Would you play an independent MMO inspired by vanilla?

[advanta]

I wonder if you guys could shed some light on this:

There is considerable interest in legacy servers. These servers violate copyright and sometimes get shut down.

Yet, what people seem to like about these servers is not things which cannot be copyrighted. They talk about the slower pace of progession, pace of the game, the hardcore appeal, the community. They dislike the instant gratification of retail wow.

No one seems to particulary want 2004 graphics or be particulary attached to the design elements.

So, this begs the question: why not just set up an independent MMO with all those elements but unique design?

Assuming you are interested in or would play a legacy server, would the idea of a vanilla-like server appeal to you? If not, why not?

[Miksu]

I heard they're bringing Nostalrius back online(?)

[advanta]

I heard they're bringing Nostalrius back online(?)

Yeah they are. But this isn't about that. This is about whether a vanilla-based wow that doesn't violate copyright would work.

[Veritable]

It depends on what your scale of "working" is. Do you want 20 people, 20,000 people, 2,000,000 people? That's what is going to make it 'work' for you, if you can manage to get enough people to play it.

I mean, ya I can see the draw, and I myself will be going to play on Elysium during down times. Making a game would take so many people to do it right, and unfortunately, people would probably want to get paid for their work somehow. I would love to work on one, but whenever I start making 'a game', I get overwhelmed with the amount of work it takes to make it look polished.

It's just too much for one person to do by themselves. The major issue is the art assets. Finding good artwork is nigh impossible in today's world. Most people program and do things like that, but it takes a special kind of person to do 3D Modeling and texture designs.

[LoveOne]

Wildstar was exactly that at launch, it failed.

[advanta]

It depends on what your scale of "working" is. Do you want 20 people, 20,000 people, 2,000,000 people? That's what is going to make it 'work' for you, if you can manage to get enough people to play it.

I mean, ya I can see the draw, and I myself will be going to play on Elysium during down times. Making a game would take so many people to do it right, and unfortunately, people would probably want to get paid for their work somehow. I would love to work on one, but whenever I start making 'a game', I get overwhelmed with the amount of work it takes to make it look polished.

It's just too much for one person to do by themselves. The major issue is the art assets. Finding good artwork is nigh impossible in today's world. Most people program and do things like that, but it takes a special kind of person to do 3D Modeling and texture designs.

It is certainly too much work for one person. However, it can be done by a small team. In fact, vanilla wow was done by a small team with technology that is very primtive by 2016 standards.

I agree 3D modelling isn't trivial, for me. However it seems to be suprisingly easy for some people. Have you ever been to Second Life? Go to a sandbox and you see all kinds of fantastic constructions-most of those people are just amusing themselves or at best getting paid sub-minimum wage.

I've never really got the impression wow players wanted particulary fantastic graphics. You'd be playing something else if you did. On the other hand, Blizzard have always done extremely well with limited definition. But it seems to me offhand that "functional" design would be enough if you managed to capture the spirit of the vanilla gameplay aesthetic.

With regard to how many people: it seems like the Nostralrius numbers are what you'd be shooting for. That's a hell of a profitable business if you monetize it. From a purely business point of view the calculation is: can you pay the salary and infrastructure costs of a small developer team with subs/cash store items. It would seem highly likely to be a yes.

With regard to LoveOne's comment on Wildstar.
I think WS's business model was pure lunacy. I've seen estimates of 100 million sunk in the game. They just did not have a handle on cost. If you do that, then you can't go for hardcore players only, it has to be a mass-market thing. (Plus I always hated the sci-fi cartoon aesthetic, had no gravitas.)

What did Nostralius spend by comparison? Sure, they used Bliz's code, but then so do half the MMO's out there to some extent.

[Vinshom]

Final Fantasy 14 is there already

[Creepwalker]

Wildstar was exactly that at launch, it failed.

Wildstar was.......bad

It felt nothing like vanilla WoW to me