MMORPGs can be time-consuming affairs, especially ones that hearkens back to an older style of game, such as WoW Classic. However, one ingenious player has figured out a way to continue to play the game even if they’re not at their computer—by playing the WoW Classic on their smartphone.
A player going by the name reallybadpennystocks on Reddit recently posted a video that shows them playing WoW Classic on their iPhone to the game’s subreddit. According to reallybadpennystocks, they leveled their character, a Dwarven priest they’ve named Nechrome, entirely on their iPhone.
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For those wondering how playing WoW Classic on an iPhone is even possible, reallybadpennystocks is using Steam Link. This is a set of both hardware and software applications that allow players to stream the games registered on their Steam library onto other devices such as smartphones. While Valve discontinued the Steam Link set top box hardware last year, it’s still actively supporting the mobile app for iOS and Android.
Of course, WoW Classic runs on Blizzard’s Battle.net App, not Steam. However, Steam does allow players to run games that are found on other services. It’s through this functionality that the WoW Classic can be run through Steam Link. However, the process isn’t exactly simple; there’s a fair bit of work needed to actually get WoW Classic working with Steam Link.
Luckily for anyone who wants to try this out, another Reddit user named daweinah broke down the process of doing so. Adding WoW Classic to Steam is simple enough: Players can simply add the game’s executable to their Steam shortcuts. What gets more tricky is getting the controls to work: WoW Classic was designed to work with a keyboard and mouse, after all, and not a touch screen. Luckily, Steam Link does have a “WASD, Mouse, and Keyboard” preset that players can use.
Just setting the control preset isn’t enough however. The default setting makes the phones touch screen act more like a laptop’s track pad. Prospective players will also need to change their “Mouse Control Scheme” setting in Steam Link to “Direct Cursor.” With that said, the control set up isn’t exactly perfect. As reallybadpennystocks’ video demonstrates, bringing up the on-screen keyboard has it block out most of the screen. Additonally, players need to change their in game settings to have left-click be the interact button as Steam Link doesn’t allow for right-clicking.
Once this is done, daweinah suggests a few other tweaks and control customizations that the player can do to enhance their experience. In addition to this, daweinah also mentioned that some further configuration may be required depending on a players internet set up at home. More importantly, they also warned that playing WoW Classic (or any other games) via Steam Link may be against the Terms of Service of some cellular providers. Some cellular services may be configured in such a way to prevent Steam Link from working, regardless of how the player configures their home network.
Of course, if the setup does works, it looks like it does work quite well. According to reallybadpennystocks, they play their game from their office, which is about 100 miles from their home where their PC is. Their video does show them handling more than a couple of mobs at the same time. That, plus the fact that they claim to have been leveling their character entirely via mobile seems to confirm that the Steam Link setup doesn’t take away from the game at all. The only issue now then is finding ways for players to hide the fact that they’re playing WoW Classic on company time from their bosses.
