Classic WoW Has a Serious Problem...

classic World of Warcraft has a serious problem it's getting worse and there is no reason to think that things will improve because this problem stems from the very people responsible for the game Blizzard Entertainment so what is this problem the short answer is monetization and how it drives Blizzard's game development philosophy but to explain why this is such an issue we need to dig a little deeper and that means taking a trip back in time all the way to 20 4 and the launch of World of Warcraft and a very different era of Gaming [Music] [Applause] back in the early 2000s when wow was being developed online gaming was very much in its infancy yes MMOs like EverQuest Asheron's Call and ultimate online had existed for years by this point and other genres had captured their own gaming audience too with titles such as unreal tournaments Starcraft and Counter Strike still this was a far cry from today's era where online gaming is arguably the default way of playing for many wow came out years before the rise of Call of Duty and League of Legends not to mention the popular games of the last decade like fortnite and hell even Minecraft is Young compared to wow and the relevance of this is that it helps to explain why early wow was monetized so differently to the online games of today including modern retail World of Warcraft soat launch World of Warcraft made its money in two ways firstly you had to actually buy the game and as far as I'm aware you did have to physically buy the game as in go to your local game shop find a lovely boxed copy pay for it and come home now I did say prepare for some Nostalgia with this video and I'm sure all of us older players have that sweet memory of the day we bought wow I was only 13 myself and I went with my mom to go and get it afterwards we went to a nearby cafe and I spent about 40 minutes yapping my head off to her about all the cool Adventures I was going to go on and how I was going to tame this Yeti as my to pet honestly being a kid is such a magical experience and that memory is an absolute treasure to me I know I'm getting older but the days of buying box copies of video games from a shop man you didn't always strike gold but when you did awesome feeling so as I've said the first method of monetization was actually buying the game itself the second form of monetization is one we all know well because it's remained consistent over the last 20 years of wow the subscription every month wow players Fork out money to play the game it says a lot about how different the world was in the early years of Warcraft that many of us had to practically take debating classes in order to convince our parents that paying a monthly online fee for their child to play a video game wasn't a recipe for disaster in my case I was only allowed to play WoW if I bought game time cards from the shop and I did this for years before I switched to paying online but once you'd figured this stuff out you had your game and blizzard had about as much money as they could reliably squeeze out of you short of releasing the next boxed expansion a one-time fee for the boxed copy and a monthly subscription that was it and you know what it worked really well or so we thought you see whilst wow was soaring in the west growing an audience of millions and playing a pivotal role in the development of online gaming culture other important Innovations were taking place in the East particularly around monetization now the concept of microtransactions in video games is so widespread now that it feels pointless even explaining it but back in the days of vanilla wow it was essentially unheard of in the west some say that maple story was the first Eastern MMO to incorporate microtransactions into its monetization but whatever the case may be over time the notion that there were more ways to make money from an online game than the initial purchase price and or subscription fee started to filter its way Westward and it's hardly surprising that these ideas took root as more and more online games followed in Wow's footsteps carving out their own loyal audiences online as the companies behind them grew and grew world of warcraft's history of microtransactions really begins in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion which is ironic considering that there were more concurrent players then than at any point before or since meaning more box copies of the base game plus its two first expansions being purchased and more monthly subscribers paying to play the game I say this because it's important to remember that as much as one might argue that increased monetization of a game is necessary if the team is expanding and producing more content wrath TBC not to mention the massive vanilla wow itself I mean are we really going to suggest that they had less investment and therefore less content than say Warlords of drena please at first the microtransactions in WoW were very micro indeed paid game services like name and server changes had been around for some time but it was the inclusion of the celestial Steed Mount added to the new cash shop in April 2010 that really marked the beginning of a new era but honestly none of us really cared that much at the time it's important to remember that the culture of players was somewhat different back then experienced players weren't interested in flying around on a starbo mount they wanted Invincible or the time lost Proto Drake something which would show off their skill and dedication to the game so if you were seen on a store Mount back then all that it indicated to many of us was that you were either new or bad at the game not that you had something cool blizzard even acknowledged this themselves by adding an NPC to the cataclysm expansion later that year called Johnny awesome a blood elf in hillsbrad Foothills who would Proclaim his skill and experience all the while riding a Celestial Steed named twinkles and annoying everyone around him it's ironic that blizzard would mock a type of player that they were actually beginning to tailor the game for but really this just goes to show how easy it was for the company to introduce these cosmetic microtransactions it was a joke one they themselves were able to acknowledge and as usual something which would go on to define the game was allowed to quietly slip in without any real resistance we've seen this with so many features in WoW but I doubt when we look back in the years to come anything will have happen had as much of an impact as microtransactions and now I'm honestly wondering how many Celestial steeds did blizzard manage to sell because dumb teenagers thought Johnny awesome was actually funny you know what I don't want to know since 2010 microtransactions in WoW have gradually increased with each expansion more cosmetic items more mounts and more services too Mr Pandaria was the first expansion to introduce the level boost allowing players to bypass what was at the time a long and somewhat tedious leveling process all at the low low price of several months worth of subscription money and it was during the truly exceptional Warlords of dror expansion that blizzard added the wow token to the game arguably making it pay to win in the process if you aren't familiar the token can be purchased for real money on the cash shop and then sold ingame for gold which can in turn be used to pay for boosts from other players through challenging endgame content I know this sounds hard to grasp deliberately so in my opinion but what this means is that through a multi-step process a player could effectively pay real money to gain access to the best gear titles and achievements in the game bypassing the challenge of working their way up and when you think about it the very reason for playing the game in the first place it used to be that people pay PA to play wow it was a great game and those of us lucky enough to discover it early when we were still kids loved it now people pay not to have to play WoW to skip any and all content deemed too difficult too time consuming or worst of all too reliant on actually working with other players in a massively multiplayer online game they pay to not play Madness I tell you and finally arriving at the current age of retail microtransactions have become accepted however unwillingly as just a part of the game and the direction it's taken some players are happy with it and others have realized with grim acceptance that the cash shop simply isn't going away I would argue personally that the big reason why blizzard has pushed retail wow towards a more cosmetic collectible focused game is because it encourages microtransaction purchases if players are mostly interested in what new Cosmetics they can get on their character if that is the mark of an accomplished player rather than their raiding and PVP achievements or simply their social experience in the game then why not pay real money for the new cool looking stuff especially if this is becoming increasingly normalized as just what wow players do but hey that's just one of my retail wow conspiracy theories but this video isn't about retail and I can already hear you asking vulin what does this have to do with classic why is the monetization history of wow and the current practices in retail important to Classic wow and why is this such a problem well now that we've covered the history of the game from 2004 all the way to 2024 now that you know how we got to this point I can explain it very clearly I don't think classic wow makes enough money for blizzard I don't think it makes enough money for them to invest the necessary resources which are required for classic to be at its best you know what I'll go even further I don't think classic can make enough money for blizzard to give it the resources it deserves not currently anyway and for proof of this just look at Blizzard's own claims from back in 2019 when classic Wow first launched remember all your old friends who were coming back to play the game remember all the streamers and games journalists that were raving about how good the experience was going to be it was a gaming phenomenon back in August 2019 and you know what that was proven to be the case in the revenue figures subscriber Revenue grew by 223 % in August compared to the previous month and that is a massive achievement which is reflected in how popular classic W was it was great but you know what's even crazier than that figure the fact that it actually made less money than the previous years August when battle for Azeroth came out yeah that same battle for Azeroth that was considered by so many of us to be absolute trash it still made more money than classic wow did on its launch and ultimately this is the best example of what I'm talking about it is impossible for classic to make the same amount of money that retail can regardless of how good a product we get in either version of the game and this is what is already leading to delays and disappointment in our current classic projects right now now let me be honest when I said that classic wow has a serious problem I was talking about old school classic wow I'm talking about season of Discovery vanilla era servers and any potential TBC wrath other seasonal or perhaps even Classic Plus servers we may get in the future because classic cataclysm is largely invulnerable to this problem it has a cash shop it has microtransactions and as classic continues to move through the expansions which appears to be Blizzard's intention with this project these microtransactions will just develop further and the shop will expand just like it did back in retail because classic will become retail over time yes it'll always lag behind where the current retail expansion is but the ethos the design philosophy and most importantly the monetization philosophy will grow increasingly similar to that of what we have today with retail wow I genuinely believe that as classic goes through the expansions from cataclysm to Mar to God forbid Wallas adrenal we're heading for a somewhat dystopian future in which both retail and classic players are buying stuff from the shop maybe even boosts in increasingly similar versions of the game which I'm sure if you're a shareholder with the company is just delightful as a player it sounds like a nightmare to me how long I wonder before the classic tagline is dropped in favor of something more fitting for such a retail like game such as remix or remastered perhaps but what about the other classic the old school versions of wow what about the season of discover Discovery players or those who are currently crying out for fresh vanilla TBC and wrath servers for a new progression through the original game what about those who are actually setting up their own progression projects on deviate Delight right now because blizzard won't do it many will tell you that classic wow as a concept was always rooted in the desire to go back to return to Old pre-cataclysm Azeroth yes people were split on whether they just wanted vanilla or progression through to the end of Wrath but there was always an understanding that the term classic in reference to World of Warcraft has always referred to the Original Trilogy of vanilla wow the burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King what are the prospects then for these versions of the game and dare I say it what about Classic Plus and let me just say I do wish all of those players who want to play c classic mop classic Legion classic all the best I don't want anyone to have a bad time in their game of choice more power to you but for those of us who are primarily concerned with the older versions of wow just mentioned the future looks very uncertain because those versions of classic wow simply can't make money for blizzard like retail or even classic cataclysm can it's crazy to think it but season of Discovery is actually less monetizable than vanilla wow was back in 2004 because you don't need to buy a copy of the game to play it just have the monthly sub which is of course shared across all versions of wow making it incredibly difficult for blizzard to be able to clearly point to a certain slice of the player base and say ah those are the guys who are here purely for season of Discovery and don't get me wrong this is not me advocating that blizzard find a way to squeeze more money out of the players and incentivize work on sod far from it the reality is that despite the fun I've had in It season of Discovery doesn't add a whole lot new to the game just some revamped instances a few events and Rune abilities which let's face it are almost all abilities which already exist at some point in Wow's life and have been retroactively added to Classic it's a fun game no doubt but the amount of new stuff really does not justify paying more as a player than we already are and fortunately for us players it's unlikely that blizzard will ever add the wow token or a cash shop to sod because that would completely destroy the vanilla spirit that the game is supposedly based on doubtless turning a great number number of players myself included off the experience completely but this leaves them in a strange position because no matter how well season of Discovery performs no matter how many people are subscribing primarily or exclusively to play it it's practically impossible for sod to ever be as profitable as the other game modes all it takes is a returning retail player to purchase alongside their monthly sub a few cosmetic items from the store or a character boost possibly a server transfer or two too and before you know it that one retail player has put more money into Blizzard's pocket in a single day than half a dozen season of Discovery players do in a month the same applies to vanilla era hardcore and should blizzard ever listen the fresh TBC and wrath servers that many players are crying out for right now and this explains to me why we don't have phase 4 of sod yet why we don't have a new set of fresh classic servers and why such efforts have been made to subliminally encourage players to focus on cada or mop remix or preparing for the war within instead of wondering when they'll get an update on their game and why phase 4 facad seems so lackluster already despite its delay all of this all of it comes down to monetization to profit margins and Blizzard's sheer disinterest and the worst part of all of this is that I'm certain these versions of World of Warcraft the era servers season of Discovery hardcore are still very profitable I know many players who returned to the game to play sod and have been subbed for 6 months now for that reason alone we know millions of players worldwide returned for classic in 2019 because they wanted to experience the joy of old wow once more and that 220% increase in sub Revenue that's got to count for something right it would cost nothing more than maintenance fees for there to be a few new old school wow servers for wrath era and TBC and I don't doubt there would be tens of thousands of subbing players as a minimum who would play these versions of the game we're seeing players organize their own server projects as we speak old school wow is still very profitable and in 2004 that would have been enough for blizzard but now I'm not so sure but hey maybe I'm wrong maybe this is just a big conspiracy theory phase four of sod will be a massive experience which paves the way for a fully developed fully resourced Classic Plus but honestly I doubt it and I'm not holding my breath in fact sadly for the first time in well over a year I'm barely even playing wow at the moment because blizzard as much as you might wish it we don't all want to play cata or mop remix and we're not all desperate to play the war within when it comes out I wish those players who do the very best and I hope their gaming experience is great but there are many of us who just want to play Old School wow who campaigned for that version of classic for years and who don't want to see it die because small teams of hobbyist private server developers put more time resources and passion into their classic projects than you do blizzard anyway sorry if this was a bit of a rant guys I've been quite frustrated with the game for some time and the fact that despite wanting to make new content wanting to play with my friends and you guys I feel that classic hasn't delivered the game environment to do that in recent months I'm not prepared to pretend that it's all sunshine and rainbows for some perceived benefits to my YouTube channel I'll always tell you how it it is and keep the passion alive here let me know what you think about the state of the game what you're playing and what expectations you have for the future of classic wow am I being unreasonable overly cynical or do you agree with my appraisal of the situation remember to check me out on Twitch if you want to chat with me live I stream every Monday and Friday at 700 p.m. UK time as always I've been vren and until next time my friends take care yourselves bye-bye

Channel: Vulgrin

Views: 27,489

Keywords: world of warcraft, season of discovery, vanilla, era, TBC, wrath, Hardcore, Fresh, wow classic

Id: tazKQl2su6Y

Length: 19min 58sec (1198 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2024