Blizzard on 15 years of Warcraft, 5 of WOW

By Oli Welsh Published 25 November, 2009

"You just don't know how it's going to do."

Blizzard has launched a special site celebrating the fifth anniversary of World of Warcraft - which launched on 23rd Novmeber 2004 - as well as 15 years of the Warcraft series.

The highlight so far is a lengthy video in which everyone who's anyone at the developer reminisces about personal highlights in the series' history.

Chief executive Mike Morhaime recalled the midnight launch of WOW at a local electronics store, saying he wasn't sure the game would be a success until that point.

"Here we were, you know, launching this massively multiplayer game," he said. "It was our first subscription game and the beta was pretty successful, but you really have no idea when you launch a game how many people are going to show up and want to buy it and play it. You just don't know how it's going to do...

"So we drove out to the local Fry's Electronics and driving up I still remember the feeling... I got there and there's traffic to get to Fry's, to get off the freeway, it's completely backed up. And there's crowds and crowds of people walking towards Fry's and there was no parking within blocks."

Several others, including co-founder and production boss Frank Pearce, remember downing WOW raid boss Rangnaros for the first time in the in-house guild, while former lead designer Jeff Kaplan recalls using GM mode to watch the celebrations when leading player guilds achieved the first kills of the dragons Onyxia and Nefarion.

Story guru Chris Metzen and online technology boss Robert Bridenbecker tell the story of how the death of Bridenbecker's brother from cancer inspired a quest line about grief in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, in which the player seeks intervention from Azeroth's most powerful entities for a dying crusader.

"It was wild because [Metzen] was able to take my brother's struggle for about four or five years and represent it in this fantasy universe," Bridenbecker said of the "Bridenbad" storyline. "I actually had the crew here put together the DVD montage of that storyline and I gave that to my parents... and I ended up taking a copy of it as well... and buried that along with some of his personal belongings up in the Arctic Circle."

"Maybe it even helped a little bit in their grief... this goofy, videogame thing," said Metzen. "It was just such a great moment for me fictionally and, more importantly, personally... that sometimes this clumsy craft of making videogames and things can sing beyond the game itself."

For Eurogamer's own look back on World of Warcraft, check out our recent Making of WOW.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • darkmorgado #1 2 years ago

    WC2 got me addicted to RTS. I had it on the PSOne, then bought WC3 on launch day, and WoW at launch as well. Still addicted to WoW. Despite being repetitive, it has the same addictive quality that Diablo has, and there's just so much to do at any given point in time.

  • davisorle #2 2 years ago

    5 Years WoW. 1 of improving, one of good gameplay and the last 3 years focoused on ruining the quality of the game by making it easier, making it appealing to new audience by screwing over what the veterans loved about it. I have lost respect in Blizzard a while now. Lets go pay a 5$ to make my Tauren a cow, Lets pay 5$ to also change it race now. OH! and lets pay another 10$ to change from Horde into Alliance and fuck it all together. As if faster lvling wasnt enough. Now you dont need to lvl another char again. Just pay them to turn it into whatever you wanted it. Stupid STUPID decissions I hate you Blizz for ruining my favorite MMO. And to think you havent done shit since Warcraft 2... Where the hell did you take all your "skill" out onto? Best thing they did to give some bonus to gaming time was the achievements and that was just stolen ideas. Shame.

  • FooAtari #3 2 years ago

    For every person that hated those changes in wow there were 10 who liked them, judging from the games comtinued and huge success.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #4 2 years ago

    Dav - hence why the next expantion is Catacyisum - it's more then just the event itself the devs have gone right back into the core ofv the game and started ripping things apart in an attempt to restore some of that 'skill' into the game, it's a huge revamp bigger then what we've seen before, it isn't just adding zones and slapping on new stats, it's going to hit right at the heart of the game design it a very big way.

    I'll agree with you on the 'game is easier' part it's SO much easier to play since vanilla, it required stat balance and team co-ordintion from day 1 of your level 60, now it's just max out the 'best' stats for your classtype and throw yourself at the instances' bosses just spaming away the attack buttons, ploblem is this days players are not as 'aware' of whats going on around them like we were back in vanilla, hopefully the expantion will resore that, if not like you said WoW is going to just boil down to a 'buy your way' game altogether
    Edited by 1 at 25/11/09 @ 11:45

  • TeaFiend #5 2 years ago

    Whether you like it or not, Blizzard have made one of the most successful games ever. People who were not gamers subscribed, how often did you hear of non-gamers playing a pay-to-play game before WoW?

  • JahB #6 2 years ago

    @davisorle
    they took their skills to two other games, going by the names of Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. and from the looks of it, they did a pretty solid job there.

  • davisorle #7 2 years ago

    @Kremlik
    Man, im afraid it already is. Ever since they started making easier XP there has been no new addition that says it all over. Remember the first XP boost from qs and grinding and shorter lvling from lvl 20? Since then stey started adding all the $ paid services as well up till now thats all they do. It needed skill and experience on your character before. Now you can change your character from faction and race to alliance and buy you a pet.. Dont get tricked from the Cataclysm update. Just deforming the exterior does NOT improve the gameplay that they ruined. That alone is enough for me. Dont you see whats exactly what they are trying to do? After loosing a lot of WoW veterans ( including me ) they are trying to fish us out by changing the appearence of the terrain with target the older gamer to come back with an "excuse".

    Tactic to get kiddos and new gamers: Easier + fancy looking crap ingame.
    Tactic to make noobs and kiddos that play trial accounts: Trial is till lvl 20 so we make easier lvling from lvl 20 and let them know they can swap races etc so its more appealing to them.
    Tactic to lure back the ones that gave up on the game cause they ruined it or not: Revamp the appearence of the game. That simple.

    Well no, not for me. And trust me, I feel sad just saying all those things cause ive loved WoW way too much. I was swearing and i was as if I was a bipolar with a bad case of a period chick for a couple of days after giving up WoW and my guild ( which at least i passed it on my buddy ).Only way for me to go back on WoW is if they expand it significantly, improve the graphics and redo them ( i would love to see some high quality PvP and enjoy the shit out of it ) and next lvl cap increase... just DONT let me reach the max within 24 hours. Simple.

  • masterson #8 2 years ago

    Some WoW players still seem to (incorrectly) equate complexity with depth. I look forward to the proposed streamlining of stats that is planned for the expansion. I too am not keen on the prospect of paid content (specifically when in combination with an exisiting boxed retail + subscription model) yet as long as it remains cosmetic and entirely optional I can continue to just ignore it. WoW was the first MMO I invested any serious time in, and over the last 5 years has provided some of my most memorable gaming moments. I'm currently on one of my lengthy self imposed absences until the next expansion hits (as I did on the last 2 occasions) but am looking forward to it. For all of it's faults it remains, to me at least, quite possibly the best game I've ever played...

  • davisorle #9 2 years ago

    @TeaFiend
    Who said I dont like it..? I was playing till last year even from work when I was capable and not too busy, run my guild for 3 years or so and wasted way too many hours a day in it. I havent enjoyed nor liked an MMO more than WoW so you need to understand what my post is about. About ruining an almost perfect game. Not about me not liking WoW.

    Ofc they got also more subscriptions. What ive been saying is luring new audience with the new services and by making it more accessible to the ones that found it hard to lvl before BUT also why i bet you that the average account updating is lower and WAY lower than before. And if it wasnt the case they wouldnt have needed to marge even instances in order to be able to find others to play with.. Do you get what im saying? You get 3 new in my place but those 3 will play for a few months when I might have been paying you another 3 years..

    @JahB
    From a developer like Blizzard do you know what you expect? NOT to ruin their MMO for us playing ever since WoW came out and also since they chose to screw WoW up to bring a Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 out before 2011 and with bigger improvements. Ive seen studios and developers with less expectations to improve great IPs faster than Blizzard and more than Blizzard. Yeah we are all gonna buy Diablo 3 and lots of us Starcraft 2. That doesnt excuse them screwing over and taking the one wrong decisions after the other on the biggest MMO released ever. You cant excuse them by bringing their other 2 IPs up when talking about WoW. You might be able to do that if the sunject was oof them "forgetting" and "dropping" WoW updates and expensions, which isnt the case.

  • darkmorgado #10 2 years ago

    The paid-for services don't make the game "easier" at all. If you're sick of staring at a tauren, just pay a small fee to convert it to a troll. It doesn't make the game easier, as it's a cosmetic change. The same with pets, which don't do anything and are just cosmetic. So your argument has no grounds in fact.

    Smaller XP requirements was a good thing, because WoW used to be a MASSIVE grind to get anywhere, and grinding is NOT FUN. The game is still challenging, very much so on the endgame raids, the classes are far more balanced now and work far better together (Paladins are actually useful now!). User-defined difficulty levels for instances allows the player to decide how challenged they want to be, with the loot scaled accordingly. Lower skill requirements for mounts means less tedious time spent walking across vast distances just to hand in a quest.

    WoW is "easier" only in the sense that they have fixed so many of the flaws that it originally had. It's far better now than it was at launch, not as much of a grind, more rewarding, more interesting, and more varied.

    Personally I think you're just one of those people that automatically hates anything that becomes popular because you like to feel like you are in some sort of exclusive club to make you feel superior.

    Sorry but you are talking utter rubbish.

  • davisorle #11 2 years ago

    @darkmorgado
    Wtf are you on about? WoW didnt expect me nor last year that I quit to become popular.. YOu have really lost it dude seriously. I dont get why you got all butthurt for but from the sounds of it you are the one that hasnt been playing WoW for a while now and why accused me of whatever the hell is what you just said. Id say "ill have it in mind" but Id lie and i dont like that.. o.O When you gain more XP and need less to lvl up its easier... That doesnt have to do with the paying services. Get your facts straight. Or scroll up and read my points and what category I put those into. And next time say it "total shit" not utter rubbish" cause i honestly giggled when I read that. Whats next, call me a "tit"?

    I dont get why the reaction on my comment. The game is easier, how can you dissagree with it? The game has turned into a commensial money drowing sucker. It doesnt suck as a game. Its still one of the best MMOs and tards like darkmorgado need to stop being offended for no reason. Read what i made clear 3 times so far before you start acting all bitchy. WoW as a game i love it. I just hate what Blizzard has been doing to it in order to gain more and new gamers to check them out. If you dont get what im saying or dont like it I cant give a shit really. You cant tell me to change my personal opinion or impact from their moves as a company so far. ffs. Chill pills are for all.

    Edit: a couple of typos. my wireless keyboard some times hates me :) must be more but im already retyping my own edit..
    Edited by 1 at 25/11/09 @ 12:29

  • Skurmedel #12 2 years ago

    I remember those three months I sank into this time sink, which I'll never get back. My memories are not so fond.

  • darkmorgado #13 2 years ago

    Lowering XP requirements doesn't make the game easier, as the challenge lies in acquiring the XP in the first place. When you hit lvl 80, does the game suddenly end just because you no longer gain XP? No, PVP and Raids become the focus,and they are incredibly challenging.

    And you are actually criticising me for not swearing? Well I'm sorry, but I don't need to resort to pointless swearing to try and validate my comments. That's just childish.

  • Remy #14 2 years ago

    "Some WoW players still seem to (incorrectly) equate complexity with depth"

    I'm wondering what you mean by that.
    Have a read of this: [link url=http://insomnia.ac/commentary/on_complexity_depth_an d_skill/
    ]http://in somnia.ac/commentary/on_complex...[/link]

    I'm actually writing a counter-piece right now as I don't entirely agree with it, be interested to hear other views.

    When I played WoW (when it first came out), WoW required almost no skill, and hence had no depth. Skurmedel nailed it really. The only thing that would've kept it going for me would've been the social aspect, but they even messed that up. About 50 friends playing it at the time, but across different servers/factions/levels meant that I only ever played with about 2 of them. Almost anything on XBL is far more fun for social gaming.
    (Not knocking anyone that enjoys WoW btw.. it's just extremely "not for me";)
    Edited by 1 at 25/11/09 @ 12:33

  • prolific8 #15 2 years ago

    Davis, if you want to go back to your grindfest at level 60, turn off your XP gains, head to wherever you need to go to grind for four hours before each raid to get your +10 fire resistance and fill your boots. The rest of us are quite happy not constantly whinging and just enjoying the game.

    I've played since vanilla and I don't miss it one bit. It rewarded uber-nerds that had 10 hours a day to play, and those same uber-nerds are now using those ten hours to bitch about things that don't remotely affect them in any way. Get off my game.

  • darkmorgado #16 2 years ago

    @prolific8

    Well said mate. It amuses me that people try to argue that grinding somehow made the game difficult and sticking out the sheer volume of pointless, repetitive grinding was a bad thing. I stopped playing Vanilla because I was sick and tired of running out of quests and having to resort to endless grinding to lvl up. Since they lowered the XP requirements and introduced more interesting ways to build your character (and I am looking forward to Path of the Titans and guild levelling in Cataclysm) , I don't have to grind so much and can focus on actually enjoying the quests and exploring the world. You know, having fun. The whole reason people play games.
    Grinding for hours to hit a stupidly high XP threshold is not challenging, or fun. It's just repetitive, boring, tedious and an artificial way to increase game length while penalising people who actually have real lives to live and better things to do than spend ten hours casting Frostbolt on every Silithid that comes into range.

  • butler` #17 2 years ago

    i remember when a GM actually turned up in game when ours server first Major Domo bugged

    i'm oldcore

  • davisorle #18 2 years ago

    @prolific8
    Ok some are either incapable to and dumb enough to understand what i have repeated like 5 times so far...The first poster that replied to me got it right from the first time. the reat of you just fucking lost it. ITS NOT just the fucking lower xp requirements, NOT just the paid services to change racew and whatnot. its ALL together. it just STARTED one by one. And dont trell me you dont need to grind no more. You have quests left over if you do it right in order to lvl anymore. Thats just not right. When did I say that grinding is any good? You can gain all lvls without even entering an instance. If you do 2 instances you can skip quests of a couple of lvls. Does any of you that reply t ome telling me I want grinding or that I consider the buying pets and pyying to change race as my points, actually read my comment or have a fucking clue about WoW? Doesnt sound like it to me really. You keep bringing up bullshit that have nothing to do with what im pointing out. Where the fuck did I say to bring grinding back? And is it not true that if you do a couple of runs of instances you have left over quests? Its true. Then deal with what im saying ands stop putting words in my mouth when Im fully accurate on my statement.

    @darkmorgado
    Stpo getting all excited and happy that you got support. You also talked shit to me abotu things I never said. When did I mean the game turned easier just cause of the one or 2 paid services you mentioned? The fact you are new in WoW does not consern me neither excuses you contradicting me in things I never said, yet you got wrong. Still you are not my problem. Reread if you must, I dont care.

    Before you had to do the qs and yeah , pointless grinding, now its not only fixxed. THEY FUCKED UP by having left over quests and leveling TOO fast. Do you understand the difference or I need to draw it down? how many times have I said it so far yet you dont understand the difference? oO wtf is wrong with you. If I was new in WoW now I wouldnt enjoy it as much simply cause you wont bust your ass of into learning your character into a sutisfying depth when you reach cap lvl. Neither it was so easy before to get PvE gear from instances. I have been a hardcore WoW player for over 3 years and loved most part of it. Enjoyed mostly PvP and too much PvE ( PvP preffered ). You responding to me as if I hate WoW shows how freaking dumbasses you are cause like i said again and again I havent liked another MMO as much as WoW neither I can till now. I was talking about Blizzards bad choices. The game would of been perfect if they werent focusing lately on what they did. I wont explain again. Im done responding cause only Kremlik was capable to reply without being a retard like the rest that just had to start bitching cause they didnt like my comment. Manners are gone nowdays so i cant give a fuck really. Its just funny how ignorants pop out of everywhere when one responds to a comment from reading it all wrong and none of the rest cared to get wtf im on about. Have a good day :)

  • masterson #19 2 years ago

    @davisorle - Dude, you really need to work on how you comunicate with people, coz as it stands you kinda come across as an agressive, rude, patronizing dullard.

    Oh yeah, and I disagree with the point you are trying to make between all the fury.

  • darkmorgado #20 2 years ago

    @davisorle,

    When did I ever say I am new to WoW? I've been playing since it first came out over here, got bored of the endless grinding, came back when TBC was released, got bored again, and came back with Wotlk and have been playing non-stop since then.
    In fact, you say you have been a hardcore player for 3 years. I've been playing for over 4.
    So if anything, compared to me, YOU'RE the new player.

    The problem is that out of everything you complained about, not a single one of your complaints actually makes sense. So you level a bit faster. Big deal. It hasn't dumbed down the mechanics, they haven't taken any of the stats or complexity away, they are increasing it constantly. So people end up at lvl 80 and are still learning about their character? Good. Beats feeling like you know the game inside-out when you hit the level cap and just give up because you feel like there is nothing left to do.
    Quests left over? That's a good thing too. I'd rather have too many quests than too few, which is why AOC was so heavily criticised.
    Instead of making wild assumptions about me, and wading in with loads of sound and fury with no substance, try and make a decent, reasoned point that actually makes sense, because either you are terribly bad at constructing coherent sentences and conveying a point, or you just haven't got a clue what you are talking about. Either way, your descent into screaming and ranting just because a few people have disagreed with you shows just how mature you really are.

  • mkreku #21 2 years ago

    I was in the WoW beta, played a Paladin and had so much fun. Two weeks before the release they suddenly redid the entire paladin class, going from a tactical balancing of your mana between healing and offence (think it was called Holy Strike?) to a luck based waiting game (place a seal/blessing and hopefully random luck would make you hit something). I continued on for three months (as long as I had my free subscription from work) but could not ever come to terms with the change and quit. How on earth someone could think that going from action based game play to a waiting game was more fun will never make sense to me.

    Is someone saying that paladins are fun to play again?

  • darkmorgado #22 2 years ago

    mrkeku,

    Yeah my first ever Char was a Pally. I still remember the epic arguments on forum threads over the extensive nerfing they received. Getting bored of playing Pally, with the class being nerfed to the point where noone would allow a pally in a group because they were practically useless, was one of the things that made me leave the game the first time round.
    Since then they've done a lot to make it a viable class again. The Seals still run on proc chances, but they seam to proc a lot more, and the talent trees make a lot more sense now (they used to be an utter mess, with burst damage talents in Holy, defense talents in Ret, etc).
    I have some great memories of WoW over the years. I remember doing my bit to open the gates to AQ, the massive arguments about Draenai and Blood Elves having overly powerfull racial abilities when TBC came out, and I remember when BRM used to be a ganking nightmare (now it's practically dead). I remember massive battles in Tarren Mill that would send my pc into meltdown.

    Playing a draenai mage on Azjol-Nerub atm having a blast. Got my partner into it as well, very patiently teaching them the principles of Spell Crit, professions, efficient questing, etc. I've watched and experienced WoW change so much over the years and there have been a couple of blips along the way, mainly down to class balance, but overall the game I play now is far, far, far superior and enjoyable than the game I played back in the early days of 2005 in a dingy flat in Northampton, painstakingly making my way towards lvl 60 and eagerly waiting to be able to unlock Blessing of Kings.

    EDIT: If anyone here plays on Azjol-Nerub, my latest alt is called SuperShizzle. Horde players need not apply ;-)
    Edited by 1 at 25/11/09 @ 14:38

  • mkreku #23 2 years ago

    darkmorgado: The Seals still run on proc chances...

    OK. That still kills it for me. In the beta I had a paladin of approximately 1000 hitpoints and 700 mana. The Holy strike cost ~70 mana to cast and did immediate damage to your opponent. The heal cost ~200 mana and immediately healed you slightly. When in combat, you could either spam Holy Strike and hope your opponent died before you ran out of mana and hitpoints. Or you could save all your mana for heals and hope your weapon did the job. Or you could balance it out to the best of your abilities. The point is, you were ACTIVE in the combat! You had to plan ahead and know your enemy. Great fun it was.

    Slapping on a blessing, a seal and an aura and then just wait and hope for the best (procs) just isn't fun for me.

  • JDFreeman #24 2 years ago

    5 years of WOW.... I miss my friends who don't come out anymore because they can't stop playing WOW. Come down the pub guys! Its fun, theres Girls and Beer! Beer!!!

    :(
    Edited by 2 at 25/11/09 @ 14:54

  • TeaFiend #25 2 years ago

    @davisorle:
    Wasn't directed at you personally, was an open comment.

  • Shinetop #26 2 years ago

    So there was nothing that tipped them off that there'd probably be a huge rush to the stores? Yeah.. I find that hard to believe.

  • JahB #27 2 years ago

    From a developer like Blizzard do you know what you expect? NOT to ruin their MMO for us playing ever since WoW came out and also since they chose to screw WoW up to bring a Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 out before 2011 and with bigger improvements.

    if by "us", you mean the very few hardcore wow elitists that think the game was dumbed down for the masses, here's a newsflash: "you" are not a large enough market segment. it's kinda like the "boycott MW2 because no dedi servers" crowd; game development that would please this segment of gamers is not financially viable.

    also, i don't think they screwed wow up to get SC2 and D3 out in 2011; they have more than enough qualified employees at Blizzard to sustain 3 separate dev teams.

  • darkmorgado #28 2 years ago

    @mrkeku

    Try a different class. I had lots of fun with a warrior and currently having a blast playing a draenai mage (the racial healing ability comes in very handy as it scales with you as you level up). My other half has great fun playing as a NE Druid as well.
    I eventually am determined to have a lvl 80 of each class and profession. It will happen, dammit!

  • spekkeh #29 2 years ago

    Good thing Blizzard now knows it can take a shit and millions of people would want to buy that too.

  • Softie2k #30 2 years ago

    So much hate! I guess the forum boys cannot stand something this big and this successful.

    I mean, just check out this guys post

    Spogges - "WOW is just a big pile of smelly turd it's not even a game WOW players disgust me to the very core. "

    I've never heard such unjustified overbearing arrogance. It's just disgusting and some of you guys should be ashamed of what you write about other people. I've played WoW since the beginning and to hear little tossers come out with crap like that about people they've never met is simply moronic.

    Yours Sincerely

    Mr Blizzard

  • darkmorgado #31 2 years ago

    Wow looks like the trolls are out in force.

  • Softie2k #32 2 years ago

    Damn you, now you make me look like a silly sausage...Where's my pipe?

  • curtlikesmeat #33 2 years ago

    The Bridenbad quest was probably my favourite quest in all of WoW, especially after I later found out what it was about. A real nice tribute.

  • joe90 #34 2 years ago

    The game changes suit me fine. I played from very early on, and loved the orginal, nothing beats the 40 man MC raids.. Then i stopped, (married+kids) and now with kids, the changes suit my limited time scales to play games. So for me, the changes have been good.. But, nothing (im 79 now) is as good as the original times that I had, where everyone levelled together.

  • MrTeatime #35 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:59:18 03-01-2012

  • Softie2k #36 2 years ago

    Are you Theplague? I believe he was 2nd or 3rd.

  • MrTeatime #37 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:59:18 03-01-2012