'We knew that was a pain point … why make that mistake again?' World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic devs talk tinkering with the game's first divisive expansion

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic is arriving May 20, and it's an interesting topic because—as PC Gamer's Andy Chalk pointed out back when it was announced—Cataclysm's changes to the world are part of the reason why Classic exists in the first place. Granted, the infamous "you think you do, but you don't" quote comes from the Warlords of Draenor days—a couple expansions after Cataclysm—but good ol' Deathwing is still the dragon that broke the world.

Quests became streamlined and far more player-friendly, but lost some of their old charm. Stories were told directly to players, leading to some fun moments like Garrosh roaring «you are dismissed!» and hucking someone off a cliff in the Stonetalon Mountains. But then there were the pop-culture references. So many pop-culture references.

That's not to say that Cataclysm was a disaster in the same way that something like Shadowlands was. However, Blizzard broke from its «no changes» mindset a while back—in other words, Cataclysm Classic isn't just an opportunity to relive the expansion, it's an opportunity to do stuff right. 

I had the opportunity to speak with lead software engineer Nora Valletta and principal game designer Kris Zierhut about that process. 

A while back, Holly Longdale remarked that the survey data going into the expansion was better than Blizzard thought it would be, but Valletta «actually did not end up being all that surprised.» While the team loves getting feedback from players on social media and forums, Valletta quite reasonably observes that: «the vast majority of our playerbase is not actually going to do that.

»We recognise there are differing opinions among our players about what version of WoW is the best version of WoW, but we also don't want to necessarily deny all the players that have been asking us to continue their journey into Cataclysm Classic … a couple of people on my BattleNet friendlist, their version of Classic is [Cataclysm], so they're just pumped."

As far as changing the