![]() ![]() ![]() The game's subscriber base continued to rocket into the stratosphere. It was during this time that hype over World of Warcraft hit a fever pitch. The game, like most new MMOs, was something of a work in progress. World of Warcraft's first two battlegrounds, Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley, didn't go online until June of 2005, seven months after release. The game's first few patches, pushed live in the months immediately following release, introduced several of WoW's most iconic dungeons, the game's "Looking for Group" chat channel, meeting stones, and the PvP honor system. Many people forget the limited state in which World of Warcraft launched. The game launched with nine classes: Warlock, Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Priest, Warrior, and Druid, which were available to players on both the Horde and Alliance factions, as well as the Horde-exclusive Shaman and Alliance-exclusive Paladin. There were two continents, Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, and several areas within those continents had yet to be finished or populated with content (Hyjal, for example, was a mystery). The World of Warcraft that hit shelves in 2004 is far different from the World of Warcraft we know today. It may come as a surprise to outsiders, but World of Warcraft has been an integral part of the lives of Blizzard employees for over 14 years. First announced in 2001, World of Warcraft had already been in development for two years and would require another three before seeing release. November 23rd marks the official ninth anniversary of World of Warcraft's North American release. And nine years ago tomorrow, it completely changed the face of MMO gaming. That game, of course, was World of Warcraft. While sequels to Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo were all in development (and hotly anticipated), the company had also quietly started work on a brand-new massively-multiplayer online game set in one of the studio's existing game universes. However, something else was brewing behind closed doors at Blizzard's Irvine campus. Riding high on hits like Diablo, Warcraft II, and the barely-a-year-old StarCraft, Blizzard had established itself as a purveyor of quirky, well-made, and entertaining games mostly of the RTS variety. World of warcraft map Pc#In 1999, Blizzard Entertainment was well on its way to becoming something of a titan in the PC gaming space. ![]()
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