World of Warcraft Forever

 Well, here we go: World of Warcraft Forever is essentially the new Classic Plus that has been rumored for some time.

While Classic exists to preserve and revisit the experience of World of Warcraft's past, Forever will essentially create a branching experience, with new content added to the game, but in a different manner than the 22-year-running "retail" core version of the game.

Like Classic, the focus here is on the original two continents - Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, in the post-WCIII time period, but as a sort of branching timeline. Again, while Classic seeks to preserve as best as possible the gameplay experience from 2004, Forever will be adding new content, including new zones, expanding old zones, and adding new dungeons and raids.

We'll also be seeing some new race/class combinations, the most notable of which is the Undead Paladin. The cinematic trailer, which focuses on our familiar dwarf hunter with his brown bear companion from the original WoW cinematic, sees him travel across the world following a Wisp, who brings him to Dalaran as its magical shield retracts (yes, we'll be able to go to Dalaran in its original location) and eventually has him wind up at Nordrassil in a new version of the Mount Hyjal zone, and he faces off against a Forsaken Paladin (in a clever nod to the original cinematic, the ground around the paladin's foot alights, but unlike the Warlock in that original trailer using Hellfire, this is Consecration).

Players will be able to choose between the original character models and the post-Warlords updated models, and it seems that the entire world has gotten a bit of a graphical overhaul (not a total rebuild, but things look a little better).

There will also be a new playable race, the Skyborne, who seem to be an offshoot of the elves living on a giant floating island. Skyborne are available to both factions, but depending on which faction you choose, different classes will be available, with Horde Skyborne able to be Shamans through a connection to the Earthen Ring and Alliance Skyborne able to be Mages through the Kirin Tor.

Forever will have a locked level cap of 60, with any updates evidently building upon content at that level. They claim the game will be focused more on leveling, with a lot of alt-friendly features to encourage you to stop and smell the roses while leveling up.

The talent system is more akin to the old Classic style, but some small incremental talents have been consolidated to make room for more impactful ones.

I will say, as someone who started playing during Vanilla, I was never really that eager to get into WoW Classic. As nostalgic as I might be for those early days of WoW, I also really appreciate the development of quality-of-life conveniences (and I also don't have rose-colored glasses about the behavior of players back in those days).

Now, this might appeal to me a little more given that there's all this new stuff to try out (I do actually really like the idea of an Undead Paladin, even if it seems insane to me that we still haven't gotten Night Elf Paladins after Legion gave us two Night Elf class champions).

Still, WoW takes a lot of gaming energy, especially if you like to have a lot of alts (see the name of the blog). So I'm likely to just try it out a little bit. I believe the subscription, like WoW Classic, is covered by your WoW subscription, though it sounds like there might be a one-time purchase fee.

It launches in November, so, pretty damn soon. (Man, the latter part of this year is piling up with new games to play).