World of Warcraft

Happy Birthday World of Warcraft! So where’s the free booze?

World of Warcraft, or ‘WoW’ in geek speak, is undoubtedly the most popular and well known video game of all time. A brief history lesson; Warcraft began as an RTS (Real Time Strategy) in 1994, where opposing geeks command make-believe armies in battle against each other or a computer-controlled enemy.

In 2004 Warcraft branched out into World of Warcraft an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) where you take charge of a customizable character within the Warcraft World. Now in 2009 ‘World of Warcraft’ has over 11 million subscribers, all paying £8.99 per month.  Ker-ching.

Coming off the back of a two year Warcraft addiction it’s easy for me to see why this game has lasted so long and why it’s so popular. But for normal people who don’t spend up to 16 hours a day playing computer games it is hard to see how and why it could be so godamn good. The reason for all this success? World of Warcraft is constantly evolving with two expansions  (Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King) and a third still to come; Warcraft literally is the never-ending story.

World of Warcraft is celebrating its 5th birthday party along with the Warcraft franchise turning 15. Celebrations began on Nov. 25th with Blizzard (Creators) launching an official microsite, which included a ‘World of Warcraft Battlecry Mosaic. You’ll have to get on there to see what they’ve dreamed up for this.

There’s also interviews with Blizzard bods who share their thoughts, anecdotes, and favorite memories about the creation of the Warcraft series and World of Warcraft and last, but not least, the actual players.

http://www.wow-europe.com/wowanniversary/

Currently the Warcraft Franchise is smashing out books, graphic novels, magazines and comics, along with a South Park episode (Make Love not Warcraft) dedicated to the game… talk about milking the franchise. That said, I have had a glimpse of these novels and watched the South Park episode and both are well worth a look. Along with millions of subscribers there seems to be no end to this epic. Who and what will overthrow WoW? I’m looking directly at Warcraft’s sister franchises ‘Diablo’ and ‘Starcraft’ but that’s another story. Lets just hope the good games keep rolling.

Words by TomK