WoW Archivist: Recapping classic World of Warcraft
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold?
The Archivist has come a long way. We've just about wrapped up the chronological history of classic World of Warcraft. Sure, there are still bits and bobs that have gone unexplored for now ("The Ashbringer ...") but we've covered every single major patch from the World of Warcraft from prerelease all the way up through the final raid tier of level 60 content. The next time we tackle a set of patch notes, we'll be firmly in The Burning Crusade territory. Exciting, isn't it?
Before we leap into that sweet, sweet Burning Crusade, let's recap what we've covered already, starting way back in July 2009.
The WoW Archivist actually started back in mid-2009 under the name Patches of Yesteryear, written by my co-senior editor Adam Holisky. It was a great concept -- we loved it, you loved it, but the Patches title was quite limiting. We wanted to do more with the concept than just patches. A year later in 2010, Patches of Yesteryear evolved into Old School WoW. For one reason or another, it just fell off of our radar for another year and didn't go anywhere.
In March of this year, I sat down and took stock of all of the columns we did once upon a time but discontinued for one reason or another. I tried to decide whether any of them were worth resurrecting. Readers had been requesting two in particular: Two Bosses Enter and Patches of Yesteryear. So what the heck, let's bring them back! I began writing Two Bosses Enter again (which has since been passed on to Mat McCurley) and resurrected Patches of Yesteryear/Old School WoW as ... the WoW Archaeologist.
Boy, did people hate that name. Why in the world would I name a column WoW Archaeologist after WoW added an archaeology trade skill if the column isn't about the trade skill? It made sense to me at the time, but what the heck, the column has changed names so many times before I might as well change it again, right?
The first week of this column, it was called Patches of Yesteryear. The second week of this column, Old School WoW. The third, WoW Archaeologist. The fourth, WoW Archivist, a name that finally stuck. I'm fairly sure this is the only column that has had so much trouble finding a name. If I remember correctly, it's one of two columns to have changed its name after its first publication at all.
With that bit of history out of the way, let's look back on what we've covered so far. If you've missed any of them, now's your chance to catch up.
Beta patches
Release patches
People
Places
Things
Next week on The Archivist ...
You are not prepared.
The WoW Archivist examines the WoW of old. Follow along while we discuss the lost legendary, the opening of Ahn'Qiraj, and hidden locations such as the crypts of Karazhan.
