With the upcoming release of World of Warcraft Classic, Blizzard is trying to accomplish a very specific goal. The studio is attempting to recreate World of Warcraft as it existed during a very specific time. That time, of course, is during the MMO’s early days, namely when the 1.12 Drums of War update was live.
World of Warcraft was a very different game back during the days of 1.12. It wasn’t as vast, wasn’t as refined, and wasn’t as user-friendly as it is in its current form. Some beta testers clearly didn’t get the memo, though, since they’re reporting “bugs” which are actually just plain old features.
World of Warcraft Classic “Not A Bug” List
The deluge of false positive bug reports has apparently been so overwhelming that Blizzard had to offer some clarification. Through a post on the World of Warcraft Classic forums, Blizzard announced an official “Not a Bug” list. The list’s Classic-specific quirks aren’t actually bugs, they’re just how World of Warcraft operated back during 1.12. Blizzard was dead-set on recreating the historic World of Warcraft warts and all, and the following list proves it.
Official Features (Not Bugs) List
The following text comes courtesy of Blizzard.
- Tauren’s hitboxes and their melee reach is slightly larger than other races.
- Being critically struck while using /sit to sit does not cause abilities like Enrage, Blood Craze, and Reckoning to activate.
- Using the “Automatic Quest Tracking” option does not auto-track newly accepted quests. (It instead will start to track an existing quest once progress towards an objective is started.)
- Warrior health Regeneration is working at the expected rate.
- Quests objectives and points of interests are not tracked on the map or minimap.
- Completed quests are marked on the minimap with a dot (and not a “?”).
- Feared players and NPCs run fast.
- Standing on top of other players while facing away allows spells and attacks to be used.
- Creature respawn rates are much slower than in Battle for Azeroth.
- NPCs which offer multiple quests may inconsistently display them as a dot or a “!” on the available quests list. They were inconsistent in 1.12, and we’ve reproduced the exact inconsistency they had back then.
- Quests that are too low level for [your character] do not show up as a “!” in the game world.
- Available quests do not display a “!” on the minimap.
- On level up, the message: “Your skill in Protection increased to 15” was added in 1.12.1, and we’re intending to keep that.
So there you have it folks. If you run into any of the above issues while playing World of Warcraft Classic, don’t fret. The game is simply working as intended.
Blizzard recently announced that World of Warcraft Classic is launching in full in August. The game is currently available to a small group of beta testers, with additional tests planned for May and July.