BlizzCon virtual ticket will let you play World of Warcraft Classic demo on your PC

Blizzard has announced that one of the main benefits of buying a virtual ticket to BlizzCon 2018 is that you’ll be able to enjoy the demo of World of Warcraft Classic at home.

Yes, folks with a virtual ticket will get access to the same demo available on the show floor, except they’ll be able to experience it at their leisure on their own PC, rather than in the bustling environment of BlizzCon. It will contain two early-level zones – one Horde, one Alliance – and what Blizzard describes as a ‘limited questing experience’ therein.

That’s a nifty perk indeed, and not the only boon for virtual attendees of the event, who will also get live streamed viewing from every stage and panel taking place, and various behind-the-scenes at Blizzard videos, not to mention a host of in-game goodies.

The latter includes special items for World of Warcraft – war cloaks and banners – as well as bits and pieces for Overwatch, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, plus StarCraft II.

You can grab your virtual ticket here, at the price of £34.99 (around $45, AU$65), with a limit of one ticket per Battle.net account.

Week of WoW

The BlizzCon opening ceremony kicks off on November 2 at 1pm PDT, and shortly after that, virtual ticket holders will be able to download the WoW Classic demo. The demo will remain playable throughout the following week until November 8, so those actually present at BlizzCon will still get the chance to enjoy it at home post-event.

If you don’t buy a virtual ticket, you will still be able to watch the opening ceremony live streamed, and also the live esports streams from BlizzCon 2018.

WoW Classic probably won’t be realized for a good long time yet – quite possibly not for several years – with Blizzard describing it as a “larger endeavor than you might imagine”. Still, at least you’ll be able to get a taster of what to expect soon enough, if you so wish.

The broad idea is to take the MMO back to 2006, before the first major expansion for the game landed (Burning Crusade), yet bring the engine fully up-to-date with the modern game (including full customer support and anti-cheat systems).

• Maybe you’ll play World of Warcraft Classic on one of our best gaming laptops

September 27, 2018 at 06:11PM
Darren Allan