WoW Classic is currently celebrating a successful comeback, while the MMORPG genre is experiencing a fresh upswing. For years, our author Paul Herzog thought that the maximum level was the “highest of feelings” – but now he asks himself a completely different question: “Do we even have to get to level 60 as quickly as possible?”
For years you could hear the call from the community, now it has been answered: The WoW Classic Community (buy now) of the numerous popular private servers finally gets an authentic reconstruction through the official Classic servers. But as the numerous connected servers and ongoing queues have shown: Classic not only fascinates the nostalgic WoW players, but also MMORPG fans worldwide.
The genre is currently experiencing a revival, like a phoenix rising from the ashes. But what actually fascinates about WoW Classic? How can a 15-year-old MMORPG retain more players in 2019 than current WoW retail? In our last buffedcast #524 , Philipp made what I thought was a very exciting statement: “Classic is a role-playing game that can also be played online.” And with that he hits the Murloc nail on the head.
The route is the goal
In a role-playing game, I take on the role of my (in this case) fictional character, build up an emotional connection and develop him (or myself). Over time, I’ve transformed myself from a lazy little peon into a chivalrous savior of Azeroth – celebrated by friends, feared by enemies.
But this change takes time and every step I climb contributes to it. This is where the role-playing facet Classics comes into play, which is the engine of immersion. Over time I get into a ” flow state ” that plays an important role in game research. Because this ” flow theory ” states that the player has to fulfill three different tasks in order to get into this “flow state”:
The activity must be challenging and require a certain “skill”.
The activity must include clearly defined goals and provide feedback on its success/failure.
The outcome is inherently uncertain, but can be influenced by the player’s actions.
At this point I would also like to refer to a WoW retail article that I wrote here at buffed when I was starting out. In this article, I am of the opinion that a level squeezing in relation to retail would not be expedient, since (with reference to the flow theory) a simple reduction of the levels (with the same difficulty of the process) would not be sufficient.
I now see this thesis confirmed in WoW Classic: The leveling process is actually challenging – just with all the elite quests alone – and we have to (forcedly) interact with the players in order to advance ourselves. As a result, we are experiencing a renaissance of immersion. In my opinion, that is exactly what makes the Classic game fun at the moment: the path is the goal, the path is challenging and the path is social.
Can I finally be level 60 please?
This leads me to my next point: I’m a regular on Reddit, where a bunch of people have been posting their “How I got to level 60” moment over the past few days. For example, the user “Jonny727272” even reached the final stage as a ghost!
In the past I would have looked at these numerous postings full of envy and thought: “Mah, I would like to be finished now…”. But since the release of Classic, that little voice has fallen silent – quite the opposite in fact. I enjoy the way and discover every single zone of Azeroth extensively. I don’t feel the urge or need to pant towards the max level, because even at level 30 I have enough fun and enough content to discover .
What is WoW Classic?
World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.
Getting Started
All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access toWoW Classic at no additional cost.
- Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
- Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
- Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
- Click the Play button when the installation is complete.
You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!
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