of all the old instances for lvl 70s, could also update all the old raids with new loot and make them all 25 man instead of letting all that old content sit and do nothing important
JR Feb 22nd 2008 7:08AM
"Downing Rag and Nef actually felt pretty epic, but downing Prince and Gruul was like "Neat. Wanna try SSC now?"."
But does it feel that way because the new raids are not as good, or did the old battles feel epic simply because it was your first time raiding? I started playing WoW after BC came out, and my toon isn't fit to raid yet. So probably Prince will feel epic to me the first time.
JR Feb 22nd 2008 7:09AM
"Downing Rag and Nef actually felt pretty epic, but downing Prince and Gruul was like "Neat. Wanna try SSC now?"."
But does it feel that way because the new raids are not as good, or did the old battles feel epic simply because it was your first time raiding? I started playing WoW after BC came out, and my toon isn't fit to raid yet. So probably Prince will feel epic to me the first time.
Gimmlette Feb 22nd 2008 12:18AM
Alchemistmerlin, that's my guild which was featured, Spectacular Death. We're not what's called "vanilla WOW" because I'm 70, as are 3 others in the guild, and we don't want to go back to being 60's.
I've encountered many people who look off into the distance and say, "Back when I was a level 56, before patch 1.5...." and we listen politely and decide that we are better off with a dead zone at 3 feet so we can shoot mobs in stairwells.
I would wonder, what's considered "Classic WOW"? Have a server that's just the way the game came out or do you add some but not all of the patches? It could be argued both ways.
Since the article ran this past Tuesday, I've heard from many people who like the idea of running the old raids even though the loot isn't anything someone 62+ is going to use. There are a lot more people than I expected who are interested in revisiting the "vanilla WOW", not for loot but for the experience of doing it.
I think a "Classic" server would have a large target audience. Many people talk to me about the lack of lore in BC endgame content. Lore appeals to a lot of people, not everyone, but a lot. My officers and I are very excited at the positive response to what we're doing. What it says to me is that the game is big enough to hold people who only want "classic" content as well as the hardcore PVP raiders fully purpled out, BT conquered and bored and looking to WOTLK.
Hould Feb 22nd 2008 1:24AM
Having gone up to 66 so far without doing a single instane beyond Dead Mines I'd still go back and do every old world instance just to see what they look like. Who cares about the gear. It'd be nice if things were set up so that they could be done with a smaller group.
RichM Feb 22nd 2008 1:33AM
You can actually find players who are not playing the expansion.
Go into AV at the 51-60 bracket and you'll find undead rogues in full Tier 2 like in the pic above.
Also there are many level 60 paladins and warriors wearing the full rank 14 sets with crusader on their weapon.
Savant Feb 22nd 2008 2:17AM
One of the things that I would love to see would be a way to have new players see the game from the ground up, including the older content. What I think would work would be for them to make the BC content something that the server unlocks, like the gates of AQ. It could be something tied to clearing a boss or bosses in Naxx or something. That in turn would trigger a 'scourge invasion', which would last for a while until the server killed off enough to satisfy the requirements to open the gates to outland.
If this was done for new servers, I think they would be able to extend the usable content time by a great deal.
JR Feb 22nd 2008 7:08AM
Blizzard wants people to buy new expansions as soon as possible. They wouldn't delay it like that.