Seemingly following a trend started by the likes of Fortnite, Apex Legends, and their own FPS Overwatch, Blizzard has announced a new round of World of WarCraft Classic.
But wait a minute, you may rightly ask. Wasn’t World of WarCraft Classic already released in 2019? And indeed, that version of the game was set up to run alongside the main World of WarCraft server itself, to recreate what that game felt like all the way back in 2004. Subsequently, Blizzard launched The Burning Crusade Classic, Wrath of The Lich King Classic, and Cataclysm Classic, to recreate the versions of the game that existed with each of those expansions.
So what is Blizzard doing this time and does it even matter? We’ll let them explain it in their own words, straight from their official blog:
“Relive the World of Warcraft Classic experience with all-new fresh realms in the WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Edition arriving November 21. Join players on a whole new journey to level 60, with the first raid dungeon, Molten Core, becoming available a few weeks after launch.
Choose to play on a PvP realm, a Normal PvE realm, or (for the very first time) a Hardcore realm progressing through content with the other realms — all from the beginning, with fresh economies, on very large realms.
These realms will launch with some of the quality-of-life features that came later in the WoW Classic cycle, such as the Chronoboon Displacer to save your world buffs and the improved PvP Honor Ranking system. The PvP and Normal PvE realms will also progress into Burning Crusade Classic!”
So, if you’ve never played World of WarCraft ever, all these details may sound like incomprehensible Orcish to you. But Blizzard is offering something of a remix of the classic World of WarCraft, with QOL improvements. They are also more ways to play for those who like to tinker with their characters and just see how things play out. Because they aren’t playing World of WarCraft with the hopes of reaching the end of the last expansion for the 20th time. The real players are playing for the experience of leveling up and building their character in the ways that they want. Some people could call it role playing.
Unfortunately, for those fans who want it, there is no indication here that Blizzard has come up with controller support for any version of World of WarCraft, at least not yet. Blizzard may really have to recreate the game from scratch to make that happen, but since they are now under the auspices of a console holder in Microsoft, they may very well be incentivized to do just that.
Blizzard dedicated nearly 20 minutes from their WarCraft 30th Anniversary Direct to World of WarCraft, so if you have the time, you can watch that below.
