It's been about six months since a Blizzard poll "accidentally" revealed that they're already working on a classic version of Burning Crusade. We haven't heard anything else about it since then, but pretty much everyone I've talked to in Classic seems to take it as a given that it's coming, and probably not that far off. This week I've become aware that there are even more specific rumours on the subject, saying that Classic BC will be announced at BlizzCon in February (which will now be fully virtual), with beta set to start in March. If it were then to follow a similar timeline as Classic, which went into beta three months before its launch, an early summer release would be likely.
Considering that we haven't even had the last bits of Vanilla content released in Classic yet, this seems mind-blowingly soon to me, even considering that Classic BC is something I'd be looking forward to. Considering the speed at which Blizzard has been pumping out the Classic content patches though, it would fit the pattern, and the rest of the timeline seems plausible as well. WoW Classic was in development for two to three years, but J. Allen Brack stated that after they figured out how to run one older version of WoW, doing the same for other expansions would be a lot less work, and by summer 2021 they would have had nearly two years to work on BC as well, assuming they started development shortly after Classic's launch success.
I have really mixed feelings about this. As much as I'd enjoy a Classic Crusade, it just feels too soon to me. I can see why raiders who've been clearing all the content might disagree, but as someone who's just kind of been bumbling along, the thought of a progression to BC making everything obsolete already - in a way - is a bit worrying nonetheless. I have no doubt that servers for the "original Classic" will continue to hang around, but in terms of endgame I'm sure there'll be a steep drop in active population. In fact, even Naxx might end up being short-changed a second time if it comes out only a couple of months before people's focus starts to shift towards a potential BC beta.
And that's all without even mentioning the question of just how Blizzard is going to handle the matter of letting people progress into BC as per the original question posed in their poll. I'm still hoping for the full server copy option, but considering that wasn't even on Blizzard's radar at the time I'm not holding out too much hope that we won't end up with something less appealing to me personally.
Still, not much point in worrying too much before we've had anything official. It's just interesting to think about.
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After how well WoW Classic did, I am pretty sure that BC Classic is their insurance policy against Shadowlands not being able to hold interest for its full run. It feels likely, to me at least, that we'll hear something in February, after Shadowlands has settled in, about a BC Classic option coming the fall.
ReplyDeleteOh... that's why they delay Shadowlands? To push Shadowlands back to the quarter right before TBC Classic so TBC keeps the subs up after Shadowlands failed.
DeleteI think it'll be longer than the original cycle of WoW to BC simply because so few people got to run Naxxramas during the original release and that seems to have been a big regret on their part. So, if because of nothing more than that, I would expect Classic to have a longer tail simply to allow more players to actually experience that. Maybe an extra 3 months? Pure guess work on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a 9 month gap, just to be sure more people get a shot at it.
ReplyDeleteMy suspicion is that while people are looking forward to BC, Naxx hasn't dropped, and it's not like we're seeing a ton of AQ40 pugs appearing right now.
ReplyDeleteThe big concern I have about Classic BC is that the Classic players are different than the Vanilla players were back then. From what I've heard, raiding in Vanilla wasn't done even close to the frequency as it's done in Classic today. Seems like every guild either is part of their own groups or join up or alliances in 40 man raids, and so the desire to have more of the player base "see" the content by reducing raid size to 25 man raids may no longer be necessary. But we'll see, I suppose.
That kind of jibes with what happens on the EverQuest progression servers, where a lot of people are back to see the raids as much as anything.
DeleteI think it's less that the Classic players are different, but that everything is "solved", so most of the players are here to see the content they missed, for nostalgia, looking for some nice thing, like AH control, or even just something harder. Of course that almost obviates my previous comment ^_^, but I still think Blizz could feel a bit of institutional guilt and extend the game run of Classic.
DeleteAs a bit of an aside, I remember searching something about players essentially locking themselves at 60, and even back then it seemed to be half nostalgia/rejection of new content, and a desire to do content at level (because they hadn't). An interesting data point of what Blizz is tapping into.
I remember back on WoW Insider an interview about a certain guild that did just that: locking everybody at L60 and only using loot from Vanilla drops in their raids. No BC gear allowed.
DeleteEven Business Time, the guild that now-retired blogger Vidyala was GM for, raided in 10s but never anything beyond that because they were in the 10s progression that would be invalidated if they --for example-- raided Ulduar in a 25 man raid. The differences in gear were enough that 25 man drops made 10 man runs significantly easier.