Sixteen Years of World of Warcraft
Millions of players (currently nearly five million) have been battling the World of Warcraft mass online role-playing game (MMORPG) for sixteen years. In 2004, Blizzard Entertainment released a game that revolutionized the gaming industry that generated more than 10 billion dollars. The popularity is mostly due to regular expansions. The latest has been released just recently, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.
World of Warcraft was released in 2004, but the beginnings go back a decade. In 1994, the real-time strategy Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released, which was still played in DOS (and on Macs)—followed by sequels: Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1995, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos in 2002 (and an extension of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne). And then finally World of Warcraft, which has received eight extensions to date. All of the listed games belong to the Canon of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft is not the first MMORPG game being installed on peoples PCs and laptops. The first MMOs appeared as early as the 1980s when the internet was not yet available in its current form. But these games were significantly different. But World of Warcraft is considered to be one of the pioneers of the third generation of MMORPGs, competing with Sony’s EverQuest II. But contrary to expectations, World of Warcraft became a big success, dominating over all previous MMORPGs. Despite many other great games released in 16 years, it remains among the most popular today, with around 4.8 million active players.
The reasons why World of Warcraft is so big and why people play it through all these years are numerous. Some play for fun. For others, it’s a serious business that is well monetized through Twitch platforms and such. The base currency in the game is gold, making you buy practically everything inside the game. Since Blizzard introduced gold exchange tokens five years ago, we can play the game completely free of charge if we slowly collect gold or buy a faster ticket to various gadgets. Selling goods in the game has become a serious economy, especially in some poorer countries. In the game, just like in life, we change our time for gold.
Above all, World of Warcraft is a game that has totally addicted many people. Inside the game, you can find something for everyone and especially socializing. Regular players acknowledge that this is at least as an essential aspect of the game as its content. That’s why World of Warcraft is a game that can offer the best or the worst.
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Biaggio Valente Founder / CEO email: [email protected] |