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 Adventures: Lord of the Clans
Following the end of "Warcraft Adventures" development, Blizzard Entertainment publicly clarified that it would revisit the "Warcraft" universe in the future. In May 1999, the company announced an impending agreement with an unnamed publisher to release three "Warcraft" novels, alongside novelizations of "StarCraft" and "Diablo". The deal was ultimately signed with Pocket Books. Early in the development process for the "Warcraft" book trilogy, Bill Roper hinted that "Warcraft Adventures" story could reappear in one of the novels. This resulted in "" in October 2001, written by Christie Golden and intended to set the stage for "Warcraft III". The book is considered canonical. According to Golden, "Chris Metzen liked the story line and wanted to see it live in some format." Receiving the assignment after its first author had failed to finish it, Golden was given a six-week deadline for "Lord of the Clans", based on a modified version of Metzen's original plot outline from the game. She proceeded to write several other novels for Blizzard because of her enjoyment of this project, among them "", the company's first "New York Times" Best Seller. Blizzard hired her to a full-time position at the company in 2017.