After years of resisting the push from fans for a legacy "World Of Warcraft" experience, Blizzard has finally decided to give a large contingent of players the gaming experience they've been clamoring for by officially announcing classic servers at this weekend's Blizzcon event.
While the company didn't offer much in the way of details, the announcement was so well received that it became the highest up-voted post of all-time in the /r/wow subreddit within hours and has sparked an interest in the MMO that hasn't been seen since the pinnacle of its popularity during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
What is a classic server?
Blizzard's new classic servers will assumedly roll back to the very first iteration of the World of Warcraft circa 2004. In his comments, "WoW" Production Director J. Allen Brack said that the development team is working to replicate the authentic experience as much as possible. Practically speaking, that would mean a number of changes that separate the classic experience from what the modern game has become.
Many of the so-called "quality of life" improvements (cross-server grouping, dungeon finder, looking for raid, etc.) rolled out in various expansions over the years will not be included in classic servers. Instead, players will be responsible for finding their own groups and limited to the specific server on which they reside in terms of a player pool.
While some may see this as a downside, proponents of the classic experience argue that removing these features creates a closer-knit server community in which player reputation actually matters.
Additionally, talent trees and other gameplay elements will likely be reverted to how they were in the first expansion. Raids will be limited to Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, and Naxxramas (the 40-man version) just as they were for the base game.
'You think you do, but you don't' (turns out they do)
Brack has been an infamous figure in the legacy "WoW" movement for years since uttering those words in response to a fan a few years back who asked if the company would ever consider releasing classic servers. This year's announcement seems to be an about-face and is likely a response to the growing popularity of major Private Servers (Nostalrius and Elysium, most notably) as the only bastion of the classic gaming experience available.
Blizzard famously shut down Nostalrius last year and has been sending out cease-and-desist letters to other private servers more aggressively in recent months. With this announcement, we now know why.