Or do you want it to even evolve at all?
As we reported recently,World of WarcraftClassicis quietlynearing the end of its major content cadence.
So what’s next? Well, weprobablywould have gotten that news this past November if BlizzCon would have happened. Instead, we’ll likely get it in February during Blizzard’s BlizzCon Online festivities.
But before that happens, what do you want fromWoW Classic?
The way I see it, there’s a few options.
Blizzard could keep the “Vanilla Classic” feel the same and isolated. This is a rather risky venture, as the playerbase would likely slowly dwindle, doing the same thing over and over. The publisher seems to still be happy with how it’s performing, augmenting and funneling into the modernWoWsubscription base (remember, one sub gets you both versions): so this could propel Blizzard through another year or so, minimum.
Or, Blizzard could incrementally add separate “expansion” servers for future xpacs, starting withBurning Crusade. Given the high demand for bothBCandWrath of the Lich King(arguably the two most popular expansions),getting some form of expansion accessis likely in the cards. In this hypothetical,Burning Crusadeservers (and so on) would be separate from “Classic Vanilla,” so the original experience can be preserved in a living time capsule.
Or, there’s another option. We could also get a full incremental rollover ofWoW Classic. As in,Burning Crusadetakes over entirely and morphs the game; leaving “Vanilla” in the dust. From then on, every few years, expansions and patches would cycle in until the game is “modern” again (with the “main” version of the game multiple expansions ahead).
It’s really tricky, and I bet Blizzard is crunching a ton of numbers right now. Or they have a tentative plan they were going to unleash in November that was going to be divisive. As for me, although it would be a ton of work, I think the separate expansion strategy would be the most amicable for everyone. Realistically, I think they’ll just start to roll it over.
