Players of World of Warcraft Classic are about to face a difficult choice in terms of how nostalgic they want their MMORPG experience to be. Blizzard has gone through all the content of the original edition of its blockbuster online game, and that means progressing into the expansion content of The Burning Crusade, which will introduce big changes to gameplay and the world that aren't easy to switch on and off. Players who enjoy WoW Classic do so specifically because it's a time capsule, so just adding those changes to the game would be senseless. Thankfully, players will soon have to choose whether to keep their characters in the original WoW world forever or progress them into the new content.
Those who choose to progress to The Burning Crusade will get an accurate recreation of everything the 2007 expansion pack had to offer. This includes two new playable races: the Draenei of the Alliance and the Blood Elves of the Horde. Players also get an increased level cap and the ability to travel to Outland, a whole new planet filled with new quests, raids, dungeons, and creatures.
Players can also choose to stay exclusively on Azeroth, leaving their characters in the latest patch to World of Warcraft Classic and avoiding any further expansion releases. All existing realms will progress to the Burning Crusade, and a new set of duplicated realms dubbed "Classic Era" will remain with the old content. Players will need to access these servers through a new client on Battle.net, and each character needs to choose between Classic Era and Burning Crusade servers before they can play. There's also a paid option to clone player characters so they can appear in both types of servers simultaneously.
When Will Burning Crusade Come To World of Warcraft Classic?
The Classic Era realms will come online alongside the launch of Burning Crusade into World of Warcraft Classic, which is currently scheduled for sometime in 2021. As with most big game launches this year, getting an exact release date nailed down is tricky due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, so delays are always possible. However, once WoW Classic players begin to download the Burning Crusade patch, they'll need to make the choice about staying in the original Classic or progressing on to Outworld and beyond.
Many players wondered how Blizzard might address expansion packs in World of Warcraft Classic, and the decision to run multiple versions of the game simultaneously is one that appeals to all stripes of nostalgic players. While this strategy only really works with a game that has a massive player base, it's also the ideal solution for the preservation of an online game.