Originally released 14 years ago in 2007 and now new again in World of Warcraft Classic with its re-launch today, June 1, The Burning Crusade was a landmark expansion for the MMO. The first expansion to the genre-defining game set the stage for what would come in the future in a variety of ways, and it left a lasting impact on Azeroth.

As the first WoW expansion, a lot was riding on it--and it delivered. The expansion added the game's first new races--the Draenei and the Blood Elves--that shook up the meta, along with new zones, more PvP content, and much more.

The old is new again, as The Burning Crusade launched for WoW Classic today, allowing players to revisit vanilla TBC how they remember it all those years ago. Ahead of the launch, GameSpot spoke with Blizzard's Brian Birmingham (lead software engineer) and John Hight (executive producer for WoW and vice president at Blizzard), both of whom are veterans of the games studio who looked back and reflected on the launch and impact of The Burning Crusade.