Blizzard Explains Why They Made World Of Warcraft Classic (VIDEO)
We are only a few weeks removed from the release of World of Warcraft Classic and the throwback experience has proven to be immensely popular by the looks of the game’s high Twitch viewership and massive in-game queues. However, it wasn’t long ago when the return of vanilla WoW was near-unthinkable following Blizzard’s open dismissal of the idea and swift shutdowns of private servers themed around old-school legacy content.
Though the company was at one point against the idea, Blizzard has recently revealed why they decided to change their stance and venture forth with World of Warcraft Classic. In an interview with ComicBook, Lead Software Engineer Brian Birmingham and Senior Software Engineer Omar Gonzalez spoke about their motivation for bringing back the classic WoW experience, citing the passionate fan community as the main reason why the game ultimately made it to launch.
“I would say this has been something that our fans have been passionately requesting from us for many years,” Birmingham explained. “We really wanted to respond to the community feedback we received for that and write this as a thank you and a love letter back to our fans. Say thank you so much for your passion and commitment to this game and all of your interest in seeing us restore this original product.”
Omar Gonzalez also made note of the concept of MMOs and the unfortunate reality that online players can’t relive past adventures as one might with more solo-focused titles. In addition to the immense fan demand, Gonzalez attributes this natural spirit of replayability as another driving force behind the development of World Of Warcraft Classic.
“There is a lot of old, retro games that you can just kind of pull up, blow the dust off their old installation CDs like, Warcraft 3 or Diablo 2,” Gonzalez added. “You can just grab the old discs and just pop them in if ever you wanted to play older games. This option is not available with big online subscription-based games. So, there was no avenue for people who wanted to play the old versions of, or the Warcraft that they remember playing in their younger days. So, that was another big reason why we did this, because there was no other way to do it.”
The current existence of World of Warcraft Classic is made all the more incredible considering the stance Blizzard took back at BlizzCon 2013, when WoW’s then-Production Director J. Allen Brack responded with the infamous line, “you think you do, but you don’t,” when asked about the possibility of classic WoW servers. In the time since moving up to the position of Blizzard Entertainment President, Brack has evidently cooled his reservations about the idea–especially as he oversaw the reveal of WoW Classic in 2017.
“I think the answer to that is that it doesn’t matter what I think,” Brack said, responding to his infamous quote in a previous interview with IGN. “We have decided to make WoW Classic… You know, one of the things that made us say ‘hey we want to do this and we believe in it’ was this game feeling like it deserves to exist.”
WoW has been a huge game. It’s had a huge community impact, it’s created a lot of bonds and friendships. Not being able to experience that game felt like a bit of a tragedy.”
World of Warcraft Classic is available now on Mac and PC.
What do you think? Are you ‘WoW’ed by how World of Warcraft Classic came to be, or do you much prefer the current version of the MMO? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter and Facebook to be informed of the latest gaming and entertainment news 24 hours a day! For more headlines recently featured on DFTG, check out these next few news stories:
Eric Hall2712 Posts
Phone-browsing Wikipedia in one hand and clutching his trusty controller in the other, the legendary Eric Hall spreads his wealth of knowledge as a writer for Don't Feed the Gamers. Be sure to catch his biweekly "Throwback Thursday" segment for a nostalgic look at trivia from the past.
