World of Warcraft: Forever is coming. Why Kiwis are heading back to Azeroth (and where to chat between pulls)

If you were there in 2004, you remember. The loading screen. The first walk out of Northshire or the Valley of Trials. Barrens chat asking where Mankrik's wife was, for the four-hundredth time. A trade channel full of people selling things they didn't have. Forty people on Ventrilo trying to work out who pulled the boss early.

More than twenty years on, Blizzard is giving that world another life. World of Warcraft: Forever was announced at BlizzCon in September, and it's coming on 5 November, New Zealand time.

What World of Warcraft: Forever actually is

The community spent years calling it "Classic+": the original game, but kept going with new content instead of marching on to the next expansion. That's roughly what Blizzard has announced.

• The original world, levels 1 to 60. Forever is set in the early days of the original game, and Blizzard says the level cap stays at 60.
• New things to do there. Blizzard is promising new zones, more than 1,000 new quests, new dungeons and raids, and a new playable race, the Skyborne.
• Not a frozen copy. It's separate from both modern WoW and Classic, and it's meant to keep growing.
• No realm to pick. Instead you choose a ruleset: Normal, PvP or Roleplaying, with Hardcore planned later. You can't group across rulesets, so agree on one with your mates before launch.
• It comes with your subscription. Forever is included with a WoW subscription or game time. The Skyborne race comes with the optional paid packs.

When: Blizzard's launch time is 3pm Pacific on 4 November, which is around midday on Thursday 5 November in New Zealand. Check Blizzard's launch page closer to the day for the exact time, and expect queues.

Why it's hitting the 2004 crowd so hard

It's not just the quests. Original WoW was a social game in a way few games are now. You couldn't get far without other people: you stood around in Ironforge or Orgrimmar, typed "LFG Deadmines" into the chat and waited, and the people you met in the Barrens became your guild.

Plenty of us also remember what happened outside the game: a friends list of guildies on a desktop messenger, arranging the next night's raid while you were meant to be doing homework.

Forever brings the world back. The question is where all that talk happens now.

Where the WoW conversation lives now

Mostly on Discord, and for raid night it's great: voice chat, pinned strats, sign-ups. But it has its gaps:

• It's split up. Every guild, every community and every content creator has its own server, each with dozens of channels. If you're between guilds, or you just play solo, there's nowhere obvious to hang out.
• It's busy at US hours. NZ players have always shared the Americas region with a lot of people on very different clocks. Finding other Kiwis who are on at 9pm on a Tuesday is half the battle.
• It isn't built for adults. Discord accounts start at 13, so many big servers have teenagers in them.

Why a chat room suits the bits in between

Chatroom is a chat room for New Zealand adults, built like an early-2000s messenger on purpose: a contact list that shows who's online, rooms by topic, private messages and nudges. For WoW players there are four rooms of their own:

• WoW Forever: levelling to 60 again, the Skyborne, the new zones and who's camping where.
• WoW Classic: Anniversary realms, Hardcore, Mists of Pandaria Classic and the rest of the Classic family.
• World of Warcraft: Midnight, raids, Mythic+, housing and everything in the current game.
• WoW: looking for group: find a group, a guild or someone to level with, on Kiwi hours.

It's one place rather than fifty servers, everyone is 18+, and everyone is a real person: no bots, and links are blocked in rooms, so gold-seller spam has nowhere to go. Add the people you click with to your contacts and you'll see when they sign in, like a friends list that works outside the game too. Use Discord for raid night, and use this for the rest of the week.

Before launch day

• Pick your ruleset with your mates. You can't group across rulesets.
• Get your names sorted. If you've bought one of the packs, early name reservation comes with it.
• Book the afternoon off, or plan for a late one. Launch lands around lunchtime here.
• Find your people now, so you're not shouting "LFG" into a crowded starting zone on 5 November. Have a look at the rooms.

Chatroom is $14.99 once, no subscription, for New Zealand adults. See you in Azeroth.

World of Warcraft and WoW are trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment. Chatroom isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard.