| Title | No, Blizzard is not giving back the classic version of WarCraft 3 |
| Author | Nick Diamon |
| Posted in | News |
| When | February 3, 2020 |
It's gone. Face it. Blizzard launched WarCraft 3: Reforged and replaced everyone's classic version of the game with a 30GB abomination, and it isn't coming back. At least, it doesn't seem that way from the latest official post..
Why do people want the classic version? The Reforged version is just a prettier version of the original, including the same cut scenes (and animations) everyone seemed keen to see improved. Is the issue that folks with Classic keys cannot play any longer without purchasing the new version?
I believe one issue is that people that only own the classic version are stuck with the huge download for no reason. Could be wrong but I think that’s part of what’s going on.
That would be annoying - but it’s NOT gone then? @Telefrog’s post title indicates there is no Classic mode, but then he wrote “There’s talk of updating all versions of the game (even those that didn’t buy Reforged) to include leaderboards and clans, and a quick bit about custom games” so I’m not quite sure what is going on with Classic. Having to download 30GB to play it would be really dumb, for sure, of course. I can’t imagine it would be hard to have two separate SKU’s in the launcher - one for each? Blizzard knocking it out of the park these days.
After reading this review I can empathize entirely with the detractors. It seems far worse than simply a few bugs here or there
Classic lost the old client, gets an extra 20+ GB download, loses a bunch of multiplayer functionality (clans, ladder, also lobbies region locked), loses LAN/direct IP, loses offline singleplayer progress (i.e. saves are online login-locked), and they fucked up WoC/WoLK campaing balance.
The best description is that they unfinished a 17 year old game
Man, that’s incredible. Yeah, pretty dumb on Blizzard’s part.
Thanks for the link, @LMN8R - I’m glad I refunded it this morning.
“We want to say we’re sorry to those of you who didn’t have the experience you wanted”
Translates from PR-speak to English as:
“It’s our game so we’re doing what we want and fuck you if you don’t like it.”
Diego
Ok so I have Warcraft 3 installed, have had for I don’t know how many years. Haven’t actually played it in forever. If I try to fire it up is it going to update to the new busted version?
Some site archived the patches/installers here:
I tried a few installers going back and just get the following dialog box:
Looks like the shunting to Blizzard/B.net app groundwork was laid in 2018 or earlier.
“We want to say we’re sorry to those of you who didn’t have the experience you wanted”
This translates almost directly to “I’m sorry that you are upset”. Try using that one on your SO if you’re looking for a fight and/or a new SO.
It’s literally what I would say if I was trying to piss someone off. They are really something over there at Blizz these days.
I don’t own Reforged, but the people who do summed it up this way on Reddit:
Here’s just a few things that are wrong with the game, starting with the big one:
• The old Warcraft III client is gone for online play . If you want to paly online at all, you now have to start the game through Reforged. If you don’t own Reforged, you’re still forced to download it (including all assets) but are only able to play with old graphics.
• Using the old graphics in the Reforged client is not the same as vanilla Warcraft III. There are a number of graphical changes/issues, one of the most glaring ones being the absence of shadows (The graphics menu won’t let you turn them on on classic graphics).
• There are no competitive ladders (supposedly later) and no player profiles.
• You can no longer play custom campaigns. At all. The menu item is just gone. (All your existing custom maps are dead in the water with no way to replay them, and because of the new EULA, Blizzard has claimed ownership of any customs maps, campaigns, and game modes that might be converted to the new client anyway). In a sense they’ve retroactively claimed all existing mods and maps as theirs.
• There are numerous bugs such as instant defeat screens on map-load (fixed by closing and re-launching the game, btw).
• Much of what was promised for the singleplayer during reveal and is still being used in advertising just doesn’t exist: New UI, new in-game cinematic style, plenty of QoL changes not being there (e.g. in-game menu for custom hotkeys like in SCII). The vast majority of campaign maps are 99% identical to vanilla while the reveal featured a completely revamped ‘Culling of Stratholme’ map (which is still there, but it’s the exception, not the rule).
• Many non-English voice overs have been re-done, with no way of getting the iconic ones back.
Due to the classic Warcraft III client being unusable (there are workaround, but who knows for how long), even players who have not bought Reforged are negatively impacted by it . And this is utterly ridiculous.
Shadows are locked behind IAP!
Blizzard is not content with making the biggest political blunders out of all game devs, they also want to outdo Bethesda and Blizzard for the worst player experience in a game no one really asked for. They’re trying very hard to outdo Fallout 76
Blizzard wants to outdo Blizzard?
Great point. Are there any corporate “apologies” that don’t read like passive-aggressive nonpologies? I mean, the only way they could have made it more obvious is if they wrote, “Sorry you’re disappointed, snowflake.” :-P
Wow, they even included the videogame version of the “sorry if you’re offended” apology.
Maybe J Allen Brack can give another teary apology about this at Blizzcon 2020.
It’s pretty amazing how quickly Blizzard went from industry darling to complete screwup.
Everyone takes a turn in the barrel eventually.
