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WoW Classic Ragnaros.jpg|Art of [[Ragnaros]] for WoW Classic
 
WoW Classic Ragnaros.jpg|Art of [[Ragnaros]] for WoW Classic
 
WoW Classic Onyxia.jpg|Art of [[Onyxia]] for WoW Classic
 
WoW Classic Onyxia.jpg|Art of [[Onyxia]] for WoW Classic
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Blackwing Lair Classic key art.jpg|Art for the Assault on [[Blackwing Lair]] update
 
Classic - Stratholme.jpg|[[Stratholme (Classic)|Stratholme]]
 
Classic - Stratholme.jpg|[[Stratholme (Classic)|Stratholme]]
 
Classic - Andorhal.jpg|[[Andorhal]]
 
Classic - Andorhal.jpg|[[Andorhal]]

Revision as of 22:01, 16 February 2020

WoW Classic logo
World of Warcraft: Classic
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
  Portion of Team 2
Publisher(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Platforms Microsoft Windows, macOS
Release August 27, 2019[1]
Latest release 1.13.3
Genre(s) MMORPG

World of Warcraft: Classic (shortened as Classic), sometimes referred to as "vanilla WoW", is a server option for World of Warcraft announced at BlizzCon 2017. The goal of Classic is to let players experience World of Warcraft as close as possible to what it was before The Burning Crusade.

Development

Before work began on World of Warcraft: Classic, it was only possible for players to experience the original World of Warcraft by using private servers, which are illegal, often have stability or corruption problems, and generally are very imperfect recreations of the authentic World of Warcraft experience. As much as Blizzard has been aware of the desires of their community, until recently it seemed impossible for them to emulate Classic servers due to the technical hurdles of essentially having to run two massively multiplayer online games side-by-side. A breakthrough was then achieved that made it possible to run Classic servers on the modern architecture of current World of Warcraft servers.[2]

Blizzard had begun conceptualizing Classic by early 2017.[3]

Even though a modern server architecture is used, Classic servers won't have the same features that current World of Warcraft does. There won't be cross-realm servers or Looking For Raid and Dungeon Finder automatic party matchmaking. There are still a lot of questions about how the team will tackle it. This endeavor is being undertaken by an entirely separate team at Blizzard from the one working on World of Warcraft and its next expansion.[2]

In June 2018, the team settled on using patch 1.12 as a foundation for Classic. They managed to have a locally rebuilt version of patch 1.12 running internally, using modern code and data architecture.[4]

A demo of the game was available at BlizzCon 2018, and was downloadable on home computers for anyone who purchased a BlizzCon ticket or virtual ticket. The servers became available when Opening Ceremony started at BlizzCon 2018 and was set to end on November 8, but was extended until November 12.[5] Players started at level 15, and the only available zones were Westfall and the Barrens.[6] It was based on patch 1.12.0, ported to a modern infrastructure as patch 1.13.0. The first day of the demo, there was a playtime limit of a cumulative 60 minutes with a cooldown of 90 minutes, applied through the Mail gmicon [BlizzCon Exhaustion] debuff.[7] The debuff was removed on the second day of BlizzCon 2018.[8]

Content

In order to reproduce the original Classic experience, content will be added via multiple stages like back in the day:

Additionally, some content such as updated Blackrock Depths loot, Sunken Temple class quests, high-end Timbermaw Hold, Thorium Brotherhood and Argent Dawn reputation rewards will come later than Phase 1.

A new technology known as layering will be temporarily used - similar to sharding, but not cross realm.[9] The technology will try to sticky you to a layer so that you see familiar names often. Layering will be discontinued or replaced no later than the release of world bosses with Phase 2.[10]

BlizzCon Demo limits

  • There were 20 realms named "BlizzCon Classic X", with X being a number from 1 to 20.
  • Every character started at level 15 and got a taste of talents and professions. The level cap was 19.
  • Alliance started in Westfall while the Horde started in the Barrens. Deadmines and Wailing Caverns were not available. One may experience Barrens chat and getting one-shotted by Defias mages.
  • There was no support for the 32-bit client.
  • Any behavior that would result in a player being suspended from the Classic demo would also cause them to be suspended from the live game, including naming violations.

Notes and trivia

  • The original idea was to have the content unlock in 4 phases. This was increased to 6 phases in March 2019.[11]
  • The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King classic servers are not out of the question, depending on the success of the original launch.[12][13]
  • The Classic beta started on May 15, 2019, with the level cap limited to 30. The level cap was later raised to 40. The Classic beta ended on July 12, 2019.
  • World of Warcraft: Classic won the 2019 Golden Joystick Award for "PC Game of the Year".[14][15]

Gallery

Videos

See also

References

 
  1. ^ Mark Your Calendars: WoW Classic Launch and Testing Schedule. Blizzard Entertainment (2019-05-14). Retrieved on 2019-05-14.
  2. ^ a b PC Gamer - This is how Blizzard plans to finally bring back Vanilla WoW servers
  3. ^ Blizzard's President On Making Sure Nothing Changes
  4. ^ Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic
  5. ^ Archimtiros 2018-11-08. World of Warcraft: Classic Demo Extended to 12 November. Wowhead. Retrieved on 2018-11-08.
  6. ^ Bring Home the BlizzCon WoW Classic Demo With The Virtual Ticket. Blizzard Entertainment (2018-09-27). Retrieved on 2018-09-27.
  7. ^ Blizzard Entertainment Ythisens 2018-11-01. Playing the Classic Demo. Retrieved on 2018-11-03.
  8. ^ WarcraftDevs on Twitter - "The playtime limits on the WoW Classic demo have now been removed. Enjoy!" (archived)
  9. ^ Anshlun 2019-05-14. Layering in Classic WoW. Wowhead. Retrieved on 2019-05-15.
  10. ^ Stoy 2019-05-15. WoW Classic Summit Fan Site Interviews. MMO-Champion. Retrieved on 2019-05-15.
  11. ^ Blizzard Entertainment Kaivax 2019-03-11. Classic Content Plan. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2019-03-11.
  12. ^ Quissy 2019-05-14. WoW Classic Interview w/ Ion Hazzikostas & Calia Schie (11:56). YouTube. Retrieved on 2019-06-07.
  13. ^ Heather Newman 2019-05-14. Blizzard Entertainment President Interview On Priorities, WoW: Classic And Diablo. Forbes. Retrieved on 2019-06-07.
  14. ^ Winners Announced at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards. Gamasutra (2019-11-15). Archived from the original on 2019-11-15.
  15. ^ Here's every winner from this year's Golden Joystick Awards, including the Ultimate Game of the Year. GamesRadar (2019-11-15). Archived from the original on 2019-11-16.

External links