World of Warcraft game director responds to concerned email about Classic's future within 15 minutes, and it's good news

I feel like people forget just how massive World of Warcraft is. Sure, you get that from the 'MMO' part, but Azeroth's story is decades in the making, with spinoffs galore (from Hearthstone to Warcraft Rumble) and a collection of amazing novels to boot. But World of Warcraft Classic feels like it's for the more 'hardcore' fans - people who forgive the vanilla version's bugs and quirks for the sake of nostalgia. I find myself falling into that category. While The War Within felt like a step in the right direction, the specter of Shadowlands and the underwhelming Dragonflight still loom large. As the WoW Midnight beta opens its doors, one fan asked game director Ion Hazzikostas about the state of Classic, which has taken somewhat of a back seat in the past few months.

Now, when you fire off a random email to the game director of World of Warcraft, you hardly expect a reply. We've seen anomalies - Valve's Gabe Newell has responded to fan queries, for example - but they're few and far between. Well, according to Reddit user u/joachimbrnd, Hazzikostas responded within just 15 minutes of their email being sent, and he's offered a small but meaningful update on Blizzard's plans for Classic.

While Joachim's initial email isn't shown in the Reddit post, you'll see it a little further down in the comments. The main thrust of their question is whether "any version of Classic [has] an actual long-term future?" For context, the last WoW Classic-dedicated news post on Blizzard's website is dated September 24, and focused on Mists of Pandaria Classic.

"Being a big fan of Classic (specially Vanilla), I was frustrated by the absence of communication on its future and wanted to voice my feedback, fully expecting nothing other than for my feedback to be read… I am happy it was," they continue.

"I can't speak to specifics, and if we have something new to announce it's not going to happen in an email," Hazzikostas' response prefaces. "But I can assure you that we understand the community's passion and perspective here. Especially in the conversation around Season of Discovery, it's pretty clear that a big part of the community is looking for a 'forever home' in the Classic space."

"The Classic experience is dear to my heart, and we want to do everything we can to support the Classic community for many years to come."

While there are some negative responses on Joachim's post, I find this pretty heartwarming. Such transparency and open communication isn't exactly common, especially at the triple-A level. Hazzikostas doesn't exactly say anything revolutionary, sure, but the fact he's taken the time to reply is an absolute win. I worry his inbox is about to become a warzone, but it's cool to see a high-level dev interact with their community.