World of Warcraft: Forever

Flobee

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
3,524
4,277
I really wanted to get into this and was pretty close to pulling the trigger, but the more I think about it, the harder it is to convince myself that this version of WoW has any real long-term future.

Blizzard keeps playing coy with the whole "Imagine if the Dark Portal never opened!" premise. Okay, I'm listening. Sounds interesting. "And imagine it's essentially Cataclysm, where we revisit and revamp the old world without actually destroying it, while rolling back a lot of the QoL and convenience features that eventually led to retail!" Hmm... okay, there's potentially something there.

But what's the actual long-term content plan?

"Well... we're going to add some new zones and dungeons!"

Okay, and then what?

"Uhhh... stay tuned!"

That's really where I struggle with this. If Blizzard had laid out even a somewhat vague roadmap, I'd be much more inclined to jump in. Something along the lines of: "Here's our take on an old-school, nostalgia-driven version of WoW. We're going to expand on the existing world and here's the new zones/dungeons we're planning to introduce over the next few months. We're going to improve questing in certain areas, and generally build upon the original experience. Then, perhaps eight months from now, we'll introduce a version of Wrath of the Lich King that follows the same philosophy, with some adjustments to account for the changes we've made to the lore and world. Maybe two years down the road, we'll explore doing something similar with Pandaria."
Not to convince you to move away from your "Everything sucks always" mindset but they did release a Warcraft 3 expansion recently that set up quite a few new lore hooks specifically for Forever to use and at least a dozen new zones have been teased and/or data mined

I mean taking a step back and seeing what they do with it is a solid approach, but they have actually released a lot of information about what they want to do, just maybe not in a bullet point list for you to judge
 
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mkopec

<Gold Donor>
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I really wanted to get into this and was pretty close to pulling the trigger, but the more I think about it, the harder it is to convince myself that this version of WoW has any real long-term future.

Blizzard keeps playing coy with the whole "Imagine if the Dark Portal never opened!" premise. Okay, I'm listening. Sounds interesting. "And imagine it's essentially Cataclysm, where we revisit and revamp the old world without actually destroying it, while rolling back a lot of the QoL and convenience features that eventually led to retail!" Hmm... okay, there's potentially something there.

But what's the actual long-term content plan?

"Well... we're going to add some new zones and dungeons!"

Okay, and then what?

"Uhhh... stay tuned!"

That's really where I struggle with this. If Blizzard had laid out even a somewhat vague roadmap, I'd be much more inclined to jump in. Something along the lines of: "Here's our take on an old-school, nostalgia-driven version of WoW. We're going to expand on the existing world and here's the new zones/dungeons we're planning to introduce over the next few months. We're going to improve questing in certain areas, and generally build upon the original experience. Then, perhaps eight months from now, we'll introduce a version of Wrath of the Lich King that follows the same philosophy, with some adjustments to account for the changes we've made to the lore and world. Maybe two years down the road, we'll explore doing something similar with Pandaria."

Whatever. It doesn't have to be a rigid, multi-year development commitment, but give people some indication that there's an actual vision for where this thing is going. Because as it stands, I'm being asked to buy into what essentially amounts to replaying Classic WoW with some minor questing improvements and a handful of new low-level dungeons, while simultaneously stripping away 90% of the QoL improvements that have accumulated over the years.

I can appreciate the concept, and I can even see the appeal of what they're trying to accomplish. But nostalgia and a handful of new leveling zones aren't a content strategy. At some point, you need to give people a reason to believe there's something beyond the initial novelty. And my fear is that there isn't. This is just trying to capitalize on nostalgia bucks between content cycles and before GTA VI takes over the internet.

I'll sit back and see how Blizzard supports this over the next several months before making a decision. I'd rather see some evidence of a long-term commitment than buy into version 47 of WoW that ultimately runs out of road.
LOl who cares about "long term future". At least I dont. Like really? You care about this game a year or two out? Play it and enjoy it for what it is, or dont. I mean who cares where a game like this is going to be 2 years from now? If it sucks or starts sucking, or I just lose interest, im out. Ill cancel the account and thats that. I did the same with classic 2x. Once when it initially launched, we beat Rag and I lost interest. And then like a few years later I got on some new seasonal classic server that was up to WOTLK had my fun, leveled up yet another huntard, saw all the sights then and got out again. /shrugs I dont need this to be my way of life for the next decade.

Youre making this shit out as some major life decision. Is the $15 THAT much of a burden on your life that its such a big decision? Or is it the time investment? If its the time investment, then you dont even belong on the mmorpg forums. Just stay away, because they are all mindless time sinks you will never get back.
 
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Mahes

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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What kind of amazes me is that they did not implement a housing feature. They already lost half a billion not doing it earlier in the original WoW. They are recreating the game universe, and it shows to be really popular. This is when you start the housing feature. They have the code set up for it. This company really does have something against making money.

I am enjoying this well enough. Luckily I never played any of the other start over versions, so I am not as burned out with it.

I am in no hurry to level. The game is not going anywhere for a while so I am just taking my time building up my chosen crafts and trying out different classes.
 
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CaughtCross

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Just finished the sleeping bag quest. Definitely worth it plus lots of exp and a 12 slot bag. Are there a lot of other quests like with impactful rewards that arnt just gear?
 
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TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
<Gold Donor>
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What kind of amazes me is that they did not implement a housing feature. They already lost half a billion not doing it earlier in the original WoW. They are recreating the game universe, and it shows to be really popular. This is when you start the housing feature. They have the code set up for it. This company really does have something against making money.

I am enjoying this well enough. Luckily I never played any of the other start over versions, so I am not as burned out with it.

I am in no hurry to level. The game is not going anywhere for a while so I am just taking my time building up my chosen crafts and trying out different classes.
I think you really need to interpret the Forever launch as their starting point. Housing will make it in sooner or later. I'd bet money on it.
 

Burns

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
9,584
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Played a few days of the trial week and got to 14 or so. I didn't really remember much of the old (pre-cata) starting Night Elf zone, which was nice, but the amount of people per shard was incredibly annoying.

Since Darkshore is one of the worst second zones, I ran to Westfall, to maybe get the quests for Deadmines and eventually get all the lead-ins to one of the best zones, Duskwood. Unfortunately, by the time I got there I had had enough of the game (did some Elwyn and Hogger was ridiculously crowded) and left it there. While sure, there might be a few new things here and there, it's not really enough to want to pick WoW back up.

Getting ahead of that glut of people in Vanilla, BC, and WotLK was a major driving force of poopsocking during the release week. With the way sharding worked, I doubt even the poopsockers could really outrun the masses in this.
 

your_mum

Trakanon Raider
431
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so this gonna level lock at 60, is that what makes this "forever"? i couldnt tell my friend how it was different than classic besides some qol. wowemu like turtle wow was fun/chill because of that. could start a new char on a 5+ year old lvl 60 server and peeps still playing early content and the constant churn of fresh 60s doing early group/raid content. super casual dad vibes shit i might buy a sub
 

Creslin

Trakanon Raider
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so this gonna level lock at 60, is that what makes this "forever"? i couldnt tell my friend how it was different than classic besides some qol. wowemu like turtle wow was fun/chill because of that. could start a new char on a 5+ year old lvl 60 server and peeps still playing early content and the constant churn of fresh 60s doing early group/raid content. super casual dad vibes shit i might buy a sub
It's different than classic because it probably level locks at 60 and its timeline isn't SoD/classic+ in the sense that it's just light edits, its a completely divergent timeline with a potentially completely different set of expansions etc. A lot of that probably depends on how popular this stays, if it fades into the background then I expect they start rehashing expacs with light edits but if it stays bigger than retail it will get it's own full dev team and basically be wow 2.0.
 

Cutlery

Kill All the White People
<Gold Donor>
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LOl who cares about "long term future". At least I dont. Like really? You care about this game a year or two out? Play it and enjoy it for what it is, or dont. I mean who cares where a game like this is going to be 2 years from now? If it sucks or starts sucking, or I just lose interest, im out. Ill cancel the account and thats that. I did the same with classic 2x. Once when it initially launched, we beat Rag and I lost interest. And then like a few years later I got on some new seasonal classic server that was up to WOTLK had my fun, leveled up yet another huntard, saw all the sights then and got out again. /shrugs I dont need this to be my way of life for the next decade.

Youre making this shit out as some major life decision. Is the $15 THAT much of a burden on your life that its such a big decision? Or is it the time investment? If its the time investment, then you dont even belong on the mmorpg forums. Just stay away, because they are all mindless time sinks you will never get back.

Pretty much it, but it's apparently the major sticking point for a lot of people.

I paid $20 for EQL. Played it for a month. Had a good time. Money well spent. Not spending anymore on it.

I'll sub to Forever after hunting season. I'll play it for awhile. I'll have a good time. When I stop, I'll stop paying for it.

In the meantime, I'll stop buying $15 steam games to sit in my library with 0 hours played.
 

Fucker

Log Wizard
17,658
43,651
I'll sub to Forever after hunting season. I'll play it for awhile. I'll have a good time. When I stop, I'll stop paying for it.

In the meantime, I'll stop buying $15 steam games to sit in my library with 0 hours played.
Seems like a good idea. By then all the leveling zones should have far fewer people in them.
 

Cutlery

Kill All the White People
<Gold Donor>
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Seems like a good idea. By then all the leveling zones should have far fewer people in them.

Had no choice. Launched on the 4th, got to 12, had to go to Miami on the 6th, be here till Saturday, sleep a night or 2 in my own bed and head to the deer shack for the last week.

Best case scenario is I get one first day I'm there. Worst case scenario, I get back to the grind thanksgiving week. Should be completely fine - and I'll tank dungeons for everyone's alts.

Or maybe not if that 60% shit is still there. Not sure wtf that's all about (and tbh, I don't care), but that's fuckin retarded.
 

Runnen

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
2,539
6,234
Just finished the sleeping bag quest. Definitely worth it plus lots of exp and a 12 slot bag. Are there a lot of other quests like with impactful rewards that arnt just gear?

"I'm not gay but 3% bonus XP is 3% bonus XP"

903575715_3311933549014568_2170764294761677324_n.jpg
 

Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
19,148
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I'm taking a break until they fix this CPU thing - game was fine until some update they did a couple days ago, now it tries to boil water with my computer
 
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Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
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Not to convince you to move away from your "Everything sucks always" mindset but they did release a Warcraft 3 expansion recently that set up quite a few new lore hooks specifically for Forever to use and at least a dozen new zones have been teased and/or data mined

I mean taking a step back and seeing what they do with it is a solid approach, but they have actually released a lot of information about what they want to do, just maybe not in a bullet point list for you to judge
I find it interesting that expressing some reservations about the long-term direction of a game somehow translates into having an "everything sucks always" mindset or treating a $15 subscription like a major financial decision. That's certainly one way to interpret what I wrote, I suppose.

I'm aware that Blizzard has teased additional content, established some new lore hooks, and that various zones have been datamined. That's great. I'm not suggesting they've done absolutely nothing or that there's no potential here. Quite the opposite, actually. The entire reason I'm interested in Forever in the first place is because I think the underlying concept has a tremendous amount of potential.

But there's a fairly substantial distinction between having ideas for future content and communicating a coherent long-term vision for this version of the game.

Teasing potential additions or data-mined doesn't tell me whether Blizzard intends to meaningfully expand this alternate version of Azeroth over the next several years or simply sprinkle some new content into Classic WoW before moving on to the next iteration. That's why I'm saying they're playing coy.

They won't even give a vague timeline/roadmap, which tells me a LOT. I'm not asking for a legally binding five-year development plan, complete with quarterly earnings projections and a Gantt chart. I'm asking for some indication of what Blizzard actually envisions Forever becoming. Is this an evolving alternate timeline with its own expansions, progression systems, and substantial content updates? Or is it primarily a nostalgia project with occasional additions to the existing world? Those are two fundamentally different propositions, and I don't think it's particularly unreasonable to want some clarity before investing time into one.
LOl who cares about "long term future". At least I dont. Like really? You care about this game a year or two out? Play it and enjoy it for what it is, or dont. I mean who cares where a game like this is going to be 2 years from now? If it sucks or starts sucking, or I just lose interest, im out. Ill cancel the account and thats that. I did the same with classic 2x. Once when it initially launched, we beat Rag and I lost interest. And then like a few years later I got on some new seasonal classic server that was up to WOTLK had my fun, leveled up yet another huntard, saw all the sights then and got out again. /shrugs I dont need this to be my way of life for the next decade.

Youre making this shit out as some major life decision. Is the $15 THAT much of a burden on your life that its such a big decision? Or is it the time investment? If its the time investment, then you dont even belong on the mmorpg forums. Just stay away, because they are all mindless time sinks you will never get back.
I'm genuinely glad you're perfectly content to jump into an MMORPG, level a character, clear a raid or two, and move on whenever the novelty wears off. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that approach. But I'm not entirely sure why your personal relationship with MMORPGs is supposed to dictate everyone else's. If you like the "seasonal" approach, be my guest. I play ARPGs that way, but I'm not into playing MMORPGs that way.

Some people approach these games as temporary entertainment. Others enjoy building characters, participating in persistent communities, progressing through content, and watching a game world evolve over several years. Neither approach is inherently superior, but pretending the latter is somehow absurd is a pretty strange position to take on an MMORPG forum, of all places.

And no, the $15 isn't the issue. I'm fairly certain most adults can distinguish between being financially incapable of spending $15 and simply questioning whether something is worth their time. That's really the crux of my hesitation. It's not the subscription fee, and it's certainly not some existential crisis over whether I should play a video game. It's whether I want to invest dozens or hundreds of hours into yet another iteration of Classic WoW without having much confidence in where Blizzard intends to take it.

The irony of telling someone they don't belong on an MMORPG forum because they care about the long-term future of an MMORPG is pretty amusing, though. Persistent worlds, long-term character progression, and evolving content have been foundational aspects of the genre for decades. You personally choosing to treat them as disposable, short-term experiences doesn't somehow make those considerations irrelevant to everyone else.

Ultimately, I'm not telling anyone they shouldn't play Forever. I'm not even saying it's a bad game. I'm saying the concept interests me, but Blizzard hasn't yet demonstrated enough of a long-term vision to convince me to jump in, outside of shooting off my Nostalgia rocks - of which I don't have a ton of for WoW.
 

yerm

Avatar of War Slayer
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20,634
I find it interesting that expressing some reservations about the long-term direction of a game somehow translates into having an "everything sucks always" mindset or treating a $15 subscription like a major financial decision. That's certainly one way to interpret what I wrote, I suppose.

I'm aware that Blizzard has teased additional content, established some new lore hooks, and that various zones have been datamined. That's great. I'm not suggesting they've done absolutely nothing or that there's no potential here. Quite the opposite, actually. The entire reason I'm interested in Forever in the first place is because I think the underlying concept has a tremendous amount of potential.

But there's a fairly substantial distinction between having ideas for future content and communicating a coherent long-term vision for this version of the game.

Teasing potential additions or data-mined doesn't tell me whether Blizzard intends to meaningfully expand this alternate version of Azeroth over the next several years or simply sprinkle some new content into Classic WoW before moving on to the next iteration. That's why I'm saying they're playing coy.

They won't even give a vague timeline/roadmap, which tells me a LOT. I'm not asking for a legally binding five-year development plan, complete with quarterly earnings projections and a Gantt chart. I'm asking for some indication of what Blizzard actually envisions Forever becoming. Is this an evolving alternate timeline with its own expansions, progression systems, and substantial content updates? Or is it primarily a nostalgia project with occasional additions to the existing world? Those are two fundamentally different propositions, and I don't think it's particularly unreasonable to want some clarity before investing time into one.

I'm genuinely glad you're perfectly content to jump into an MMORPG, level a character, clear a raid or two, and move on whenever the novelty wears off. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that approach. But I'm not entirely sure why your personal relationship with MMORPGs is supposed to dictate everyone else's. If you like the "seasonal" approach, be my guest. I play ARPGs that way, but I'm not into playing MMORPGs that way.

Some people approach these games as temporary entertainment. Others enjoy building characters, participating in persistent communities, progressing through content, and watching a game world evolve over several years. Neither approach is inherently superior, but pretending the latter is somehow absurd is a pretty strange position to take on an MMORPG forum, of all places.

And no, the $15 isn't the issue. I'm fairly certain most adults can distinguish between being financially incapable of spending $15 and simply questioning whether something is worth their time. That's really the crux of my hesitation. It's not the subscription fee, and it's certainly not some existential crisis over whether I should play a video game. It's whether I want to invest dozens or hundreds of hours into yet another iteration of Classic WoW without having much confidence in where Blizzard intends to take it.

The irony of telling someone they don't belong on an MMORPG forum because they care about the long-term future of an MMORPG is pretty amusing, though. Persistent worlds, long-term character progression, and evolving content have been foundational aspects of the genre for decades. You personally choosing to treat them as disposable, short-term experiences doesn't somehow make those considerations irrelevant to everyone else.

Ultimately, I'm not telling anyone they shouldn't play Forever. I'm not even saying it's a bad game. I'm saying the concept interests me, but Blizzard hasn't yet demonstrated enough of a long-term vision to convince me to jump in, outside of shooting off my Nostalgia rocks - of which I don't have a ton of for WoW.
Bro, with love, nobody cares. Play if you want. Post if you want. Dont if not.
 
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Ritley

Bronze Baron of the Realm
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The stones were always in since beta. But they never worked as an actual summoning stone until later expansions.
Summoning stones were technically in classic, they could summon in the TBC prepatch. I don’t understand people acting like summoning stones were something added 6 expansions after classic.

The “if you want any change no matter how trivial you should just play live” crowd is quickly becoming as insufferable as bikers, vegans, and cross fitters. If you don’t want anything changed go play era

Running to dungeons, at least on a PvE server, is nothing but a waste of your and everyone in your groups time. There’s no danger, there’s no community to it, it’s just flying for 5-10 minutes with maybe a boat in there followed by pointing your character in the right direction and hitting autorun.

Also, they really seem hellbent on fucking with shamans. Stormstrike, intellect AP scaling, and maelstrom weapon all nerfed hard.
 
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