On the 27th August 2019, with an active WoW subscription you’ll be able to login to World of Warcraft, Classic.
Many people have been excited about the soon to be released Classic World of Warcraft, and getting their hands back on that true vanilla experience. But until recently a lot of people have still been on the fence.
Battle for Azeroth hasn’t been the most loved expansion to say the least, with somewhat unnecessary systems in place and a lot of shallow gameplay mechanics, it almost set itself up for the return of something new, or should I say, old.
Is it just nostalgia generating the hype?
Honestly, until the recent release of the closed beta I fully believed this. I wasn’t at all interested in Classic and thought it was just going to be all the elitest players who constantly go on about how ‘Vanilla was so much harder’, and ‘WoW is dead’ that were going to enjoy it. But with all the twitch coverage over the past few weeks, the general consensus is that World of warcraft Classic is just a good gaming experience.
It’s rich, rewarding, challenging and socially active.
What is so different about it?
There are going to be a million things that are different in WoW Classic in comparison to the current live servers. What the main change is going to be though is the increased dependence on social interactions in-game.
Without any kind of LFG (looking for group) system automatically pairing players up for dungeons, the need to reach out to other players and talk/interact with real life humans is going to likely be what defines the success of the game.
I haven’t played WoW before, is it for me?
It’s really too soon to tell if classic is going to be fun for new players, there is obviously going to be some degree of nostalgia keeping people going, especially considering the tremendous slog that levelling will be.
One thing that should be appealing to new players however, is the fact that on launch of Classic, everyone is going to be starting fresh. No hordes of gold from other characters and bind of equip items to buy from the auction house. It’s a brand new launch and a completely clean slate for every player. Of course more experienced players will likely level up faster, but with any game there will always be the divide between casual players and more hardcore players.
What’s the appeal of classic?
New player or not, classic is going to be a fun game. I firmly believe that, and here is why:
Levelling is going to be rewarding
At the moment, you level to hit max level. I know that sounds really stupid and obvious, but in classic you’ll be one level for a much much longer time and therefore replacing gear won’t be so fleeting. Running dungeons for a weapon upgrade will be worth it, even at level 20!
The world is there to be explored
With zone scaling being removed, and mounts being a lot less accessible the World of Warcraft is going to feel a lot bigger, and will become a lot more familiar. Spending days in a single zone completing quests (against hours in the current expansion) might make it mean that little bit more.
Dungeons will feel like a conquest
At the moment, to run a level 30 dungeon in WoW you can just queue up, get automatically teleported there, absolutely steamroll your way through and be done in 20 minutes.
Classic will mean finding a group through chat channels or reaching out to your guild/friends, making your way all the way to the dungeon, and methodically pushing your way through intentionally more difficult fights. But the rewards will be a lot more noticeable.
In summary
Clearly I’m hyped for WoW Classic, I can’t hide that. Hell I’ve booked 3 days off work and specifically told my girlfriend I’ll be in hiding for a week
I urge you not to look at Classic as literally as just a rerelease of an old game, but as a new MMO that means being focussed, social, challenged and rewarded.
For the horde! (sorry not sorry)
It will be interesting to see how well this does. “New” WoW is the established template for current MMOs, including its main competitor Final Fantasy XIV — so there must be something to that formula. Yet I know there’s a hunger for how things were done in the “good old days”.
I’m currently playing Final Fantasy XI — a game even older than WoW, but which has been made much more solo-friendly in its more recent years — and there’s a significant portion of players who would prefer the option to play in its older, more social-centric incarnation.
WoW Classic is a good approach to this: offer players the option. If you like New WoW, go ahead and keep enjoying it. If you pine for the good old days, play WoW Classic. Or hey, do both! 🙂
Definitely, having it part of the same subscription was a good move. I guess it’s blizzard saying “we don’t mind which game you play, as long as you’re subbed to something!”.
I think we’ll see a massive hype on launch, and for a few weeks following on from that. The grind of hitting level cap will definitely put some people off, some might get bored and others just simply might not have time.
Personally, I don’t have enough time to raid as an active World of Warcraft player, and with several characters at cap I find myself hitting a soft cap of progression limited by the fact I can’t commit to a guild. I’m hoping with Classic I’ll enjoy the rewarding grind of levelling and running random dungeons. We’ll see.
Also thanks for reading 🙂
Lok’tar, friend. I started playing back in Wrath and totally missed classic. I’m very interested to check out vanilla! Thank you for the review I’m the subject. It’s been off my radar.
Lok’tar.
Great news! I’m gonna try and do a few more posts over the months running up to release. I’ll be sure to share the servers/faction we role so we could get some community groups up and running!