Nostalgia is a funny thing. It makes your memories so clear, and yet so cloudy. Blizzard’s latest nostalgia-indulging endeavor World of Warcraft Classic is set to release on August 17th, but in the meantime Blizzard is preparing with a focused, closed beta test that stated this week. Since then, Blizzard’s beta team have been receiving numbers bug reports that are not actually bugs at all. It’s been a while since anyone’s legally played the Classic version of World of Warcraft, and many of the reports are just misremembering the way the game used to be during its Vanilla period.
World of Warcraft Classic goes way, way back in time to the way the game was just before the release of the Burning Crusade expansion in 2006. Based on patch 1.12, titled “Drums of War,” the game will be what Blizzard considers to be the most stable, balanced, and feature-filled version of Vanilla. The jump back to before the expansion content is meant to restore that genuine, definitive MMO experience that fans feel has been missing from the game as it exists now, but it of course also means a slower, deadlier, and less streamlined.
World of Warcraft Classic on version 1.12 is fully accurate to its original version, and after so much time and so many adjustments to the game’s mechanics it’s easy to see how even returning beta testers are reporting “features” of “Drums of War” as game bugs. To help remind everyone, Blizzard’s Community Manager “Kaivax” posted on their Beta Test Forum “Not A Bug” list to help reduce the number of false reports and clarify what’s working as intended.
As we’ve discussed before, the nature of WoW Classic sometimes invokes different memories for different players, and this leads to certain misconceptions for some about what is or isn’t working as intended.
Among the most nostalgia-clouded “bug” reports are complaints about a very low respawn rate for enemies, and “automatic quest tracking” not auto-tracking new quests, nor do available quests display with big “!” symbols on the map or minimap. In the spirit of accuracy, Blizzard is keeping things that are a little off as well, listing the following item: “NPCs which offer multiple quests may inconsistently display them as a dot or a “!” on the available quests list. They were inconsistent in 1.12, and we’ve reproduced the exact inconsistency they had back then.”
World of Warcraft Classic is shaping up to be a real treat for World of Warcraft veterans looking to experience Vanilla again, as close to the way it was as it can be. The long-absent Thrall is also returning to World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth in upcoming patch 8.2, “The Rise of Azshara,” which should help stir up nostalgic feelings even more.
To get a glimpse of what’s in store for World of Warcraft Classic, check out our report of the demo version here.