Jasker
something
Did you start the HC guild yet?
Yes, I've dung'ed grand Marshall there and already deleted my Thunderfury in favor of Hungering Cold and Gressil
Did you start the HC guild yet?
What was the new news?HC Elite is still around. That’s who I’m with. Some new news coming tomorrow… Stay tuned.
must be something about WoW sub numbers. They just dropped a new pet/mount pack in exchange for a 12 month sub, with mounts for WoW Classic. Retail of course is dead as shit, Dragonflight has been 50%/free since that shit launched it has never not been on sale and still can't move boxes.What was the new news?
While subs are still probably good in comparison to other games... Blizzfucks needs a fresh new game with new (non shit) ideasmust be something about WoW sub numbers. They just dropped a new pet/mount pack in exchange for a 12 month sub, with mounts for WoW Classic. Retail of course is dead as shit, Dragonflight has been 50%/free since that shit launched it has never not been on sale and still can't move boxes.
The new annual WoW subscription is being advertised as:
Includes access to WoTLK Classic!
Vanilla Classic!
Hardcore Classic!
and retail wow....
For the last however many months I’ve been playing with HC Elite. First on Bloodsail Buccaneers on unofficial HC, and now on official.What was the new news?
wow this is really exciting news thank you for the inside scoopFor the last however many months I’ve been playing with HC Elite. First on Bloodsail Buccaneers on unofficial HC, and now on official.
I’ve been in their main raid team pushing Naxx/AQ40. We’ve done all of MC, BWL, AQ40, and 10/15 Naxx. We have about 400 people who raid in some capacity, mostly ZG/AQ20.
On Monday, we took about half the main raid team and about 100 others to create a new guild called Purpose, focused on progression. Some juicy drama there but I’ll spare you.
Unless you are pushing progression you probably wouldn’t care, but it has been a big and exciting move for us. Discord.gg/purpose if you’re curious.
They would also need to break from their design strategy a lot. The expansion of Classic+ needs to not invalidate everything that came before it.Creating a completely new expansion for wow classic would be an good business move imo - two separate timeline from the same game, even the Sims didn't do it.
wishful thinking though, no way they would create anything
I don't think that's necessarily true, I think it's more a pacing thing but it is an intractable problem with legacy WoW design cycles. It is some combination of raid tier/seasonal resets plus expansion hard resets plus uninspired boring loot design that only has microscopic +gooder.They would also need to break from their design strategy a lot. The expansion of Classic+ needs to not invalidate everything that came before it.
Arguably the even bigger problem is that all of Blizzard expansions turns the previous locations into deadzones. So your massive world of a game becomes just the dozen zones of the expansion. This is even worse than the gear resets.I don't think that's necessarily true, I think it's more a pacing thing but it is an intractable problem with legacy WoW design cycles. It is some combination of raid tier/seasonal resets plus expansion hard resets plus uninspired boring loot design that only has microscopic +gooder.
They could alter that for classic plus, but it would be risky and as everyone says Blizzard simply is not into risk taking anymore.
My ideal classic plus would be something along the lines of hardcore + Halls of Torment meta systems (acct gear unlock, xp bonus from quests) + continual content updates but no "expansions" to not outright invalidate any content.
Post the damn juiceOn Monday, we took about half the main raid team and about 100 others to create a new guild called Purpose, focused on progression. Some juicy drama there but I’ll spare you.
Sounds like the "Maw" and I fucking hated that place and I was one of the first people in the guild with a mount to traverse the fucking place. Palum hit the nail on the head - its too much of a risk for Blizzard. They inherently have no idea what works and what doesnt work in a "Classic+" kind of world. It takes them years to mull over a decision within Classic that would be a fundamental change. We've seen it with the "mythic+" reversions of the old dungeons in classic and from what I heard, they turned out to be a good addition in how they work. But then you have the complete opposite side in the decision making process - if it makes the company money, fuck what the players say, its going in.Make it Emerald Dream based - character (or account) can only spend so much time in ED before they're corrupted. This means you can only spend 3-4 hours/day in ED and need to access the original classic zones to "reset" or do anything outside of ED during the off time. Would force people to continue doing the overworld content while staying within the first expansion.
Edit: maybe bosses from old world dungeons give "tethers" to the real world that allow you an hour a day extra in the ED.
There is one thing I do find funny after reading that WOW dev diary. The original team did not give a shit about story really and they all understood that the MMORPG genre and games in general were not the medium to give the players a compelling story. Quest chains and whatnot were all first draft final draft as they only focused on the experience.Sounds like the "Maw" and I fucking hated that place and I was one of the first people in the guild with a mount to traverse the fucking place. Palum hit the nail on the head - its too much of a risk for Blizzard. They inherently have no idea what works and what doesnt work in a "Classic+" kind of world. It takes them years to mull over a decision within Classic that would be a fundamental change. We've seen it with the "mythic+" reversions of the old dungeons in classic and from what I heard, they turned out to be a good addition in how they work. But then you have the complete opposite side in the decision making process - if it makes the company money, fuck what the players say, its going in.
I'll be extremely impressed if we indeed got an expansion for Classic - but there is no way in hell that the average age of their team being something like 23, will be able to nail the classic experience within it.
That's a game design problem, no expansion / patch or such will change this. You can force the player to go back in old zone, but it will not be fun.Arguably the even bigger problem is that all of Blizzard expansions turns the previous locations into deadzones. So your massive world of a game becomes just the dozen zones of the expansion. This is even worse than the gear resets.
You know I get a lot of people would love a Classic+ expansion and shit, but the issue isn't adding on to classic. The issue would be the team doing it, nobody at this fucking company plays games or even know how they work.