This old-fashioned recipe is one your Grandmother may have made!
If you love old-fashioned recipes, you will definitely want to check out our Old Fashioned Banana Pudding. It’s one of our most popular recipes.
❤️WHY WE LOVE THIS RECIPE
We love this recipe because it goes way back in our family. It’s a recipe our Nannie made and one we still love. One of the best things about this dish is it’s only made with water and butter. It tastes so much like mashed potatoes, but it’s not made the same way.
It’s such a budget-friendly dish, and I am sure that is why it was so popular back in the day. You don’t use any cream or milk in these, which is why they are so unique.
⭐TIP
This dish is best with peeled potatoes. Some people ask if you have to peel the potatoes and I believe it’s better if you do.
IF YOU LOVE THIS RECIPE
If you love potato recipes, you will also love this Mashed Potato Casserole! It’s a family favorite during the holiday time. Also, you can never go wrong with these Southern Fried Potatoes. It’s one of the best ways to enjoy potatoes.
SERVE THIS WITH
This dish goes great with our Fried Porkchops. We love pork chops and potatoes, and you can add the delicious gravy. You will also love our Hamburger Steak; it’s a very popular recipe.
STORING AND REHEATING
I store these in a tupperware container in the fridge and they will last for a few days. Super easy dish and great to make up and enjoy with a few different meals.
SERVING SIZE
This dish makes about 6 servings and you can easily double it.
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These old fashioned stewed potatoes are the way your grandmother probably made potatoes! Excellent recipe your family will love and very budget friendly.
Prep Time 5 minutesmins
Cook Time 15 minutesmins
Total Time 20 minutesmins
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
6 or 7 medium sized potatoespeeled and cut into chunks (you can use any kind of potatoes)
Waterenough to just cover the potatoes in the pot
1/4cupchopped onion
2tablespoonsbutter
1tablespoonbacon drippings
1/2teaspoonsalt
1/4teaspoonblack pepper
Put the potatoes in a pot, cover with the water, add the chopped onion, butter, bacon drippings, salt and pepper. Bring the potatoes to a boil stirring to keep from sticking to pot.
Turn heat to a low boil and cook until potatoes have cooked and thickened to desired consistency. Stir often while cooking. Makes about about 6 servings.
Melty raclette. Velvety onion fondue. Crispy watercress. And earthy black truffle. That’s what you’re in for when you order the signature Black Truffle Wagyu Steak Burger at The Thompson Hotel’s sophisticated French spot. With a sidecar of golden duck fat fries and a bright, simple salad, it’s best washed down with a bold red or opulent olive brine martini (whether or not you add the caviar bump is up to you).
The Sheraton Boston Hotel is offering guests the chance to spend the night inside a life-sized replica of the beloved “Goodnight Moon” bedroom.The suite is a full-scale replica of the Great Green Room from the beloved 1947 children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown.The whimsical room is perched on the 24th floor of the hotel and has views of the Charles River. It features green walls, red carpet, a glowing LED fireplace and even a working dollhouse.The suite also comes with other custom amenities, including a plush bunny for each child and turndown service complete with milk and cookies served in a keepsake porcelain bowl.
The Sheraton Boston Hotel is offering guests the chance to spend the night inside a life-sized replica of the beloved “Goodnight Moon” bedroom.
The suite is a full-scale replica of the Great Green Room from the beloved 1947 children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown.
The whimsical room is perched on the 24th floor of the hotel and has views of the Charles River. It features green walls, red carpet, a glowing LED fireplace and even a working dollhouse.
The suite also comes with other custom amenities, including a plush bunny for each child and turndown service complete with milk and cookies served in a keepsake porcelain bowl.
Calumet Fisheries is back and better than before with fans lining up around the corner for the smoked and fried seafood they’ve been missing for the last six months. The seafood shack has been closed since a November electrical fire. The restaurant re-opened at 9 a.m. sharp on Saturday, June 8.
The timing was fitting as the James Beard Awards took place on Monday, June 10. In 2010, the Beard Foundation recognized Calumet Fisheries as an America’s Classic, an honor for timeless restaurants that have carved out a niche for excellence in a community.
The shack opened in 1948 and appeared on a 2009 No Reservations episode and in the Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi classic, The Blues Brothers. Bourdain, the brothers, and the Beard medal appear on a mural outside the restaurant. The remodeling may have taken some time, but don’t expect anything to change — ownership vowed to restore the space, cleaning it up so a new generation of fans could enjoy.
The sunny skies brought out a huge crowd who participated in the tradition of enjoying their food in the cars or using their hoods as tables to enjoy the scenery along the Calumet River. Check out the scenes from opening day below.
As new restaurants open every day in Charlotte, it’s easy to forget about the old standbys, the places that have grown up alongside the Queen City. Our Charlotte’s Classic Eats series highlights the places that you have frequented for years, reminding us why they have stood the test of time.
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Charlotte’s oldest restaurants are quickly becoming relics. When deciding where to eat, how do we balance the excitement of new restaurant arrivals with our support of its classic establishments?
In a 2017 article, The Charlotte Observer’s Kathleen Purvis listed Charlotte’s 11 oldest restaurants. Seven years later, only five of those places to eat are still open. With so many of our city’s classic restaurants closing, which of our longtime favorites remain? Earlier this month, Purvis mentioned some of our oldest restaurants in a Facebook post, which reminded us to update our list. (We spent the past few weeks going even deeper into the archives to pull out some more old photos this time!)
Here are the 20 oldest restaurants in Charlotte — consider one of these the next time you’re looking for a place to dine:
What to order: Famous Philly sub — your choice of steak or chicken — served with provolone cheese, mushrooms, peppers and onion.
“The House of Pizza harkens to a day, not so long ago, when most of Charlotte’s Italian restaurants were neither Southern nor Northern Italian but Mideast Italian — as in, Greek,” wrote Charlotte Observer’s Helen Schwab in 1995 about the no-frills restaurant. “Greek owners, Greek-flavored versions of Italian dishes and a few actual Greek items sprinkled among the Italian on the menu.”
What to order: The easy answer is a Cajun Filet Biscuit or Sandwich combo, complete with seasoned friends and iced tea, but the magic of Bo’s is its variety. Whether it’s breakfast all day, dirty rice or a Bo-Berry biscuit, everyone has their go-to order here.
Everyone in the South (and soon to be, the West Coast) knows fast-food chicken and biscuit restaurant Bojangles. But if you’re a newcomer to Charlotte, you might not know that it was founded right here in Charlotte in 1977. The original location, at 300 West Boulevard in Wilmore, is still in operation today and recently underwent a renovation.
What to order: Nakato’s Delight is a Hibachi feast of chicken, shrimp and your choice of NY strip or filet mignon.
Nakato Japanese Steakhouse opened its first Charlotte location on Independence Boulevard, near the old Charlotte Coliseum. It opened the University location in 2004.
What to order: The daily special (chuckwagon cheese steak, baby beef liver, spaghetti with housemade meat sauce could all be on the menu).
Carolina Family Restaurant is at 4600 Wilkinson Blvd., near Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Philip Freeman CharlotteFive
After owning and operating Eat Well Grill on Trade Street in the 1950s and Pete’s Grill on South Boulevard in the 1960s and ’70s, Maria Kotros and Gus Garvrilis’ father purchased the building at 4600 Wilkinson Boulevard to open Carolina Family Restaurant. The brother and sister duo still run the restaurant today.
Owner/founder: Founded by the late Calvin “CT” Brooks Jr., now run by his son David Brooks. David’s twin brother, co-owner Scott Brooks, was killed in 2019 while trying to open the restaurant for the day.
What to order: Double cheeseburger all the way, with chili cheese fries and a side of slaw.
Brooks’ Sandwich House has been open since 1973. Melissa Oyler CharlotteFive
Brooks’ Sandwich House is a Charlotte icon: The unassuming red building tucked on a corner in NoDa has been drawing crowds since 1973. This family-run spot makes great burgers, dogs and chili — but what it really serves up is heart. When you’re here, you’re home.
What to order: Swiss & Mushroom Burger, with Swiss cheese, sautéed onions, mushrooms, lettuce and tomatoes served on a toasted bun. Add on the soup of the day.
Arthur’s Wine Shop opened on Church Street in 1972 after owner Steve Balsley and his two brothers purchased the existing Arthur’s Gourmet Shop. A year later, the shop moved to the basement of Ivey’s. In 1974, it moved with Ivey’s to SouthPark Mall before finally settling in the basement of Belk in 1990.
What to order: The Original Smash Pot, with tomatoes, cheese, onions, peppers and potatoes.
You’ll step back through time when you visit Kopper Kettle, with the restaurant’s original swivel stools still perched at the counter of the restaurant that has been serving Charlotte comfort food for more than 50 years. George and Penny Karnezis moved here from Greece in 1966 and opened the restaurant in 1971.
The second-generation, family owned Italian restaurant has been serving Charlotte customers since 1962. Go simple with pizza and wings or treat yourself to a build-your-own pasta dish (you pick the pasta and the topping).
Owner/founder: Opened by Charlie Psomadaski and Jack Law. Sold in 1972 to Pete Giannikas. Now owned by Pete’s brother, Steve Giannikas, and George and Gus Karapanos.
What to order: Fried chicken dipped in barbecue sauce, with a side of fresh onion rings.
Bar-B-Q King has been a Charlotte staple since 1959, and it got some national fame after a visit from Guy Fieri on Season 1 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. He was looking for America’s Best BBQ, but we think the hidden secret here is the fried chicken (in barbecuse sause, of course).
Bar-B-Que King has been open since 1959, serving customers in its drive-thru. Alex Cason CharlotteFive
What to order: Your favorite cut of beef, cooked to order — top it with bleu cheese crumbles, brown mushroom gravy or horseradish. The build-your-own-salad at your table is a nice change of pace in this incredible time warp.
The original owner of Beef ‘N Bottle, George Fine, opened a restaurant in 1958 with his wife called The Amber House. In 1960, they sold it and opened House of Steaks in uptown. In 1978, Fine moved his restaurant to its current spot — once a house — and changed its name to Beef ‘N Bottle.
Beef and Bottle hangs on to a classic steakhouse vibe. Alex Cason Photography CharlotteFive
What to order: The F-150 is a great breakfast choice — two eggs any style with country fried steak smothered in gravy, choice of grits or hashbrowns, toast or biscuit. Breakfast is served until 11 a.m. on the weekdays and noon on Saturday.
Shuffletown Grill opened in 1957 and is located in the Mountain Island Lake area. You’ll feel like you stepped right into the 1950s with the retro diner motif, right down to the red stools and tabletop jukeboxes.
What to order: Fried filet trout plate with fries and tartar sauce (it’s discounted on Wednesday and Friday). If you’re still hungry, go for the onion rings.
Nothing lets you take an instant step back in time like Charlotte’s Classic drive-ins, and South 21 will take you right back to the 1950s. The “home of the Super Boy” has been at its Independence Boulevard location since 1959. We wonder if our grandparents took the kids for meals there?
South 21 Drive-In moved to its Independence Boulevard location in 1959. Alex Cason CharlotteFive
What to order: Go for the Ribeye Steak and Eggs for breakfast (served until 11 a.m. during the week and all day on Saturday). You get two eggs any style with an 8 oz. Ribeye steak, grits or hash browns, toast or biscuit.
Circle G is a meat-and-three restaurant that has been serving up Southern charm since 1954. It recently made the small screen during its appearance on the new SNL movie “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain”. (It’s the diner where John runs into Ben and Martin towards the end of the movie.)
What to order: Fried chicken or burgers — and you can’t go wrong with the most popular dish: An order of whole wings without sauce.
Jermaine Blackmon, owner of Original Chicken ‘n Ribs, plans to stay in his family business for the long haul. “I want to work here ’til I’m 80 or 85 if I’m healthy,” he said. Alex Cason CharlotteFive
What to order: Self-proclaimed “Ameri-Grk” cuisine covers the menu — if you’re hungry, try Andy’s Heavyweight, a sandwich with Greek marinated flank steak and grilled onions topped with baked provolone.
What to order: A Blizzard, of course. Or go for a dipped cone, a shake or a banana split.
Since 1947, the Wikinson Boulevard Dairy Queen has been an icon in Charlotte. The ice cream shop is the oldest DQ in the Carolinas. In 2022, it was listed for sale for $1.4 million. Today, the listing has come down to $1.1 million.
The Dairy Queen in west Charlotte off Wilkinson Boulevard. Hannah Lang hlang@charlotteobserver.com
What to order: Fried pork chops, sweet potato fries — and, yes, mac and cheese is a veggie here.
The James family built the Diamond Soda Grill in 1945 and sold it to Jerry Pistolis in 1982. While the building is the same, a team that included Fuller took it over in 2010 and gave the inside and the menu a spiffing up, with a retro-modern style.
The Diamond Restaurant was built in 1945 and renovated in 2010. Alex Cason Photography CharlotteFive
What to order: Grilled blackened wings and a shrimp bowl with kale and arugula, avocado, tomatoes, onion, Parmesan and honey lime dressing. Don’t miss the chili either.
The original space at Providence Road Sundries, which first opened in 1933. Alex Cason CharlotteFive
Providence Road Sundries has been around a long time — since 1933. It’s so old that we actually don’t know who opened the drugstore on Providence Road in 1933, but one thing is for sure — the addition of a soda fountain in the 1950s proved a wise move. Nowadays, locals frequent the restaurant for lunch, dinner and drinks seven days a week.
Uniquely Charlotte: Uniquely Charlotte is an Observer subscriber collection of moments, landmarks and personalities that define the uniqueness (and pride) of why we live in the Charlotte region.
This story was originally published April 23, 2024, 6:20 PM.
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Melissa Oyler is the editor of CharlotteFive. When she’s not writing or editing, you’ll find her running, practicing hot yoga or snuggling with her rescue dog, X. Find her on Instagram or Twitter: @melissaoyler. Support my work with a digital subscription
Philip’s job with the city connects him with neighborhoods all over Charlotte. Off the clock, he’s often exploring public art, playing outside or trying new food. Follow him on Twitter @philipfreeman
On Friday night, the team behind the Ramova Theater will celebrate the venue’s reopening, reveling in 95 years of history and a reopening that involves the city, a trio of celebrities, and 49 local investors. There’s also a local chef who grew up in Bridgeport in charge with a notepad brimming with ideas.
“If you had told me, a year or two before Duck Inn, that I would open up a restaurant on the street I grew up on, I’d have told you you were insane, that will never happen,” says Kevin Hickey.
The Ramova on Friday will hold a symbolic sign-lighting ceremony. Hickey, who is also celebrating Wednesday’s news that the Duck Inn had earned a James Beard nod for outstanding restaurant, is the chef behind the venue’s restaurant component, the Ramova Grill. It’s his second restaurant in the neighborhood. The Ramova is part music venue, restaurant, community gathering place, and brewery. New York’s Other Half Brewing has taken residence, but due to delays with licensing, they haven’t brewed on-site. The limited supply of beer that’s been sold has been shipped over from other breweries. The venue officially opened on New Year’s Eve.
“For us to be community- and artist-owned is rudimentary,” says Nevius, rattling names of nearby supporters, like Zhou B Arts Center and Let’s Boogie Records and Tapes. He’s also been in contact with the Dinos family, the owners of the original Ramova Grill: “They’re very excited, they’re very happy to see the Ramova Grill coming back.”
On Friday night, the Ramova will hold a sign-lighting ceremony.
Emily and Tyler Nevius are the Ramova’s co-founders.
The restaurant closed in 2012 at 3520 S. Halsted Street. Hickey is flooded with memories of a vibrant commercial corridor. He says his family’s history in the area extends to five, maybe six, generations. The Hickey family story is a familiar one, and one of the reasons Tyler and Emily Nevius worked so hard to restore the Ramova. They found a trio of celebrity investors who also helped, Quincy Jones, Chance The Rapper, and Jennifer Hudson. Tyler Nevius says they’ve all been helpful. Hudson, for example, helped make sure the artist’s green room was laid out properly. He adds that he considers other local businesses as partners. Its proximity to Sox Park will make baseball season exciting. Nevius is stoked to see fans of Other Half — which has breweries in Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, D.C.— wear their visitor jerseys and pack the place.
Hickey sees the project with the potential of revitalizing the area much like Thalia Hall did for 18th Street in Pilsen when it reopened in 2013 with eventually Michelin-starred Dusek’s as its flagship restaurant. Nevius agrees with the sentiment but says Bridgeport has a different rhythm.
The original Ramova Grill closed in 2012.
Ramova’s chili
“16” On Center is so impressive,” Tyler Nevius says of Thalia Hall. “But we really have to earn our spot at the table now.”
The restaurant Hickey with an outlet to try ideas like Pork Chop Suey. Read that literally — it features a bed of noodles and vegetables beneath a grilled char siu-style pork chop. Hickey says he’s been dining at Chinatown restaurants to ensure he gets his dish right.
Pork Chop Suey is a Tuesday special at the Ramova Grill. The standard menu features chili, a Ramova staple. Hickey takes a few liberties here, noting that “no one has tasted that chili in 12 years,” which is when the original restaurant closed: “I don’t remember what it was like,” Hickey says.
The chili was a celebrated item at the old Ramova, and Hickey created a bit of a tall tale when he cooked it for the festival circuit, involving his dad in the telling, calling it “Jack’s Stolen Chili.” Ramova’s chili is a little thinner than Midwesterners are used to, which lends it well when mixing in mac and cheese or a dollop of sour cream. The chili is also ideal for dunking, for friends or with the duck-infused corn dogs. Another departure is the vegan version which uses portobello mushroom stock.
Another highlight is a dish few have ever seen. Back before on-demand streaming, DVDs, and VHS tapes, hotels used a service, called Spectra Vision, which played movies on a loop as in-room entertainment. One of the films featured when Hickey watched incessantly on family trips was The Jerk, a comedy starring Steve Martin. The film features a scene where Martin is eating something called “pizza in a cup.” Hickey says he’s been obsessed with creating his version and was inspired several years ago when Moody Tongue Brewing chef Jared Wentworth made the dish at a food festival in Lincoln Park.
Ramova’s pizza in a cup is a communal snack, a fried flatbread surrounds a cup filled with melted cheese, sausage, giardiniera, and other pizza toppings — it’s like a fondue, Hickey says. Break off a piece of the crispy ring and dip it into the cup.
There have been some bumps. Social media revolted after the Ramova charged $16 per beer on opening weekend. Tyler Nevius apologized, saying it was a problem with signage, a perfect storm of missteps. He feels bad for Other Half and takes accountability for the overcharge: “I don’t think we understood how hard it was going to be,” Nevius says.
But once they secure their beer-making license and have the right signage up, Tyler Nevius says visitors will start seeing the Ramova’s true potential. Take a look around the space in the photos.
For those who grew up with the Pokémon TCG, the Classic box is one of the best ways to get back into it. Normally $399.99, this collector’s box set is currently discounted to $319.99 at Amazon and Best Buy (its lowest price ever). And while the cards may bring back memories, the rest of this set takes a more mature approach to the game you remember.
In addition to vintage decks, inside the box you’ll find enough sleeves for all 180 holofoil cards, and a trio of classy leatherette deck boxes with magnetic closures. Perhaps the coolest addition to this set, however, is the collection of stackable metallic damage and status counters, which carry some serious heft and are a massive improvement over the Mancala beads that came packaged in the original set. The classic box also forgoes the usual double-sided coin in favor of a roulette-style wheel in the middle of the organizer box to determine heads or tails.
Everything is neatly organized in a folding case (with felt cutouts for your decks and damage counters), which doubles as a matte playing board with a convenient carrying handle.
Image: The Pokémon Company
While none of the cards contained in this set, except for the energy cards, are tournament-legal, the Pokémon TCG Classic collector’s box is an awesome way to show off your love for the game and elevate your experience with this childhood classic.
A 13-year-old streamer, Blue Scuti, became the first ever human to beat the classic game of Tetris on NES. Blue Scuti broke 3 world records in total — including that monumental accomplishment — during a semifinal match for the 2023 Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC). On Tuesday, he posted the full video onto his YouTube channel.
It might be funny to think that a 34-year-old game had never been beat before — but that’s precisely the case. Since Tetris (or Classic Tetris) was released on the NES it was genuinely considered unbeatable. Players would play for as long as they could, until reaching the 29th level, at which point pieces would fall so fast it seemed impossible to keep up. Only an AI had ever beat it — until Blue Scuti came on the scene.
Blue Scuti’s winning strategy was a culmination of the technique that younger players have been developing in recent years. These newer strategies, like “hypertapping” and later “rolling,” emerged in 2016 and 2020 respectively, allowing players to operate the NES controller even faster than the buttons by tapping the underside of the controller. By 2022, most players that placed in in CTWC used some version of these strategies.
In the 38-minute video, you can see Scuti grow more tense as he approaches ever greater levels. Right after making a great save, he gets to the game’s frozen screen — signaling victory — and ecstatically says “oh my god” while yanking off his gloves. “My hands feel tingly, I can’t feel my hands,” he says, with his face in his hands.
In a post game interview with streamer ITZsharky, Blue Scuti describes the nerves after playing for 30 minutes, but that he was “still managing to hit the 5 taps.” He added, “You miss one 5 tap and the run can end.”
Say what you want about William Shakespeare, but the guy could throw insults like a champ. Sure he was long-winded, invented his own words, and according to BBC he couldn’t even spell his own name properly. But the prolific Playwright sure knew how to put someone down.
We’ve collected some of the most iconic and stinging insults straight from William’s pen.
Pokémon Go is having a Mareep Community Day Classic event on Saturday, Nov. 25 from 2-5 p.m. in your local time.
As expected with a Community Day event, Mareep will spawn in huge numbers with a high chance for it to appear shiny. There are also several other bonuses and perks, which we’ve list out below.
How do I catch a shiny Mareep?
As per old research by the now-defunct website The Silph Road (via Wayback Machine), Shiny rates on Community Days are about 1 in 24, which means that if you keep playing throughout the three-hour window, you should find quite a few shiny Pokémon.
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Niantic
If you’re short on time or Poké Balls, you can pop an Incense, then quickly tap each Mareep to check for shiny ones, running from any that aren’t shiny. Notably, any Mareep you’ve already tapped will face where your player is standing, so that should help identify which ones you may have already checked.
What Community Day move does Mareep’s evolution learn?
Image: Niantic / The Pokémon Company
If you evolve Flaaffy into Ampharos from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. in your local time, it will learn the charged move Dragon Pulse.
If you miss out on evolving it during this period, you will likely be able to evolve it during a Community Day weekend event in December to get Dragon Pulse. If you don’t want to wait, you can use an Elite TM to get the move.
How good is Mareep’s evolution Ampharos in the meta?
Image: Niantic / The Pokémon Company
Ampharos is actually decent now, especially because of its Mega Evolution. It’s still behind some Shadow Pokémon like Raikou, and Legendaries like Zekrom, but it’s still worth grabbing if you have the Mega Energy. Give your Mega Ampharos Volt Switch and Zap Cannon to pack the most punch.
Without the Mega form, for most players, Ampharos sees little use in PvE (raids and gyms) content when so many other better electric Pokémon are available. For newer players, however, this Community Day is a good opportunity to get one or two decent electric attackers to round out a PvE team, especially if you’re willing to put in the time to get enough Candy and XL Candy to level them up fully.
In PvE (Battle League), meanwhile, Ampharos has some application in the current Ultra League meta, in part due to its ability to use fighting-type charged move Brutal Swing, which can throw a curveball against players not expecting it against their line-ups. This reddit reply started by CatchAmongUs goes into more detail for those looking for an alternative Battle League pick.
How do I make the most of Mareep Community Day?
Image: Niantic / The Pokémon Company
The following bonuses will be active during Mareep Community Day:
1⁄4 hatch distance for eggs placed into Incubators during the event
Incense lasts three hours
Lure Modules lasts three hours
Mareep special photobombs when taking snapshots
That said, you should definitely place your eggs into Incubators and pop an Incense and try to nab some powerful Mareep.
Other ways to get more out of the event include:
Paying $1 (or the regional equivalent) for a themed Special Research story, featuring additional spawns and Candy, as well as a short storyline to complete that adds extra structure to your afternoon.
If you can Mega EvolveAmpharos or Manectric, or Primal Reversion Kyogre, you’ll score additional Mareep Candy per catch.
A couple of significant things happened in the world of online gaming over the first weekend of November. At its BlizzCon convention in California, Blizzard devoted quite a lot of time to World of Warcraft Classic — the nostalgic, retro version of its 19-year-old massively multiplayer game — and revealed surprisingly ambitious plans for Classic’s future. At the same time, Fortnite’s servers were melting under the load of its biggest day ever, which was all down to the launch of Fortnite OG, a special season bringing back the game’s original map and 2018 gameplay.
All of a sudden, in the proudly impermanent world of online gaming — where change is always good, and if it’s not, never mind, because here comes more change — winding back the clock is big business. It’s a kind of paradox: Because online games are always evolving, a sense of scarcity and intense nostalgia forms around the way they used to be. If you can find a way to bring that feeling back, especially for an audience that’s getting jaded, then you’re on to something.
Blizzard initially seemed reluctant to get on board with a growing movement in WoW’s community that wanted to go back to the way things were in 2004-2005. It squashed unofficial “vanilla” servers and prevaricated over creating an official alternative for years. In a way, it’s understandable: If you have spent many years of effort on (in your eyes) modernizing and improving your game, why would you want to indulge this rose-tinted exercise? Isn’t World of Warcraft just better now?
Of course, that’s a value judgment — but what’s undeniable is that WoW is now extremely different from how it used to be. And that’s exactly what makes Classic a viable and interesting, if slightly old-fashioned, alternative. After Classic arrived in 2019, included in a standard WoW subscription, it became a roaring success, partly because of the strong contrast between it and the two unloved expansions (Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands) it launched between.
But what’s really fascinating about Classic is where Blizzard is taking it next — because Classic is an online game, and no online game can stand still, even a throwback. It began as a relatively faithful version of the original MMO with smart tweaks: It moved through content patches at an accelerated rate, while locking to a single iteration of game design and balance. Then it bifurcated, with some servers moving forward through classic expansions, while others stayed in the “vanilla” era. This year, it acquired a third track, something completely new that WoW had never had before: a permadeath Hardcore mode, which turned out to be a game-reviving innovation that was quite brilliant in its simplicity.
From its showing at BlizzCon, Blizzard is doubling down on morphing WoW Classic into its own game. The expansion servers are moving on to Cataclysm, which is probably the point at which “classic” becomes a misnomer: Whatever your feelings about this divisive expansion, its sweeping rewrite of the “old world” questing experience is the point at which original WoW died, and is still represented in the game today. Blizzard is going even further than it has before in tweaking and fixing this expansion for Classic, accelerating leveling, adding quality-of-life features, and throwing in new dungeon difficulties and loot.
World of Wacraft Classic’s Season of Discovery seeds the well-explored world of Azeroth with secrets.Image: Blizzard Entertainment
But that isn’t even the headline. Blizzard — drawing inspiration from sister series Diablo, as it did for the Hardcore mode — is also introducing a fourth track to the WoW Classic servers that seasonally remixes the original “vanilla” game. Season of Discovery, which launches on Nov. 30, seeds entirely new content across the original world of Azeroth in the form of Discoveries, which producer Josh Greenfield said at BlizzCon were a way to disrupt the “solved nature” of original WoW and restore a “feeling of adventure and exploration.” It also offers a Rune Engraving system that endows classes with entirely new abilities, even allowing them to switch archetypes (you’ll be able to create a tank Warlock or a healer Mage, to name a couple).
The game is furthermore being broken up into level-banded phases — the initial level cap will be only 25 — and interpolated with all-new endgames, one for each phase. The first of these reworks the classic leveling dungeon Blackfathom Deeps as a 10-player raid, but Blizzard is also teasing adding unfinished or cut content, and even all-new dungeons, to Season of Discovery. It’s not just a new way to think about classic WoW — it’s a new approach to structuring MMOs, borrowing liberally from across the online gaming landscape. It’s pretty exciting.
That Blizzard is going to all this effort shows that WoW Classic is working both for the business and for the WoW community. It also demonstrates that for an online gaming nostalgia mode to succeed in the long term, it needs to evolve away from being an emulation or restoration of a bygone experience, and become a (sort of) fresh game in its own right. (Or, in Classic’s case, four games.)
Tilted Towers has returned in Fortnite OG.Image: Epic Games
Currently, Epic has no plans to keep Fortnite OG going past its current monthlong season, which sprints through six seasons of the game’s Chapter 1 in a matter of weeks instead of months. The branding clearly allows for OG to return and revisit later chapters, but given the enormous surge in interest, Epic would be foolish not to be considering ways to keep some of these new or returning players in the fold permanently.
It’s true that WoW and Fortnite are very different games with, crucially, different business models. Splitting the game’s audience might be more of a worry for Epic than it is for Blizzard, which is presumably happy as long as all those players stay within the one subscription-paying bucket. But WoW has proven that a big online game — especially one with a history — can support a family of sub-communities enjoying different flavors of the same game. Indeed, that might be the healthiest way forward for a game of that sort, certainly one approaching its 20th anniversary.
More importantly, perhaps, what WoW Classic and Fortnite OGdemonstrate is that the history of online games doesn’t have to be consigned to the scrapheap of memory. There’s a genuine hunger from players to turn back the clock, which, when met by an inventive studio that understands what was special about what it created but is willing to take some risks with it, can create something vibrant and sustainable in the long term — a kind of multiverse of paths not taken for your favorite old multiplayer games. What’s next, Vault of Glass in modern Destiny 2? Sign me up.
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