Blizzard Releases 'Classic World of Warcraft'

It finally happened. Blizzard Entertainment did what was once thought impossible. Yesterday, August 26th 2019, Blizzard released Classic World of Warcraft; they went all the way back to the beginning, a simpler time when there were no add-ons, no flying, no boosts, just your character and your wits. No more “easy mode” when it comes to Classic.

For months years even, there has been the age-old debate on how or “Vanilla” World of Warcraft was superior to the current state of the game. Trade Chat and forums alike got intense as people voiced their opinions on Blizzard’s massively successful MMORPG.

We’re going back to the basics—running everywhere on foot, leveling up our weapons, running to the dungeon entrance (No dungeon or raid finder in Classic) and let’s not talk about how much it cost to get our first mount. Classic for its time was hard... Blizzard didn’t hold our hands through the whole game and hand us stuff, we had to work for it. Now, I’m personally not interested in Classic (Once was enough thank you) but I know there are people who are excited to go back in time and experience what the game was like before all the changes, before rolling a character and reaching 120 took a couple days. XP isn’t nerfed, it’s going to take some time to reach the maximum level of 60 for Classic.

I honestly don’t get the hype for Classic WoW. Don’t get me wrong, Back then the game was fun to play, but it was also challenging... as in everything that you did, you had to overcome with no help from add ons, or flying. I’m not saying I’m entitled, I would say that Battle For Azeroth, WoW’s current expansion spoiled me. I grinded for account-bound flying, I got Heirlooms, I have a bunch of add ons that make playing the game easier. I just can’t wrap my head around why someone would want to go back and approach the game bare bones, with no help. I’ve heard a bunch of people complain how the game in its current state is “Too Easy” and they flock to other titles because it’s not fun anymore. Some people went so far as to create a highly popular legacy server named Nostalrius, which catered to the Vanilla days of World of Warcraft. Blizzard caught wind of the private server and shut it down, angering masses of fans. However, there was a silver lining when the server got shut down—Blizzard worked with the creators of the Nostalrius server to create Classic World of Warcraft. The announcement came at the 2018 Blizzcon to the delight of millions of fans, their prayers having finally been answered. For those who say that Blizzard does not listen to its fans, this goes to show that they do.

For those that are delving back into Classic WoW, all I can say is good luck. I’m pretty sure it’s just like we all remember. The grind to get to 60, having someone kill-steal your mob in order to get their quest done, trying to solo Hogger out in Westfall, the frustration of trying to find a group to get through the Deadmines dungeon. All the frustrations and the expectations that come with how the game started is all packed into Classic WoW, including grinding the gold for that epic mount. Everyone has their favorite part of this massive universe known as World of Warcraft, mine being the current state of the game right now. I wasn’t really excited when Classic was announced, I thought it was a cool idea that Blizzard was revamping their game but for now, I’ll pass.