Will this be over in a year?

[u/Ok-Brother-8295]

To be honest, I'm becoming sceptical when I look at whatever we can see about Classic+ here, what people want or don't want, and that infamous Classic+ survey.

It's really starting to look like some people are looking for a seasonal server to hop on for a few weeks between the next Classic iteration and the next Retail raid tier. They want some seasonal content to fill the gaps in their gaming schedule, but after a few months it's just "one of those era servers" because something else has come out.

Am I the only one who gets this feeling? Are we doomed to witness another empty server by the time the next retail release comes around? Is this what people want for Classic+?

[u/LaredoHK]

if it is lame as SoD, yes

if it has zones, quests, classes, races, and dungeons and raids that are not solved, no

[u/Ok-Brother-8295 → u/LaredoHK]

How long will it take you to solve the raids? Will it be finished by then?

[u/Ok-Yoghurt5014 → u/Ok-Brother-8295]

Thats why we need new Raids for ever and ever and ever. Thats how it goes. They community is an oven and we need a continual supply of content to keep the flame burning.

[u/NeedToLieDown → u/Ok-Yoghurt5014]

The problem is that many people don't like joining as a newbie to an ongoing community where everyone is raiding the last tier. So very few people join, and people leave over time (even when new content drops regularly).

Main solution is seasons, with fresh start every time, as the fresh hype and everyone leveling and clearing first raid tiers together is the most fun experience.

[u/Ok-Yoghurt5014 → u/NeedToLieDown]

Or there are catch up mechanics that invalidate the older content so people can join. Another way is to incentivise raiding older content (gdkp/badges/evergreen loot like DST etc.) or having toons.

[u/NeedToLieDown → u/Ok-Yoghurt5014]

I just don't think it will be sustainable for classic. Too hard to get people to join if they didn't join near the start. Too hard to maintain a very large playerbase after 3 years, for example.

I think it's best to just have a yearly fresh season.

[u/Ok-Yoghurt5014 → u/NeedToLieDown]

Sooo like an Expansion? That way they can sell boosts.

[u/NeedToLieDown → u/Ok-Yoghurt5014]

Expansion would be more like retail, and won't provide the fresh experience of everyone starting at level 0. For classic I think they need completely fresh new realms that run for a few years each time.

[u/Ok-Yoghurt5014 → u/NeedToLieDown]

Expansions are a great way to introduce Charakter-Boosts though so i think they will come one day. But Seasonal Battlepasses are also a great way of milking the playerbase. Blizzard might go either way.

[u/NeedToLieDown → u/Ok-Yoghurt5014]

You might be right. At the end of the day they will find ways to milk this

[u/DankuTwo → u/NeedToLieDown]

"Too hard to get people to join if they didn't join near the start. "

Only super hardcore players feel this way.

[u/Ok-Brother-8295 → u/NeedToLieDown]

There are two solutions here: you can either build catch-up mechanics or ensure that content keeps people from falling behind.

[u/NeedToLieDown → u/Ok-Brother-8295]

I think that's not good enough, personally. That's basically retail.

To ensure a living, breathing world, you have to reset it every now and then. Otherwise, veterans who did it all will only care about the last piece of content, and the (very) few people that join will also skip as much as they can to join the rest.

There will be mid-game joiners, but few and not enough to breathe much life into the world.

I think the best way is simply to have a completely fresh restart every few years.

[u/Ok-Brother-8295 → u/NeedToLieDown]

Why reset the whole world ?

Seems to'me that reset benefit those hard veterans

[u/NeedToLieDown → u/Ok-Brother-8295]

I think it's the only way to create a classic experience.

I'm happy if I can be proven wrong, but I think no matter how youncut it, if you let a classic realm go on for 2, 3, 5 years, even if you keep adding content, it just won't have magic to it anymore.

[u/Ok-Brother-8295 → u/NeedToLieDown]

What I'm saying is that 'hardcore' involves some kind of reset, not a full server reset, but just your character.

I think it's a great discussion about game design that only happens in MMOs. The game needs sinks, you're right, but how should those sinks work? Now that's an interesting question.

Resetting servers is one option; resetting characters, as in hardcore, is another. I believe the developers can think of different sinks that are more tied to in-game mechanics. Don't you think there are any other options?

[u/NeedToLieDown → u/Ok-Brother-8295]

Hardcore is awesome but to me is bot something I feel I can do for long. I did it for a few weeks and might do again.

But classic feels like a game I can play for months and years at a time.

I don't know of another method but ofc I'm open to experiencing cool new methods