What fascinates players about the idea of playing a WoW Classic from 15 years ago? We name the reasons.
For the year 2019, there is no big new expansion in World of Warcraft, but there is indeed a quite old game. World of Warcraft: Classic, the “Vanilla” version of WoW, is set to be released in the summer and still has many fans even years after its initial release.
But why are players so excited about the “Classic” experience when games have evolved since then? We have listed some reasons that made WoW in its original form so appealing.
Leveling was the game
In the current version of WoW, leveling mainly serves one purpose: You are guided through the new areas and experience the story of the expansion. This goes relatively quickly and usually only lasts a few hours. But it used to be different. In Classic, the leveling phase was a fixed part of the gaming experience and for many fans, it was what made the game. Getting the first character to level 60 took not just days but sometimes weeks or months.
Players had to engage with their game world for a long time. Anyone who had been to the cemetery in Duskwood and had to venture deep into its catacombs could expect to work for a good hour. There’s no comparison to today, where the same catacombs can be cleared in three to four minutes.
Today, after two or three hours, you finish a quest area, but back then you could spend several days in Duskwood or the Un’goro Crater. Often, players continued to grind the same enemies for several levels even after completing the (already sparse) quests, trying to make farming routes more efficient.
Threat from the game world
It has become difficult to die in the normal “solo play” of World of Warcraft. Unless you aggro enemies indiscriminately, you can hardly die. That used to be different. Azeroth was a deadly game world where dangers lurked around every corner.
Even in supposed “solo areas,” there were always strong enemies that were too mighty for a single player.
An example of this was the Sons of Arugal. These elite Worgen roamed through Silverpine Forest and made quick work of anyone who wasn’t paying close attention to them.
A second example, which occurred almost everywhere, were Murlocs. These gurgling enemies were true monsters, as it was nearly impossible to attack just “one” of them. Soon, two, three, or four more Murlocs would rush in and make life hell for the players.
This was exacerbated by low regeneration rates of mana and health points. After almost every fight, a small break was needed, and if you couldn’t take advantage of that because the next enemy was already approaching, you often found yourself at the spirit healer.
This atmosphere was a constant threat, creating a certain unease that many players enjoyed. A little extra thrill that many in the current WoW find lacking.
Social interaction was mandatory
That World of Warcraft is still a very social game today, placing great value on group activities, cannot be denied. But back then, it was more cumbersome and challenging to find like-minded players.
Anyone wishing to enter a dungeon and was looking for a group alone could expect a long time spent manually forming a group through personal whispers. Once that was done, all players still had to make it safely to the dungeon, and any potential sources of error had to be eliminated. Hunters who had too few arrows or no food for their pets were already a running cliché back then.
From today’s perspective, all this “faffing about” before the real gameplay can seem annoying. But a certain part of players liked exactly that. They enjoyed having to engage with other players and slowly build social bonds.
The importance of the individual player
In addition to social interaction, the reputation on the server holds great significance for many players. Back then, servers were self-contained systems. There were no “Cross-Realm” functions, meaning players on the same server were always the same. You encountered the same faces daily, and newcomers were a rarity. Each server’s community consisted of a clear group, and every player gradually earned a reputation.
And with these circumstances came a sense of honor and prestige. If word spread that the mage Thoribald was a competent, friendly mage, then that was a point of pride. Such a reputation spread over weeks and months on the server. It felt good and gave the respective players a lot of affirmation.
While you can still have a good reputation in WoW today and behave kindly, the level of recognition rarely extends beyond your own guild or community. Typically, the “typical trade channel trolls” of a server have more notoriety.
The simplicity of the game world
Even though this point is certainly controversial (and can be discussed in the comments), World of Warcraft in its “Classic” version was a game with less complexity. There was only one game world and no different phases triggered by quest status. There was no “sharding”; if too many players were in one place, then it was simply populated. Dungeons and raids had exactly one difficulty level to overcome.
World of Warcraft generally adhered to clear, defined rules without gradations. Either you made do with what the game gave you, or you didn’t. The number of endgame activities was also lower; essentially, there was “only” PvE and PvP in its purest form – dungeons, raids, and battlegrounds.
Equally important for many: World of Warcraft had no achievements. You felt good simply for accomplishing something and didn’t need an achievement to pop up for it.
The rules were clear, understandable, simple, and direct. This was appreciated.
Finally experiencing the original
The fact is that World of Warcraft now has players who weren’t even born at the time of its release. These players have heard for over a decade how “great Classic was.” Almost everyone knows that one player in their guild who constantly says, “Yes, back in Classic it was better,” reminding you of grandparents with their “We had nothing, but everything was better” stories at family gatherings.
For these players, WoW: Classic is finally the opportunity to see the “promised land” for themselves, where everything was much better, much harder, much more “real RPG,” and much more demanding.
Whether this part of the player base will be long-term fans of Classic remains to be seen.
Nostalgia
The last point is also not to be underestimated, and that is nostalgia. For many players, World of Warcraft was the first real MMO experience, and many memories are associated with it. The first online friendships, exploring a vast game world for the first time, and experiencing a game that is so much more complex than anything previously experienced. This “magic” is only felt in your first MMORPG and never comes back. For that reason, many associate it with World of Warcraft, and the nostalgia factor is high.
However, whether this last point is enough to keep the fans engaged for a long time is questionable. Because objectively speaking, WoW has evolved over the years and is now more tailored to players who have many different hobbies or simply less time. And that is exactly what will be demanded from Classic players: time.
Why are you excited about WoW Classic? What makes this old version of the MMORPG special for you? Let us know in the comments!
