Things You Didn’t Know About World of Warcraft Classic

Over the past few months since World of Warcraft Classic’s release, gamers have been blasting their way through old world content, experiencing Azeroth as it was meant to be experienced 15 years ago. But what about the parts of the game that never made it into the original release? As we progress through Classic and farm more and more WoW Vanilla gold, players are starting to ask, “what’s next?” for the game. Will we get Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King servers too? Or will developers go in an entirely different direction with new content? If they choose to make new content for Classic, then it may be worth revisiting some of the original plans to see if they’d work today.

Player Housing

Blizzard seriously thought about implementing player housing in World of Warcraft Classic, and it was actually included in the Alpha version of the game. When Vanilla was released, many players questioned why player housing was removed and demanded it back. Blizzard employee Caydiem responded to this saying “While we definitely want to do housing, and it is something ‘on the list’, its not a ‘soon after release’ feature.” Could player housing come back in a later expansion?

Molton Core Was Designed in a Hurry

Molten Core (MC) was the first 40 player raid put into the game, and it was designed in only one week. Blizzard wanted to add another raid before players took on Onyxia, so they rushed out Molton Core to fill this void. If you’ve ever wondered why MC looks less fleshed out than later raids like Zul’Gurub, this is why. Blizzard is unlikely to add more content to MC today or add any aesthetic improvements, but MC exists as a reminder of how things used to be. We are unlikely to see another raid speedily designed like this one.

The Missing Battleground

There are three battlegrounds in World of Warcraft Classic, Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley. There was actually a fourth battleground planned called Azshara Crater. This battleground was mentioned in the patch notes for Patch 1.3, back in March 2005. The battleground was likely meant to be located in southern Azshara and would function similarly to Alterac Valley. This missing battleground may explain why the zone of Azshara is so undeveloped with missing quests and a barren landscape being signature features of the zone. The plans for the battleground were scrapped shortly after and in January 2006, Blizzard employee Caydiem said “We’re not making any new Battlegrounds in the near future. We naturally need to be careful about spreading the PvP community thin”. Will Blizzard revive the fourth battleground?

The City of Gnomeregan

If you’ve played this level 29-38 dungeon, you’re aware of how colossal it is, which may seem a little strange for a low-level dungeon. This is because Gnomeregen was originally designed to be a capital city for the Gnome race, but Blizzard later scrapped this idea. The issue with cities is that they only feel like a vibrant city if players flock to them. Stormwind and Ironforge are prominent population centers for the Alliance faction, and Orgrimmar and Undercity fulfill the same role on the horde side. This leaves the Alliance city Darnassus, and the Horde city Thunder Bluff relatively empty at most times. Gnomeregen would likely have suffered the same fate so this city is unlikely to be revived.