I'm in a bit of a flux state with WoW at the moment, I tend to spend most of my time in WoW in the Classic version of the game, just out of personal preference, although I do also enjoy retail WoW as well from time to time, mostly collection based content.
That being said, Classic is in a bit of a lull for me right now, as BlizzCon is just around the corner, and Blizzard is seemingly holding all of their cards close to their chest until BlizzCon to talk about what's coming, and more specifically, what's happening with the multitude of different versions Classic has become since its original 2019 launch. I figured I'll go through each version, and talk a bit about my history with that version, and my current stance with them.
Classic Plus:
I think at this point, everyone and their mother is expecting the much hyped Classic+ to be announced, at the upcoming BlizzCon. What the plus actually means though, no one knows. It could be something like a Season of Discovery sequel, or something like Turtle WoW was with a focus on the vanilla game and expanding it. I'm trying to keep an open mind, as I think no matter what Blizzard do, there will be a large section of the player base unhappy, as everyone wants seemingly different things. There have been some leaks, with the Camelot stuff, but I haven't really followed it much personally.
Mists of Pandaria:
I haven't really played this version of classic since the run of WotLK Classic came to an end, and Classic Cataclysm came along. For me, the classic part of WoW ends with WotLK. Cataclysm brought in the world changes, which can be played on retail anyway, and the game really starts to move quickly in a direction away from the classic trilogy. There's also the fact that I didn't really play much of TBC or WotLK during their initial retail run, as I was new, low level and just enjoying the vanilla game content, so it felt fresh in Classic for me. By the time the original release of Cataclysm came, I was max level, and much more entrenched within the game and playing it a lot. This is even more true for MoP, so my desire for a re-do on Classic servers wasn't really there to begin with for those versions.
The biggest question mark is what happens with MoP once it has finished, next up would be Warlords of Draenor, which was one of WoW's least liked expansions. I must admit, I'd find it quite ironic if Classic WoD actually happened as this was the era of "you think you do, but you don't", and when the push for official Classic servers really started to become more popularised and requested by the player base due to how much the game had changed from its original design. Without WoD though, these servers have a big question mark over them, do they remain MoP forever? I don't see much of an appeal for MoP era servers, so hopefully Blizzard talk about their plans at BlizzCon for this version of the game.
Season of Discovery:
Then you have Season of Discovery, which "finished" quite a while ago at this point, SoD is one of the few times I've ever hit 60 in classic (yes, I am that slow at levelling), and I enjoyed it for what it was at the time, I've had thoughts of dipping back in, but again, with BlizzCon coming up, and SoD always being a "seasonal" server, I'm unsure it'll be here for much longer. I'm actually surprised its still available now to be honest, as its season ended long ago. I do log in to my 60 Night Elf Rogue sometimes, but don't do much beyond peruse around Stormwind or Ironforge for a few minutes before logging off again.
TBC Anniversary:
I'd imagine Anniversary is where most of the current player base is, and at the time of its launch, I was really looking forward to another go around for Classic Vanilla and TBC again. While I did play Classic 2019, most of my time was spent re-rolling, playing alts, and moving servers, so I never really got past level 30 or so. I was keen to change that for Anniversary. Unfortunately, this was when Blizzard moved towards only doing 1-2 "mega servers" with zero roleplay server options, which personally, I am really not a fan of for a multitude of reasons that maybe I'll talk about one day. I ended up burning out around level 35 or so, mainly due to the fierce mob tagging for every quest just making the game a more frustrating experience than anything.
I have recently come back to anniversary, but only for some casual starter zone levelling, as I had the itch to play again, but didn't want to commit too much while waiting for all the BlizzCon news to drop. Furthermore, I'm very surprised by how competitive the mob tagging still is, even though it has been over a year now since Anniversary started.
The biggest question is if these servers will move towards WotLK, or end to make room for Classic+, there's also questions of if we will get a TBC Era, in the same vein as the Classic Era realms, Blizzards silence has been rather frustrating on this. Personally, I'd love to see a TBC era, because I imagine the servers would be way less populated than they are now, which I would personally prefer.
Era:
I appreciate era a lot, mainly because of its stagnancy. A lot of people write it off due to that, but I think it's almost its biggest positive. The fact there is an end goal, you can "finish" it. I quite like that aspect of it. It's also one of the few versions remaining with smaller population realms, and more importantly, RP realms. I tend to come and go with Era, and I never cloned any of my characters during the initial TBC release, so I don't really have any dedicated high level characters on this version, but I always know that it's not going to go anywhere, so there's no real rush for me. I do fear Blizzard may do some server consolidation with all the upcoming news, and remove the RP realms as both of them (I play on EU) are extremely quiet, I really hope not, and it would be a real shame if that happened.
I know there are hardcore realms as well, but that's never really interested me much, I don't like the idea of losing a character for dying once, but maybe I'll try it one day.
So beyond some very casual levelling in TBC anniversary right now, I'm mostly just waiting for BlizzCon so we can get some answers on what's happening next. My desire to play the game is as strong as it ever was, but not knowing what's happening with all these versions means just waiting seems to be the best solution right now, which is unfortunate.
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