When I booted in the World of Warcraft Classic demo in my ballet shoes a couple of weeks ago - while BlizzCon used to be in full swing, along with the servers were busy - the overall chat channel was flooded with nostalgic longing. People were loving this recreation from the great massively multiplayer game's beginning and lamenting what WOW had become inside the 14 years since. Someone celebrated freedom on the WOW Classic Gold tyranny of item levels. Someone mentioned the hushed sound design, noting they could hear every footstep and clink of the chainmail. Someone else remembered that this community am much friendlier in those days, in a lot less of a rush.

I love modern WOW, but I do know for sure what they will meant. For me, the nostalgic pull of World of Warcraft circa 2005 is really as strong the way it gets - for 2 reasons. The first is so it was one on the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had: a huge, epic quest of discovery, a lot more powerful internet marketing shared with friends. The second is who's was gone, truly vanished, and might not be recreated. Until now.

So I approached my first possible opportunity to play WOW Classic with great excitement and trepidation. The friends were gone, along with the game was approximately to be come across the harsh light of hindsight the very first time. Would this wonderful time still be there?

The demo - which went offline on Monday - started at level 15 and allowed Horde players just like me to quest and explore in The Barrens, which I have previously called "an empty expanse of arid grassland, sparsely populated with dull quests and notorious among Horde players, for whom that it was an early levelling area, for nettlesome Alliance raids plus a chat channel stuffed with sub-literate neophytes. It was magical." Blizzard could hardly have picked an improved zone to stir nostalgia after which skewer it about the truth of how boring the sport could be.

The first quest I found was to harvest bills from Vanilla WOW Gold plainstriders: lumbering, flightless birds which initiate combat using a derisory screech, and that you can get milling throughout the Barrens. Straight away, I crashed hard from the grind of early WOW. The drop rate with the bills was miserable - no greater than 40 per-cent - and I should have killed 2 or 3 dozen plainstriders with my hunter, repetitively sending my pet in the market to meet them and cycling throughout the few skills available.