Blizzard announced "Classic" World of Warcraft

[Lacrymas]

It's not random matchmaking, you can invite other people in your party in the hubs, or go with NPCs. There is a random matchmaking PvP mode, but that's different. And you just state that isn't an MMO, but give no sufficient reason for that. It must be an open-world because I say so! isn't compelling or sufficient. If you google "massively multiplayer online definition", you'll see none of them mention that an open-world is an absolute must.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

LOOK MOTHEFUCKER I KNO AN MMO WHEN I SEE ONE AND THAT AINT NO MOTHERCUCKIN MMO U HEAR?!!?!?!??

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

You can also invite your buddies on your server in server based games like Conan Exiles. And this is essentially what you're describing.

Creating interserver communication doesn't make it an MMO, it just makes it a massive multiplayer chatroom. You need massive multiplayer gameplay to say it's an MMO.

 

[Revenant]

Non-instanced hubs do not an MMO make, as you can see lots of other players running around town in ARPGs like Path of Exile as well, and it means jack shit because your interaction with them is limited to looking at their gear or talking to them. For a game to be an MMO, you need massive numbers of players meaningfully interacting in most parts of the game.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

by that definition, WoW isn't even an MMO since pretty much all of its meaningful content is instanced

more proof that classic (and retail, duh)( sux balls

get rekkddddddd

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

by that definition, WoW isn't even an MMO since pretty much all of its meaningful content is instanced

more proof that classic (and retail, duh)( sux balls

get rekkddddddd

However retarded you are, you do raise a valid point.

Before WOW:
- Leveling up requires you to team up with other players from day 2-3, meaning you're already playing with others.
WOW:
- You're encouraged to quest solo (almost a single player game). While in dungeon, you only interact with your group, no one else (it's more like left 4 dead, than an mmo).

Before WOW:
- Upon reaching max level, you compete with others for raid content, because it's not instanced. Lots of interactions.
WOW:
- Upon reaching 60, a different game starts - you play only with your guildies. Not with other players (it's like a large co-op, not an mmo).

So yeah, wow never boasted lot of mmo-esque mechanics. It was still an MMO technically, even if it was on heavy decline.

 

[Makabb]

Bullshit. You need a persistent server where all the players can interact with each other at all times in every part of the game. Guild Wars can't do that, therefore, it is not an MMO.
.

That's exactly what vanilla wow is, all players are in the same world on same server on 2 continents, zones overlap 2 factions and when players meet they fight. Theoreticaly it is possible in WoW that 1000 vs 1000 people will fight in same area in the 'open world'.


The only thing that is 'instanced' in WoW is the dungeons and battleground pvp.

 

[Makabb]

So yeah, wow never boasted lot of mmo-esque mechanics. It was still an MMO technically, even if it was on heavy decline.

Vanilal WoW encouraged grouping because some quests were hard as $!$@! and without a group you would not be able to do them unless you would be over leveled.

 

[Lacrymas]

Or, or, hear me out here - requiring an open world is not a must and it's just a thing you made up for no reason. This is the first time I hear an MMO has to have an open world. Not an insignificant amount of players exist on the same server at the same time and that's enough. Who is to say PoE isn't an MMO hack and slash? Is MMO now a sacred word as well? GW is not a lobby where you click begin game every time, only leveling can be done solo (like WoW *gasp*), which thank god for that. Is there a point to that in an MP game? Ask Blizz, I guess. There are challenging missions and a hard mode in GW where grouping up ia pretty mandatory. Leveling has always been a peculiar problem for MMOs and GW at least sidesteps the need to wait for respawns. I don't think it's fair to blame GW for not being like EQ in that respect while giving a free pass to WoW. GWs focus is mostly PvP, and that's why you can make a max lvl character from the get-go and get right to the action. Gear in GW is mostly cosmetic, and the stats you can manipulate are set to a particular number, you can only change which stat you want to affect.

 

[Revenant]

Yeah it's truly ridiculous to expect massive scale gameplay from a game of a genre that has the word "massive" in it, ok

EDIT: if your only criterion for mass is player number on a server than any online game like CS or LoL is also an MMO. Mass is defined by the way players interact and not their pure count.

 

[Lacrymas]

There are massive GvG battles and raids.

 

[Revenant]

5, 10, 40 or even 100 players is not massive. When Richard Garriott, the founder of the genre, talked about massive he meant thousands of players.

 

[Lacrymas]

There isn't a game in existence where thousands of players participate in the same event at the same time. *Maybe* the opening of AQ and other such once-in-a-server's-lifetime events and I doubt there are thousands.

 

[Revenant]

In single-shard MMOs like Eve and Albion there are thousands of players playing simultaneously in the same world. They don't necessarily have to meet all in the same place in order for the game to feel massive, but a proper MMO must support that (battles like that happen in Eve every few years).

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Richard Garriott, the founder of the genre

lmao.

 

[MapMan]

This discussion is 2 meta 4 me.

 

[Xor]

Citations, sources or arguments needed. You also need to define "interact with".

The definition from Wikipedia -

A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG, or more commonly, MMO) is an online game with large numbers of players, typically from hundreds to thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although some games differ.

If I ask a random person whether GW looks and plays like the same genre as WoW or ...hmm, I don't know, DotA I guess (what do you think GW is?), they'll tell me it's like WoW.

Citing wikipedia instantly loses you any internet argument.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I think the reasoning people are using goes something like this:

Wow is teh sucks lol

CLEARLY Guild Wars is the more monocle choice

Therefore Guild Wars is a better MMO than WoW.

 

[gruntar]

So, they're going with 1.12 version of AV, with most npcs removed and nerfed, where most effective strat is to rush and kill last boss, similar to retail AV. Massive .

 

[Edija]

See you soon.

 

[Metro]

So, they're going with 1.12 version of AV, with most npcs removed and nerfed, where most effective strat is to rush and kill last boss, similar to retail AV. Massive .

Classic AV was probably one of the few reasons I had interest in this... oh well.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

yikes ppl ain't gonna be happy about that

 

[Talby]

Blizz wants to make Classic WoW deliberately as bad as possible so they can say "I told you so" when it flops.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

I wish blizzard would flop

 

[Parabalus]

Since we first announced World of Warcraft Classic, we’ve seen questions about spell batching. While we never really eliminated spell batching in WoW, we did change how (and how often) we process batches of actions coming from players, so you’re less likely to notice that processing in today’s game. We’ve been working to ensure that in WoW Classic, the gameplay of activating spells and effects will not differ from the experience of playing original WoW.

It was relatively common in the original game to see a warrior Pummel a mage who simultaneously and successfully Polymorphed the warrior. The mage suffered Pummel damage but no spell-school lock, because the mage didn’t get interrupted. This could seem paradoxical, but it could happen because the Pummel and Polymorph were both in the same batch, and were both valid actions at the start of the batch. For the most part, things like that don’t happen in modern WoW, but they still can. We’ve made improvements to batch frequency, and the game is much more responsive than it used to be. Still, if you manage to get both a Pummel and a Polymorph into a tiny processing window in modern WoW, you’ll experience the same behavior as in original WoW.

As with many other areas of WoW Classic, authenticity is our primary concern. It used to be the norm that combat flow and PvP balance were defined and tuned in a game where spell messages were resolved less frequently. There was a single game loop that processed all messages sent and received every server tick. Nowadays, the game processes multiple loops for messages of differing priorities. Spell casts are high priority, and have been for a long time.

For WoW Classic, we’re moving spell casts to a low-priority loop that will cause them to be processed at the frequency that best fits how the game actually played in version 1.12. Two mages will be able to Polymorph each other somewhat reliably, resulting in two sheep nervously pacing around at range. Two warriors will be able to Charge one another, and the end result will be both warriors standing stunned in each other’s original location.

We think it’ll be fun to see those sorts of things happening again.