World of Warcraft.  Whose older brother’s cousin’s mom’s grandkid hasn’t played this game by now?  Well, three years ago none of us had played it.  We only had the success and fun of the original Warcraft franchise to get us excited about the promise of an MMO set in the world of Azeroth.  Three years, nine million subscribers, and almost two years of my free time later, WoW is still going strong.  In celebration, Blizzard will be running a series of contests and giveaways over the next few weeks.

It’s been three years since players first entered World of Warcraft and took up their roles in shaping its history. In that time, friendships have been formed; wars have been waged; and through incredible feats of coordination and perseverance, some unimaginably powerful beings have been vanquished. To celebrate the third anniversary of the game’s North American launch and to show our gratitude for the ongoing support, enthusiasm, and dedication of its thriving community, we’ll be giving away several prizes over the next three weeks:

• During the week of November 26, we’ll award 10 J!nx gift certificates valued at $100.00 each.
• During the week of December 3, we’ll give away 20 sets of four World of Warcraft action figures.
• During the week of December 10, we’ll provide 5 lucky players with an Apple iPod Touch and a two-year World of Warcraft subscription.

Happy birthday big guy. 

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Click.  Watch.  Laugh….again.  I watched this video when it originally hit the internet, but had not watched it in over a year probably.  It cracked me up once again.  Oh…to have actually been on their vent that night would have been priceless. 

Some of the funniest memories I have from MMOs are the times when someone (maybe even me!) messed up in a dungeon or on a raid, and things just go to hell in a handbasket.  Throw in voice chat and things can get funny pretty quick.  Just make sure you are playing with folks who knew you very well and have a good sense of humor. 

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Se7en Samurai has a post up worth checking out on some new details regarding the WoW movie project.  I don’t play WoW any longer, but the movie has me pretty stoked, especially given the fact that Legendary is producing and the budget is hefty.  Go check it out, and I’ll see you in theaters in 2009.  For the Horde!!

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I’ve always enjoyed reading about the history of the PC, the gaming industry, and specific games.  I’ve gobbled up books like the Everquest Companion, High Score, On the Edge, 30 Years of Adventure (D&D), and The Ultimate History of Video Games.  So it was with pleasure that I read an article over at the Orange County Register that contained some nice history snippets about Blizzard. 

As I was reading it, I couldn’t help but remember that we are living through historic times.  Whether you dived into online gaming in 1994 or 2004, you are still part of an industry and genre that’s very much in the beginning stages.  I can remember a time, as can many of you, before we played games online - before mmos existed.  And now here we are with global companies competing for our attention and our wallets on a yearly basis to satisfy our virtual addiction. 

Here are a couple of the excerpts:

” ‘WoW’ changed everything,” said Michael Morhaime, who started Blizzard with two friends in 1991.

A few years ago, Blizzard was just a game company in Irvine. It had several hit releases, and a few hundred employees.

Then, in 1999, the team began to brainstorm about a new game where thousands could play at the same time. This genre was known as a Massively Multiplayer Online Game, or MMOG, and the game they were contemplating would be open 24/7, for any gamer to join in.

But not everyone on staff was convinced, including co-founder Frank Pearce, Blizzard’s executive vice president of development. He didn’t like the idea of a game that never ended. Others argued MMOGs were far from Blizzard’s past successes – the most popular, “EverQuest,” had only 450,000 players.

And then there was the money issue.

“It was probably the most expensive thing a gaming company can choose to do and the biggest risk,” recalled Paul Sams, Blizzard’s chief operating officer.

But Morhaime and co-founder Allen Adham convinced the skeptics. The game turned out to be “WoW,” the company’s most successful game ever.

“With ‘World of Warcraft,’ we bet the company,” Sams said.”

and…

“How did Blizzard get so massive?

Looking at its past, Blizzard may have been preparing for “WoW” since its first game, “Warcraft,” was released in 1994. That game allowed two people to play one another, which wasn’t common for games at the time. For “Warcraft II,” Blizzard offered a way for eight people to play together.

In 1996, Blizzard unveiled Battle.net, an online space where players could chat and compete. Within six months, Battle.net had 700,000 registered users, making it the biggest online gaming network at the time.

And, with every game that became a hit, there was less pressure to release games before Blizzard was satisfied.

“We set a very high bar for ourselves. We do not release games before they are done,” Sams said. “It’s all about great games.”

I sincerely hope at some point that a history-to-date of Blizzard and their games is published.  I think it would make a fascinating read to see the journey they’ve been on.  So…take good notes, save your gaming mags and your screenshots - one day you may want to give your kids a little mmorpg history lesson. 

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Edit 8/6:  Saw this over at Kotaku. 

According to Fantasy Flight reps, attendees of GenCon will have an opportunity to get their hands on a copy of the game a bit earlier than the rest of the gaming public. And, yes, a sequel is already planned to include units from StarCraft II.

Woot!  I was really hoping it would be available for purchase, and not just for demo.

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I’ve been chomping at the bit to get to GenCon this year, and one of the reasons is to sit down in the Fantasy Flight games area and demo the new Starcraft board game.  I really enjoy almost all of the games FF puts out, and I’m sure Starcraft will be no exception.  They did an excellent job with the WoW board game, really capturing the essence and flavor of the mmo. 

Our friends over at Joystiq were fortunate enough to be at BlizzCon and happened to take some shots of the board game in action.  Interesting game board - check.  Big, plastic, multi-colored pieces - check.  Lots of cards, tokens and miscellaneous chips - check.  It will be interesting to see how the interlocking board pieces work - if the game board is essentially different everytime, or if there is a pre-set order in which they are laid out.  I was (am) a huge fan of the original Starcraft, and I’m sure this board game will keep me and my buddies busy for some time.

 Here are some of the pics for your viewing pleasure.  I hope to get a more in-depth look at the game in a couple of weeks and hopefully bring back some pics of my own.

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