Time to receive a ton of hate. Attention everyone, especially “#nochanges” supporters. There will be changes, plain and simple. It’s already been confirmed to have some things in it that weren’t originally in Vanilla WoW. (EX: Loot trading.) I understand you want things to be exactly the same, but you have to look at the bigger picture. This isn’t a private server, this is an official server run by the same company who made the game to begin with. Why does this matter? Well think about it. They have much more skill with creating an MMO than they did before, that skill is going to carry over. Maintenance, patching, balancing, they’ll be using all those skills in WoW Classic. How does this fit into the game changing? Let me explain.
1: There will likely be new content. There was a poll over a year ago asking players if they wanted new areas in the EK and Kalimdor. Majority won the yes vote. It also asked about potential new raids in Classic. Again the vote won yes on the condition that they be equal to or easier than Naxx in terms of difficulty. But even if you don’t account for the poll think about it. When we finally get all the content back and it’s as it was in 1.12, will they really keep it that way? Doubtful. If they don’t add something to the game now and then, players will get bored and eventually leave. An MMO only really stops receiving updates when its dying and Blizzard of course will want to keep this alive for as long as possible. Hence there will be some manner of new content. Be aware new content does not mean the game will “change”. All the old mechanics and struggles will be there. The core game will not be changed, merely more things to do will be introduced, but still playing into what Vanilla WoW was like.
2: Blizzard seems to be actually listening to players this time around and knows they want the game to be as close to the original as possible. I have no doubt that all the old mechanics, Skill Trees, Hunter Pet training and happiness, ammo, soul shards, etc, will be there and will always be there, unchanged or altered. What you all want will be there and what you don’t want will likely not be there. No LFG/LFR, no dungeon summoning stones, they won’t put that stuff in. As for the sharding thing I don’t think they’re considering it to be a permanent thing. Again though you have to look at the bigger picture. Imagine logging in on launch and seeing hundreds of other level 1’s all vying for the same kills. Even in groups of 5 that’s 20+ groups. That would probably be murder on a lot of people’s PCs too and not all of us have these super-high-end desktops. Blizzard wants everyone to be able to play so something has to be done for a while after launch. Again if sharding happens, it will be TEMPORARY. Simply put everything that made WoW what it was back then will still be there.
3: Balancing, something Blizzard has always done constantly. Things changed a lot when BC launched sure, but that’s not what’s going to happen in the future of WoW Classic. If you recall the skill trees/spells/abilities for plenty of classes with through a lot of renditions throughout Vanilla WoW’s lifespan. That’s going to continue to happen. Before you break out the fireballs hear me out. This is a good thing. Blizzard isn’t going to forget about the “hybrid tax”, paladins won’t be dishing out the dps of a rogue or hunter. However if they see a class that’s over-preforming, doing more than intended, that class will likely get some small nerfs. This relates to what I said about the skills developed over the years, Blizzard has gotten better at balancing the game. Let’s take an example, Balance Druids. Back then they sucked right? No one seemed to want them in the end-game. That’s going to eventually change. Now I’m not saying they’ll be preferred over another frost mage, but their viability will be increased so that some raids will consider taking one or two. Blizzard will want all classes to be viable in some manner. I mean let’s face it, what point is there to playing a class/spec if no one wants it? Blizzard were still kind of figuring things out back then. They know what they’re doing now. Balances will be balanced, given all the game’s factors and mechanics back then. This sort of thing has been going on since WoW’s conception. It’ll carry over to Classic. Stuff will be balanced, and we all need to accept that.
Blizzard wants this to feel authentic, but this doesn’t mean what some people think it means. It does not mean no changes, a 1:1 remake. It is not a remaster either. It will be as if Vanilla WoW never went into Burning Crusade, going beyond 1.12 to a theoretical 1.13 and beyond. Everything we love will still be there, but things will still change. If Vanilla WoW had gone to 1.15 before going to BC, you’d want WoW Classic to be exactly like that hypothetical 1.15. No matter what, when a game is maintained by the people who made it, the game will continue to change, grow and evolve. The only difference here is that they won’t be changing the core game, what made it so great compared to what it eventually became. The game won’t be “casualized”, it’ll be tough and grueling to even level. But it will be updated. They will add new things. It will change.
But if WoW stayed in Vanilla, this is what would have happened anyway.