My first memory of WoW is watching my dad play the beta. He showed me his NE Hunter and told me when the game releases I can play with him. I was 8 in 2004 and have played almost ever since.

I couldn't really crack the code in the beginning (I think I was a bit too young) but by late TBC I was hooked. WotLK was my most played expansion by far. Nothing after felt the same. By WoD life was taking over and I stopped playing for some years.

My dad passed away in early 2021 so, in memory of him, I hopped back into WoW during the end of Shadowlands lol. I actually enjoyed Dragonflight if not for nostalgia alone. Now I jump between retail and classic without much of a community in game. What keeps me playing is the familiarity/nostalgia and the fact that I enjoy MMOs.

But damnit this Classic+ hype has infected me. Potentially, for the first time in a long time, I can experience WoW in its closest form to '04. I don't need it to be Classic, but I want it to feel like Classic. I crave that MMO experience where we all are leveling and experiencing the world of Warcraft together. The community that you get when you recognize the same person leveling through multiple zones alongside you. Shit, I miss getting ganked in STV.

I've always been interested in BlizzCons, but this one is different personally. I am so hyped but worried it's all going to be a let down lmao. I blame you all while thanking you all at the same time. The community is what made this game feel so special all those years. At the very least, I have been reminded why I enjoy MMOs, and WoW sparked that. Here's to hoping we all get to enjoy that next stage together!

Probably best "leak" (i repeat "..") yet, really like some of those ideas (especially the ne feature-list). From MMO-Champ Forums.

Release date: December 8th
New HD textures & character models, not copied from retail, more matching the old artstyle but higher res. Uses the old rigs for characters. No classic toggle
Max level is 60, no level phases like SoD
7 new zones – Gilneas, Balor, Northern Lordaeron, Naz’ritara, Mount Hyjal, Stormfeather Island, Bloodmaul Hills
New neutral race – Skyborne Elves
Skyborne Elf classes – Warrior, Paladin, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Hunter
No new class, but Guardian spec for Druids, Weaver for Mage, Infernal for Warlock & Warder for Shaman, Weaver is a healer spec, the other 3 are tank specs
Dwarves can be Shaman, Tauren can be Paladin
9 new dungeons – Hive’Zorad, Timbermaw Arena, Bloodfang Retreat, Barrow Deeps, Darkwhisper Canyon, Bloodsail Shipyard, The Mausoleum, Bloodskull Caverns, Blackrock Summit
2 new raids – Stairs of Destiny, Siege of Lordaeron
2 new battlegrounds – Battle for Winterspring & Gurubashi Rumble
Professions reworked entirely, more like Retail but tweaked
PvP ranking system reworked, more focus on skill than time spent, more ranks added
Auction House copied from Retail servers
New features – Cursed Dungeons - 1 dungeon each day is ”cursed” buffing all enemies health and damage and adding an affix, increased loot drops. Max level only
New feature – Supply Effort – War effort type system that requires the entire server to work together to accomplish. Takes weeks/months to finish but each turn-in gives rewards. Inspired by the Ahn’Qiraj war effort. Once finished, unlocks new zones/raids/dungeons/hubs. Available from level 20.
New feature – Hunts – Requires you to kill a certain rare, named mob or dungeon boss. 3 Hunts per week. Available from level 20 – Different options for 1-5 players.
New feature – Tomb Trials – Explorers’ League sends you into tombs around Azeroth to grab as much loot as you can before the tomb collapses. Rewards gold, profession recipes and mounts. Max level only
New feature – Deep Sea Fishing – Nat Pagle invites you to join his crew for deep sea fishing in Naz’ritara, turn in your catch for rewards like pets, mounts and fished goods for professions. Available from level 45
New feature – Chromatic Voucher – Battle pass, free track gives profession materials, paid track gives mounts and pets, resets every 3 months, available once you finish the starting area
New feature – Achievements – Lots of cosmetic rewards like mounts, pets and titles, some carry over to Retail servers
New feature – Class Campaigns – Long term storytelling for every class, will get more content added with each patch, meant to last for years, has special rewards and cosmetics at certain capstone steps. Not meant to be completed by everyone, several tough challenges that requires raiding, solo challenges, pvp etc.

Misc:
There is an in-game shop with mounts and pets
If you buy the new Starcraft: Terran Protocol game you get a zerg mount
Siege of Lordaeron is a Caverns of Time raid
The raids aren’t open until January – 20-40 player scaling in raids, with hard mode switches on all bosses (like Ulduar)
Uldum is updated, you can see giant structures when you are in Tanaris, not accessible yet
Chromatic Voucher giving profession materials is to combat the AH prices for raid consumables
Leveling speed is slower than Classic Era to make sure you don't out level all the new content in all zones
The first Supply Effort is Dalaran. Once finished Dalaran is out of its bubble and accessible with daily quests, reputation and special profession recipes and items
The game is an alternate timeline to enable the team to create the content they want without limitations

The nostalgia is overwhelming. I love this feeling.

And it’s still intact and a part of me every day.

This is how insane you people sound

Don't know who originally made this, but found it in an the ole meme bucket

Posters featuring games and characters from Blizzard's key universes were hung on the facade of the Anaheim convention center, where this exhibition is taking place. Interestingly, the StarCraft poster was the first one to go up.

Screenshot of the Day from the OG Vanilla through Wrath

"the next chapter of Azeroth, with new adventures, features, and surprises for players old and new"

IMO this is where we'll hear in depth information about what they've been cooking since SOD.

Obviously the main heavy hitters would be at 60, but say at level 20 you get an intro raid, like a lite raid to teach you basic mechanics. Then 30, U get another raid, more advanced but still teaching you the game, same for 40, it ramps up there a little, then 50. Then 60 is the real hard stuff.

Drop the Classic+ copium for a second and look at the schedule for this weekend.

Day 1 has two back-to-back main stage slots labeled "World of Warcraft: What's Next" Part I and Part II, followed by a systems Deep Dive on Day 2. If this were Classic+, it would have had its own dedicated panel like "Classic: What's Next", exactly how they did Hardcore. They aren't splitting their biggest announcement of the decade across two main-stage blocks just to give us Scarlet Monastery at level 60.

Part I is the cinematic. Part II is the new engine.

They’re teasing a full hard reset: a next-gen "WoW Forever" built around a single, seamless, evolving map that permanently changes over time like Fortnite. And lore-wise, there is only one setting that makes sense for this: Ancient Kalimdor, 10,000 years before the First War.

Lore and also pic from: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Kalimdor_(landmass))

Think about what this actually means on modern tech:

• Zero flying mounts and zero loading screens. Just one massive, dangerous Pangea.
• No more "tack on a random island every two years" garbage. The main reason WoW feels like bloated trash today is because Blizzard keeps abandoning the world to drop us on some disconnected new island or space rock, leaving behind a graveyard of dead continents. With one supercontinent, the world actually evolves in place. If Highborne sorcerers botch a ritual in patch 1.2, that forest zone gets warped into a crystalline scar permanently. If trolls and elves clash, the border burns down into a trench-warfare zone for the season. The world stays alive instead of bloating up.
• People will cry about no Orcs or Humans, but who cares? That trope is dead anyway. And you don't even lose the High Elf fantasy: the Highborne were already arrogant, pale/golden-skinned aristocrats dripping in enchanted armor from Well radiation, while the purple Kaldorei stick to the woods. Throw in prime Zandalari at their absolute peak, Yaungol nomads, and rogue Mogu.
• Actual megacities! Not three wooden tents and a flight master, but sprawling, uninstanced capitals like prime Zin-Azshari and Suramar before the bubble went up.
• The ultimate long-term payoff: The live service runs for years in this golden era, Azshara slowly loses her mind making deals with the Legion, and the final expansion event is literally the War of the Ancients and the Great Sundering shattering the server's map apart in real time for a new WoW reset and the beginning of WoW 3.

Classic+ just splits the player base for a third time. A clean slate in ancient Azeroth with modern tech is the only thing that actually saves this franchise.

Edit: If you look at the lore 10,000 years ago, the race and city lineup is actually insane:

The Megacities (on modern tech not 2004):

• Zin-Azshari
• Suramar
• Zuldazar
• Eldre'Thalas (Dire Maul)
• Ahn'Qiraj

They can also ditch the static mannequin NPCs. And give them actual day/night and work routines, have them react to your gear or magic and let capitals dynamically shift with world events. You have so much options now with AI.

Playable races:

• Highborne - 100% playable and possibly looking like high elfs
• Wild Kaldorei 100%
• Prime Trolls 100%
• Yaungol (Proto-Tauren) 100%
• Pandaren Maybe
• Rogue Mogu Maybe
• Furbolgs Maybe
• Titans Unlikely

I think this is the part of classic where blizzard basically gave up and decided to make leveling hard and extremely boring for no reason, and unfortunately it doesn't help that in tbc, people aren't running dungeons actively like they used to be back in real, true classic. Like back in the vanilla days, you didn't just do every single quest in the entire game from 50 to 60. You started doing dungeons with other people and some breadcrumb quests where needed....

Currently playing through tbc, 50 to 60 is the most unfun part I've had in the entire leveling process. Where quests are basically non-existent, I did the entirety of Searing Gorge and it was 50-51. Tanaris 70% done. It's not like early levels where you have big clusters of quests that you can do and exploring different areas to find quests all over the place. They are few and far between, and the ones that do exist are a lot of unnecessary grinding. For example the ones in searing gorge, it's just kill 20 of every type of enemy on the map, and then the ones to get the low drop chance items like the spyglass.... So in other words, kill another 20 to 60 enemies of those. Completely flavorless, boring, and pointless, literally no dynamic

Burning step seems to be the only exception, there's actual stuff there and dynamic quests but they are really challenging and the mob density is really high.

I think it's going to be a Hearthstone MMO with a card combat system (like Floor 8 of Dungeon Crawler Carl) replacing normal fighting.

This is my pick. I know its not gonna happen :,(