World of Warcraft Classic players aren't waiting for Blizzard to define Classic+ – they're doing it themselves.
A new community-led initiative called The Classic Plus Project is bringing together tens of thousands of players to explain exactly what they want from a potential Classic+ release, and to make sure Blizzard can't ignore how high that demand has become.
Led by streamer Joardee and Hardcore WoW All-Stars tournament creator OnlyBlacksmoke, the community project aims to nail down what World of Warcraft players want from a Classic+ release. The project has received input from more than 22,000 players in less than three days.
“Everyone always talks about Classic Plus, how we want to experience what we had in 2004 – the mystery is preserved,” Joardee told GameRant. “We want that [mystery] back, and we want Classic Plus to infuse that energy into it.”
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What is Classic+?
A return to the original release
Classic+ is a dream held by many Classic World of Warcraft players. It's the idea of returning to the Azeroth players grew up with, but with additional content that maintains the original spirit of the game's 2004 release.
Whether it's new dungeons and raids still steeped in lore, or new specializations like a tank shaman or healer mage. Simply put, Classic+ is a remake of the original version of the game.
What is The Classic+ Project?
The Classic+ project aims to answer the question: What to do you want from Classic+? It's a chance for the community to sit down and specifically pinpoint what they'd like to see if Blizzard were to announce an official version of the game.
“Games like this, which are something that has been solved, [developers] have to consult, in my opinion, with the community, because the community is generally as much of an expert on 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 core pillars of gaming, including PvP, PvE, balance, spec and more.
Among other things, it 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? Raid?
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Quality of life improvements taken from retail?
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Changes in PvP?
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Should certain specifications be reworked or new specifications added?
To participate, you must first link your Discord account. It is 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 a survey – it's a community hub where people who love Classic can interact with each other and maybe even see their vision of Azeroth brought to life.
On the site, players can pitch their own stories within Azeroth for the community to vote on. The story with the highest number of votes will then be animated by Joardee and his team, as they did with their Kazzak short in the video below.
Joardee is also creating an episodic YouTube series chronicling the project, with the second episode likely coming next month.
“Somehow I managed to collect the Avengers of polling from the classic WoW community,” joked Joardee after having a web designer, a data analyst, a security and data engineer and others answer the call he sent out to the community to help with the project.
What is the goal?
Hey hey hey… Blizzard, are you out there?
Joardee doesn't expect Blizzard to reach out in an official capacity supporting the project. But he hopes the developers have seen or heard about it, and can use the data they've collected in some way.
“I hope maybe someone [will reach out] like, 'Hey, we saw this and think it's really cool that you guys did this,'” Joardee said. “I think that would be a really fun nod to the community.”
Joardee said he fully intends to release the data down the road, once he and the team figure out how they want to present it.
“We still have to figure out exactly how 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 here that wants their voice to be heard.
“I would like to [Blizzard] to see that the community is hungry for interaction and for the ability to provide input,” he said. “I don't think they need to make any of the design decisions from this thing. If they do, and it's helpful, and it makes a better game, great. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is that they realize that there are ways to do this that are not negative.”
Blizzard has a habit of only responding to community feedback 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 house feature in the hands of all players.
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Blizzard made changes to both after player backlash. The developers first increased the cost of transmog, then halved it after backlash.
The housing system originally featured low experience caps for Housing Endeavors – a timed community event where players in a neighborhood complete tasks to gain shared experience.
Following negative feedback, Blizzard increased the experience cap and reduced the diminishing experience returns for certain activities.
“When you create a community, or you're a game developer, you teach your community how to treat you. And I think that [Blizzard has] taught us, but by mistake, that outrage is the only way we're going to get anything changed. Because that's generally the only way they react to something,” Joardee said.
And it doesn't have to be that way.
“I really think it's important to be proactive and to be out there talking to your players, and I'm not saying we need to have creative input,” he added. “I'm not saying we need to remove your agency as a game developer, but I think we are your customers and we need to at least feel heard.”
While Blizzard didn't announce anything major about Classic+ at its State of Azeroth presentation today, it did say that it plans to send polls to the community for its games. Until these official surveys come out, the Classic Plus Community Project presents a way to amplify player voices.
“It's a fun community project that hopefully, at least Blizzard, looks at the data and maybe can get some useful information. But even if they don't, at least we can say we tried,” Joardee said.
