Also classic was never on the table untill they migrated everything to a cloud based server. They didn’t really need to do anything other than migrate old code into the modern client. If anyone honestly believes they would’ve added a ton of new 1.12 blades just for classic they are delusional imo.
Classic 10/10. I’ve had a blast, and am continuing to do so.
A bit sad about no multibox keybroadcasting, but that wasn’t the thing that was keeping me in the game anyway. 
it’s a solid 9/10. we got what we expected.
community sucks but the game itself is a fair recreation of the classic game.
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I say 8/10, some issues sure but overall great experience. Haven’t been subbed this long for wow until classic came out.
With all this work, we’re sure you’re wondering if we’re done yet, or if it wouldn’t have just been easier to update the reference client.
Reference client = 1.12 client.
When we look at today’s World of Warcraft, we can see the differences between the modern game and the classic one. If we tried to update the reference client, we would have instead been tracking down a lot of “invisible” changes such as exploits waiting to be abused, crashes that don’t show up until you have millions of players online at once, and more. We chose to approach the problem in a way that makes our job clear and obvious instead of difficult and hard to see.
You realize that a reference client isn’t the same as having the original client, right? It’s also only as old as the 1.12 client. In Ion’s own words, there was too much testing and fixing required for the reference client vs building a client off of the legion engine.
They did not have the original client that player were using back in 06 for 1.12, they had an image of it still rife with bugs and potential exploits; like a beta version of the 1.12 client. It’s useful as a reference for intended values to implement onto the new client built for Classic.
Word for word, the reason we’re playing a legion engine version of Classic is because Blizzard did not have a playable 1.12 client available nor anything earlier than 1.12. This is not the case for TBC.
What you say isn’t true. And the reason they said that about the bugs and potential exploits is because…those existed in the 1.12 client back then. Those bugs and exploits were later fixed. But they absolutely have a playable 1.12 client available. They just chose not to use it, and they gave their reasons.
But you’re right in that they don’t have data going back any earlier than 1.12. But they do have it all for TBC so potentially they could do progressive patches. Is there reason to do so? Is it feasible? Is it worth taking out some changes like qol improvements or class balance changes or bug fixes, but leave raid encounters or attunements of earlier tbc patches? I think they’ll just go 2.4.3 with staggered content release. But you are correct that at least they have the data to potentially do otherwise.
If you go through the article, the 1.12 reference client is itself a rebuilt client from the data they were able to find.
0/10 due to incompetent staff who couldnt figure out how to fix BG terrain exploits after 15 years.
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I would suggest you reread whatever article you’re referencing, or other interviews. They have a 1.12 client. They use it for testing purposes and comparisons. If you’re referring to the dev watercooler’s use of the ‘rebuilt patch’…they’re talking about the patch, not the client.
The server population has been the biggest problem. I can get nothing done no matter where I go. Economy is completely F’d. Wont be back for TBC! The reasons for this change is completely beyond me and has ruined everything. So short sighted on Blizz’s part.
Before we could begin our journey to faithfully recreate the original WoW experience, the WoW Classic team first had to take a close look at which elements of the original game we had to work with. Ultimately, it boiled down to three main pieces: database data, art assets, and source code.
- The database data includes aspects of the game like the hit points a creature has, the amount of stamina an item has, spawn locations around the word, and millions of other data points.
- Art assets include everything from how a night elf looks when it Shadowmelds, to the sounds a Pyroblast makes, to the motion of an orc swinging an axe.
- The source code contains the instructions on how to display the game, process input, and connect people.
To start out, we had to find out how far back our source code archive went. We discovered the first piece of code that could be connected to WoW went as far back as 1997—well before World of Warcraft development even began.
This was a good start, but there were issues with how the developers used to handle updates to the database data. Unlike the source code, for which Blizzard had archives for multiple branches of the game that could be worked on and developed as separate pieces, early database data was overwritten with each commensurate update. Thankfully, that problem was fixed very quickly after launch, and when we looked, we found data going back to version 1.12—and even earlier.
Finally, we found art assets on old tape backups, which matched all the database data that had been preserved.
With all three components coming together, we were able to do a test and log in to the game, create new characters, kill boars, and complete some quests.
A 1.12 client was rebuilt, not just re-accessed. 1.12 was used because that’s the oldest data they could access.
They have an original 1.12 server and client and data. Your quote doesn’t say otherwise. What they did was combine the original 1.12 data with the current client and server architecture. And then used their 1.12 original client as a comparison.
I’m not going to keep arguing this because they’ve said they have these things. And also it’s derailing the thread.
Here, read this: https://www.pcgamesn.com/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-classic-gameplay-vanilla-wow-server
I think the game itself is a solid 8 or 9 out of ten. The best part of the game in my opinion was when the server was still fresh and everyone was leveling together and exploring the world alongside each other.
It quickly soured when the community began to ‘optimize’ the fun out of everything.
Couldnt get into dungeon groups if you werent able to AoE everything because everyone just wanted to pull everything and Blizzard it down to level faster. Couldnt get into Blackrock Mountain because everyone was going for Rank 14 and was camping Thorium Point and Morgan’s Vigil. Couldnt find groups to level out in the world because everyone was paying for boosts in dungeons because you could literally AFK your way to tens of thousands of XP per hour. Meme specs were verboten.
Everyone had their BiS lists, their ideal race/class combo, the best professions for your class, the best leveling routes. The playerbase was here for the sole purpose of killing stuff as one-sidedly as possible and ignoring every last ounce of discovery and involvement in the actual world out of the game as they could.
I eventually got tired of it and became a raid logger. The community of Classic screamed and screamed for a hard game that took the players seriously, then did everything in their power to trivialize everything, no matter how easy the content might be. I’ve never known such an unnecessary amount of sweaty tryhardiness from a community before, and I used to play a lot of Starcraft.
The best fun I had in Classic is when I got into a group with people who werent playing for the gear or the XP, but because they just wanted to see stuff. I remember I once had a group that wanted to climb from the bottom of Jintha’alor all the way to the top. We knew we could corpse-hop, but we wanted it to do it the hard way just to say we did. We fought a Horde group that was also doing the climb and turned it into a brutal three-way battle on the way to the top. It was excellent. I never had an experience in Classic like that again.
TL;DR game was great, community ruined it.
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Classic is a 6.5/10. Acceptable game.
Vanilla was a 6.5/10. Acceptable game.
Classic could have been better.
Vanilla was probably as good as it was ever going to be.
The specifically had the data, not anything playable. That all had to be rebuilt to run on modern hardware. W/e, interpret it as you’d like.
2/10. Haven’t got past 30.
I don’t appreciate the high level differences in a single zone. Which forces me to go to other zones to quest.
I’ve spent over a year playing this game almost every day. I’ve played a lot of games in my life, and only a handful have kept my interest that consistently, for that long.
10/10
I’d say a 7/10, but some of that is because of the community. Like, I can’t stand boosting, I can’t stand the world buff meta, I can’t stand the meta spec insistence. Most of those exist because of players, but also, the game could be altered in a way that could change that. I’m not proposing they do. I’m just stating the reasons it gets a 7 from me. Also, the AV imbalance is really stupid and I wush it would get fixed.
0/10 Blizztards/Actimorons could have fixed glaring glitches, and exploits, but chose to ignore them. Not sure if it was the staff had severe downs, or the company was just greedy.