World of Warcraft Classic players don't wait for Blizzard to define Classic+ – they do it themselves.
A new community-led initiative called The Classic Plus Project is gathering tens of thousands of players to express exactly what they want from a potential version of Classic+, and to make sure Blizzard can't ignore how vocal that demand has become.
Run by streamer Joardee and hardcore WoW All-Stars tournament creator OnlyBlacksmoke, the community project aims to capture what World of Warcraft players want from the release of Classic+. More than 22,000 players joined the project in three days.
“Everybody's always talking about Classic Plus, how we want to experience what we had in 2004 – the secret remains,” Joardee told GameRant. “That's what we want [mystery] back and we want Classic Plus to inject that energy into it.”
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What is Classic+?
Return to original release
Classic+ is the dream of many Classic World of Warcraft players. It's the idea of returning to the Azeroth players grew up in, but with additional content that maintains the original spirit of the game's 2004 release.
Whether it's new dungeons and raids that are still steeped in lore, or new specializations like tank shaman or healing mage. Simply put, Classic+ is a new take on the original version of the game.
What is The Classic+ Project?
The Classic+ project aims to answer the question: What to do You do you want from Classic+? It's an opportunity for the community to sit down and point out specifically what they'd like to see if Blizzard announced an official version of the game.
“Games like this that have been solved, [developers] I need to consult with the community, in my opinion, because the community is generally as knowledgeable about the game as the developers are at this point,” Joardee said.
At the forefront of The Classic+ project are several surveys that ask questions across the core pillars of gaming, including PvP, PvE, balance, items, and more.
Among other things, he asks the players:
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What class changes, if any, would you like to see?
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Would you be interested in new zones or iterations on existing zones?
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New dungeons? Raids?
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Improving the quality of life from retail?
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Changes in PvP?
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Should some specifications be revised or new specifications added?
To participate, you must first link your Discord account. It's a way for the team to verify that the survey results are legitimate. The team also takes steps to protect data, including using a third-party service with robust security controls.
But the project is more than just exploration – it's a community hub where people who love Classic can interact and maybe even see their vision of Azeroth brought to life.
The site allows players to submit their own stories within Azeroth for the community to vote on. The story with the highest number of votes is then animated by Joardee and his team, as they did with their short film Kazzak in the video below.
Joardee is also creating an episodic YouTube series chronicling the project, with a second episode likely to be released next month.
“I somehow managed to collect the Avengers from a poll from the classic WoW community,” joked Joardee after a web designer, data analyst, security and data engineer and others responded to a call he put out to the community to help with the project.
what is the goal
Hello hello hello… Blizzard are you there?
Joardee doesn't expect Blizzard to reach out as an official supporter of the project. But he hopes developers have seen or heard it and can use the data they've collected in some way.
“I hope that maybe someone [will reach out] like, 'Hey, we saw this and we think it's really cool that you did this,'” Joardee said. “I think it would be a really fun nod to the community.”
Joardee said he fully intends to release the data once he and the team figure out how they want to present it.
“We still have to figure out exactly how we're going to do that, but I promise everyone will have all the data we have, and it will be sooner rather than later,” he said.
If nothing else, Joardee wants Blizzard to take away that there is a community out there that wants their voice heard.
“I would like to [Blizzard] to see that the community is hungry for interaction and the ability to contribute,” he said. If it is, and it's useful and makes the game better, that's fantastic. But ultimately, the most important thing is that they recognize that there are ways to do that that aren't negative.”
Blizzard has a habit of responding to community feedback only when it's overwhelmingly negative, Jorardee said.
For example, World of Warcraft: The War Within just saw the release of the Midnight expansion pre-patch, which introduced major changes to its transmog system and put its new housing feature in the hands of all players.
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Blizzard made changes to both following player feedback. The developers first increased the cost of the transmog, then halved it after the reaction.
The housing system originally featured low experience caps for Housing Endeavors – a time-limited community event where players in a neighborhood complete tasks to gain shared experience.
After negative feedback, Blizzard increased the experience cap and reduced the diminishing return of experience for certain activities.
“When you build a community or are a game developer, you teach the community how to treat you. And I believe that [Blizzard has] he taught us, however accidentally, that outrage is the only way to make a difference. Because that's generally the only way they respond to something,” Joardee said.
And it doesn't have to be that way.
“I really think it's important to be proactive and be out there and talk to your players, and I'm not saying we need creative input,” he added. “I'm not saying we need to take your agency as a game developer, but I think we're your customers and we need to at least be heard.”
While Blizzard didn't announce anything major about Classic+ at their State of Azeroth presentation today, they did say they plan to send out polls to the community for their games. Until these official surveys come out, the Classic Plus community project is a way to amplify player voices.
“It's a fun community project that hopefully at least Blizzard looks at the data and can get some useful information. But even if they don't, at least we can say we tried,” Joardee said.
