48 replies to this topic

[Thain Esh Kelch]

the Battle Cat, on 12 January 2018 - 11:34 AM, said:

You know, I've never played WoW.  I keep hearing stories like you guys are telling, basically that you tend to regret spending so much time on it even though you were very engaged at the time you did.  Over the years, even from the beginning, people have fired warning shots across my bow and I've taken heed.  I have too much of a problem with addictive playing not to.

You missed out on something, and I do recommend you try it when they relaunch vanilla. I never reached the end game, but took my time exploring and having fun, and I still remember it as one of the best gaming experiences I've had. Mind you, this is based on vanilla and the first two expansions. I tried again with one of the recent expansions, after they made it kiddy-friendly, where you gain a level every time you look at an enemy and more or less the only stat you have is your gender, and that wasn't very interesting. So I am definitely looking forward to WOW Classic.

[the Battle Cat]

Right now I'm playing Fallout 4 every spare minute of my time, including minutes I don't have to spare, so my game addiction is being well fed at the moment.  But I will take your advice if I ever start Wow and play the vanilla version you are recommending.  Thanks for the tip.

[Spike]

Forbes had an interview with Blizzard on WoW Classic:
https://www.forbes.c...raft-interview/

Still looks like its going to be awhile, dang it.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Man I hate Forbes' website, it is soooo slow and chunky. That being said, at this point I don't believe Blizzard knows what they are doing and that they have no clear plan on how to execute this.

[macdude22]

Like I want to take them at face value about the complexity blah blah its like removing the oregano from spaghetti sauce. I do a little development at work, at a certain point you archive *cough lose* old versions etc... but Nostalrius was managing just fine until the C&D so idk I guess hire those folks to fire up a couple blades and be done with it.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

My perfect scenario is one where they use the modern engine, modern graphical assets, but change all the game mechanics and GUIs to the way they were at the end of WotLK.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

WOW Classic will run on a Frankenstein version of 1.12. So it will be the vanilla experience without any expansions, but with modern server and backend technology.

Quote

Blizzard said it chose patch 1.12 “because it represents the most complete version of the classic experience.”

Quote

So we asked ourselves, would it still be possible to deliver an authentic classic experience if we took our modern code, with all its back-end improvements and changes, and used it to process the Patch 1.12 game data?

While that might seem counterintuitive, this would inherently include classic systems like skill ranks, old quests and terrain, talents, and so on, while later features like Transmog and Achievements would effectively not exist because they were entirely absent from the data. After weeks of R&D, experimentation, and prototyping, we were confident we could deliver the classic WoW content and gameplay without sacrificing the literally millions of hours put in to back-end development over the past 13 years.

I can live with that. Looking forward to re-experiencing WOW! Some more technical stuff in the link above, if you care about stuff like that.

No release date yet, but we will like hear something around BlizzCon in November I assume.

[Spike]

Blizzard announced WoW Classic Demo at BlizzCon.

Quote

Bring Home the BlizzCon® WoW® Classic Demo With the Virtual Ticket

The BlizzCon 2018 Virtual Ticket is now available for purchase and if you’re a World of Warcraft fan you won’t want to miss a moment of the event—or the WoW extras that come with it, including epic in-game goodies and access to the Blizzcon WoW Classic demo at home!

WORLD OF WARCRAFT® CLASSIC BLIZZCON® DEMO

Every BlizzCon, we look for opportunities to bring new aspects of the experience to our community around the world. This year, we’re excited to announce that for the first time ever, BlizzCon Virtual Ticket holders will join BlizzCon attendees as the first people to play the World of Warcraft Classic demo we’re creating for BlizzCon at home.

Shortly after the BlizzCon opening ceremony on November 2 (on or around 1pm PDT), players will be able to download the same in-development BlizzCon WoW Classic Demo that will be playable on the show floor. Players will have a chance to explore and enjoy a limited questing experience through a pair of classic early-level zones—one Horde and one Alliance—and experience firsthand our recreation of the original Azeroth.

Once the demo is live, you’ll be able to play until 10am PST on November 8, giving BlizzCon attendees a chance to check it out again once they get back home

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Uh, we are getting closer to a release in that case!

It is going to be interesting to hear feedback both from people that played Vanilla, but also from people who didn't join until after Cataclysm.