In the run-up to Blizzcon, the idea of an expanded version of WoW Classic caught fire in the community. What it would or should entrail differed depending on who you spoke to, and that hasn't escaped Blizzard's notice. As World of Warcraft's vice president says, "Nobody can agree on what exactly that means."
In our new World of Warcraft interview during Blizzcon 2023, Holly Longdale - the vice president and executive producer of World of Warcraft at Blizzard - discusses WoW Classic Plus and reveals that the people working on it aren't even sure what it is. "The phrase' Classic Plus' comes up all the time," Longdale says, "and nobody can agree on what exactly that means." It's not just Blizzard that has a hard time unpacking WoW Class Plus, as players are also divided on its definition.
The WoW developer then touched upon the upcoming expansion Season of Discovery for World of Warcraft Classic, which is set to bring brand new features to the MMORPG on November 30: "At its core, I think what players are asking for is: 'We love Classic, but do something neat with it.' Right? And so Season of Discovery is sort of like a toe in the water."
Longdale continues: "The idea for the season came from how we tested classes, which was by level ranges, and how players made their own endgames within those level ranges. We thought that was super fun, and decided to build something around that. But another part of Classic that is its essence – at least for now, anything can change of course – is that it's built foundationally on what came before."
Touching on what some players believe WoW Classic Plus should be, the Blizzard developer adds: "If we were ever going to say, okay, we're going to – again, I'm just paraphrasing what some people refer to as 'Classic Plus' – build a whole new zone or a weird timeline or some multiverse kind of thing, that's a longer conversation. So Season of Discovery feels like a good opportunity to experiment. To try some different stuff, just like we did with Hardcore – which was another experiment. You know, Classic really is a rare and beautiful thing."
It wasn't the first time Blizzard spoke the idea of WoW Classic Plus at Blizzcon either.
"Classic Plus is interesting," assistant lead Classic designer Tim Jones says during a roundtable interview with several journalists. "It means so many different things to so many different people. Whether that's keeping Classic WoW the way it is with slight tweaks to certain under-represented classes to make sure Red Paladins are more viable, but 'don't make any changes to Molten Core.'
"Then there are some people who want new dungeons or a new zone. There's no one thing we can do to satisfy all players. So I will say that seasonal content is an opportunity for us to explore things that people might be interested in that exist in whatever they're pitching for their ideal Classic Plus."
Elsewhere during Blizzcon, it was announced that Cataclysm is officially coming to World of Warcraft Classic. The expansion, which was originally released in 2010, is set to return in WoW Classic in the first half of 2024.
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