User gets World of Warcraft Classic demo partially running before release

The demo of World of Warcraft Classic, which will be released on November 2, is already partially playable. Users have already managed to open up the game world, allowing them to explore it to their heart’s content. However, the world is not yet filled with things like quests and NPCs.

The demo was downloaded from Blizzard’s cdn servers, even before the pre-load was possible. One of the leak’s discoverers, Dodgy Kebaab, uses a sandbox emulator to run the content even though the client can’t connect to Blizzard’s servers. The user has uploaded a comparison video to YouTube comparing the condition of the Classic demo to the game as it appeared in 2005, the year of its European release. The demo can now be pre-loaded in the Battle.net client.

The visual difference between the two versions does not seem great. Models and textures seem to have a bit more detail and the effects of the Classic Demo have been polished up a bit. Things like music and sound effects have not been adjusted. The interface has received the upgrades that players of the current WoW know. In addition, there is a ‘Classic’ button in the system options, which returns the graphics settings to the 2005 level.

The desire for a return to World of Warcraft as it was before the expansions has been around for some time. For a while, the custom server Nostalrius provided this for a loyal fan base. However, Blizzard doesn’t allow WoW servers to run anything other than the officially designated content, so the game studio asked Nostalrius administrators to take their server offline. Last year, Blizzard revealed its plan to self cater to this group of players with World of Warcraft Classic.