WoW Classic – Can it Live up to OSRS?

When you have two legendary powerhouses of a particular gaming genre existing side by side, it’s understandable that you are going to want to make comparisons between the two. We see situations so often like this in gaming, as we are forever going to compare the likes of Call of Duty to Battlefield, Fortnite to PUBG/Apex Legends, FIFA to PES and so on. This debate exists between games such as WoW Classic and Old School RuneScape, which are both major players in the MMO universe. The question is; should you be spending your time grinding for WoW Classic Gold, or OSRS Gold? 

This is normally a very common question of course, but perhaps we should be asking whether World of Warcraft can live up to what Jagex did with the release of OSRS? Can it follow a similar formula, or should it stick to its guns of no changes? 

Origins and Future Content

In a similar vein to OSRS, WoW Classic proves that there is a massive desire out there for gamers to relive days gone by for that nostalgia fix. Whether players want to go back to a time when there was arguably less hand-holding, or simply want to live out those glory days, there is a lot to be said about bringing back the original rendition of World of Warcraft. 

How OSRS came to be stemmed from community disdain at the direction of the Runescape franchise, leading the game’s developers to put the question forward to fans on whether or not they should act on the rumours of an Old School rendition. This attracted nearly 500,000 votes in favour of bringing back OSRS, which is an example of how fans wanted to keep things status quo. 

The poll that brought back OSRS would also prove to be a catalyst as to how Jagex would move forward with the game. Since then, there have been community polls to decide what new content would come to the title, which is a huge positive in the favour of OSRS. Effectively, you personally have a say in what content comes to the game you are playing, which is a great bonus. 

Which Game Will Last Longer?

Why is this important? If you look at potential longevity between the two, you can clearly see that there is a lot more hope for OSRS in that instance. This is because the relationship between Jagex and players is clearly strong with the poll-based content system they have going for them, which pales in comparison to WoW Classic. 

Fans upon the release of WoW Classic, however, would seem to want the opposite, with no changes being made at all. This isn’t to halt progress, but rather there seems to be a level of mistrust of Blizzard to make changes that would be beneficial to the game’s lifespan. This doesn’t seem to be an issue for Jagex and OSRS, with the check and balance system that they have going for them. From this perspective, it’s hard to say that WoW Classic is something you’d choose over OSRS. 

That statement can’t speak for everyone, however. Fans who clamoured for Vanilla WoW in the first place wouldn’t all necessarily want there to change at all. It doesn’t ultimately have to work in the same way that Jagex has with OSRS, and you could argue that changes to Vanilla WoW could potentially alienate the core players who wanted no changes whatsoever. What can be said for WoW Classic is that it attracted millions of players at launch, which would have two different sets of audiences? This would include classic players looking for that old school fix, and new players who wouldn’t have experienced it before. 

Conclusion

Ultimately, the sheer popularity of WoW Classic since launch has showcased that players do have the desire to do as OSRS did and go back to the way things were before. If Blizzard maintains balance changes and fixes for the vanilla version without potentially forcing old school players out the door with new content, then there is no reason to believe that it cannot beat OSRS from this aspect. OSRS’ popularity hasn’t dwindled so much to be alarming, but there is an imbalance between the two when it comes to concurrent players. 

So whether you hunt for WoW Classic Gold or OSRS Gold, there is something going for both titles. Yes, I do believe that Classic WoW could potentially be as successful as OSRS, but you could be forgiven for having doubts at the back of your mind. It depends entirely on the roadmap ahead, and which system of content (or lack of) being introduced sits with their respective playerbases.

Which game do you prefer? Do you think WoW Classic can overtake OSRS? Let us know in the comments section below!