More than 1,000 World of Warcraft players are teaming up to create a “new” experience in the classic version of the game.
In the absence of new entry servers – that is, new ones, from the stage a vanilla servers for World of Warcraft Classic – those who only now like to play the famous MMO as it was in 2004 face playing in realms full of top level players and botting.
In response, players gathered in droves to “restart” the vanilla experience on one of the less populous servers.
The result is The Fresh Crusade, a community project currently with 1300 players and scheduled to launch on Friday, March 5, with a major relaunch event. Seven guilds are involved, with players from around the world ready to create new characters on a low-population PvP server, with the express goal of creating a new experience for everyone.
Caszhar, the player who started The Fresh Crusade, told me on Discord that there are many players who want to start Classic again on a server that has a “fresh” launch feel that offers the leveling and community experience that people can it is not easily found on existing servers.
“Blizzard announced the Burning Crusade Classic with no new servers and no mention of what will happen to the existing low population / dead servers, except suggesting that there could be a possible creation of new servers after the launch of the Burning Crusade Classic,” said Caszhar.
One of the big problems, in Caszhar’s opinion, is that, due to the botting and inflation of the economy, players feel they will be left behind when the Burning Crusade Classic launches in late 2021.
“That makes sense, especially in the current state, where most servers don’t have a leveling scene with players soloing a lot from 1-60 with problems finding groups for group dungeons / missions, which is an integral part of the game’s journey. WoW Classic, “said Caszhar.
Botting leads to real money transactions (RMT), such as selling game gold for real money. In turn, botting takes legitimate players out of the economy, affecting the creation and generation of money in the game.
For example, players who try to earn money by collecting professions are expelled from the market because they are competing with AI-controlled players who absorb all resources.
Those who try to make money from craft professions and need a rare resource that is usually botged, may find it more difficult to pay for this rare resource from the auction house due to economic inflation caused by bot. The vicious cycle is then completed when frustrated players find it more difficult to gather the resources needed to earn the money needed to pay these high auction house prices.
Raids can also fuel this problem. GDKPs – a type of raid in which players bet on items coveted with gold raid instead of rolling a die to see who gets the loot – can see large amounts of RMT gold spent on items. Then, at the end of the invasion, non-buyer participants obtain all the gold tendered divided between them. That gold then goes to the virtual economy, resulting in inflation and prices rising further.
Unfortunately, bots are prevalent on all WoW Classic servers, even those with the lowest population. But lower-income servers generally do not have extremely inflated savings because players are not buying gold from them, and are not buying gold from them because there are not many players around.
The Fresh Crusade will target a low-population server in an attempt to provide players with a chance to get the best “fresh” experience possible, despite the botting problem.
“With all of us starting together, the economy will be more balanced compared to servers with a medium / high population,” said Caszhar.
Looking at the launch of the Classic Burning Crusade, Caszhar is optimistic that the “pre-patch” period will be of great benefit to those looking to start the WoW Classic from scratch.
Pre-patch is the patch that puts the new Burning Crusade races (the bloody elves and draenei) in the game, and is expected about two weeks before the release of Classic Burning Crusade.
It is expected that the pre-patch will trigger a flow of players returning to the game and leveling off from zero according to new races. In theory, this will provide a healthy leveling experience over the two-week period.
“There is enough time for the launch of TBC to be announced and for people who participate in The Fresh Crusade to experience the game’s content, participate in attacks and form their groups of friends and communities,” said Caszhar.
Caszhar is hopeful that The Fresh Crusade could reach more than 2,000 players by launching on March 5. “The support of the people who joined was moving to see,” said Caszhar. “People are really excited to start on Friday, so there is definitely a train of enthusiasm here. People understand that now Blizzard just entertained the ideas of new servers, post-Burning Crusade release, so joining this project they expressed it as ‘the next best thing’. “
If you like to get involved, The Fresh Crusade has a community hub on Discord.