Classic GW2 Servers

[imjahova.1708]

Do you think we will ever get classic GW2 servers? And by that I mean, Pre-HoT Expansion servers.

[Zeivu.3615]

I don't know if you want what you are asking....

[imjahova.1708]

> @"Zeivu.3615" said:

> I don't know if you want what you are asking....

 

Yes I do, J. Allen Brack....

[Mewcifer.5198]

Highly unlikely. The population of people who would want to play on such a server would be too low to sustain it.

[Lucarth.4863]

The amount of players that would come back to experience pre-HoT again would dwarf the current player base. If an enthusiastic and dedicated dev team was then assigned to make updates based on player suggestions and community polls you'd have a guild wars renaissance.

[mercury ranique.2170]

One of the strong points of GW2 is that it is original and does not want to be a cheap rip off of what is the market leader. Although this is less valid. There where days that Arenanet challenged Blizzard with original content both creative and innovative. They should do this more instead of adapting ideas that might work elsewhere but have zero chance of being successful or interesting for GW2!

[Uden Reavstone.3426]

OP, I don't know when you started to play GW2, but I've been playing since the betas. Trust, pre-HoT GW2 was a terrible game. I honestly don't know why so many people, myself included, loved GW2 back then. We don't need or want a GW2 Classic.

[imjahova.1708]

> @"Uden Reavstone.3426" said:

> OP, I don't know when you started to play GW2, but I've been playing since the betas. Trust, pre-HoT GW2 was a terrible game. I honestly don't know why so many people, myself included, loved GW2 back then. We don't need or want a GW2 Classic.

 

I played Beta, and early access, Pre-HoT was just more simpler and a better experience imo.

[Randulf.7614]

This has been discussed. The amount you’d lose in terms of qol - no wardrobe, no champ boxes, no map reward tracks, no fractals etc would put all but a tiny number of people off. I mean unless you got 3 servers worth, even WvW would be excluded

 

Where would Anet draw the line about what was included?

 

If you just want pre hot then grab a free account. Sure others around you will have elites and mounts, but otherwise u have classic content for you.

 

 

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

Are you asking to have servers with no wardrobe, characters have their own money, no dailies, no mounts, no access to items on the trading post from after launch, such as cosmetic backpacks. No fractals, no ascended gear, no new Legendaries, and have to do map completion of WvW to get original legendaries? (Plus more changes in the years since launch). Because if that’s it there’s no way they’re going to do all the work necessary to make that work for existing accounts.

[Dawdler.8521]

I for one would love to see peoples faces when they realize their legendaries are soulbound and they have to build new ones to use them on other characters.

[aspirine.6852]

Put on old exotics and play only core professions and core content.....

[Cyninja.2954]

From an economic stand point, as a buy to play game, a "classic server" GW2 would need to be monetized. Simply put: the game would not be free.

 

The problem here then becomes: you have a very similar experience to Core Tyria in retail GW2, which is free to play, competing with a "classic" version which requires payed access. Further limiting the amount of players who would play or stick with this version.

 

Going forward from there:

- classic GW2 had far less monetization via the Gem Store, in part due to the box sales of the game being required for access. While great on paper, this would be an issue in generating revenue 8 years in. Unless gems were shared across game versions, free at disposal for either. Which makes this even more of a convoluted system to implement

- a lot of quality of life additions, both monetized and not monetized, would be missing. Again a factor which would cut into profitability and thus viability

 

As comparison, WoW Classic, which I assume many think of when coming up with this suggestion, tackles some of these issues differently:

 

A. WoW is subscription based. Blizzard/Activision do not care which version of the game you pay as long as you have that sub running. As a matter of fact, subbing to WoW allows access to either version. This would not be mirrored here by pure difference in monetization model.

 

B. WoW Classis, while hyped in the beginning, was not the perfect game as many believed it would be (or rather remembered it to be). It lives purely off of the nostalgia and mostly players who want to repeat or relive their early WoW days. Many have moved back to retail. One huge benefit though is the bigger appreciation of retail WoW

 

C. WoW's in-game economy works very different to GW2, as in: it's very inflation driven and quite frankly Blizzard doesn't give to much about balancing it. GW2's economy is rather stable, even with it's minor ups and downs. For this to be the case, you need a large enough player base both supplying as well as demanding goods. It's questionable this would be the case with "classic" servers. Which would pose a significant problem.

 

**So as far as chances of ever seeing a classic GW2 server? I'd say pretty much none.**

[LadyRhonwyn.2501]

> @"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:

> Are you asking to have servers with no wardrobe, characters have their own money, no dailies, no mounts, no access to items on the trading post from after launch, such as cosmetic backpacks. No fractals, no ascended gear, no new Legendaries, and have to do map completion of WvW to get original legendaries? (Plus more changes in the years since launch). Because if that’s it there’s no way they’re going to do all the work necessary to make that work for existing accounts.

 

Off this list, I really liked the fact that characters had their own money. Oh, and there's one other change I'd rather see rolled back: the fact that you can no longer buy Gifts of Battle in WvW. If I had to do map completion of WvW again but would be able to buy the Gift of Battle, I'd say yes in a heartbeat!

[Cyninja.2954]

> @"LadyRhonwyn.2501" said:

> > @"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:

> > Are you asking to have servers with no wardrobe, characters have their own money, no dailies, no mounts, no access to items on the trading post from after launch, such as cosmetic backpacks. No fractals, no ascended gear, no new Legendaries, and have to do map completion of WvW to get original legendaries? (Plus more changes in the years since launch). Because if that’s it there’s no way they’re going to do all the work necessary to make that work for existing accounts.

>

> Off this list, I really liked the fact that characters had their own money. Oh, and there's one other change I'd rather see rolled back: the fact that you can no longer buy Gifts of Battle in WvW. If I had to do map completion of WvW again but would be able to buy the Gift of Battle, I'd say yes in a heartbeat!

 

Only until you realize that map completion in WvW sometimes meant literally having to wait weeks until your server was the appropriate color to get those last few PoI and Vistas. Depending a lot on how strong your server was in getting into each objective.

 

Which, given the likely small size of Classic and potentially, if at all, only 3 server, would mean that everyone bandwagons on 1 server, and if you aren't on that one, you most definitely will have to wait weeks.

 

Versus todays what? 6 hours with boosters of flipping camps? Yeah....

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

So...no Living World? No updates, at all? Or, back to Season One with only 2 to 4 weeks when content is available? What happens when that content runs out? Again, no updates, at all?

 

I, for one, would not want to give up all the QoL improvements we have nowadays. Especially, autoloot.

[LadyRhonwyn.2501]

> @"Cyninja.2954" said:

> > @"LadyRhonwyn.2501" said:

> > > @"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:

> > > Are you asking to have servers with no wardrobe, characters have their own money, no dailies, no mounts, no access to items on the trading post from after launch, such as cosmetic backpacks. No fractals, no ascended gear, no new Legendaries, and have to do map completion of WvW to get original legendaries? (Plus more changes in the years since launch). Because if that’s it there’s no way they’re going to do all the work necessary to make that work for existing accounts.

> >

> > Off this list, I really liked the fact that characters had their own money. Oh, and there's one other change I'd rather see rolled back: the fact that you can no longer buy Gifts of Battle in WvW. If I had to do map completion of WvW again but would be able to buy the Gift of Battle, I'd say yes in a heartbeat!

>

> Only until you realize that map completion in WvW sometimes meant literally having to wait weeks until your server was the appropriate color to get those last few PoI and Vistas. Depending a lot on how strong your server was in getting into each objective.

>

> Which, given the likely small size of Classic and potentially, if at all, only 3 server, would mean that everyone bandwagons on 1 server, and if you aren't on that one, you most definitely will have to wait weeks.

>

> Versus todays what? 6 hours with boosters of flipping camps? Yeah....

 

I've done more full map completions before the WvW change than I got Gifts of Battle the new way. I click that little cross on the right side of my window after 5 minutes if I enter WvW now... Maybe unless you are able (both physically as mentally) to spend 6 hours straight in WvW, getting a Legendary the new way is slower than the old one. Also, remember that you get 2 Gifts of Exploration with one single map completion...

 

But because I say I preferred the old way of the Gift of Exploration/Gift of Battle, doesn't mean I would like a GW2 Classic server! Rather the opposite, those two things I mentioned (the "personal" gold and the Gift of Battle changes) are the only thing I'd like to return to the old way!

[maddoctor.2738]

> @"imjahova.1708" said:

> Do you think we will ever get classic GW2 servers? And by that I mean, Pre-HoT Expansion servers.

 

How do you expect that to work? No mounts/gliding? No elite specs? Last I checked the core game is free, so who would be the target audience for these servers to justify their existence?

[kharmin.7683]

> @"Lucarth.4863" said:

> The amount of players that would come back to experience pre-HoT again would dwarf the current player base.

You know this how? Where is your evidence to support such a claim?

 

[SeikeNz.3526]

this game is horizontal not vertical, so there's no point on "gw2 classic" unlike wow

[Cyninja.2954]

> @"LadyRhonwyn.2501" said:

> > @"Cyninja.2954" said:

> > > @"LadyRhonwyn.2501" said:

> > > > @"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:

> > > > Are you asking to have servers with no wardrobe, characters have their own money, no dailies, no mounts, no access to items on the trading post from after launch, such as cosmetic backpacks. No fractals, no ascended gear, no new Legendaries, and have to do map completion of WvW to get original legendaries? (Plus more changes in the years since launch). Because if that’s it there’s no way they’re going to do all the work necessary to make that work for existing accounts.

> > >

> > > Off this list, I really liked the fact that characters had their own money. Oh, and there's one other change I'd rather see rolled back: the fact that you can no longer buy Gifts of Battle in WvW. If I had to do map completion of WvW again but would be able to buy the Gift of Battle, I'd say yes in a heartbeat!

> >

> > Only until you realize that map completion in WvW sometimes meant literally having to wait weeks until your server was the appropriate color to get those last few PoI and Vistas. Depending a lot on how strong your server was in getting into each objective.

> >

> > Which, given the likely small size of Classic and potentially, if at all, only 3 server, would mean that everyone bandwagons on 1 server, and if you aren't on that one, you most definitely will have to wait weeks.

> >

> > Versus todays what? 6 hours with boosters of flipping camps? Yeah....

>

> I've done more full map completions before the WvW change than I got Gifts of Battle the new way.

 

I did 5 or 6 map completions before the change, and another 7 after. The WvW part was always the longest real time wise since it highly depended on how strong your server was. Also this was while server colors rotated evenly, not in todays system where you could essentially be stuck with 1 server color for weeks.

 

Yes, game time wise it might have been faster to pop in, get the last few vistas and PoI, then be done with map completion. Real time wise this might have stretched over weeks.

 

Also not sure how the amount of completions of gifts matter, unless you want to also add that you are limited via lack of GoB in crafting more legnedaries currently. You might have had some GoB stored, might not have bothered with crafting legendaries for lack of GoB. You might have had no more GoE left over. There are a lot of factors which would influence you getting less GoB after the change which have little to do with the acquisition method, first and foremost the lack of demand for a GoB.

 

> @"LadyRhonwyn.2501" said:

> I click that little cross on the right side of my window after 5 minutes if I enter WvW now... Maybe unless you are able (both physically as mentally) to spend 6 hours straight in WvW, getting a Legendary the new way is slower than the old one. Also, remember that you get 2 Gifts of Exploration with one single map completion...

 

Those 6 hours don't have to be done at once. You can pop in when ever you have a bit of time, get a bit of the track done, then drop back out. If done on a character that otherwise sees no play, your boons won't even expire.

 

Not sure, I think the fact you can get this at your own leisure and are absolutely independent of your servers performance or color seems like a benefit worth noting when comparing.

 

> @"LadyRhonwyn.2501" said:

> But because I say I preferred the old way of the Gift of Exploration/Gift of Battle, doesn't mean I would like a GW2 Classic server! Rather the opposite, those two things I mentioned (the "personal" gold and the Gift of Battle changes) are the only thing I'd like to return to the old way!

 

Sure, not judging. Simply stating that you might have more rose colored memories of what it meant to map complete the WvW maps than was actually the case. I still remember the patch when WvW maps were removed from the world completion. A lot of PvE only players sighed a huge relief.

[Astralporing.1957]

> @"imjahova.1708" said:

> > @"Uden Reavstone.3426" said:

> > OP, I don't know when you started to play GW2, but I've been playing since the betas. Trust, pre-HoT GW2 was a terrible game. I honestly don't know why so many people, myself included, loved GW2 back then. We don't need or want a GW2 Classic.

>

> I played Beta, and early access, Pre-HoT was just more simpler and a better experience imo.

Some of the things might have been better, but a lot of other stuff was way, way worse. For example, i wouldn't want to return to pre-HoT condi damage system. I wouldn't want to return to pre-HoT state as a Ranger or Necro either.

And when i think of how (un)rewarding the game was in the beginning, i get really, really sad.

 

All of those things are just a tip of the iceberg, by the way.

 

[kharmin.7683]

I wonder what issues with the current game the OP is trying to solve with this suggestion? How will this bring more income to Anet?

[Teratus.2859]

I love Gw2 but a Gw2 classic would be pretty bad compared to everything we've got now.

 

As someone who runs new characters through the story quite often and does a weekly keyfarm (running a character from creation to lvl 60 story missions) I have a lot of time invested in the old content more than the new.. and I can tell you honestly that while I stil enjoy classic Gw2 content.. it is very dated compared to the new stuff and it is a really noticable quality jump.

 

A Gw2 classic would be more or less just making a new Gw2 with arguably all the best content cut out of it..

No fractals, No raids, no Desert Borderlands, no Edge of the Mists, old PVP lobby, no guild halls, less PvP maps, no raids, no strikes, no silverwastes farm, no champ loot bags, no elite specs, no expansion maps or living world maps, no ascended gear, weaker legendary gear, no mounts, no mastery system, no gliding, max level crafting at 400, even worse underwater combat system with more annoying enemies that are harder to kill.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

The only benefit to that I can see could be in competitve modes as it would simplify them back down to just the core classes with some older skill forms.. but honestly that could be done in the game now by having a no elite specs pvp game mode.

So yeah im gonna have to agree with others here.. most people are likely going to see a classic server as a big negative and the pop will probably rapidly drop on it as a result.

There's just nothing really to gain from adding one.

[Danikat.8537]

I agree with everyone else. I've never played WoW but as I understand it the game is very, very different today to when it first came out and even if you start a new character it's not really possible to replay the original content as it was so there was a lot of interest in a classic version which lets you repeat that early content.

 

GW2 isn't like that. Of course there's been been changes to skills, traits, equipment etc. over the years but aside from a few relatively minor changes (like removing the need to pick up a bucket to water the corn at the first heart in Queensdale) the content itself is the same. Your experience playing the core game today isn't that different to when the game was released, except that we've got a bunch of QoL updates which I doubt many people would be keen to lose. I think the novelty of going back to old trait and skill systems would be massively outweighed by losing things like the wardrobe or champion boxes.