I re-subscribed to World of Warcraft for a month. What would it be like after an absence of 14 years? The last expansion I played was Cataclysm, and that was in 2011.

Looking back at history, Catalysm was poorly received after the revered 'Wrath of the Lich King'. My memories of Cataclysm are not bad. I leveled my Warlock to 85, tried a few dungeons and then quit.

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My reason for quitting was the Dungeon Finder, and the fact that it was not letting me have a go at the Heroic versions, as my gear was too bad!

My memories were that my overall gear needed to be a specific rating, one which I was short of to be allowed admittance. To be honest, the endgame never enthralled me at all. You had to group, which was not up my street.

...'item level 160 means I can get into the Scarlet Monastery perhaps?'...

I am, was, a solo player in an MMO, and that's not strange at all. I like the fact that other players are darting around, here and there, with their flying carpets and over the top mounts, as well as the player-driven economy.

I knew of this level squish, and it sounded like a shit idea. What the fuck is wrong with being level 150? I was level 85, or I should have been.

So why was my main character level 32.., and why had all my other characters been named suffixed with a mixture of letters and numbers?

They wanted these names for other players, I surmised and the only one I got to keep in my main.

Seeing as the new level cap is now 70, or is it 80.., I had some choices. Should I do the Mist of Pandaria expansion or one of the other FIVE I had missed?

Reading more, I became aware of this 'Chromie Time' and level scaling.

Shaking my head even more, I logged in and had a look around Stormwind. Besides the tumbleweeds blowing in the wind, there was nobody to be seen.

...'Stormwind Auction House, I can hear myself breathing it's that dead'...

I struggled to find the 'Auction House', a building that should be ingrained into my memory and had problems. When I got there, it was empty. Netherweave Bags?, peanuts, worthless. My inventory was full of them, and now 16 slotters were something out of the ark.

This is what 'World of Warcraft' is like in 2025. The game is all geared towards the endgame. Level 1-80 is to be power levelled, and everything is about raiding. That's not the game I remember.

I went to Pandaria. I levelled my Warlock to level 40. Every trash mob was at the same level as me. It was easy, laughably easy. I could pull FIVE, and my Voidwalker was having no problems. I died not once.

I told myself, enjoy the story, enjoy the lore, but once at 60, I would only have Dragonlands left. This was not fun; it was boring, mindless tedium at its worst.

Two days ago, I was ready to eject and this time for good. Seductress, the Warlock would never move again from the character screen, and I would need to find another game to waste my life on.

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.. and then I saw 'World of Warcraft Classic Pandaria'..

I installed this 'alternate' version and logged in. Almost every server had a 'High' population. Some were in a status of 'Locked', does that mean full?

I logged on to the top one, 'High', it said and created a Warlock. Of course, 'Seductress' was taken, so I had to make do with 'Seduktress'. A little cheesy but better than 'GGGandalf' or 'Steve1393'.

At this stage of the game, I was not going to play, but something made me log in. As a human, you start at Westvale Abbey, but I ignored the newbie quests and ran to Stormwind. What I saw was a picture of the past.

Lots of players, the Auction House is heaving with people. The mailbox is hard to get to. The Innkeeper was overworked with players dumping their trash goods on her. Was this the World of Warcraft nostalgia I was looking for?

I checked the price of Netherweave Bags, Copper Ore, Linen Cloth, and Light Leather; the latter items are all easily attained by a new player. They were high and there was demand, or was there?

...this is my memory of the mailbox outside of the Auction House. Tough to see at times'...

I used my Stone to get back to Westvale Abbey and started on the long quest run of the game. Having played the 'proper' version, I was in tune with all the keys and movement, and before long, I was training 'Seduktress' in Mining and Skinning..., always money makers.

Copper Mines were scarce; was that because they were being farmed? On the full version, I spotted them everywhere, but here they were tough to find.

...'if you want gold, its Mining and Skinning. Leave the 'proper' tradeskills for those who want to lose gold'...

Skins, on the other hand, are on the monsters you kill, if they are skinnable, as well as other players' skins if they leave them hanging around for you.

The test was at the Auction House. Would they sell, or was this just a nostalgic illusion?

I placed some Copper Ore, Linen Cloth and Light Leather for sale at the cheapest rates. There were plenty up there, but that means nothing.

Within an hour, money was coming into my mailbox. This was what I was looking for. The past revisited.

...'terrible green gear, all from quests. Prices for blues in the Auction House are off the scale. This is proper WoW' where stuff is HARD to get'...

My Warlock is now level 20, and I feel my life sadly slipping away. The Redridge Mountains are far from dead, and I see other players. If I venture into Duskwood, monsters are red, and I will die. That's how it should be.

The level cap is (90). I want to be (150). Leveling is the fun part, the endgame is mostly for no life or single people and if and when I get there, I will probably ditch it again.

Shadowlands was the squish expansion, so Level 115 will be the highest this ever goes, and that's if Blizzard keeps updating it. When the squish comes, I won't choose that version.

Squish.., what a fucking terrible idea. Level scaling, even worse.

World of Warcraft is already an easy game; why make it mindlessly easy?

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