World of Warcraft
On the Computer Trade Show floor in London, September 2, 2001 "World of Wacraft" was announced. A massive multiplayer game based on their best-selling Warcraft series. The announcement was met with great anticipation, communities were born and fansite after fansite went online. Currently, more than a hundred thousand players are inside the world of Azeroth and experiencing the Warcraft universe from the grunt's perspective.
WoW takes place in a world with a long history of thrilling and exciting many players throughout the last decade -- few if any other MMOPG can compete with that. Finally, players can live and die in the ever-changing world of Azeroth along with up to 6000 players on some of the most popular servers.
Most critics agree that Blizzard has yet to release a game that is below perfection. Be it Diablo or Warcraft, everything Blizzard has done has been a complete success. World of Warcraft was released to store shelves Wednesday Nov. 17, 2004. The game servers have experienced some lag, and the first day of release was shakey to say the least, but also to be expected. As of Jan. 20, 2005 the stability of the most popular and troublesome servers is greatly increased. The Blizzard staff worked tirelessly for a couple of different weekends over the last two months to upgrade the game and beef up the hardware we depend on. Checkout the current server list; it is pretty impressive. ( Server Status ) There are anywhere from 2000 to over 5000 players on a server during primetime.
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
Warcraft, Orcs and Humans. With those simple words, a new era in computer gaming was born. Blizzard Entertainment was a fairly small company on the PC scene. Though they had created several games across several platforms, including DOS, Mac, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, they were by no means among the top companies on the market. Westwood considered them no threat, nothing more than a mere nuisance. The game followed the same pattern as their Dune. However, where Westwood's game was science fiction and had the marketing appeal of Frank Herbert's Dune, Blizzard had what looked like nothing more than standard fantasy. Analysts dismissed Blizzard's chances as next to none.
Then something unexpected began to happen.
Copies of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans began to fly off the shelves. The game met with both critical and commercial acclaim. The appeal of the game was unquestionable; playing as either the steadfast humans or the treacherous Orcs gave the game something that Dune did not truly have, a personality. From the simple premise of the first mission to the unending battles of the last, the game grabbed hold of its players and did not let go. A compelling storyline took the humans through a terrible war with the Orcs, untill finally, the Orcs were defeated, captured and killed by the humans of Azeroth. One game was not enough, however. Players clamored for more. Knowing that they had a successful franchise on their hands, Blizzard delivered with Warcraft II: The Tides of Darkness.
Warcraft II: The Tide of Darkness
Warcraft II picked up where Orcs and Humans left off. Where the first Warcraft game was their entry into the genre, they knew that they were established enough to have a little fun with Tides of Darkness. It showed throughout the game, whether in the bickering of the Ogre's two heads, or the famous lines of the Footman. It was obvious that the game had been created in a more relaxed atmosphere.
Following the fortunes of the humans from Azeroth, the game showed every aspect of the Orc versus Human conflict, from the initial victories of the Orcs to the end of the Dark Portal that allowed the creatures into the lands of the humans. At the finale of the game, players were treated to a cut scene depicting the closing of the portal, a magical force that obliterated it. An expansion pack, Beyond the Dark Portal, depicted the final victory over the Orcs, entering their homeland and crushing them.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
In 2002, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, was finally released, a good year after it's original release date. But all that was forgotten when fans all over the world went back into Azeroth, this time to stop the invasion of the infernal "Burning Legion". The campagin was divided into four parts, each increasingly difficult, until the alliance of humans and orcs finally defeated the undead and their necromancers.
Although the single player missions were built upon a great storyline and the scenarios were thrilling and exciting, what really held the players glued to the screen for days and weeks was the multiplayer part. Clans and websites, made purely for the multiplayer part of Warcraft 3, appeared rapidly, and a large community was quickly established. |
