Saturday, June 22, 2019

WoW Classic Countdown II



The public stress test for WoW Classic went on this week.  I caught wind of it kinda late, but did enjoy poking my head back into the Orc and Dwarf starter zones.  It felt like home.

I started by rolling an Orc Warrior named Zoxe (I'm nothing if predictable), and ran him around until I realized that I was going to be extra-tempted to run him up to the Old Orgrimmar.  There are a few things in Classic that I really want to savor - stepping foot into the original Org map is one of them.  I decided that I really wanted to do that at Launch, and do it when the quest lines actually sent me there, so I can soak in the whole thing.  So to avoid temptation, I hopped out and decided to see what was up on the Alliance side.  (I'm a Horde player but the wintery Dwarf starter zone was always my favorite).

The Dwarf zone was also crowded, but mobs could be found and I got to level 5 as a Gnome Warlock, was sent to Khanaros and decided to log out in Ironforge (which I have fewer misgivings about seeing because my attachment is lower and it hasn't changed that much).

Overall it felt really good, but I had fewer "oh wow" moments compared to the Blizzcon Demo.  I think this was because the Demo was focused on higher level content (Barrens and Westfall) where we spent more of our time.  The starter zones were always fun, but you'd spend at most a couple hours in them per character.  We "lived" in Crossroads.

Anyway, a good way to spend a rainy evening.

Before I go, though, let me summarize my expectations for WoW Classic.



First, my time investment in any PC endeavor today is, by necessity, different.  I just posted about how times were changing in my evening habits.  I still plan to focus on Hobby stuff more than PC stuff. 

Second, I don't have any illusions that my fond memories of Classic gloss over all the warts in the game.  Half finished zones (Azshara), clunky mechanics, grindy quests, broken talents/specs.  I'm going into it wanting to see and do a few specific things, and if that lasts me a month, I'm cool. If it's 6 months, that's cool too. 

There are two main draws for me, I think.  The first is that the game that I remember was taken away from me.  I say that like I'm angry, but I'm actually just a statement of fact.  Blizzard has never been bashful about tearing things down, paving over them, and building new.  They only have so much "space" to do things, both in terms of maps/geography and game narrative.  I get it.

But, at the same time, the game that I played from 2005 to 2010 when Cataclysm launched, hasn't been available to replay.  First and foremost are the old zones like 1K Needles, old Crossroads, and the area south of Undercity (From Brill to Sepluchur and into Hillsbrad).  I could say that Cataclysm "ruined" WoW (it didn't) or deny that the old world was tired and needed a refresh (oh gawd, it did).  Those are debates for another post (which I'll probably never write).  But the old zones, old quests, old mechanics haven't been available for a decade or more, and I am excited about the chance to see WoW-that-was.

The second draw is that the WoW of today has shifted and evolved to meet the demands of the market, and along the way I fell out of the target audience.  I'm a quester and leveler and alt-o-holic first and foremost.  Classic WoW's sixty levels of open world questing was ... the shit.   For several expansions, WoW's questing system has been "on rails" to the point that replay/alts aren't interesting to me.  Some make the argument about "hard" vs. "easy" - it's not just that (although challenge is an ingredient), it's more about freedom.  I'm excited about being dropped into a bighuge world and deciding - for myself - which direction to go next.


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