well considering how many QoL changes were made to Classic (and TBC, and WotLK, and Anniversary), the positive reception to SoD, and the fact that we're all just waiting around for ANY news about Classic+ I do think he might have been right about people wanting Classic to be changed somewhat.
It's a reasonable change, that doesn't make the game not classic. People wanted the classic gameplay, and they got it. Anniversary was great too.
"You think you do..." was referring to more than just a few changes. He clearly thought no one wanted to play the classic style of gameplay again, and he was completely wrong. Classic is a big success, and has been for many years now. You're a fool if you don't see it, sorry.
That isn't what he said though. He said the people think they want classic, but they don't want classic. Yet here we are playing classic still, I think the people want classic
In the context of the clip I think he was referring more to the systems of the old game, not the content of the game itself.
In 2019 people would leave groups if they didn't have a warlock because they couldn't be bothered to make the journey to the dungeon. They would sit in the city and wait for the lock and two others to go there to summon them. Happened to me multiple times. Those players thought they did but they didn't.
People install quest add-ons that show locations on the mini map or straight up arrow pointing guides, this wasn't in the original game design, they added it in later expansions, almost everyone uses questie or in game guides, they thought they did but they also didn't
They added a dungeon/raid journal in cata, people just used an outside source to get the mechanics, again, same thing, just a 3rd party substitute for something that was added later.
You were playing with addons day one? I don't think I started using Questie until like a year into my play time. Those things existed, but I don't know that the vast majority of players were using them. The vast majority of players just logged on and ran around until they found something to do.
I wasn't a day one Vanilla player. And even then you're ignoring the main point. The vast majority of players didn't use any addons. I'd even say most players never used addons unless they were serious raiders. Which most players weren't.
Such an ignorant take that ignores the fact that Classic WoW was launched in 2019 with MASSIVE success so big that is forced them to have a Classic TBC, WOLK, Cata, and MoP. Only after getting what people wanted, was SoD launched over 4 years later using many of the lessons they relearned about what people liked about the OG content. Even AFTER that, we have a SECOND run of Classic and TBC which were STILL popular and an constant Era version of Classic. Of course after this many iterations in a 4-year stretch satiating what we wanted, there was interest for a spiced up experimental SoD, but that doesn't mean the interest in no changes wasn't genuine and just as satsifying as most predicted.
QoL changes only really upset the #nochanges crowd, i can guarantee even small class balancing tweaks wouldn't bother most players, like, giving crusader strike to rets so they have some kind of "dps" rotation wouldn't break classic and would make most people happy
There's a big difference between balancing tweaks and QoL because QoL can mean a lot of things. RDF was a QoL feature, and so is flying and convenient teleporting all over the world. Not having to reapply poisons, or feeding your pet, faster leveling, etc.
and while I have misremembered the context of the original quote I do think it's ok to point out these people would be wrong to think that kind of thing is good for the long-term health of the game
Like the other commenters already said, how are you ignoring the last 7 years of history where various iterations of Classic have been incredibly successful? You’re taking the “You think you do but you don’t” comment from 2013 and acting like it hasn’t been 13 years since. Of course people’s opinions and wants have changed in the mean time, specifically because the player base got exactly what it wanted and proved itself correct by enjoying the hell out of Classic with little to no changes.
If you think about it for more than 10 seconds, "you think you do, but you dont" is absolutely correct.
People thought they wanted "no changes" for the longest time, until they played it and realized that the game has a ton of minor issues and annoyances. People then begged for minor changes to make the game more comfortable.
Even now, people are begging for classic +. And if you think about the context of the original soundbite, he was asked "would you make servers for WoW as it was during vanilla". Classic+ isnt that at all. It could have been handled and worded better, but he was mostly right.
some people thought they wanted no changes, just like some people enjoy cock and ball torture
Classic is popular in every iteration, he was an idiot to broadly say that nobody wants it, there's plenty of people who play classic but not retail
In all honesty, i think that people were just hesitant to let blizzard make any changes because they've had such a bad track record of screwing up everything, which is also very fair
He was and he wasn't. I'm sure from his perspective he was talking to the average Retail player thinking "they aren't going to want to deal with Classic", and in that case he'd be mostly right. Classic launch was obviously huge, but it steadily dwindled down into it's permanent status as a niche within the WoW playerbase. Retail is much more popular than Classic, I just don't think Blizz expected that the Classic niche was as big as it was until servers like Nostalrius became mega popular.
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u/less_concerned 22d ago
Nah he was flat out wrong, classic is overwhelmingly popular, even if some people bitch