World of Warcraft Classic has attracted a lot of attention since its release last Monday, and Blizzard vastly underestimated the game’s popularity. Bu🎃t ratcheting a long-standing MMO back to its roots is hardly a new concept as developers look to harnessing the awesome power of nostalgia.
WoW Classic was originally announced way back in 2017 a few years after Blizzard took down an unauthorized private server that was running an earlier version of WoW. That got the California-based company thinking– how hard can it be to take the current version of World of Warcraft but make it look like the oriꦍgiꩲnal game circa 2004?
It took a few years, but Blizzard managed to faithfully recreate the way WoW was using the current game engine. servers run alongside the regular servers and use the same infrastructure so it’s easier for Blizzard to keep WoW Classic up to dat🌊e, but t🃏he game provides a unique retro experience for both new players and old ones alike.
In reality, however, it’s not all that unique at all. Two other MMOs have done similar things to keep players interested via the power of nostalgia: Old School Runescape and EverQuest’s Progressive Servers.
EverQuest Origins
The name "" is a bit of a misnomer. Originally launched in 2011, EverQuest's intent was to create a classic EverQuest server that brought the game back to its 1999 origin but used the modern version of the game's engine. There have been 23 expansions since EverQuest first debuted, and the game as it onc✨e was is almost unrecognizable to the game playable today.
EverQuest's Progressive Servers do make a few exceptions to the original 1999 version. Updates to the game's topography remain current, as do balance updates to the game's weapons and character classes. Everything else, however, is as it once was way back when EverQuest first started.
RuneScape: Democratic Nostalgia
takes a different approach. RuneScape originally began in 2001 and has since seen its engine revised twice into what's known as RuneScape 2 and RuneScape 3. To get truly retro, Old School RuneScape u🦂ses the original game engine, with minimal updates in order 🃏to function on modern hardware.
This makes Old School RuneScape look... well, bad. None of these MMOs look particularly good from a modern game’s perspective, but Old School RuneScape maintains the most basic models and textures you can imagine fr🦋om 2001. But that's just part of the ret🎃ro charm.
It also uses a different strategy for updating the game. In order to maintain the original feel of RuneScape, the small team that develops OSRS hold an in-game vote on any proposed changes besides the most basic of security and hardware updates. At 🌊least 75% of players haveౠ to agree before any changes are made.
Today, Old School RuneScape actually has many times the number of active players as the current RuneScape does. That just gꦍoes to show how powerful a draw nostalgia can be and how developers have b♑een catering to it for many, many years.