When Wrath of the Lich King arrives for World of Warcraft Classic, it’ll be making a few changes to the original version of the MMORPG’s landmark expansion. As we’ve already learned, dungeon finder won’t be included in the re-release of Wrath Classic. While that feature is going away, there’s a new one taking its place: more inclusive character customisation options in the barbershop.
World of Warcraft Classic lead producer Holly Longdale tells us that barbershop customisation will go well beyond coiffure when Wrath of the Lich King comes to classic. “We knew we were going to bring the barbershop back, but when we were looking at it, it was literally a barbershop – you could only change your hair,” she says. “We’re not tied to that technical limitation that existed in 2008, so we looked at the spirit of what the barbershop was intended to do, which is to allow you to express yourself as you want to.”
Longdale says the barbershop in Lich King Classic will give players the option to change their hairstyle, face, and gender – all changes you can make by paying a fee in gold.
There are plans in the works to add additional options to the barbershop too, Longdale says, even if not all of them will be present at launch. We asked Longdale about the addition of Black and Asian facial options in the Shadowlands expansion, and she says it’s on the developers’ list of “please, we’ve got to do this.”
“One hundred percent, we want to invest in that,” she says. “There’s a lot technically that we have to do to be able to bring that into Classic, but yeah, absolutely. It may not be at launch, but that’s what we want to do. We want to provide every opportunity we can for you to represent yourself in a way that feels good for you.”
The Wrath of the Lich King release date for World of Warcraft Classic hasn’t been revealed yet, but Blizzard says it’ll be out this year.