World of WarCraft players had been begging Blizzard Entertainment for a return to the origins of the MMORPG for some time. In August 2019, they got their wish. The old user interface was back, and leveling was much slower – once more reliant on forming communities to take on dungeons and complete quests. But as Classic began to progress and update, bringing the Wrath of the Lich King expansion into the fold, Blizzard released a second server.
This one was more punishing, and by extension more difficult due to a feature pulled straight from the Diablo series: permadeath Named World of WarCraft Classic Harcore, the new server landed in August 2023 with new, decidedly more punishing stakes. It took a while to get the ball rolling, but the brutal nature of these servers caused players to band together in ways that feel reminiscent of MMORPGs of a previous generation – the generation when World of WarCraft was still fresh, and MMORPGs were still novel to the general public.
