[lukey_q]

I haven't played WOW since the first version, which I guess is "classic" now. I'm wondering what the draw would be for something like this, as I assume the current version of the game is this plus all the extras and bonuses from the expansions over the years? Is it just nostalgia for the "classic" version or is there some other reason someone would want to play this instead of the updated version?

[bovermyer]

Nostalgia is part of it.

The other part of it is a genuine desire for a more difficult, time-consuming, socially-driven game.

[ubermonkey]

Yeah, this.

I was a pretty dedicated player, off and on, from open beta in late-summer 2004 through the Cataclysm expansion in 2012, with a little dabbling later for Mists of Pandaria in 2014.

The game changed a LOT. I was never much of an endgame raid player; I really, really enjoyed the progression through the world with friends, so I did that several times.

As WOW shifted to be more endgame raid focused, world progression got a lot faster, a lot lonelier, and a lot less interesting. OTOH, those first years of playing WoW remain, to me, probably the best video gaming experiences I've ever had (and I'm pushing 50, so I've seen the whole ride).

I'll probably re-up to play some Classic. I doubt I'll stick with it -- I have other things I enjoy doing now that would preclude me from playing more than an hour or two a week -- but it'll be fun to visit that world again.

(Oh, and I should note for non-WoW people that the actual in-game world literally changed -- geography shifted, towns were destroyed, etc -- with the release of Cataclysm in 2010. Among the shattered places left behind were the early-level zones for my first characters. I'd love to see those as they were again.)

[lukey_q]

Ok, got it, thanks for the explanation :) I also really enjoyed the exploration and social aspect of the early part of the game back then, I quit when that was over and seemed as if the rest of it would just be re-doing the same raids over and over trying to get slightly better gear.

[ubermonkey]

EXACTLY. That grind held no charm for me.

[vbezhenar]

Modern WoW changed a lot of things. Some of changes are not welcome by some people. They tried to cater to 90%, but 10% left behind. Simple example: hunter used arrows or bullets to shoot. And had to periodically feed his pet to keep him happy. Simple mundane thing. But it's that RPG flavour. They removed it, you don't need to think about it anymore. And that flavour is lost. Most of players don't care, but some do.

I never played original WoW, I joined in TBC but I really want to try Classic and I expect that I will love it. Nostalgia has nothing to do with that, obviously. Also, if we're talking about nostalgia, it's WotLK for me. And I'm not going to play it again :) Been there, done that. And a lot of players tried to remake classic WoW on pirate servers and they did amazing job, actually. Hundreds of thousands of players played on private servers for years. So demand is there.

[Beltiras]

It's just not the same game. This game features talent trees that the current version just does not have anymore. It is actually a feature that pushes you in a more social direction within the game that dungeons and raids are hard and you have to be a part of a cohesive group to experience the full game. And yes. Nostalgia as well.

[buildzr]

The overall game play has changed over the years, been simplified significantly in some ways. There's been a bunch of private servers that have succeeded massively by running old school WoW, some of the biggest were killed by blizzard, this is an official offering of that basically.

[swebs]

>Is it just nostalgia for the "classic" version

Yes, pretty much. The reason it has been getting so much fanfare is that people have been trying to play vanilla WoW for over a decade on private servers, but kept getting shut down by Blizzard's legal department. Blizzard refused to host a classic server for the longest time leading to the infamous condescending quote "You don't want that ... You think you do, but you don't"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wrw3c2NjeE