There've been several expansions, including one that destroyed "Vanilla" as we knew it. The game has evolved quite a lot over the years--it's their 15th anniversary this year--and has sadly become quite a lot easier. The in-game world has been rearranged and so many features of convenience have been introduced that the game literally babies you all the way to level, what is it now, 120? That's twice what it was in vanilla.
It shows you where to do quests, gives you heirloom gear that makes leveling extremely fast, quest items and materials (flowers, mines, etc) sparkle, there is a mount available at level one if you've earned it (which is also extremely easy). The game has a feature that puts you into groups for dungeons, quests, and raids. There's cute things to do like achievements and pet battles. You can dress your character up like a barbie doll. Earning money is ridiculously easy and everything is extremely expensive as a result. It's obscenely easy and thanks to daily quests, you literally never run out of things to do if you don't mind repetition. It's become a bit of a bore, actually.
Then, a few days ago, they managed to fix all of that when Blizzard released World of Warcraft Classic. I've been playing it when I have time and, honestly, wow (no pun intended)... it is a serious blast from the past. There're no mechanics to baby you along, no special gear to make leveling easy, no easy ways to earn a fortune like there are in the regular game. Mobs tap when you hit them, so jerks constantly steal your kills, just like the old days. There's no raid finder or easy way to get into dungeon groups. There are no auction houses in every city, no salons to change your character's look, and no in game storage system that saves your pets.You have to pay for training at every level and nothing automatically updates.
The game is in tact, the way it should be, as it was before the Cataclysm expansion killed it. I absolutely love it and the nostalgia I'm feeling playing it is unreal. And, Blizzard did a good deed by making the game free if you subscribe to the regular, overly simplified, monster World of Warcraft has become. I love it, because while I have very little interest in playing the game as it is now, I'm extremely interested in playing the game as it was when I started in 2005. They've given us back something they sort of killed and, honestly, it's perfect.
Thank you, Blizzard, for not fucking this up. Thank you for giving us our game back, you have my undying gratitude... okay, that might be a little dramatic. But seriously, World of Warcraft Classic is surprisingly well done. Now, I'm off to play some more because it's almost 11pm and I've had two Venti coffees in the last couple of hours. Thanks to Blizzard, I have something quite fun to do while not blinking for the new little bit. 😄
