Whether you’re a veteran gamer, casual enthusiast, or just someone who watches the news, no doubt you have heard of Blizzards epic, World of Warcraft, blasting on to the scenes in November 2004 it quite literally took the gaming world by storm, a culmination of the best MMORPG elements of games of yesteryear combined into a Blizzard fueled powerhouse of role playing, it quickly surged to be one of the most prominent MMORPG titles of the time which still endures to this day, though I am sure you did not need me to tell you this…
Though if you are a fan of the franchise and World of Warcraft, you will remember that what we call “Vanilla World of Warcraft” was substantially different to the game that we now see in its most recent modern iterations.
World of Warcraft “vanilla” meaning its first iteration at release, was cold, dark, hard and in many ways cruel, with players having to spend hours of game time simply to achieve even moderate level rankings in the high 40’s or 50’s, yet something about this, for those that experienced this gaming period always rang true as substance, long before the days where leveling was as easy as ABC, 123 and a quest guide plugin away.
With no disrespect intended to the modern iteration of World of Warcraft, its developments in both terms of gameplay and storyline over the years are certainly to be respected, it is still possible to harken back to the early days of a “purer” World of Warcraft, by way of private servers and clients, one of the most notable being Vanilla Gaming.
Simply visit the Vanilla Gaming and follow the how-to, you will need to download a torrent client such as uTorrent or similar, however after a short download and quick installation following the prompts as directed on the website you will quickly find yourself transported back to the classic game as it was in 2004 at no cost, and adventure set before you, just as it was back in the day.
While many MMORPG offer private servers, given its dominance and popularity, the World of Warcraft servers as offered by Vanilla Gaming are slightly different, with literally thousands of people logged on and signed up to play at any given time you are really experiencing the past, and while perhaps you may not play forever, if you and a group of friends wish to re-explore the lands of Azeroth as it was in the distant past, what better way then by private server.
Yes, of course, one can always download the official client and purchase a subscription and for those enthusiastic about the game in its current iteration, I strongly encourage you to do so, but for those who are nostalgic about what the game was, simply looking to enjoy a few drinks amidst friends while laying waste to innumerable foes in an open battleground, services like Vanilla Gaming offer that with their Classic World of Warcraft Client.
As a person who has played the latest expansions, Vanilla, compared to the modern iteration is a world away, I appreciate and respect what the game has become, but in many ways I still think it is a shadow of its former self, the open world battles, the real sense of purpose for grinding, dungeons and raids, all this has been lost in the sands of time, yet the game in its original sense still exists and is accessed through mediums such as Vanilla Gaming, so if you were a die hard back in the day, time travel back to Azeroth, at the beginning.