There’s a famous Blizzcon gaffe – not the “Do you guys not have phones” one, the other famous Blizzcon gaffe. During a World of Warcraft Q&A session at Blizzcon 2013, developers were asked if they’ve ever considered releasing servers set during previous WoW expansions. Amidst applause from the audience, former Blizzard president, then production director, J. Allen Brack, gives a definitive “no”, followed by the infamous quote “You don’t want to do that either. You think you do, but you don’t.”
Boy, was he wrong. WoW Classic eventually did launch in 2019 (announced by Brack himself in 2017) and was instantly a massive success, driving 223% subscriber growth in the first month. It’s wildly popular, despite missing a lot of the quality-of-life features that modern WoW boasts, which is what Brack cited as the reason people thought they wanted Classic, but wouldn’t actually have the patience to play it.
You Think You Want Overwatch Classic…
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Brack was ousted from Blizzard following the 2021 discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Blizzard by the State of California, so he isn’t around anymore to callously tell Overwatch fans that, actually, they don’t want Overwatch Classic. If he was, he might have been right this time. As sour as the community is on Overwatch 2, it looks like Overwatch Classic isn’t what they’re looking for either.
To be fair we, don’t have any stats to show how Overwatch Classic has affected the game yet. The limited-time game mode just launched this week and it’s certainly getting a lot of attention, but from what I can tell from social media, a lot of that attention has been overwhelmingly negative.
To be even more fair, the launch version of Overwatch probably isn’t what most people would consider ‘classic’ Overwatch. For me, it would probably be somewhere after Moira launched but before they added Brigitte. A lot of the growing pains had been smoothed out, and we were all blissfully unaware that the GOATS meta was on the horizon. The new game mode is going to shift through different eras of the original Overwatch’s meta, so I might change my tune once we move up to late 2016. But for now, I know Classic Overwatch isn’t for me, and it sounds like it isn’t for most people either.
Overwatch Classic Is Triggering Some Deep Trauma
I don’t know what the worst thing about OG Overwatch is. It’s probably Hanzo’s one-shot scatter arrow, but there’s also a special place in hell for Roadhog’s magic no-clip hook, Roadhog’s infinite sustain, and Roadhog’s hook-shoot-melee combo. Basically, just Roadhog. And also Mei. Lucio feels terrible, Mercy feels extra terrible, and, perhaps worst of all, this is Overwatch without Ana. Can you even call it Overwatch without Ana?
I don’t think anyone thinks this is the best version of Overwatch, but as with WoW Classic, nostalgia is a hell of a drug. When Overwatch came out in 2016 I hadn’t played a video game in over two years. I got reacquainted with old friends and met a bunch of new ones who I still play games with every day, eight years later. It was a special time for me, and for a lot of other people too. I love those memories, but I don’t need to suffer through unpatched Overwatch to remember them.
