Full remembrance

I only just noticed that WOW is finally launching a classic server so people will be able to play the game as it was at launch.  The community has been asking for this for years, and I figured it would never happen.  I was wrong, it would seem.

But I don't know if the people who ask for a classic server actually want the thing they are going to get.  They want the feeling of exploration, discovery, and newness.  You can't get that back just by redoing stuff you did years ago.  They want that sense of losing yourself for hours and hours, time slipping away.  Newflash:  You are old now, and your kids and job make playing for 12 hours at a stretch impossible.

There are some things you will get though.  The game was far more grindy back then, and when you accomplished things you knew just how long it had taken.  Want to get one more tick of Blacksmithing?  Well, get out there and mine for six hours.  Want to gain a level?  Well, there aren't any quests to do, so I guess you grind pirates in a circle for a day or so.  There are some people that want this, but it isn't a thing that I am looking forward to.

I completely understand some of the things they want though.  You won't be teleporting or flying about, so the world will feel real and huge.  Getting places takes time and you have to interact with all of the denizens of the world and I really like that.  There will be zones with elite enemies that you have to find a group to defeat, and this is a challenge I remember fondly.

There is also all kinds of legitimately terrible stuff in classic WOW.  Dungeons like Maraudon had a 14 level range - the dorks at the entrance were level 39, but the boss was 53.  If you go in when the first monsters are reasonable, the later half of the dungeon is unwinnable.  If you go in at a level where you can fight the boss, the first half of the dungeon gives you zero experience, despite still being dangerous and requiring tons of time to slog through.  Sound fun?

I remember levelling up in classic.  Druids could turn into a cat to do damage... but that was actually worse than just hitting the enemies with a staff.  Paladin levelling was just autoattacking until enemies died, then casting one healing spell before going to the next enemy.  When you finally get to raiding warlocks were a class built to debuff enemies, and bosses had only 8 slots for debuffs, and you were expected to bring 5 warlocks and to have 7 mandatory debuffs already taken.  Have fun!

I am sure there will be a flood of people playing classic WOW at the outset.  I will probably even play for a bit.  Nostalgia!

But when I realize that you have to have a warrior tank for 5 man dungeons, and warriors are only 1 class out of 8, I will be sad.  When I note that the best healing paladins will just spec into the retribution tree because the talents in the healing tree don't do anything, I will shake my head.  When I log on for an hour and want to do something, but realize that getting a group and travelling to the dungeon will take 30 minutes, I will grumble and log off.

There are some really good things about classic WOW that could be fun to play with again.  But you can't just bring it back like it was without facing the fact that Blizzard changed WOW greatly over the years, for good reason!

My guess is that there will be tons of interest at the start, then it will fall off rapidly.  Blizzard may well do fine financially just because of all the resubs, but I think the long term playerbase for the classic game simply isn't going to be there.  I do intend to go back to Redridge and kill those murlocs on the north shore of the lake though.  Just to show them who is boss.  /Neverforget