With the release of the Wrath of the Lich King Classic Edition today, World of Warcraft has now promised to revisit its most famous and popular expansion — a period that could also be seen as the end of an era.
Wrath represented the pinnacle of World of Warcraft’s popularity, and while it has continued to flourish since then, subsequent expansions have been very, very different. Specifically, Cataclysm is a moment of dramatic change across the “Old World” of Azeroth, and has seen a major makeover in numerous areas of the original game. Not to mention the various mechanical and visual changes since then.
It is for these reasons that I asked Brian Birmingham, the head of WoW Classic, and production director Patrick Dawson, if Blizzard was interested in furthering the classic version after the Lich King finished its course. . I’ve asked Blizzard leaders the same question twice in the past – once when the classic was released and once when the Burning Crusade was announced. Both times, the answer was a resounding “if the player wanted it”, but there was general optimism about the idea.
This time, although the answer itself was the same, the tone was a little more cautious than before. Birmingham is the first to admit that while Cataclysm is often thought of as a breakthrough point, the breakthrough actually begins with Fury, with the introduction of a dungeon finder tool at the end of the expansion. It’s worth noting that the introduction doesn’t appear at all in the classic version.
“We’re trying to find a balance between keeping the classic feel and making sure we give people something new to do,” he said. “Because it’s obvious [if] You have to play it again and you will come to an end. You say, ‘I want more. So what do we have? We’re going to try to make sure we find something that will please people, give them more to do, and also initially feel a lot like a classic. Whether it’s Cataclysm or other games in the future, we haven’t decided today, and we definitely want to hear feedback from the community. “
World of Warcraft Classic Wrath of the Lich King Art and Screenshots
Dawson echoed Birmingham’s point, encouraging players to speak up as anger continues with what they want to see next.
“The whole game has been a love letter to fans since we originally decided to make Classic World of Warcraft… When we released Classic, we were really focused on that. We didn’t even have to think about the next step, but almost immediately people Said, “We want the Burning Crusade. Almost immediately after we released The Burning Crusade, people said, “Wrath, this is a cool expansion, can’t wait to play this.” “We’ll continue to focus on Wrath and make sure it’s an amazing expansion for players, but then we’ll take the time to stop and listen to what players are saying, what they’re thinking, and how they’re feeling.”
Wrath of the Lich King, announced today, will join World of Warcraft: Classic sometime in 2022. We also talked with Dawson and Birmingham about some of the changes we’ll see from the original version of Wrath. We spoke with the head of retail World of Warcraft about the upcoming new expansion, Dragonflight, and whether it will finally get a console port.
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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN.you can find her on twitter @duck lover.
