Blast from the Past

Camp Taurajo.  Hello old friend.

So, this weekend was Blizzcon weekend.  Oddly, it's a sort of holiday for us.  Oh, our hobby interests have waxed and waned, but through thick and thin we somehow always pay attention to Blizzcon weekend.  Over the years it's been a weekend where we pause and veg out and watch the streams (or DirecTV PPV back in the day) and otherwise just nerd out.  It never mattered much if we were playing Blizzard games or not; we stop, reminisce, and enjoy.

Blizzcon has a special place in our hearts.  We first attended in person on a complete whim in 2007 - the second Blizzcon ever.  I happened to load a Blizzard page linking to the ticket sales and a road trip to Anaheim sounded like fun.

Now, for context:  in 2007, WoW was in the mid/late TBC era.  I was a Vanilla WoW player, but had struggled to catch a groove in TBC.  We kind of laughed about the fact that we were attending a convention for a game that we weren't actually playing.  (That statement alone is indicative of how focused Blizzard was on WoW at the time - WC3 and SC1 were of course around but showing their age, and Diablo 3 was years away.  WoW was the runaway juggernaut that had yet to actually peak).

The 2007 Blizzcon was the announcement for Wrath of the Lich King and Death Knights, and watching the trailer while in line for Blizzcon merchandise, I was totally and completely hooked.  Over a decade later, I think that one trip to California changed how I viewed games, gaming, and became a Blizzard fan.

We returned to Blizzcon in 2008 and again in 2015.  Some day we may return again.

A lot has changed with WoW since 2007.  Wrath, Cata, MoP, WoD, Legion, and now BfA have all deployed.  The bones of the game that I enjoyed in Vanilla through Wrath are still there, but the game is so very different today.  The type of play that I enjoy is still there, sort of, but it's obscured, twisted, and different.  Less pure.  If nothing else, the map changes that the Cata expansion brought keep me from visiting places that I used to know.

This Blizzcon brought the WoW Classic demo.  I'm currently logged in as I type, with an Orc Warrior named Zoxe standing in Camp T.  This is an area of the game that we haven't seen since Cata launched and Deathwing wrecked the old world in 2010.

It was a little thing, but I'll admit that my eyes got a little watery running down from Crossroads to visit Camp T just after logging in yesterday.

The demo only includes the Barrens and Westfall, so I'm limited in places I can enjoy, but it just feels like home.