All current World of Warcraft subscribers can start playing Classic today at no additional cost
Grizzled veterans and newcomers alike can now experience Azeroth as it was in its earliest days with World of Warcraft Classic, which is live starting today and included at no additional cost as part of everyone’s WoW subscription.
World of Warcraft Classic has been a labor of love a response to a demand from Blizzard, and the result is an authentic re-creation of the pre-expansion game in its most feature-complete state, as it was during 2006’s “Drums of War” update. Blizzard has continued to bring WoW Classic realms online around the world to accommodate the more than two million players who have created characters in anticipation of today’s launch, and will work to add more based on player population trends.
World of Warcraft has evolved considerably across seven expansions, with numerous features, enhancements, and quality-of-life improvements that have changed the game. In many ways, World of Warcraft Classic is more unrelenting and demanding of self-direction from players than today’s version of the game. Bonds among the community are paramount—activities like raids and dungeon runs must be organized collectively by players on the same realm, with the toughest challenges requiring 40 coordinated and committed souls to surmount.
Look, I’m no fan of WoW as it is with it feeling like a wall that can’t be climbed. I adored the series through Warcraft III but stopped because MMO’s really aren’t my thing, let alone ones that force me to pay for them on a monthly basis. Still, I did give the original WoW a try up to around level 20 and can say that I had a good bit of fun. I even tried playing on some private vanilla servers as the game grew and got crazier. So this new classic thing has got my attention and may get old-timers like me back into the game.
Classic’s Azeroth is equal parts wonder and hazard, and its trials will push players to their limits. The Alliance and the Horde, in the midst of outright war, are made to reckon with forces whose powers transcend their own brutal conflict—including some of the most iconic and love-hated of villains of the Warcraft universe, like Ragnaros the Firelord and the Archlich Kel’Thuzad.
World of Warcraft Classic will continue to expand in the weeks and months following today’s launch. Among the host of features and activities set to be introduced to the game across six phases are iconic raids like Blackwing Lair, Zul’Gurub, and Naxxramas; player-versus-player battlegrounds like Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and the classic version of Alterac Valley; and time-limited server-wide events like the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort, and the Scourge Invasion.
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