Blizzard is helping people find old World of Warcraft friends

With World of Warcraft Classic just around the corner—the final test is today—you might be wondering what happened to your first guildies, or where that orc who taught you the PvP ropes ended up. After nearly 15 years, there are probably a few pals you've lost touch with, and what better a time to reconnect than with the relaunch of vanilla WoW?

That's easier said than done if you just know an ancient character name, but Blizzard is trying to help players reconnect with its Classic Connections system (cheers, Kotaku). If you're trying to recapture that 2004-2006 magic, hop on over to the forums and find your pals.

Essentially, it's like posting a missed connection ad, but broken down by faction, server type and realm. If you were an Alliance player looking to reconnect with your roleplaying buddies in Argent Dawn, there's a thread for you.

It's all very sweet and wholesome, with people posting the names of all the friends they remember, along with the occasional anecdote. This troll rogue looking to reconnect with an old adversary is lovely.

Good luck finding your Argent Dawn PvP pal, Fendria.

This is kinda the point of Classic, because it's not really the same without the other players you experienced it with the first time around. In my World of Warcraft Classic preview back in May, production director Patrick Dawson told me that it was the old guilds and players wanting to reunite that clamoured for the vanilla servers, giving Blizzard the push to create them.

Classic Connections has been around for a couple of months, but this is the first time I've seen it, despite the proximity to launch. Most of the threads I've looked at only have around ten posts, so hopefully Blizzard will put the word out again and get more people searching for old friends.

World of Warcraft Classic will go live on August 27.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.