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
In August 1998, Roper confirmed that Blizzard planned to complete the animated cutscenes for "Warcraft Adventures", as they could help Blizzard sell film and television studios on the idea of adapting the property. He remarked, "It's one thing to have a bunch of cool stills, and it's another thing to have a fifteen-minute short to show them." While this plan was shelved, the "Warcraft Adventures" story proceeded to inspire much of the later "Warcraft" franchise. When the game was first announced in early 1997, speculation arose that Blizzard planned to follow it with the real-time strategy game "", which the company confirmed a few months later. Intended from the start to build upon the events of "Warcraft Adventures", "Warcraft III" ultimately continued the story of Thrall, and takes place after his reunification of the Horde and defeat of its human captors. Thrall and his father Durotan, also created for "Warcraft Adventures", played major parts in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game "World of Warcraft" and the 2016 film "Warcraft". Wes Fenlon of "PC Gamer US" wrote in 2016, "Few canceled games can claim to have as much impact as "Lord of the Clans", and in the end it seems like Thrall was more valuable than the game itself."