Here we go again…again. The classic edition of World of Warcraft launched in 2019, promising a return to the WoW many of us once knew. It would be vanilla WoW, with only some minor bug fixes so as to preserve the original feel. They iterated on that, releasing The Burning Crusade Classic, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, and Cataclysm Classic. They even launched a Season of Discovery that explored different game concepts and designs, giving us a glimpse at an alternate universe’s WoW. Then things settled down. I thought I was safe, that it had passed me by.
I was wrong.
A month ago they announced a return to Classic for the 20th anniversary of the game, with all the lessons they learned tooling around with the other classics and Season of Discovery (SOD for short). It still aims to present Vanilla WoW as it was, hoping to only slightly alter things so as to improve quality of life further without making the game unrecognizable. To be honest, I’ll barely be reviewing that in this article – in reality, I’m reviewing what it’s like to be back.
When I was a kid, I played WoW all the way up to level 40 or 50, before The Burning Crusade (TBC) expansion dropped and I was left behind. I kept chugging along, almost reaching the level cap, but then my brother cancelled his subscription. I’m not mad at him – I had an addiction to this game, and I was the only one left in the family playing it. But I always felt I was missing out, having never reached all the cool kids at the level cap.
You see, the main thing I loved about World of Warcraft was the socialization. It was a bastion of the early internet, in the best and worst ways. World of Warcraft was a place where a troll (literally or figuratively) would spit on you outside of Booty Bay before you dueled to the death. It was also a place where someone 8 levels higher than you would help you with a quest, just because. Priests and Paladins will bless any stranger passing by, and it has no benefit to them. The community just started doing it, and kept paying it forward. This community of ridiculous, kind and cruel people is what I wanted to go back to. I wanted to be (cue Ariel) where the people were, making jokes about [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker].
Around 2014, for whatever reason, my brother resubscribed. I logged back on and hit the level cap for Warlords of Draenor, but something was wrong. First, the game felt even more like work. I stopped playing when I realized it had become more of a compulsion to play than a joy. But second, I was so isolated. The world had grown, but we all felt smaller. There was much less connection. I remember I ran a dungeon at this time and was shocked – nobody died, but nobody talked, and the tank just ran from one mob of enemies to the next. We all said “gg” and left. World of Warcraft (and its players) had optimized the fun out of the game, and one of the casualties was socializing.
I had heard back in 2019 when Classic first launched that that was no longer the case: the community was back. Strangers helped each other, people talked and joked and laughed. But I was on my own at that point, and couldn’t financially justify resubscribing. Besides, I had reckoned with myself much more and I knew I had an addiction to this game. But now, in 2024? I’m no longer on the job hunt, and I can financially justify it. My free time isn’t occupied by homework – maybe I even have more self-control?
In a flash, I was back at the Dark Portal.
The camera panned up from the icy caps of Dun Morogh all the way to the dwarven-metal fortress of Ironforge. In a short time, I was back to it, accepting minor errands and leveling up much faster than I did 20 years ago. The views were nostalgic and comforting, but still impressive for the time – in fact, now everything literally looks better than I remembered, since my computer can now support fancy features like anti-aliasing. It wasn’t long before I was grouping up with strangers trying to take down the troggs in Gol’Bolar Quarry.
A big part of what makes Classic so fondly remembered is that the mechanics of the game encourage cooperation and socialization. If you accidentally aggravate too many murlocs at once, that’s a death sentence. It’s dangerous to go alone – so why not take a friend? Often this happens organically – you and I see each other in the same region, killing the same enemies, and when we group up it splits the amount of work that has to be done in half. But sometimes you need to break out “LFG” in chat. It was very manual back in Vanilla, and while that retains the human element, it could still be frustrating.
In later expansions, they released a “Looking For Group” tool that worked a little too well. You’d say what dungeon you wanted to do, and the LFG tool would automatically slot you in whatever it could find. It was efficient, but robotic. For the 20th Anniversary edition, they retooled the “Looking for Group” system again, and this time it strikes a great balance between being helpful without removing the social element of people chatting. You list yourself on the tool, and you see who else is listed for those dungeons and what roles still need to be filled. You can then whisper to the group organizer for an invite. Sure, it’s more work, but as it’s taking a step away from over-optimization, I’m all for it.
The journey has been going easier so far. I’m only 2 and a half weeks in, and I’m currently in my mid-20’s, but I’ve been kept so busy by quests that I always have something to do. I hear from others online that the questing and level experience is much better for the Alliance races, and quest development for the Horde is more lackluster, but I can’t confirm that directly. Most people also say that the game takes a turn at level 40 – quests dry up, and it becomes a lot harder to level up. What’s tough as well is, mathematically, halfway to the level cap isn’t 30, but 45. The last 15 levels take you as long as the first 45 did. If I was reviewing this at level 60 instead of level 25, who knows how my opinion would change? I’ll have to see what happens myself.
Whether the game continues to hold you at this point varies from person to person. I found the underlying game to be engaging enough that it was worth continuing, and with 20 more years of accumulated gamersense, I’m finding the gameplay to be even richer than I remembered as a kid. Quests from as early as level 10 interweave to tell a grand story ultimately culminating in an end-game raid. Combat is more reactionary than I used to play it – there’s a whole bevy of abilities to use that work better in varying situations. I’m even getting into macros this go-around, something the WoW veterans who are reading will be shocked I lived without. [Macros are short, programmable actions you can code and put in your hotbar. So for example, if you’re a warrior and want to use a certain ability only available in defensive stance, instead of clicking two or three buttons to do that ability, you can program it so it’s now only done in 1 click.]
The humor from WoW is something I completely forgot about. While chat commands like /spit have been changed due to coordinated trolling efforts, and certain /flirt ‘s have been removed after scandals at Blizzard were exposed, socializing in WoW continues to be as hilarious and aggravating as it was back then. When I first arrived in Ironforge and saw people using trade chat to discuss memes, politics, and [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker], it all came back to me: trade chat is full of idiots, for better and for worse. Just like the early internet, it’s full of trolls, innocent questions with brutal retorts, and friendship where you least expect it. Ironically, socializing on the internet was a lot better before social media. There’s still much to be wary of – we don’t live in that internet anymore, and so the modern day will leak into WoW Classic. But enough people are there because of what they remember that they’re trying to bring back what it used to be.
Does World of Warcraft Classic: 20th Anniversary Edition hold up to my memory? So far, no. It exceeds what I remembered. But there’s still time for that to change. Communities can die out, winnowing the pleasant people from the try-hards. Late-game grinding might suck the soul out of the game. The PvP Battlegrounds aren’t out yet, so perhaps it’s even more toxic in reality than I’ve experienced. But so far, I’m having fun returning to World of Warcraft.
When I quit Warcraft, I had to rationalize it to myself that I could never really go home. As much as we might want to return to exactly how things were 20 years ago, that’s impossible. I think we all innately have a desire to return to a past place of comfort, even if just for a short while. Overly focusing on this prevents us from being in the present moment, in God’s time. But I do think the desire itself isn’t unhealthy. Perhaps this is a desire that will be fulfilled in eternity, where outside of time we can see things from our past. For now, we can only play pretend, but even though WoW Classic can’t take me all the way back, it gets close.
Finally, I have to reckon with my past addiction: even if I’m not as bad as other WoW addicts who reached level 60 in one weekend, I know I had a problem with this game back in the day. It sucked up so much of my free time – what if that happens again? So far I haven’t shirked any responsibilities or played excessively much, but I’m still wary. My wife groaned when she heard I subscribed, because she was worried how it’d affect me. Now she’s giggling at how stupid Murlocs sound. By all accounts, I’m doing well, and it feels good to know that I’ve potentially grown past my addiction. It has been a good opportunity for me to evaluate what my relationship to gaming is, and how much of it takes up my time. I’d highly encourage all of you to take inventory of your lives – see how much is taken up by things that do not satisfy.
“Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what does not satisfy? Only listen to me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.” -(Isaiah 55:2)
In conclusion, World of Warcraft has changed. The internet has changed…and I have too. But it sure is nice to go back to how things were, even for a little while.
Scoring: 94%
Art: 9/10
Music: 10/10
Story & Writing: 10/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Design: 9/10
Morality/Parental Warnings
Online Content: First and foremost, World of Warcraft is a massive-multiplayer online game. So by necessity, you can’t guarantee how players will interact. Sometimes strangers will come up to you and donate a few unsolicited potions and some gold; other times you could be trolled, harassed, or bullied. There’s no accounting for human behavior, so if you’re unsure if your child is ready for handling that, don’t let them play. You’ve seen my overall appraisal of the community but the internet is a big place; use your best judgment.
Violence: cartoon violence abounds. Blood is present, though not excessive. Zombie enemies have cartoon gore.
Language: I cannot give a comprehensive review of language within the game; there are thousands of quests available. To my knowledge, there are plenty of “damns”, maybe an “ass” here and there, but there’s nothing in-game worse than that. There is a language filter that can be enabled for chat, though its not robust enough to capture typos or shortened curse words.
Sexualization: like any game with equippable armor, your characters can also be unequipped down to their skivvies. There are hanging art pieces in Alliance inns depicting women reminiscent of Jack’s french girls, though they’re not nude. The warlock has a scantily-clad Succubus summon. There is an icon of a fertility idol in one of the quests I did that was unnecessarily detailed, but funnily enough that was as graphic as it got.
Spiritual & Occult Elements: this is one that usually gets a pass in fantasy games just due to the tropes of the genre. In some areas it toes the line: for example, there are warlocks in game who bind demons to their will and use them in combat. Like most games, it’s not something delved into deeply, nor do I think it will cause your child to be morally corrupted. But it’s site policy to mention everything we can that might affect your decision. While I don’t think of it as anything more than a game mechanic, use your judgment.
