wow-classic Are We Getting Classic+? The Awakening "Leak"

[Starym 3,787]

 

A direct continuation of Classic/Vanilla WoW has been talked about pretty much since Classic launched back in 2019. There's two general directions that this could take: the smaller one where there's just mechanical additions, class tuning and maybe some new items and the like, and the bigger one where we actually get a new expansion specifically for Classic.

Well, with today's BlizzCon sneak peak we do know that something is coming to Classic.

Now, obviously that may just be referring to the continuation of what we've seen so far, aka that we're getting Cataclysm Classic (since showing the Cata logo there would be a little to obvious). However, it might also mean that Classic+ isn't just a pipe dream.

Enter a recent "leak" from 4chan. Aside from today's BlizzCon logo, one of the reasons this particular leak may be slightly more credible is that is specifically mentions Chris Metzen as leading the project, and he was very recently promoted back to full-time and given the role of Executive Creative Director.

Here's a screenshot of the now deleted thread, as captured by Drakyry:

A second Warlords of Draenor-like scenario, this time focused on the Dark Portal not opening when it did and the new timeline continuing straight from Vanilla. Another very interesting piece in there is that the Emerald Dream would be one of the two new zones, which would fit very nicely with retail's 10.2 and have some very useful development overlap. Also to note, the Reawakened Phase-Hunter model comment is referring to the process of newer models being "downgraded" visually to fit in with the old aesthetic, as happened with the Phase-Hunter mount from Burning Crusade Classic. Also the mere idea of Ogres as a playable race is enough to root for this one.

The name itself is a little suspicious, as there were several "Awakenings" 9.0 leaks back before Shadowlands, which also talked about a world revamp. Now, obviously this particular leak is an extremely long shot, but it does seem likely we'll be seeing something come for Classic Era. It's been developed pretty heavily since Classic's original launch, with Season of Mastery and now the very successful Hardcore realms.

As MrGM explains below, there should be something coming as there have been many encrypted patch 1.15 builds on the CDN for a while now (even more than there would normally be for an expansion), so Classic Era will be expanding, and probably in a big way.

So, completely fake or actually could be real? Would you even want it to be real with these details?

[Stan 5,041]

I think I'm not the only one who would rather play Classic+ instead of Cataclysm.

[TheRagingwolf 202]

19 minutes ago, Starym said:

one of the reasons this particular leak may be slightly more credible is that is specifically mentions Chris Metzen as leading the project

Yeah, because that validates everything.

[Dejo93 993]

10 minutes ago, Stan said:

I think I'm not the only one who would rather play Classic+ instead of Cataclysm.

same

[NewmanJ 0]

The awakening Rumor goes back almost 4 years, see this Reddit post.

 

[Starym 3,787]

6 minutes ago, NewmanJ said:

The awakening Rumor goes back almost 4 years, see this Reddit post.

 

Yes, and I commented on that in the post above 😄

[Starym 3,787]

22 minutes ago, TheRagingwolf said:

Yeah, because that validates everything.

No, but it's, and I quote "one of the reasons this particular leak may be slightly more credible". "Slightly more credible" and "validates everything are two pretty different things, no?

Basically it's the reason it's even worth mentioning even if it isn't real.

[Nicolae 6]

Classic+ will be a great thing for many many people but I believe this will just completly destroy retail WoW.

At this moment we still have hope for retail, but with classic+ released by blizzard without discussion retail WoW will be without redemption and can be considered a truly dead game.

I do not agree with the idea of a second version of WoW that goes into a completly different direction than the retail WoW.

[Cheatcho 46]

If they make playable Ogres for Classic+ before they make them for Retail expect riots.

[Migol 430]

21 minutes ago, Cheatcho said:

If they make playable Ogres for Classic+ before they make them for Retail expect riots.

This precisely.    Moreover it would really, really throw the fanbase into confusion on whether they were supposed to buy the expansion after Dragonflight or this "what if" vanilla expansion.     They would be cannabalizing their own products, and in the process causing a lot of guilds to die and players to just leave permanently.    Guilds and loyalty toward guilds are in many cases the reason people still play at all.

[Prophet001 552]

I enjoy Classic and as long as it's always there untouched then Classic+ or whatever is fine imo.

Just don't mar up the original work of art by drawing on it with crayon.

[Ken007 79]

I would like to see them do this content as an expansion pack to Vanilla. The expansion pack could add some content that was cut or didn't make it, continue the storylines in Azeroth and then take a different direction- but keep it all in the classic feel. I wouldn't really change any of the classes or systems though. You could add: dungeons, raids and zones but still keep it in the Vanilla Flavor. 

They should keep a few realms just straight Classic, for those players that like that. There is so much potential for the old games it would be foolish of Blizz not to utilize it.

[Migol 430]

Occurs to me the only reason this even might be valid is that while a lot of people wanted to play Vanilla Classic, and were more or less perfectly fine progressing to TBC classic and Wrath Classic...

Cataclysm is almost certainly where a line is drawn for a Lot of people.    The storyline started coming apart at the seams, a lot of bad recycling and obvious cost cutting measures being taken, and a raid that REALLY overstayed its welcome.

[Arcling 887]

How would this project even come to be under Metzen's leadership when he rejoined only few months ago? Those things don't just pop in a matter of several months. Such a project would require at least several years. Besides many people would be angry that these races and content aren't in retail.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Arcling

[Ahric 9]

18 minutes ago, Arcling said:

How would this project even come to be under Metzen's leadership when he rejoined only few months ago? Those things don't just pop in a matter of several months. Such a project would require at least several years. Besides many people would be angry that these races and content aren't in retail.

Maybe if they add it as a new Chromie Time...

[Starym 3,787]

1 hour ago, Nicolae said:

Classic+ will be a great thing for many many people but I believe this will just completly destroy retail WoW.

At this moment we still have hope for retail, but with classic+ released by blizzard without discussion retail WoW will be without redemption and can be considered a truly dead game.

I do not agree with the idea of a second version of WoW that goes into a completly different direction than the retail WoW.

This is not correct. I'm not sure why and how people are STILL a decade and a half later calling WoW a "dead game" every x months. It's not going to die. Not retail not Classic. They can (and do) exist together and one won't "kill" the other. We don't even know what 11.0 is. They could even combine the two and make something awesome thematically. The options are endless. And if you trust Blizzard to make a great Classic+ to the point where it could "kill" retail, why wouldn't you trust them to make an awesome retail expansion as well?

 

There are different crowds playing different WoWs for different reasons.

[Starym 3,787]

1 hour ago, Cheatcho said:

If they make playable Ogres for Classic+ before they make them for Retail expect riots.

This is a VERY good point. Maybe they cross-release them in + and 11.0 😄

[Starym 3,787]

1 hour ago, Migol said:

This precisely.    Moreover it would really, really throw the fanbase into confusion on whether they were supposed to buy the expansion after Dragonflight or this "what if" vanilla expansion.     They would be cannabalizing their own products, and in the process causing a lot of guilds to die and players to just leave permanently.    Guilds and loyalty toward guilds are in many cases the reason people still play at all.

I don't understand this reasoning, could you explain it? This is the same thing that happens with a new Classic release of an old expansion. How would this be different/cannibalize retail where let's say Cataclysm Classic wouldn't?

[Starym 3,787]

31 minutes ago, Arcling said:

How would this project even come to be under Metzen's leadership when he rejoined only few months ago? Those things don't just pop in a matter of several months. Such a project would require at least several years. Besides many people would be angry that these races and content aren't in retail.

They didn't say when it's coming did they. Also Metzen's involvement could have come later in the process, and they changed some things based on that. Also we don't really know how long he's been consulting with them, we only know when they officially announced it (which makes sense when you think about it - if he was helping them out on a concept, something that may not happen, then they decided they would do it, they would announce his coming back only when they had something concrete). This is all PURE speculation from me ofc.

[Arcling 887]

1 minute ago, Starym said:

They didn't say when it's coming did they. Also Metzen's involvement could have come later in the process, and they changed some things based on that. Also we don't really know how long he's been consulting with them, we only know when they officially announced it (which makes sense when you think about it - if he was helping them out on a concept, something that may not happen, then they decided they would do it, they would announce his coming back only when they had something concrete). This is all PURE speculation from me ofc.

Which to me sounds like wishful thinking and feeding confirmation bias, a lot of fake leaks are like this. Also, if Metzen's involvement came late in the process, then realistically how much he could change? Rewriting story, then making new quests, assets, changing existing ones etc., this isn't something that can be done late in development. Unless we are still at least 2 years away from it or so. Anyway, too much abut this leak makes me doubt its credibility.

I digress, but a lot of Ogres are taller than some buildings. Having playable Ogres in compact size wouldn't feel as good, it would be like playing slightly different Kul Tiran. Anyway, as I mentioned before, people will rage if there are playable High Elves and Ogres in some version of classic, but not in retail. 😁

[TheRagingwolf 202]

2 hours ago, Starym said:

No, but it's, and I quote "one of the reasons this particular leak may be slightly more credible". "Slightly more credible" and "validates everything are two pretty different things, no?

Basically it's the reason it's even worth mentioning even if it isn't real.

I just fail to make the connection. Simply because the 4chan posts discusses Metzen it is somehow "more credible"? And the video above, Mr GM feels the WoW icon somehow adds validation. It just seems that's all wishful thinking because an image is easily faked and just mentioning someone is not, on its own, more of a qualifier for information. Not trying to be argumentative, I just don't see how it's any less of a random 4chan post than any other claiming to be a "leak".

[Starym 3,787]

39 minutes ago, TheRagingwolf said:

I just fail to make the connection. Simply because the 4chan posts discusses Metzen it is somehow "more credible"? And the video above, Mr GM feels the WoW icon somehow adds validation. It just seems that's all wishful thinking because an image is easily faked and just mentioning someone is not, on its own, more of a qualifier for information. Not trying to be argumentative, I just don't see how it's any less of a random 4chan post than any other claiming to be a "leak".

I mean generally speaking when a leak gets something right it becomes more credible, that's just sort of how it goes. Now this one didn't get Metzen right yet since we have no idea if he's working on this or if it even exists, but it does push it from 99.9999% fake to 99.8999% fake 😄

But basically I just thought it was an interesting topic to discuss (Classic+ as a concept in general) and this was a handy way into that.

[Doozle 7]

4chan should just never be mentioned in public discourse until the CP is gone. "Basically it's the reason it's even worth mentioning even if it isn't real" ...if it's not real, it's seriously not worth mentioning. That line of logic is whack lol. I doo agree it's not nearly a "dead" game.

[Arcling 887]

5 hours ago, Starym said:

I mean generally speaking when a leak gets something right it becomes more credible, that's just sort of how it goes. Now this one didn't get Metzen right yet since we have no idea if he's working on this or if it even exists, but it does push it from 99.9999% fake to 99.8999% fake 😄

 

Sometimes it might be a lucky guess, like the other leak was correct about Hearthstone team being downsized, but some other info from it sounds ridiculous. It was known that HS was receiving heavy criticism for its business model and balance, game started to lose players, so whoever made that leak might have based this upon it. Anyway, this leak here sounds like a compilation of players' wish list.

By the way, it's funny how all these leaks have these tilted images as if taken straight from a monitor in secret. There were many cases like this one, for example fake Shadowlands logo leak with made up map that looked nothing like that expansion.

[cathbadwowdk 1]

where can you buy the online for blizzcon