I lost interest in the retail version for wow shortly after Cataclysm came out because the game was too bad in my opinion and I haven't played it since then except for vanilla wow on private servers. I think classic wow is the best game ever made.
The reason why I dislike the current game is because of the following reasons:
LFG and LFR tools, Homogenization of classes, pay to win, little to no player interaction necessary to complete quests. no elites in the world, quests are too easy, no attunements nessasary, game to streamlined, welfare epics, epics too cheap and easy to get, and basically Blizzard developed the game in a way that it took everything out of the game that I liked so I quit playing. I remember leveling Cataclysm bored me so much that I didn't even bother to level up all the way. And I thought to myself that from that point the game was unsalvageable. If I don't enjoy the game I won't play it.
I know a lot of people complain about the same things I mention here above but many still play the game. That I don't understand.
My concern is I don't want Blizzard to think I am paying for the current game when I resubscribe to play classic. Do I have to buy the latest expansion pack to play classic?
My concern is I don't want Blizzard to think I am paying for the current game when I resubscribe to play classic. Do I have to buy the latest expansion pack to play classic?
Why? Why does this concern you. They are not using your sub fee as a metric to gauge which game you are playing. They have inhouse analytics to see which game players are playing. Leave the marketing and analysis to them and just play the game how you want to play it and sub when and if you want to sub. They specifically chose to create a shared sub so that players would get more value for their sub and as a means to merge both communities instead of silo'ing them. The shared sub offers some room for cross-pollination in both playerbases. Your little sub 3-4 weeks before Classic in a pool of millions of players who are subbing, is not going to make a difference. They can see the individual played time and player retention rates inhouse for each game.
I know a lot of people complain about the same things I mention here above but many still play the game. That I don't understand.
My concern is I don't want Blizzard to think I am paying for the current game when I resubscribe to play classic. Do I have to buy the latest expansion pack to play classic?
I happen to still play Retail, so let me try my best to explain how some of us still enjoy it. WoW nowadays is more actiony than RPG, which is good and bad. I love the action, but I miss the RPG. Classic removes the action i'm used to and gives me a different kind of action, but brings back the RPG. I enjoy both types of combat, I really do. I'll be giving up my Windwalker Monk to play a Frost Mage, i'll be going from Tiger Palm>Storm, Earth, and Fire>Xuen>Fist of the White Tiger>Touch of Death>Crucible of Flame artifact ability>Fists of Fury>Rising Sun Kick>Whirling Dragon Punch as an opener to Frostbolt>Frostbolt>Frostbolt. The thing that Classic has over it is what I do BESIDES that; super situational abilities like Amplify Magic. On Retail I have utility such as Ring of Peace which prevents mobs from being within that circle for 8 seconds (pushes them out), its VERY powerful and unique to the monk class. People take me for my Ring and because I cause enemies to take 5% increased physical damage. On Classic it's really not that different, people will take me for conjured water and polymorph mostly (we're of course ignoring dps in both of those scenarios).
Retail is very different, very very different, but the core of it is still the same. The way combat FEELS is the same, the feeling of pressing a button and how it reacts. I cannot get that enjoyment in any other game, i've TRIED. Frostbolt is still more enjoyable than the combat in any other game i've played. I enjoy Retail, I really do. I have fun gearing up, playing my class, doing things out in the world, and heck I even enjoy World Quests and the Emissary system. But Classic is A DIFFERENT GAME. One I enjoy just as much. The reason i'll be abandoning Retail for Classic is because I want to give Classic my full time and attention so I can be that cool person that wastes their life on a 15 year old game, there are many things I missed out on that I want to do, and the COMMUNITY is a fantastic thing the current game lacks the feeling of. But the moment Classic is over, assuming no new content is added, i'm going back to Retail. Because, call me crazy, I really do still enjoy it.
Of course Retail has problems, but so does Classic, but most of Classic's problems are now intentional game mechanics, while on Retail they feel like they're lowering the experience. I still want Titanforging gone, I think Warforging is okay but Titanforging is too much, (warforge caps out at +10 item level). I'd prefer there to be no forging at all.
Also to your second question, no you do not need to buy BFA to play Classic. And as Stfuppercut said the whole "same subscription" thing is not a big deal. Blizzard does not give out sub numbers anymore, so it literally means nothing to US if they're both the same subscription. They can see who is playing each game without subscription numbers being needed at all
EDIT: I'd like to make a point that your complaints about Retail are valid, at the end of the day its all opinions, if you don't like something then you don't like it. I am very much a huge WoW fanboy, i've been playing this game for most of my life, longer than I can literally remember being alive (in fact there's a thread called "Where were you when you first learned about WoW?". Funny enough, I don't even know where I lived at the time so I can't answer). So basically, i'm biased as heck. I DO complain about features I don't like, in fact I skipped most of MoP because I burnt myself out HARD on the daily quests at the start. I just personally legitimately think the game isn't bad, and I enjoy it.
Thanks for very good answers from both of you :)
I'll be giving up my Windwalker Monk to play a Frost Mage, i'll be going from Tiger Palm>Storm, Earth, and Fire>Xuen>Fist of the White Tiger>Touch of Death>Crucible of Flame artifact ability>Fists of Fury>Rising Sun Kick>Whirling Dragon Punch as an opener to Frostbolt>Frostbolt>Frostbolt.
kek
I want to like retail. The new character models are great and I miss the characters I grew up with. I subscribe and log in like once an expansion and try to get my bearings. But every time I log in, I am faced by pages of new abilities and skills. Every time, I'll spend an hour reading what they do, trying to decide how to spec, running around town.. and then giving up and unsubscribing. Usually what sets me over the edge is trying to figure out where I'm supposed to bind like 30 attacks on my keyboard and trying to remember where I put them and what they did. Some people call these complex new attack rotations 'exciting game mechanics' or 'better gameplay'. I prefer old & familiar.
I like the less complex combat and rotations in classic. I must be getting old, when I was growing up all I did was play computer games and I sunk a couple thousand hours into my character over the years. But as I grew up I think I lost interest in video games. Any time I try to sit down and learn a new one I just get frustrated and go do something else instead. But I don't have that problem with classic. It's familiar and comfortable and I know how to play it. There's no learning curve, just a comfy drivers seat with nothing but familiar roads ahead that I know how to carve up and hit every apex. I guess I don't like video games as a whole anymore - I just like this video game.
My main is a warrior tank, so my combat is a bit more complicated than just facerolling frostbolt. But I guess since I already learned how to tank back when I was younger and still gave a shit, I already know how to do it and sinking back in and getting back into it is just comfy as hell.
I'm only in my early 30s but already feel like I'm a few short years away from full 'get off my lawn' territory.
and I completely forgot to even address OP's question and went on a rant instead...
to answer OP's question, don't worry about Blizzard thinking you're playing retail just because you have a WoW subscription man. It's a dual subscription now. They have full telemetry to what their players are doing. They'll be able to see exactly how many hours you play in either, and see which one you're actually playing. If anything, please do get a subscription and dive back into classic. The more support we get in the form of people playing, the better things should get. Worst case, if nobody plays classic, then who knows how long the servers stay up. I don't think that is a real concern, and but the other end of the scale is if it blows up in popularity and stays popular for a long time then eventually they keep developing. Whatever that means, be it seasonal resets, TBC servers, classic+, or just the servers staying online for more than just a few years. Maybe huge success on classic helps shape and steer retail back towards the gameplay we all remember from classic in the first place.
Do I have to buy the latest expansion pack to play classic?
Everything I have read so far says you just need an active subscription - you don't need to buy any of the expansion packs for retail to play classic. Just re-activate your subscription and you should be up and running.
In fact, this is what the blizzard launcher looks like right now:
Drop down menu selecting which version of WoW you wanna play. You can launch WoW Classic right now if you want, but none of the servers are up so you can't get past the login page.
Same types of things that drove me away. Instant gratification is not fun or rewarding game play and is quite boring to participate in. I look forward to being able to level an armor profession and actually be able to use the items I make.
I think once Classic launches, Blizzard will know very well that players are not subscribing to play BFA...
They are subscribing to play the game they wanted to play in 2004-2007.
Some might enjoy BFA and they will now have their own version of the game to play, and we will have our favourite version of WoW.
I think once Classic launches, Blizzard will know very well that players are not subscribing to play BFA...
They are subscribing to play the game they wanted to play in 2004-2007.
Some might enjoy BFA and they will now have their own version of the game to play, and we will have our favourite version of WoW.
Guaranteed they have metrics to know exactly how much time people are spending on any blizzard game. No way are they going to be blind to what people are doing. No way is there going to be a discussion at blizzard along the lines of 'well the WoW subscriptions are up, if only there was a way to know which version of the game people are playing.'
They got their metrics, they'll know exactly what's going on once the game launches and we see how things shake out from there.
I'll be giving up my Windwalker Monk to play a Frost Mage, i'll be going from Tiger Palm>Storm, Earth, and Fire>Xuen>Fist of the White Tiger>Touch of Death>Crucible of Flame artifact ability>Fists of Fury>Rising Sun Kick>Whirling Dragon Punch as an opener to Frostbolt>Frostbolt>Frostbolt.
kek
I want to like retail. The new character models are great and I miss the characters I grew up with. I subscribe and log in like once an expansion and try to get my bearings. But every time I log in, I am faced by pages of new abilities and skills. Every time, I'll spend an hour reading what they do, trying to decide how to spec, running around town.. and then giving up and unsubscribing. Usually what sets me over the edge is trying to figure out where I'm supposed to bind like 30 attacks on my keyboard and trying to remember where I put them and what they did. Some people call these complex new attack rotations 'exciting game mechanics' or 'better gameplay'. I prefer old & familiar.
I like the less complex combat and rotations in classic. I must be getting old, when I was growing up all I did was play computer games and I sunk a couple thousand hours into my character over the years. But as I grew up I think I lost interest in video games. Any time I try to sit down and learn a new one I just get frustrated and go do something else instead. But I don't have that problem with classic. It's familiar and comfortable and I know how to play it. There's no learning curve, just a comfy drivers seat with nothing but familiar roads ahead that I know how to carve up and hit every apex. I guess I don't like video games as a whole anymore - I just like this video game.
My main is a warrior tank, so my combat is a bit more complicated than just facerolling frostbolt. But I guess since I already learned how to tank back when I was younger and still gave a shit, I already know how to do it and sinking back in and getting back into it is just comfy as hell.
I'm only in my early 30s but already feel like I'm a few short years away from full 'get off my lawn' territory.
This. Good post. Perfectly sums up how I feel about video games. Played a shit ton of them growing up, now I like vanilla WoW. Classic being released is to me bigger than any RDR2, Halo 14 or “epic, beautiful, majestic” indie crap people create en masse these days
Classic and Modern both suck in different ways, but Modern sucks more. </pandababy opinion>