If Blizzard release "classic" WoW realms...

[ViperXX]

Yes I would play it. All these nay sayer's can suck it. WoW at the beginning was the best. I started playing about 6 months after launch.

I was blown away by the game. I had never experienced a game so rich with life and exploration.

* Real world PvP was very active (southshore/Tarren Mill) I was amazed at the amount of corpses there after a battle.
* Alterac Valley battles lasted days
* Kite-able world bosses into towns to wreck havoc (until the little bitches complained)
* Twinks in BGs (until the little bitches complained)


WoW players now days are spoiled, everything handed to them on a silver platter. You had to earn what you received in Vanilla. I would sign up in a heart beat.

BTW I still play. I'm hoping... now that Blizzard bought their company back things will change for the better.

 

[Via]

I voted yes, but just letting you know this would never happen. Period. They've changed way too much since vanilla for this to even be close to feasible without a large hefty rebuild of the game (which would cost some $$$$$).

You don't think they still have the install discs lying around somewhere?

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

You don't think they still have the install discs lying around somewhere?

Yea, I find it hard to believe they don't have some sort of version control/configuration management software in place.

 

[cronos]

No.

I had fun back then. I wouldn't now.

 

[FallenHero]

No. I had my days of fun and met some pretty cool people that I still talk to today. TONS of laughs while in raid and just running around being one of the few fully epiced out characters on my server at the time destroying everything. But screw that noise...5 hour MC runs? Vaelastrasz The Guild Killer? No thanks. Not again.

The community was different back then. The servers were much more closely knit and reputation meant everything. Now that doesn't exist, which sucks. But the game was a grindfest in that state and could not survive keeping it that way.

 

[natto fire]

Will never get sucked into an MMO ever again now that I have such a huge amount of games I never played. Have never, and will never, do the math but I am pretty sure the $120 I spent on WoW was not a good deal compared to the last $120 I put into steam ,which has netted me very unique content I have yet to explore.

The deal is very soured when you realize most game "communities" are more concerned with showering you with racial epithets and cutting you down for your join date rather than giving you a helping hand. Hopefully game developers realize most online gamers are dicks and start to work in some decent single player story, but I am not holding my breath as it is much easier to use a "community" of jerks than develop an actual game.

I have met a few people online too, but let's face it, they are an exception rather than the rule.

 

[Dannar26]

They could, in theory, make "classic" servers. But despite their talents at putting out polished games, I'm pretty sure Bizzard can't allow us to travel through time to when the community mattered.

In short, they could make a quick money grab on nostalgia, and then everybody realizes they don't want 5 hour raids or weeks being glued to their computers without bathing in persuit of HWL/GM.

Hmmm, a cheap short term money grab (and I'm not referring to D3)? ::Blizzard impliments tomorrow::

 

[JoetheLion]

Vanilla was fun, hard with a really long and demanding 5-man instances (all those wipes in Blackrock Depths), but it was really slowpaced and the rate drop of some q items were really horrible. Not to mention other little things that just prevented the player from playing both enjoyably and effectively etc... (too much waiting, too much slow traveling without fast flying mounts or summoning stones). But I really would like to have back the old talent system. This new one is a complete joke..

 

[Genx87]

Nostalgia makes us believe these games were more fun than they really were at the time. I loved the original Ultima Online. But I tried one of those "free" servers with the old ruleset and getting ganked mining wasnt as much fun as remembered. This wouldnt be as much fun neither. WoW had its time. It is on the decline and grew stale a couple expansions ago.

 

[diesbudt]

Plus the point is moot. The code for Vanilla WoW is gone. They didn't save a copy of it. They just kept editing it to what it is now.

So they would have to build it back from scratch. Won't happen.

 

[darkewaffle]

I highly doubt Blizzard does any of their work without a seriously robust SVN system of some sort in place. The old code likely isn't in the 'repository' currently, but I'd be surprised if it isn't in cold storage somewhere.

 

[diesbudt]

I highly doubt Blizzard does any of their work without a seriously robust SVN system of some sort in place. The old code likely isn't in the 'repository' currently, but I'd be surprised if it isn't in cold storage somewhere.

They have said plenty of times in interviews, they thought about looking into an old world server. However they said 3 things stopped them.

1) They know its just nostgalia, and after a few weeks the server will be dead. because people remembered it way different than it actually was
2) It would never be updated, so its static and would eventually die off as no one would play it too long.
3) They do not copy the code. This game is ment to go forward, and thus it was edited on with BC, than Wotlk. No going back, they do not have the code, the same people to build it from scratch, and wouldn't be worth the funds to impress 2% of the population for only a few weeks.

(This was stated during wotlk, hence why they didn't say cata and MoP also)

They have CURRENT server backups, if something was to happen. But when they update the game, they also copy that over to the server backups. They have stated over and over again they literally cannot remake old WoW, even if #1 and #2 were not an issue.

 

[Aikouka]

all those wipes in Blackrock Depths

Better yet... "ALRIGHT! Who the hell talked to Windsor!?" :biggrin:

But I really would like to have back the old talent system. This new one is a complete joke..

While I don't play anymore, I did play during the new talent introduction. Frankly, I think it's a fantastic idea. Maybe they're doing a bit of a disservice in calling them "talents", but I think their reasoning is fairly sound. Pretty much ever since TBC, people were either provided builds (that someone got from EJ) or they got them from EJ.The "talents" are grouped based on providing the same sort of utility, and arguably, certain talents are better than others for certain encounters. For example, on my Rogue, I was always super jealous of the Feral Druid for getting to pounce back in after having to run out. That was lost DPS time for me! With the new talents, I got Shadowstep, which was previously unavailable to me, and I could do the same. Albeit, he could do it far more often.

5 hour MC runs?

Who doesn't love 45 minute trash respawn timers? (I think that's right.) Also, said trash is necessary for crafting epic fire resistance gear needed for the final boss, but if you kill a specific optional boss (Magmadar for Core Hounds, Garr for Lava Surgers) to try to get loot, they'll never respawn.

Vaelastrasz The Guild Killer?

Honestly, we never really found him to be that hard, and we did it prior to the release of KTHM. The only class that could consistently pull aggro was the Rogue, and that's one of the classes with a full threat dump. So, what did we do? We had all Rogues vanish right when the first tank got Burning Adrenaline. Easy mode.

Oh, and being an Assassination Rogue on that fight was awesome.

The community was different back then. The servers were much more closely knit and reputation meant everything. Now that doesn't exist, which sucks. But the game was a grindfest in that state and could not survive keeping it that way.

I think that's the biggest difference. I used to play on Lightning's Blade, and we had a great community. There was a ton of activity on our realm forum, and we had an IRC chat room setup that was filled with Horde and Alliance alike! I don't know if that was stymied by Blizzard reducing the necessary communication between players through automated systems, the huge influx in players, or a mix of both.

There is one thing that I can attest to though... MMOs are more fun when you are doing something just to have fun. As soon as you tie a reward to it, it goes from "let's mess around" to "we need to do this as efficiently as possible" because let's face it... MMOs are a time sink, and you need to not waste tons of time. People loved 24-hour Alterac Valleys. I hated 24-hour Alterac Valleys. Why? Because it was a waste of time. For awhile, you only got honor for killing the same player up to four times in a day, and I'm pretty sure that you would meet all 40 players enough times in a 24-hour period. Not to mention, there's only a static amount of honor that you could earn from AV, so it ended up boiling down to killing each other at some choke point for hours (THE BRIDGE!). The Honor System introduced the ideas of ranks, which pretty much meant that you needed a certain amount of honor in a week to not backslide and ruin your progression. It was tough, and it meant that you typically needed a group (or way too much spare time) that would propel people to Rank 15.

EDIT:

3) They do not copy the code. This game is ment to go forward, and thus it was edited on with BC, than Wotlk. No going back, they do not have the code, the same people to build it from scratch, and wouldn't be worth the funds to impress 2% of the population for only a few weeks.

Are you telling me that Blizzard has no Configuration Management for their code or that they clear it randomly? Who does that?

 

[JD50]

There was a lot wrong with the game even at that level. The main thing is that gear had very poor stats on it. I had one of the first epics which was a level 40 shield. It had I think Strength and spirit on it. The dungeon LFG system was terrible. You had to sit in a major city, just 1 as they werent chat linked at the time spamming for runs. Once you got that group you had to travel all the way to the zone. I basically leveled only in Azeroth since thats where Ironforge was.

Dont get me wrong, I had fun but knowing how it is now, I couldnt go back.

That is EXACTLY what made the community so great, getting rid of that stuff killed the community.

 

[Anubis]

There is one thing that I can attest to though... MMOs are more fun when you are doing something just to have fun. As soon as you tie a reward to it, it goes from "let's mess around" to "we need to do this as efficiently as possible" because let's face it... MMOs are a time sink, and you need to not waste tons of time. People loved 24-hour Alterac Valleys. I hated 24-hour Alterac Valleys. Why? Because it was a waste of time. For awhile, you only got honor for killing the same player up to four times in a day, and I'm pretty sure that you would meet all 40 players enough times in a 24-hour period. Not to mention, there's only a static amount of honor that you could earn from AV, so it ended up boiling down to killing each other at some choke point for hours (THE BRIDGE!). The Honor System introduced the ideas of ranks, which pretty much meant that you needed a certain amount of honor in a week to not backslide and ruin your progression. It was tough, and it meant that you typically needed a group (or way too much spare time) that would propel people to Rank 15.
?

rank 14 was the highest and yes i ground it out, the diminishing returns on killing people didnt really matter in those 24 hour AVs becasuse people changed over a lot, you could clear a million HP in a week just AFKing in AV when it was the bonus week. our server didnt really have a lot of those, there was a large group (nearly 40) that would all queue at once and just steamroll AV, it was amazing for honor and ranking up

The ranking for us also was not that bad, we had 15 or so people working on it and everyone agreed to take a spot in line and everyone got to their honor cap in a few days as we kept them really low, I only had to clear a million once in my final week because of botters, but most times the top person only really needed 400k or so

as for the community the thing that really killed it was cross realm stuff, it started with BGs and went downhill from there
cross city chat didnt really change much because everyone pretty much chilled in IF or Org anyway.

 

[orthancstone]

I do not wish to debate the merits of Vanilla at the moment, but I do wish to credit the poll creator for a great Seinfeld reference

 

[diesbudt]

Are you telling me that Blizzard has no Configuration Management for their code or that they clear it randomly? Who does that?

I am telling you the base code for Vanilla doesn't exist anymore. It has not existed since Burning Crusade came out. They have no way of extracting "vanilla" code from current wow, as most of it has been replaced/changed and deleted as the years and expansions have gone by.

They said they would literally have to rebuild it from the ground up. Not my words, just repeating it from the 4-5 times a blizzard employee (forums and at conventions, designers and CMs) has said it.

 

[Aikouka]

I am telling you the base code for Vanilla doesn't exist anymore. It has not existed since Burning Crusade came out. They have no way of extracting "vanilla" code from current wow, as most of it has been replaced/changed and deleted as the years and expansions have gone by.

I'm a software developer, and the reason why this perplexes me is that I've never seen a reputable software house that didn't have some sort of configuration management (i.e. source control) setup. I just don't see a reason why Vanilla code wouldn't exist apart from some overzealous IT person cleaning up old revisions for no reason.

rank 14 was the highest and yes i ground it out, the diminishing returns on killing people didnt really matter in those 24 hour AVs becasuse people changed over a lot, you could clear a million HP in a week just AFKing in AV when it was the bonus week. our server didnt really have a lot of those, there was a large group (nearly 40) that would all queue at once and just steamroll AV, it was amazing for honor and ranking up

Ah, yeah... I kept debating whether it was 14 or 15. Close enough.

Yeah, there was definitely turn-over that did result in more honor; however, it was never a ton of honor. In my mind, I always compared it to what you mentioned: quick AV steamrolls. Those were worth tons of honor (over the same period of time)... especially during AV weekends. Also, I used AV as a means for gaining city faction reputation back when it was awful to try and get it. I really wanted a Night Elf Nightsaber on my Dwarf Priest, so I would practically run into the midst of a Horde horde just to loot a Troll corpse.

The ranking for us also was not that bad, we had 15 or so people working on it and everyone agreed to take a spot in line and everyone got to their honor cap in a few days as we kept them really low, I only had to clear a million once in my final week because of botters, but most times the top person only really needed 400k or so

Yeah, we had PVP groups like that, but I could never get into one. It all started one week when I wanted to grind AV reputation during an AV weekend. I got exalted and also ended up with a ton of honor... so much honor, in fact, that I ended up taking something around standing 15. The bad part? I was only somewhere around rank 3. Now, I had no idea that I had done something taboo until one of my friends from a PVP group informed me that I may have screwed over someone who needed that standing for progression. Since Blizzard posted the standings on the web each week, I was up shit creek without a paddle. No group would ever take me, and if I ended up in a BG with them, they would just mock me the entire time like children. :\

 

[JD50]

I am telling you the base code for Vanilla doesn't exist anymore. It has not existed since Burning Crusade came out. They have no way of extracting "vanilla" code from current wow, as most of it has been replaced/changed and deleted as the years and expansions have gone by.

They said they would literally have to rebuild it from the ground up. Not my words, just repeating it from the 4-5 times a blizzard employee (forums and at conventions, designers and CMs) has said it.

I think there's more to it than that. If they are using proper version control (which I'm sure they are), then the code still exists.

 

[JD50]

rank 14 was the highest and yes i ground it out, the diminishing returns on killing people didnt really matter in those 24 hour AVs becasuse people changed over a lot, you could clear a million HP in a week just AFKing in AV when it was the bonus week. our server didnt really have a lot of those, there was a large group (nearly 40) that would all queue at once and just steamroll AV, it was amazing for honor and ranking up

The ranking for us also was not that bad, we had 15 or so people working on it and everyone agreed to take a spot in line and everyone got to their honor cap in a few days as we kept them really low, I only had to clear a million once in my final week because of botters, but most times the top person only really needed 400k or so

as for the community the thing that really killed it was cross realm stuff, it started with BGs and went downhill from there
cross city chat didnt really change much because everyone pretty much chilled in IF or Org anyway.

Agreed, cross realm was a terrible idea.

 

[desura]

I really wish that WOW were more an RPG and less an ARPG. Like, stuff like pallies and shamans being separate sure did make balance hard, but you know what? Who cares? It was cool

 

[Subyman]

Sure, I'd go back and check it out. I wouldn't spend nearly as much time as I did when I was younger in it, but it would be fun to get my old group of friends together and casually mess around.

 

[smackababy]

I am telling you the base code for Vanilla doesn't exist anymore. It has not existed since Burning Crusade came out. They have no way of extracting "vanilla" code from current wow, as most of it has been replaced/changed and deleted as the years and expansions have gone by.

They said they would literally have to rebuild it from the ground up. Not my words, just repeating it from the 4-5 times a blizzard employee (forums and at conventions, designers and CMs) has said it.

Either the people who quoted that don't understand how CM works, Blizzard arbitrarily threw away their old code for no reason other than to deleted it, or their CM process is awful and has no branches / versioning (which I highly doubt).

They probably still have the 1.x code from when WoW was released. The problem is, even if they released the code from right before the BC patch (the most up to date vanilla code), there were still bugs that weren't fixed until later. Those bugs, and possibly exploits, would never get fixed unless they have a separate set of developers working on that, which would be a complete waste of money. From just a business standpoint, it is a bad idea.

 

[desura]

I said this in a RL conversation a few weeks ago, but I actually wish that I had played more WOW than I actually did.

To this day, Vanilla WOW was one of the most amazing intricate and lively computer worlds I've ever been in.

and it's gone.

Flying mounts IMO are a travesty and should never have been done. They take the mystery out of the world, and make the air taxi routes less of a treat. And as I mentioned earlier, the pally shaman thing. Also, taking skill points out and just giving set abilities to choose from every few levels is one of the worst changes I've ever seen.

And having this automatic dungeon finder is atrocious. Bring back the /LFG channel!

 

[ewdotson]

Heck, no. Nostalgia just isn't what it used to be.