World of Warcraft has gone through several iterations at this point, all ranging from Classic, Classical era, Season of discoveryand Retail (aka the current patch and any current expansions). This is an MMORPG that is constantly reinventing itself, while trying to retain the core feel of early 2000s gaming. This is an MMORPG that I fell in love with for this reason.
Now if you read the title and you exited the game somewhere in the middle Mists of Pandaria or DisasterMaybe you’re ready and willing to fight me. But chances are I might agree with you. (I like all of World of Warcraftbut i don’t care Disastercompletely.) Because even though I’m still fairly new to World of Warcraft, the most time I spend in the game is in Classical era server and Season of discovery. And while I enjoyed Retail, I still prefer the rawness of the game when it launched in 2006. I even tried playing on private servers sometimes just to really experience the game without any UI or major gameplay tweaks or improvements.
I started playing MMORPGs when I was twelve years old. Lineage II was the first MMORPG I really got into, thanks to some really nice NCSOFT staff at GenCon. I remember hanging out at one of the stations, completely enthralled at the prospect of playing an online game that wasn’t Ragnarok Online private server. Since then, I have been hooked on MMORPGs. I have played AION when it came out, i created a QQ account with the help of a friend who has a Chinese ID to play Blade & Soul in the early years via the QQ launcher (now Tencent). I’m old now and I loved the weirdness of MMORPGs in the early stages of their life cycle because of how weird some of the gameplay changes could be.
And World of Warcraft Classic (and by extension Season of discovery) has everything I wanted. I started out as Paladin, trudged through Hardcore, and got absolutely mauled by kobolds in the Human starting zone. And then I switched to Hunter in Classic And Season of discovery and loved the complexity of it all. This was a time when I was feeling particularly antisocial, completely exhausted from some of the projects I had to juggle, and running around Darkwood with my Black Ravager (a large wolf with protruding tusks that I felt my character would accompany him on his lonely journey) was just so much fun. I loved having to feed my pet and increase its attachment. I loved teaching my pet new skills and having to buy arrows for my bow. I loved the complexity of World of Warcraft.
Everything in World of Warcraft exists for a reason. It exists for a purpose. I have to take damage to increase my defense, I have to use the bow to become more proficient and deal more damage. I feel like my character is growing, that he exists and belongs to this world in some way. I engage with the game in a way that feels natural to me, and there really isn’t another MMORPG on the market that does this specifically. It’s inconvenient and sometimes challenging, but it feels great to play.
But sometimes I don’t want that challenge. Sometimes I want to use Dungeon Finder to easily queue up with people to run the latest content and get new gear pieces for my massive Death Knight morph collection (or charms, if you’re a FFXIV Or I just want easy access to Dungeons or Raids that I can tackle on my own as I tackle World of Warcraft’s massive backlog of content as a new player. And that’s where I get into Retail.
World of Warcraft Dragonflight And The War Within has added important gameplay changes and updates. Flight of the Dragon added a new flight system, which was admittedly fun and made getting through maps faster, and The War Within expanded on this, making a new version of the roguelike mode that appears in Shadowlands more single-player friendly. There were also general quality of life updates like Warbands, which unlocked transmog and achievements for all characters, and saved me from playing through Land of Darkness second time for a particular outfit. It’s all about convenience, which is good. It doesn’t reduce Classicand it allows me to play a more modern version of the game I really love with friends who don’t want to experience the rougher aspects of the previous game.
Both versions coexisting at the same time is not a problem either. If you want a more complex experience, you can play Classical eraEven if the servers aren’t as crowded as Retail, there’s still a pretty healthy community there. (Playing on RP servers, people are usually friendly and it’s great to see open world RP.) And Retail is still alive and well, even with players joining and leaving at various times.
I just want to say that it’s great that World of Warcraft players can have their cake and eat it too. I wish more MMORPGs would do that, or at least let players experience the game as it is throughout their lives. But I understand that this is not possible. World of Warcraft makes a lot of money, and Blizzard Entertainment is allowed to funnel that profit back into the game. Though I’m grateful that these different game states are allowed to exist. Because otherwise, I’m not sure I’d like it. World of Warcraft as much as I do now.
World of Warcraft available for Computer.
