World of Warcraft
"World of Warcraft" was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001. Released in 2004, development of the game took roughly 4–5 years, including extensive testing. The 3D graphics in "World of Warcraft" use elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in "Warcraft III". The game was designed to be an open environment where players are allowed to do what they please. Quests are optional and were designed to help guide players, allow character development, and to spread characters across different zones to try to avoid what developers called "player collision". The game interface allows players to customize appearance and controls, and to install add-ons and other modifications.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
According to Pardo, Mike O'Brien, the game's lead programmer, originally planned a strategy game—tentatively titled "Warcraft Legends"—with few units to command, over-the-shoulder camera and no base building. However, after a year of work this concept did not work out and the existing framework was used to create "Warcraft III" instead. As a result of these design choices, the first version shown at ECTS 1999 had no notable interface, however it did have portraits for the heroes. In first previews, the game's design and gameplay was therefore compared to games such as "Myth" and "Heroes of Might and Magic". Various articles showed that abilities and items were used via right-click on a unit and an appearing icon collar. In the early stages of development, Blizzard emphasized the role-playing aspect and downplayed base building. Around January 24, 2000 a video from Korea appeared on the Internet; the video showed some aspects of gameplay along with commentary by Pardo. This version already had an interface concept, however most of the interface were placeholders. It had a map, icons for abilities and unit commands and an eye-shaped display for gold. Originally, the game was planned to be released at the end of 2000.