I’ll do Tesh one better — I think Blizzard should make vanilla/classic/Old World WoW free to play.
It’s beyond obvious that Blizzard doesn’t really like its older content much these days, mostly because they trash it in public every chance they get, while exalting the achievements of Burning Crusade/Wrath of the Lich King. They’ve more or less categorically refused to revisit older content (read: 1-60 in Azeroth) to tweak it, retune it or add more to it, with few exceptions (Dustwallow Marsh). It’s just not worth it to them; the real WoW now starts at level 58 in Outland, and they’re doing all they can to either artificially promote players to that level (via Death Knights) or speed up the leveling curve for any other newbies. The result is some parody of a MMO, where nobody takes the time to smell the roses, explore crevices, or enjoy content before they get to the “good stuff” of the expansion packs.
I shouldn’t have to tell you why that’s sad, should I? I hate to be one of those guys who starts rambling about the “good ol’ days” and whatnot, but I have a lot of terribly fond memories of the 1-60 Azerothian days. I’m okay with change and progression (although not all has been “progress” in the x-packs), but… a little dignity for the workhorse that brought WoW to fame is all I ask. Old World shouldn’t be the ugly ex-girlfriend that Blizzard is ashamed of even mentioning before showing off the curves and delights of the newer model; it should hold a place of honor.
And I can think of no better way to honor it than for Blizzard to take an unprecidented move in this industry by offering the 1-60 content as a completely free and unlimited (time-wise) trial. Sure, it’d get more players to try the game out and hopefully subscribe once they’re fully hooked and want to get to level 80, but they certainly don’t have to pander for more subs (at least, not until they’ve peaked and start sliding down that inevitable slope). But it would be a gracious act on their part and would probably steal quite a bit of limelight away from other free-to-play titles like Free Realms, Runes of Magic and so on. It would pay off for them, if not just in subs, then in PR and player goodwill (which, let’s face it, is not something Blizz is reaping in spades these days).
This sort of move couldn’t come without a few restrictions, such as denying free players access to the auction house (since many items from the subscription content would be available there), player-to-player trading (same reason) and perhaps even PvP. But still, can you imagine it? Folks who’ve left WoW and couldn’t justify the expense would have an option to get a limited fix. Vanilla WoW content would become relevant again, perhaps even spurring “freebie” guilds to form, and players to re-engage with old world dungeons and raids once more.
Yeah, this’ll never happen… but I like to dream.
Yup…Greed makes this a non- starter for Blizzard/Activision.
Why should they? Everyone still pays, and unless people stop paying, this will never happen.
But, the fact a lot of old timers are finally becoming jaded (Tobold?), maybe the decline will finally start in WoW land!
Maybe…
Thanks for the link! I’ve actually argued much the same thing before, so I totally agree. I just revisited the notion with the 5/10/15 system as a transitional “soft sell” model to the Blizzard beancounters.
Free vanilla WoW would make a huge splash in a world where Runes of Magic and Free Realms are gaining traction.
I’m torn between thinking that Blizzard really doesn’t care about the old world, or thinking that they are incompetent when it comes to PR and long term planning. Neither option is all that flattering.
They think it’s not worth going back to revamp old world Azeroth because it’s actually not worth their time – with so many players already bored at the level cap, Blizzard cannot afford to spend its limited dev time on content that most of the playerbase has already passed.
Taking the old world free-to-play is a clever idea, but I can’t imagine that Blizzard wouldn’t be losing money on the deal. If I decide to level a new alt, I can just do all my shopping for that character in advance and then cancel my subscription for a month or so until I hit level 60. The number of new subscribers they would gain would be far outweighed by the number of current players who would stop playing, especially if the “classic” raiding culture you propose actually happened.
What I think could fly would be a Blizzard version of the SOE Station Pass. Many players will be willing to pay an extra $5-10 on top of the monthly fee for Mystery Project 4 (and/or 5) to keep access to their WoW characters.
I would assume that this kind of model would have its own vanilla servers. That would eliminate the need for the restrictions you outlined.
If players wanted to buy the expansions and move on, they could buy a server transfer at a reduced cost to get access to a standard server.
I would disagree saying that Blizzard is incompetent when it comes to PR and anything else for that matter. Love them or hate them Activizzard is good at what they do. Sadly, they will not stop having money fights long enough to be able to read this and see the wisdom in it.
Free WoW would take away a LOT of the Free Realms crowd I think (considering most of those are so similar to WoW its almost infringing. Oh well. Its too bad this likely won’t ever happen. Its a great idea.
Good call, Jennifer. That would be another way to make “classic” servers, for that matter.
codpeace, that’s exactly why I do call them incompetent. They *could* be undermining the upstarts, but they would rather milk the old world. Their current business plan seems to be short term “milk it for all we can” rather than a “continue to position the company to own the market” long term strategy. Even if they are thinking long term, the market is changing, but they aren’t keeping up… and that’s a dangerous way for a business to run.
I like the idea of making vanilla wow free to play! I agree with Green Armadillo on why they haven’t tuned the old world. The fact that Wrath was solely an end-game expansion, and sold so well, makes it clear that Blizzard has decided the majority of their subscribers are at the level cap. I don’t think they’ve completely written off the old world yet, because they have yet to allow us to create characters at a higher level if we already have one at end game (apart from the DK.)
I love the old world content! I don’t take my characters to outlands at 58. Instead, I stretch out my old world leveling in EPL, because those are some of the best quests in the game. It makes me sad that people don’t even have to touch the zone now (or Winterspring, WPL or Searing Gorge).
I’m of the other mind. I want to pay extra to skip the old word. I would pay $5 a character to start at 55 like the DK. The main reason is the old world is dead.
Who know if they did make it free to play and classic was fully populated maybe I would actually enjoy leveling an alt…hmmm, it might actually work.
Very interesting idea, Syp, but I can’t imagine Blizzard be willing to do it.
I’m finding that WoW has now gone inter-generational in my home. While I’ve become thoroughly burned out and jaded on the WoW grind, my 9-year-old is having a blast playing in “old Azeroth.” He hasn’t leveled a thing past 25 but we recently reached the 50-character cap and had to cull some of his creations.
I would feel much better, though, if there was a “minors only” version of the old world. It’s hard enough enforcing the “No you can’t joing a Guild! No you can’t group with people you don’t know!” rules.
But as I’ve helped him get around in Azeroth, I’ve had some melancholy moments wishing that Blizzard would spend more time thinking of ways to “refresh” the old content. I think it would be worth the investment.
If they offered 1-60 free to play, you would see an exodus from the main game. I mean seriously, this would cost them MILLIONS a month in lost subs.
I mean for real man, normal servers would be ghost towns.
Tesh,
That is exactly what they are doing. I think they are thinking long term— about their new MMO. Keeping WoW in great shape would actually be counterproductive when they launch the new MMO— more people would stay in WoW if they were happy. So the strategy now is to keep people in this living death phase as long as they can to milk cash and ensure a massive rush of people to the new MMO when the time comes. At which point WoW is effectively dead, though I’m sure some rump will keep playing for another decade, and Blizz will have some team to redo content on the cheap.
@Egil
There is an article at massively that stats the next blizzard MMO is a brand new IP http://www.massively.com/2009/05/13/first-official-confirmation-that-new-blizzard-mmo-is-original-ip/
One of the comments had a very interesting idea. The commenter thought that there is a good chance that Blizzard is creating a free to play (real realms style) MMO. it seems like a huge under utilized market. If blizzard does it right it could be huge and wouldn’t compete with WOW.
That is such a good idea Syp it is frigthening.
Funny you should say that. I tried WOW for the first time on a 10 day free trial account last night and it felt like a really outdated game to me.
The problem with free to play is that it is free to play. The great and might blizzard is not going to follow up a the biggest MMO in history with some free to play game. Try explaining that to the shareholders.
Ha ha… it will never happen.
Blizzard will never design a game with the player’s interests in mind. The money will always come first.
I know they make quality games, but I can’t help thinking of them as an evil corporation.
I get a chuckle out of stuff like “Blizzard cannot afford”…
Seriously, what is there available on this entire planet that Blizzard cannot afford?
The fact of the matter is at this point they’ll cut corners and spend as little time, effort and especially money on WoW as they can, because it’s a huge profit cash cow that would continue to perform regardless.
If they wanted to do it, they could. There’s no restrictions telling them they can’t.
I’d still like to think that Blizzard holds their games in higher esteem than just money-makers and that’s probably true for what they’re developing next. I even think it’s more likely that they’re simply bored of their old content.
Let’s also remember that much of the current development team was either not involved or much less involved in WoW’s original release. On a personal level, they are naturally going to be more enthusiastic with the content they themselves created later.
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Obviously though, they are now updating the old content – so this article is way beyond the point. In otherwords – the old regions are being updated for the newbies FINALLY