World of Warcraft's Four Versions

[Slotmachine-sargeras]

@Tigersan-gilneas

World of Warcraft Retail. (Paid Subscription).
World of Warcraft Classic Wrath of the Lich King. (Free to play for anyone with a Blizzard Paid Subscription).
World of Warcraft Classic (Free to play for anyone with a Blizzard Paid Subscription).
World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore (Free to play for anyone with a Blizzard Paid Subscription).

They all paid subs and share blizzard sub to all, retail you can actually play to lvl 60 without buying DF

[Tigersan-gilneas]

@Slotmachine-sargeras

They all paid subs and share blizzard sub to all

Yes you are correct. If you have a subscription to Wow Retail. You can play the other three versions for free and not need to pay anything extra.

[Xfour-bigglesworth]

I only sub to play classic-era / HC, so it feels like the other versions come as a side-game to that

Can really only speak to that version, I would say it is raw and the journey can be really epic. There’s really no right or wrong way to play - you can explore and never hit level cap or raid / pvp at the top levels and you’ll probably make friends along the way.

HC is lots of fun as well - just makes you a bit more focused when playing since a single death and the run is over.

[Kairaani-stormrage]

I think 4/5 of the versions are just classic players fragmented into different modes because people want many different things from classic.

If that’s true, then retail probably isn’t harmed much by splitting the game up because those classic players were never going to play retail anyways, and retail players are likely to stick around for major retail updates regardless of what classic is doing.

[Slotmachine-sargeras]

@Tigersan-gilneas

If you have a subscription to Wow Retail.

You dont have to have a sub to retail, you can just buy a sub , and play what ever to want like classic only…

[Tigersan-gilneas]

@Slotmachine-sargeras

You dont have to have a sub to retail, you can just buy a sub , and play what ever to want like classic only

Thanks. I changed my original first post to reflect your correction.

This is how it reads now:

Wow actually has four versions to play independent of each other.
With your World of Warcraft subscription you get to play all of the versions below.

World of Warcraft Retail.
World of Warcraft Classic Wrath of the Lich King.
World of Warcraft Classic.
World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore.

[Snîper-azuresong]

Plenty of ways to play wow.

[Jackroyal-lone-wolf]

One sub to rule them all

[Rhone-greymane]

Just now I googled how many different “currently playable” versions there were for World of Warcraft as it can honestly be a little confusing (at least to an old player like me who hasn’t kept up constantly ). It seems to still constantly be evolving, therefore I’m REALLY hoping (via bookmarking) this and similar forum threads that I might be better able to keep up/stay informed…

[Dîzzy-hyjal]

Classic is good in theory but once the hype ends it becomes void of anyone. Thats why I just stick to retail.