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Preface

Without going into details about the news, the Chinese version of World of Warcraft is back.

What if we hide the current time point and turn it into an ordinary "new version is about to be launched" time point?

Office workers take leave just to be able to experience the new version of the content first.

Large servers are overcrowded, and it is normal to have thousands of people queuing during peak hours.

Teammates who had been AFK for a long time suddenly resurrected in group chats on various social software.

It seems that World of Warcraft has always been here, it just started a new version and has never left.

A big stress test?

Let’s go back in time to the most prosperous times of World of Warcraft, whether it was the first time we met the vanilla era, or every major version update, until the launch of the nostalgic server.

This game never lacks topics about queues, nor does it lack crowded scenes in various places in the game. At that time, players would never associate the word "ghost soldiers" with "World of Warcraft".

Now, "World of Warcraft" has returned to the Chinese server, and the times have changed from Wangzhiyi to Leihuo. The author does not doubt the influence of "World of Warcraft's return to the Chinese server" on players, but this time all kinds of doubts have surged from the Internet.

To some extent, this can also be said to be Leihuo’s “karma”: he has left behind too many dark histories, and his character in the minds of players cannot be redeemed in a short time.

Back to the current situation: According to my experience, the queues in the official servers are not really a ghost army. After all, after the team decided to run to the Silver Hand, I, who have always been in the village servers, experienced the horror of queuing in big cities.

But at the same time, if I go back to JK or Sri Lanka, my native server, I can go straight in without having to wait in line. If I really want to rely on ghost soldiers to create a false prosperity, I won't catch a few big servers and grab them all.

On the day of the server opening on the 1st, it seemed that the national server had foreseen the prospect of returning to the "super-large-scale stress test" and adopted the strategy of opening the server early, intending to avoid a large influx of players in a short period of time by opening the server at six in the morning.

But in fact, on the 1st, there were also expected "operational accidents" such as server crashes and mall downtime. In addition, there were also various operations involving "transferring player characters to wargroups" on that day, so it was not surprising that players had to wait for about an hour for the blue bar on the loading interface.

Although Leihuo seemed to be fully prepared, he may have underestimated the importance of World of Warcraft.

Just the right pre-release version

The server we chose for this launch is the pre-release version of 11.0 "War at the Center of the Earth". After the server launch on the 1st, players will be able to experience the official version of 11.0 in the last week of August, and the Great Secret Realm and Group Dungeon will be open in early September.

The choice of the pre-release version of 11.0 gave players a buffer period of more than three weeks. I think the Chinese server had clearly considered this.

On the one hand, three weeks is enough time for Chinese players to experience most of the "lost 10.0" content: including the new plot, new group and the returning talent tree system, which are the most "core" content of the new version of World of Warcraft. In the process of experiencing the game, for some players who did not go to foreign servers to continue their World of Warcraft career, it is also enough time to rehabilitate and awaken their muscle memory in terms of operation.

This correct trend has come to World of Warcraft..

On the other hand, with the 14-day free game time on the Chinese server, this pre-release version is enough to screen out users who are sure to continue playing and pay after 11.0 is launched. In fact, the gameplay of World of Warcraft has been "finalized" since 7.0, and it seems that 11.0 will hardly make a huge breakthrough in the gameplay. It is not a bad thing to complete the screening of players as soon as possible.

As for the pre-release version itself, there is not much to say: the pre-release version itself is a transitional version. The new development system, the new hero talent system of 11.0, and the new great secret realm gameplay have not been launched, not to mention the new plot and group. Overall, it is still a version that tends to let players get familiar with World of Warcraft again.

This background made me think of the WLK eve event of the nostalgic server: the same version that cannot be experienced due to the shutdown, and the same banner of "return" - it seems that domestic World of Warcraft players are destined to have a more bumpy gaming career?

Perhaps the biggest highlight is that as an old game, World of Warcraft is also actively embracing the new era of online gaming. The experience of Exile's Island as a novice guide is better than the experience of the ancient version of the town; mount riding and flying are automatically unlocked and available on the entire map as the level increases, eliminating a lot of running around in the map that seems to slow down the pace now (although World of Warcraft used to be proud of various explorations)...

one question

Normally, this review should have been completed on the day of the server launch, but I was delayed because I was leveling up and catching up with the progress on the day of the server launch. Maybe World of Warcraft is such a game. You can't tell what's good about it, but there is always something that makes it irreplaceable.

So, will you choose the official version of World of Warcraft or the nostalgic version?