On January 16, 2007, Blizzard released the first expansion to World of Warcraft. Some players called it the beginning of the end, while others heralded it as the game’s Golden Age. The sales indicate The Burning Crusade was a raging success financially, as it pushed the game’s subscribers past the 8.5 million mark. Stories are still told of lineups that went around blocks and dedicated gamers that camped out for days to acquire a copy.
With the success of World of Warcraft Classic, it was inevitable that players would start asking questions about the first expansion getting similar treatment. If there’s money to be had, and there is, then there’s definitely a possibility, despite the pros and cons.
10 Good Idea: Blood Elves
Not only was this race an interesting callback to the old Warcraft games, being former High Elves and once an integral part of the Alliance forces, but we got some interesting personal backstory. The Banshee Queen herself, Sylvanas Windrunner, was part of this faction before her living death.
The Blood Elves have their own history separate from their Night Elf counterparts, being their spiritual and social opposites in almost every way, so it was a creative addition instead of being repetitive. It’s also nice that Horde gets Paladins, which were actually useful in the BC expansion.
9 Why It’s Not: Hellfire Peninsula
For all the Alliance players who complain about the orange of Orgrimmar and the dull brown of the Barrens, welcome to the sickly pink of Hellfire Peninsula. It’s disappointing that players fighting through the chaos outside the Dark Portal would stumble into this featureless, rosy-hued desert after their trials. The dungeons are just as ugly, little more than Ragefire Chasm on steroids. Luckily, the rest of Outland is mostly sublime, so why did the introductory zone to the new continent have to be this eyesore?
8 Good Idea: Zangarmarsh
Imagine walking into a purple-blue world of water, flying neon stingrays and giant, looming mushrooms. Couldn’t the Dark Portal have opened up to Zangarmarsh instead? Not only is it a lot easier on the eyes, but there’s also more to do, whether a player is questing or farming for resources.
The zone also featured four new instances, one of them a raid, accessible via the same entrance in the heart of a lake. The Slave Pens, the Underbog, the Steamvault, and Serpentshrine Caverns are closely tied to the larger storyline and overseen by close allies of Illidan himself.
7 Why It’s Not: Eye Of The Storm
A lot of the new PvP content in BC was great, just not this. Other than the fact that everything is a different shade of purple and the environment is dull with little variation other than the occasional rocky outcropping, there’s nothing new here. The Eye of the Storm is just a lazy combination of the flags of Warsong Gulch, the resources of Arathi Basin, and the towers of Alterac Valley.
6 Good Idea: Draenei
Both of the races were a win with this expansion, which we can’t really say for every race Blizzard added in later years. The Draenei had some incredible lore, enough to compete with heavyweights like Trolls and Night Elves, plus they gave the Alliance the Shaman class. The design of their capital city, the Exodar, was unique among any other settlements in Azeroth because it was a crashed spaceship. Not only different but also really pretty.
5 Why It’s Not: Raising The Level Cap
They say that hindsight is 20/20. Now that Blizzard has officially implemented a level squish to correct this, we can conclude that raising the level cap was a mistake that doesn’t need to be repeated.
There’s plenty of content for players to enjoy, isn’t the level cap just a cheap, lazy way of pacing their progress through the new content? If everything in the BC expansion was implemented but the level cap left as it was, would the mechanics of the game still work? If so, leave this useless feature out.
4 Good Idea: That Sweet Soundtrack
This could be the soundtrack that made music for video games such a big deal. Before Jeremy Soule was composing whole orchestral numbers for the Elder Scrolls franchise, Blizzard invested in this epic soundtrack. Lament of the Highborne is a title that people recognize even if they’ve never played the game, and A Call to Arms has become the unofficial theme song. Copies were released with Collector’s Editions of the game, a factor that probably boosted the already impressive sales numbers.
3 Why It’s Not: Lack Of New Starter Dungeons
There was so much focus on raid and end-game content in BC that lower-level players were overlooked. With the exception of the starter areas for the new races, including a new capital city, there was virtually no new content in the same vein for characters between the levels of about 20 and 55. It was a great addition if you had a maxed-out toon or didn’t mind rolling an alt, but if you were still working through the mid-levels the best new content was the scenery.
2 Good Idea: Ghostlands
Horde players would roll new characters in Tirisfal Glades and Durotar just to take them to Ghostlands and level them there. It was an easy trip, too, with a portal available from Undercity to Silvermoon City.
The setting of a haunted forest was too much to resist, especially considering the improved loot and gear to be had in the new area. There were quests closely related to the personal history of Queen Sylvanas, recalling a time when she was a complex, sympathetic character instead of an evil Blizzard MacGuffin.
1 Why It’s Not: Relaxing The Grind
There are mixed opinions on this concept, so it should be interesting to see where Blizzard takes it. The BC expansion made the grind easier, and not just for leveling but also where income was concerned. Gold flowed a lot more easily in Burning Crusade, and at the same time costs for training and gear were relaxed. This is where the argument about casual vs. hardcore players comes into play, and a BC expansion server would have to balance that out.
NEXT: Classic WoW: Top 10 High-Level Potions and Flasks
