When did World of Warcraft come out?
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 II: Tides of Darkness
In 1999 Blizzard published the "Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition" for Windows and Mac, which combined the original game and the expansion pack, retained the Macintosh facilities and replaced the DOS version with a Windows version that included Blizzard's online service, Battle.net, for multiplayer games. After considering new content, Blizzard preferred to make it easy for new and older fans to play each other. "Battle.net Edition" included some user interface enhancements from "StarCraft" – a hot key to center on events, assigning numbers to groups of units, and double-clicking to select all units of a type. However they excluded production queues and waypoints.
World of Warships
On August 16, 2011, the company website of Wargaming, developer and publisher of "World of Tanks" and "World of Warplanes", announced "World of Battleships", a free-to-play naval action MMO, intended to complete the "World of" war trilogy developed by the company. On August 2, 2012, the game was renamed "World of Warships". On November 14, 2013, the game entered closed alpha testing.
Warcraft (film)
"Warcraft" was released in a total of 65 countries from June to August 2016, and international territories were expected to produce better results than in North America. It opened across 20 countries in the week ending May 29, 2016, including France, Germany and Russia, two weeks ahead of its North American debut, and was estimated to gross around $20 million in its opening weekend. Internationally, it faced competition from "Alice Through the Looking Glass", "", "", "The Conjuring 2", "Finding Dory", as well as the UEFA Euro 2016 in most European countries throughout its run. It opened on Thursday, May 26, earning $9.3 million from 11 markets. On Friday, May 27, the total rose to $16.3 million. In its opening weekend, it grossed $31.7 million from 20 markets, of which $2.1 million alone came from 73 IMAX screens. In its second weekend, it added $29.5 million from 28 markets, with $1.8 million delivered from 130 IMAX screens. It finally topped the international box office in its third weekend with $185.8 million, propelled by a huge opening in China.
2000s (decade)
The world of video games reached the 6th generation of video game consoles including the PlayStation 2, the Xbox, and the GameCube which started technically in 1998 with the release of Sega's Dreamcast, although some consider the true start in 2000 with the release of Sony's PlayStation 2. The 6th gen remained popular throughout the decade, but decreased somewhat in popularity after its 7th gen successors released technically starting in November 2005 with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360, however, most people agree that 2006 is a 6th gen year since most games being released still released on 6th gen including the Xbox even though the 360 was already released, and the PlayStation 3 and the Wii didn't release until late 2006 which most people consider to be the true start of the 7th gen. It reached 7th Generation in the form of consoles like the Wii, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by the mid-2000s. The number-one-selling game console of the decade, the PlayStation 2, was released in 2000 and remained popular up to the end of the decade, even after the PlayStation 3 was released. The PlayStation 2 was discontinued in January 2013. MMORPGs, originating in the mid-to-late 1990s, become a popular PC trend and virtual online worlds become a reality as games such as "RuneScape" (2001), "Final Fantasy XI" (2002), "Eve Online" (2003), "" (2003), "World of Warcraft" (2004), and "Everquest II" (2004), "" (2007) and "" (2008) are released. These worlds come complete with their own economies and social organization as directed by the players as a whole. The persistent online worlds allow the games to remain popular for many years. "World of Warcraft", premiered in 2004, remains one of the most popular games in PC gaming and is still being developed into the 2010s.
Collectible card game
The previous years influx of new CCGs continued into 2006. Riding on the success of the popular PC Game "World of Warcraft", Blizzard Entertainment licensed Upper Deck to publish a TCG based on the game. The "World of Warcraft" TCG was born and was carried by major retailers but saw limited success until it was discontinued in 2013 prior to the release of Blizzard's digital card game "Hearthstone". Following previous trends, Japanese-influenced CCGs continued to enter the market. These games were either based on cartoons or manga and included: "Naruto", "", "Bleach", "Rangers Strike" and the classic series "Robotech". "Dragon Ball GT" was rebooted once again in 2008 and renamed as "Dragon Ball".
Warcraft
In a May 9, 2006 press release, Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures announced that they would develop a live-action film set in the Warcraft universe. At BlizzCon 2008, according to Mike Morhaime, a script was being written. In January 2013, Duncan Jones was announced to direct the adaptation, from a script by Charles Leavitt. The film was set to begin principal photography in early 2014 with a plot based on the novel "". On July 20, 2013, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Entertainment unveiled a sizzle reel during their San Diego Comic Con 2013 panel, with Duncan Jones hopping on stage briefly to discuss the project. Production on the film started shooting on January 13, 2014. The first full-length trailer for the film was released on November 6, 2015. "Warcraft" premiered in Los Angeles on June 6, 2016, and was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on June 10, 2016. It received mostly negative reviews from critics, and grossed $433 million.
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was a graphic adventure game under development by Blizzard Entertainment and Animation Magic from 1996 until its cancellation in 1998. Set in the "Warcraft" universe after the events of "", it followed the orc character Thrall in his quest to reunite his race, then living on reservations and in slavery following its defeat by the human Alliance. Assuming the role of Thrall, the player would have used a point-and-click interface to explore the world, solve puzzles and interact with characters from the wider "Warcraft" series.
Warcraft
The first three games in the "Warcraft" series, including their expansion packs, were all released on both the PC and Macintosh. All of these games were of the real-time strategy genre. Each game proceeded to carry on the storyline of the previous games, and each introduced new features and content to improve gameplay. "" was the first game in the series to feature play over the internet using Battle.net, although this was not included until a later release of the game. "Warcraft II" was also the first in the series to be re-released as a "Battle Chest", a bundled copy of the game containing both the original and expansion. "" was the first game in the series to feature a Collector's Edition, which all subsequent games have released as well. "Warcraft III" and "World of Warcraft" also have both had "Battle Chests" released for them subsequent to their initial release. The "Battle.net" edition of "Warcraft II" was also the first to introduce the use of CD keys to the series, requiring each user online to have their own copy of the game in order to be able to connect. However, a CD key is not yet required to play via a Local Area Network, although speculation is that future games in the series will do so, as another product in Blizzard Entertainment's portfolio, "", is doing so by removing the option for using LANs altogether, requiring the use of Battle.net.
EverQuest
After these side projects, the first proper sequel was released in late 2004, titled simply "EverQuest II" . The game is set 500 years after the original. "EverQuest II" faced severe competition from Blizzard's "World of Warcraft", which was released at virtually the same time and quickly grew to dominate the MMORPG genre.
Sam Raimi
Blizzard Entertainment announced on July 22, 2009 that Sam Raimi will be directing a "Warcraft" film. However at Comic-Con International 2012, it was revealed that he would not be the one directing the "World of Warcraft" adaptation.
Hearthstone
Hearthstone is a free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally subtitled Heroes of Warcraft, "Hearthstone" builds upon the existing lore of the "Warcraft" series by using the same elements, characters, and relics. It was first released for Microsoft Windows and macOS in March 2014, with ports for iOS and Android releasing later that year. The game features cross-platform play, allowing players on any supported device to compete with one another, restricted only by geographical region account limits.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
In the middle of January 2002, Blizzard shipped out 5000 beta versions of "Warcraft III" to randomly selected testers in order to help improve it before being released in stores. The beta release had all the game’s units and races, however, it was only playable over Battle.net; single player games and LAN play were not playable on the beta version of the game. "Warcraft III" was first released in the United States on July 3, 2002 and in Europe on July 5, 2002.
Activision Blizzard Studios
Also in 2016, Activision Blizzard Studios entered into a content licensing agreement with a third-party production studio, Legendary Pictures, to produce sequels to the Warcraft feature film, based on their video game franchise "World of Warcraft". By April 2017, work on a film based on Activision's video game series "Call of Duty" had generated several scripts, with the hope that filming would begin in 2018. The company also hopes to create films based on "Overwatch" and others.
World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal
World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal is a fantasy novel written by Aaron S. Rosenberg and Christie Golden, and published by Simon & Schuster Pocket Star Books, a division of Viacom. The novel is based on Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft universe, and is a continuation of the events of the RTS PC game: (1995).
Chris Metzen
With 2002's "", Metzen was the creative director, a role he would hold in all of Blizzard's later video games, and provided the game's story concept and script. Metzen's work with 2004's massively multiplayer online role-playing game "World of Warcraft" was not as extensive as his earlier work, but he still contributed with script writing, artwork and voice work.
World of Warcraft
In early 2012 Blizzard Entertainment started its own series of tournaments for "World of Warcraft" and "", culminating in the 2012 Battle.net World Championship Global Finals.
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
The development of "StarCraft II" was announced on May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea. At the June 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, Blizzard Executive Vice President Rob Pardo said that "StarCraft II" was to be released as a trilogy of games, starting with "Wings of Liberty", focused on the Terrans, followed by "Heart of the Swarm", revolving around the Zerg, and finally "Legacy of the Void", devoted to the Protoss. Blizzard's storyboard team was already working on "Heart of the Swarm" in early 2010 while "Wings of Liberty"s gameplay was refined. "Wings of Liberty" was released July 27, 2010 to much critical acclaim.
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Release was staggered by timezone, with players queuing outside more than 5000 brick and mortar game stores around the world as midnight approached in their local timezone. The game was released in North America, Europe, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia on January 16, 2007. It was released in Australasia one day later on January 17, 2007. It was later released in South Korea on February 1, 2007; in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on April 30, 2007. The game was released in mainland China on September 6, 2007.
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment has developed 19 games since 1991, in addition to developing 8 ports between 1992 and 1993; 11 of those games are in the "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" series. Since the release of "" (1994), "Diablo" (1996), and "StarCraft" (1998), Blizzard has focused almost exclusively on those three series. The sole exception has been the company's latest title, "Overwatch" (2016).
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Blizzard continues to maintain "WarCraft III", regarding technical issues and compatibility for newer operating systems. In April 2018, Blizzard integrated widescreen support for the first time, more than 15 years after the game's first release.
"Warcraft III" was the first Blizzard game to be rendered using 3D graphics. Unlike other 3D games of that era, this included all parts of the game, including the menu screens. All characters, including environment units like sheep, have their own 3D portraits when selected that animate when the unit is talking. The game does not use mission briefings like its predecessor but instead tells the story using cutscenes rendered using the game's 3D engine. These cutscenes show the characters using a side-view camera, zooming in to the models. Additionally, each campaign features pre-rendered cinematics that show the outcome of the campaign.
Warcraft: Orcs &amp; Humans
In April 1998, Blizzard released "StarCraft", an RTS with the concepts and mechanisms of "Warcraft" but an interplanetary setting and three totally different races. "Starcraft" and its expansion "" were well received by critics and became very successful. "World of Warcraft", released in North America in November 2004 and in Europe in February 2005, was Blizzard's first attempt at a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, and used the universe of the "Warcraft" RTS games, including characters that first appeared in "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans". "WoW" was praised highly by critics, was the most popular MMORPG in 2008,
StarCraft
"" is the official sequel to "StarCraft" released for Windows and Mac OS X by Blizzard Entertainment on July 27, 2010. The game was announced at the Worldwide Invitational in South Korea on May 19, 2007 with a pre-rendered cinematic cut scene trailer and a gameplay demonstration of the Protoss. Further demonstrations regarding the game's new features have been showcased at subsequent Blizzcons and other games conventions. The game incorporates a new 3D graphics engine and adds new features such as the Havok physics engine. "StarCraft II" also incorporates DirectX 10 level effects in Windows. Originally envisioned as a single game, "StarCraft II" was split into three parts during development, one for focusing on each race. The base game, "Wings of Liberty", follows the Terrans, while two expansion packs, "Heart of the Swarm" and "Legacy of the Void" have been released to complement "Wings of Liberty" and further the story from the views of the Zerg and Protoss, respectively. The story of "Wings of Liberty" continues from four years after the conclusion of "Brood War", and revolves around Jim Raynor's struggles against the Terran Dominion.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
According to Samwise Didier, Blizzard's art director for "Warcraft III", the company, when developing the first game of the series, attempted to create a more realistic experience, based on the belief that PC gamers preferred these graphics, leading to "Warcraft: Orcs and Humans" looking like Medieval Europe. Blizzard allowed classical fantasy properties like "Dungeons & Dragons" and "The Lord of the Rings" influence "Warcraft II", adding more fantasy races such as elves, ogres and dwarves, while still keeping a more realistic design. With the establishment of a dependable fan base due to the success of the first two games, the creative team behind "Warcraft III" decided no longer to follow their artistic vision. As such, the game's visuals mark a notable departure from the previous games in the series, using bolder and more vibrant colors and pursuing a more comic book style. Didier also integrated characters he designed for "Dungeons & Dragons" into "Warcraft III", such as Uther The Lightbringer and Illidan Stormrage. The shift towards a more cartoonish looking world that started with "Warcraft III" was continued in "World of Warcraft" which deliberately used less realistic depictions to allow the game to be played on less powerful PCs, thus increasing the potential player-base. The artwork of "Warcraft III" was hugely influential on a number of other high fantasy real-time strategy games that followed it.
World of Warcraft
On October 7, 2010 "World of Warcraft" reached a subscriber base of over 12 million players. Since May 2011, the number of players playing had decreased by 10% from 11.4 million to 10.3 million. Blizzard's CEO Mike Morhaime said that the reason was probably due to a drop-off in the Eastern markets. In 2012, senior producer John Lagrave told Eurogamer that the drop in subscriptions may have also been attributed to the recent release of BioWare's "".
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
Even with the success of "Cataclysm", "World of Warcraft" saw a gradual decline in subscribers through 2011. Following the release of "Cataclysm", subscription levels reached a peak of 12 million subscribers but soon dropped to pre-"Cataclysm" levels of 11.4 million by the end of March 2011. In early November 2011, subscriptions declined even further to 10.3 million users. In 2012, the subscription numbers stabilized at around 10.2 million users, holding steady for two consecutive quarters. On August 2, 2012 it was revealed that subscription numbers had continued to decline, landing at an approximate 9.1 million subscribers.
List of Blizzard Entertainment games
Since the release of "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" (1998), Blizzard has focused almost exclusively on the "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" series. The sole exception has been the company's latest title, "Overwatch" (2016). All of Blizzard's games released since 2004 still receive expansions and updates, especially the long-running massively multiplayer online role-playing game "World of Warcraft" (2004). With over 100 million lifetime accounts as of 2014 and US$9 billion in revenue as of 2017, "World of Warcraft" is one of the best-selling computer games and highest-grossing video games of all time. Blizzard Entertainment has developed 19 games since 1991 as of 2018, in addition to developing 8 ports between 1992 and 1993; 11 of those games are in the "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" series.
Greg Street
Street was hired by Blizzard Entertainment in February 2008, and was the lead systems designer on the MMORPG "World of Warcraft" until November 2013.
He described his role at Blizzard as, "Systems design specifically is everything that is not level, story, quest, PvP or encounter design. My team handles everything from mechanics to items to trade skills to achievements to UI design."
On the "World of Warcraft" message boards, he is known by his user name "Ghostcrawler". Street worked in a similar capacity with Blizzard as he did with Ensemble as a designer. "Game designers are not artists or programmers, but we use the tools developed by the programmers and the assets created by the artists to get content into the game. Programmers make the game run, artists make it beautiful, but it is the designer's job to make it fun." Street became well-known in the "World of Warcraft" community during the public beta test for "", during which he was frequently communicating with beta testers on the message boards. He was often on the message boards announcing changes to the game or discussing them with players. Because "game balance is one of the most controversial aspects of any multiplayer game... I benefit from being able to engage the community directly." Apart from discussions on the Blizzard forums, Street also interacted with the "World of Warcraft" community regularly via his Twitter account.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the third expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) "World of Warcraft", following "". It was officially announced at BlizzCon on August 21, 2009, although dataminers and researchers discovered details before it was officially announced by Blizzard. The expansion was officially released on December 7, 2010.
World of Warcraft
As with other MMORPGs, players control a character avatar within a game world in third- or first-person view, exploring the landscape, fighting various monsters, completing quests, and interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) or other players. Also similar to other MMORPGs, "World of Warcraft" requires the player to pay for a subscription by using a credit or debit card, using prepaid Blizzard game cards or using a WoW Token purchased in-game. Players without a subscription may use a trial account that lets the player character reach up to level 20 but has many features locked.
Warcraft: The Board Game
Warcraft: The Board Game is a board game adaptation of the "Warcraft" series of computer games, created by Kevin Wilson and released in 2003 by Fantasy Flight Games. It takes elements primarily from "", but also incorporates elements from "".
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
In the second half of 1996, Blizzard Entertainment's Allen Adham stated that his company was "looking into the possibilities of doing more with the orcs and humans, which includes non-game types of enterprises, but there's nothing in the works at the moment." "Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans" was ultimately conceived at Blizzard late that year, around "four or five months" after the release of "" in May 1996, according to producer Bill Roper. The team's inspiration for the project was a proposal by Capitol Multimedia, a subsidiary of Blizzard parent Davidson & Associates, to use the "Warcraft" license for a graphic adventure game. Blizzard was introduced to the game development and animation studio Animation Magic, purchased by Capitol in 1995, and was impressed by its art department. The studio had previously produced titles including the "Magic Tales" series for Davidson, as well as the "Legend of Zelda" games for the CD-i game console. Roper noted that the company's work "totally reminded us of all of those adventure games we loved playing", and Blizzard chose to co-develop the game with the team.
Homeworld: Cataclysm
Homeworld: Cataclysm was originally developed in 2000 as an expansion of "Homeworld", but was released as a stand-alone game. It was published by Sierra Studios, as was the original, but it was developed by Barking Dog Studios. The game reappeared on the gaming website GOG.com in June 2017 as Homeworld: Emergence, as the name "Cataclysm" was trade marked by Blizzard Entertainment for its to "World of Warcraft".
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
On September 19, 2012, the "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion was completely merged with the original "World of Warcraft" game, just as the "Burning Crusade" expansion was the previous year. Now all players who purchase the original game automatically receive "The Burning Crusade" and "Wrath of the Lich King" at no additional cost. This merging of the expansions with the original game is called a "Battle Chest".
List of esports games
"World of Tanks" (WoT) is an MMO tank game for PC and Xbox One developed by Wargaming that was first released in 2010. Since 2012, the company has been heavily invested in the WoT esports scene. There is annual world championship with qualifier tournaments held across the world. The Electronic Sports League also sponsors some WoT tournaments.
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
After seeing the excellent response of "", released in November 1994, Blizzard Entertainment started working on "Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness". Development began in February 1995 and the game was released in December for MS-DOS and in August 1996 for the Macintosh. Blizzard later explained that the small budgets of the time allowed short development times. The response of "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans" also allowed Blizzard to recruit additional top-class developers. The company's initial design combined modern and fantasy elements, such as fighter pilots ambushed by a fire-breathing dragon. However, they found that this was unsatisfactory, and that there was plenty of content for a fantasy RTS. The initial release of "Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness" ran over a local area network using IPX but not over the Internet communications protocol TCP/IP. Kali, which used the Internet as if it was a local area network, became very popular and Blizzard quickly provided to players a program that made it easy to set up multiplayer " Warcraft II" games using Kali.
MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Blizzard Entertainment created and operates a popular online world game known as World of Warcraft (WoW). WoW is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, in which players control characters and complete a variety of tasks, such as exploring the landscape and performing quests. As players continue to play and succeed in their tasks, their characters gain various talents and skills.
World of Warcraft (comics)
World of Warcraft is a comic book series set in the Warcraft universe and released monthly in a standard western comic format.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
On April 8, 2010, Blizzard announced that the game would be available in a standard and collector's edition. The game was made available for digital download from Blizzard on the release date; pre-loading began on July 15. The collector's edition comes with an artbook, 2 GB flash drive modeled after Jim Raynor's dog tag with the original "StarCraft" and "Brood War" expansion preloaded, behind-the-scenes DVD, soundtrack, comic book, unique avatar portraits, a unique model for the in-game Thor unit in multiplayer, and a "World of Warcraft" pet.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
On September 30, news site MMO-Champion estimated that the game had a target release date of December 7, 2010 based on data-mining which revealed the start of the next arena season. GameSpot reported that Amazon.com customers who had pre-ordered the Collector's Edition of the game were sent notifications that they estimated the arrival date would be between January 4 to 18, 2011. Shortly after other websites such as Kotaku were emailed copies of the notifications sent to Amazon customers and posted it on their website marking the release date as January 5, 2011 Amazon.com for the past two expansions overestimated the game's release date in order to give their sales a safety buffer.
World of Warcraft (comics)
On December 16, 2009, WildStorm stated that the publication of the World of Warcraft comic series had been changed from monthly issues to original graphic novels to be released in 2010. The World of Warcraft Special, "World of Warcraft: Beginnings and Ends", would be the last issue released and both the original comic (planned to be renamed to "Alliance" from issue 26) and the future "Horde" title had been canceled.
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.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
In August 2010, Blizzard announced the "World of Warcraft: Cataclysm" Collector's Edition. Cataclysm was already said to be on track for release in the latter part of 2010 prior to this report; in addition, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime went on record saying, "Although an exact release date has not yet been announced, we are on track to launch the expansion by the end of the year. As with all Blizzard games though, we won't release until it's ready."
StarCraft
"StarCraft", released for Windows on March 31, 1998, is the first video game in the "StarCraft" series. A science fiction real-time strategy game, "StarCraft" is set in a distant sector of the Milky Way galaxy. A Mac OS version of the game was released by Blizzard Entertainment in March 1999. A Nintendo 64 port including "StarCraft", "Brood War" and a new secret mission "Resurrection IV" was released in the United States on June 13, 2000. The game's story revolves around the appearance of two alien races in Terran space, and each race's attempts to survive and adapt over the others. The player assumes three roles through the course of the three campaigns: a Confederate colonial governor who becomes a revolutionary commander, a Zerg cerebrate pushing forward the species' doctrine of assimilation, and a Protoss fleet executor tasked with defending the Protoss from the Zerg. "StarCraft" soon gained critical acclaim, winning numerous awards, including being labelled "the best real-time strategy game ever made" and being ranked the seventh best game of all time by IGN in both 2003 and 2005, and the eleventh best game in 2007.
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."
Battle.net World Championship Series
The Battle.net World Championship Series (BWCS) was the shared branding for video game tournaments held by Blizzard Entertainment for their games "StarCraft II" (SC2) and "World of Warcraft" (WoW) in 2012. The StarCraft II event series, the StarCraft II World Championship Series, maintained the World Championship Series branding beyond the year and continues to use it, but the 'Battle.net World Championship Series' brand has not been used since.
Warcraft (film)
The film was first announced in 2006 as a project partnership between Legendary Pictures and the game's developer, Blizzard Entertainment. "Warcraft" premiered in Paris on May 24, 2016, and was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on June 10, 2016. Despite a disappointing domestic box office performance and the film and script receiving negative reviews from critics, the film has grossed $433 million worldwide, surpassing "" as the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all-time, although it was still considered a financial disappointment.
StarCraft (video game)
Despite the progress, "StarCraft" was slow to emerge. The continual delays inspired a group of "StarCraft" fans on the official forums who labeled themselves "Operation: Can't Wait Any Longer" to write a series of fictional stories in which the members of Operation CWAL attempted to retrieve the beta version of "StarCraft" from Blizzard's headquarters in Irvine, California. To pay homage to their presence on the forums and enthusiasm for the game, Blizzard Entertainment later incorporated the group's name into "StarCraft" as a cheat code to speed up the production of units and gave the group thanks in the game's credits. The game was released for Windows on March 31, 1998, with the Classic Mac OS version following a year later in 1999. Development on a Nintendo 64 version, "StarCraft 64", began in 1999, converted from PC by Mass Media Interactive Entertainment—a subsidiary of THQ—and published by Nintendo. "StarCraft 64" was released on June 13, 2000 in the USA and Europe. It was also released in Australia on May 25, 2001.
The musical score to "StarCraft" was composed by Blizzard Entertainment's composers. Glenn Stafford composed the Terran and Protoss in-game themes, while Derek Duke, who was a contracted composer at the time, wrote all the in-game music for the Zerg. The cinematic scores were composed by Stafford and Hayes. Hayes also collaborated with Stafford on one of the Protoss in-game tracks. Tracy W. Bush provided additional support in composing. The musical score of the game was received well by reviewers, who have described it as "appropriately melodic and dark" and "impressive", with one reviewer noting that some of the music owed much of its inspiration to Jerry Goldsmith's score for the film "Alien". The first official game soundtrack, "StarCraft: Game Music Vol. 1", was released in 2000, comprising tracks from both "StarCraft" and "", as well as a sizable portion of remix tracks and music inspired by "StarCraft", created by several South Korean disc jockeys. The soundtrack was distributed by Net Vision Entertainment. In September 2008, Blizzard Entertainment announced that a second soundtrack, "StarCraft Original Soundtrack", had been released on iTunes. This soundtrack consisted entirely of the original music from "StarCraft" and "Brood War", both from in-game themes to music used in the cinematic cut scenes.
World of Warcraft
"World of Warcraft" has inspired two board games: "" (including "Shadow of War" and "The Burning Crusade" expansions) and "World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game", produced by Fantasy Flight Games. There is also a trading card game, and a collectible miniatures game on the market, both formerly produced by Upper Deck Entertainment, now produced by Cryptozoic Entertainment. Cryptozoic released an "Archives" set which contains foil reproductions of older cards produced by Upper Deck. In August 2012, Megabloks launched a licensed line of World of Warcraft 'building block' toys based on the game scenes, scenarios and characters. In March 2014, "" was released, which is a free-to-play digital card game based on the Warcraft universe, using classes similar to World of Warcraft.
List of esports games
Blizzard's MMO "World of Warcraft" added PvP features to the game after its release, and was received enthusiastically as an eSport. The game was generally phased out of MLG between 2010 and 2011, but Blizzard continues to hold the World of Warcraft Arena Global Invitational annually. The prize pool for the 2013 World of Warcraft Arena Global Invitational totaled over $180,000 and that of the 2014 World of Warcraft Arena Invitational World Championship totaled $250,000.
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
"Warcraft Adventures" was initially set for a 1997 holiday shopping season release for Windows 95 and Mac OS, and was Blizzard's second title planned for that year, alongside "StarCraft". According to Neilson, "Warcraft Adventures" was growing close to completion around August 1997, but Blizzard was unsatisfied with the results. He saw "StarCraft", which had just undergone a redesign, as the higher-quality project at that time. Neilson wrote, "The prevailing opinion was that the game wasn't as fun as the adventure games we had all come to know and love. Beyond that, however, even the adventure games of that time were moving to 3D." Meetings were held about reworking the game. Late in August, "PC Gamer US" reported that "Warcraft Adventures" had been delayed until "the first half" of the following year. Reasons given publicly for the delay included the creation of new cutscenes to replace the ones already in the game, and the introduction of unannounced features. Combined with the delay of "StarCraft", the setbacks to "Warcraft Adventures" were troubling to Blizzard, as they resulted in no flagship titles being launched in 1997.
World of Warcraft Trading Card Game
The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (WoW TCG) was a collectible card game based on Blizzard Entertainment's MMORPG, "World of Warcraft". The game was announced by Upper Deck Entertainment on August 18, 2005 and released on October 25, 2006. Players can fight against each other one-on-one, or can join others in order to defeat dungeon/raid bosses based on those in the MMORPG. In March 2010, Upper Deck Entertainment lost the license from Blizzard Entertainment. On March 24, 2010 Cryptozoic Entertainment announced the acquisition of the game's license and that planned card sets would be released.
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is the first expansion set for the MMORPG "World of Warcraft". It was released on January 16, 2007 at local midnight in Europe and North America, selling nearly 2.4 million copies on release day alone and making it, at the time, the fastest-selling PC game released at that point. Approximately 3.53 million copies were sold in the first month of release, including 1.9 million in North America, over 100,000 copies in Australasia, and nearly 1.6 million in Europe.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
At BlizzCon 2018 on November 2, 2018, Blizzard announced a remaster of both "Warcraft III" and its expansion "" entitled Warcraft III: Reforged featuring remodeled characters and graphics with a prospective release in 2019. While graphics will be updated, Jeff Chamberlain, Blizzard's Vice President of story and franchise development, confirmed that only the opening cinematic has been completely redone and the other cinematics will be recreated based on the original renderings.
StarCraft
Blizzard Entertainment began planning "StarCraft" in 1995, with a development team led by Metzen and Phinney. The game debuted at E3 1996, and used a modified "" game engine. "StarCraft" also marked the creation of Blizzard Entertainment's film department; the game introduced high quality cinematics integral to the storyline of the series. Most of the original development team for "StarCraft" returned to work on the game's expansion pack, ""; the game's development began shortly after "StarCraft" was released. In 2001, "" began development under Nihilistic Software. Unlike the previous real-time strategy games in the series, "Ghost" was to be a stealth-action game. After three years of development, work on the game was postponed in 2004. Development of "" began in 2003; the game was announced in May 2007 and was released in July 2010. The "StarCraft II" franchise continued with the "" expansion, which was released in March 2013. The third "StarCraft II" installment, "", released in November 2015.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released worldwide in July 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. A sequel to the 1998 video game "StarCraft" and its expansion set "", the game is split into three installments: the base game with the subtitle "Wings of Liberty", an expansion pack "", and a stand-alone expansion pack "". In March of 2016, a campaign pack called was also released.
World of Warcraft Trading Card Game
On August 23, 2013, Blizzard Entertainment announced that the TCG would be discontinued, and that they would not be renewing the game's license. In March 2014, Blizzard released "", an online collectible card game featuring many of the same characters, abilities and artwork.
Age of Empires (video game)
Originally touted as "Civilization" meets "Warcraft", some reviewers felt that the game failed to live up to these expectations when it was released. Despite this, it received generally good reviews, and an expansion pack, titled "", was released in 1998. Both the original "Age of Empires" and the expansion pack were later released as "The Gold Edition". A sequel, "Age of Empires II", was released in 1999. "Age of Empires: Definitive Edition", a remastered version of the game, was released on February 20, 2018.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
On October 4, 2010 Blizzard officially announced the release of Cataclysm for December 7, 2010. The expansion was made available as Standard Edition, Collectors Edition and as a new digital download from the Blizzard Online Store. The digital version of the game has been made available for pre-purchase through Battle.net, and gives gamers the opportunity to play the new expansion pack the moment the servers go live (at 12:01am PST, December 7).
World of Warplanes
World of Warplanes is a free-to-play flight combat massively multiplayer online (MMO) action game developed by Persha Studia in Ukraine and published by Wargaming in Belarus, set in the Golden Age of military aviation. The game was released on November 12, 2013 in CIS countries, and on November 13, 2013 in North America and in Europe.
War of the Worlds (video game)
War of the Worlds was a monochrome vector arcade game created by Tim Skelly of Cinematronics in 1982. It is based on the H. G. Wells novel "The War of the Worlds". There were two versions of this game, identical in gameplay but differing in graphics. The first version was released by Cinematronics in 1979, and featured black and white vector graphics. A color version was later made in 1982.
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
A Russian fan under the pseudonym "MAN-Biker" leaked gameplay footage of "Warcraft Adventures" via a YouTube video in 2010. According to "PC Gamer US", he had received his copy from a Russian game developer in the late 2000s, although this developer had not personally worked on "Warcraft Adventures". After the video's deletion, MAN-Biker posted a beginning-to-end longplay of the game in 2014. However, this version of the game lacked cutscenes. A complete, playable "Warcraft Adventures", including its cutscenes, was leaked online by a Russian Blizzard fan with the screen name "reidor" on September 9, 2016. Reidor told "PC Gamer US" that he had been sent the files by an unnamed third party. Soon after, the version shown in MAN-Biker's videos was leaked as well. Chris Higgins of PCGamesN speculated that these copies of the game derived from employees at Animation Magic's Russian office. Blizzard responded with takedown notices to reidor and peer-to-peer file sharing websites that hosted the game, but Wes Fenlon remarked, "By then, of course, it was too late."
Hearthstone
Of the game types they explored, Team 5 soon focused on the collectible card game approach, given that many on the team and in Blizzard had played such games since their introduction. The team found it natural to build the card game around the existing "Warcraft" lore; according to production director Jason Chayes, "Warcraft" was already a well-known property, and the depth of characters and locations created for other games in that series made it easy to create cards inspired by those. They also saw that new players to "Warcraft" may be drawn into the other games through playing "Hearthstone". The team was able to pull concepts and art from the pre-existing "World of Warcraft Trading Card Game", first published in 2006 by Upper Deck and later by Cryptozoic Entertainment; when "Hearthstone" was near completion, in 2013, Blizzard terminated its license with Cryptozoic as to favor their pending digital card game. The addition of heroes, an aspect from the previous trading card game, was found to help personalize the game for the player to allow players to discover useful combinations of cards for each hero.
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.
World of Warcraft
The "World of Warcraft" launcher (referred to in press releases and the menu bar as the "Blizzard Launcher") is a program designed to act as a starting point for "World of Warcraft" players. It provides a way to launch "World of Warcraft" and starts the Blizzard updater. It was first included with the version 1.8.3 patch. The 2.1.0 patch allowed for an option to bypass the use of the launcher. Features of the launcher include news and updates for "World of Warcraft" players, access to "World of Warcraft"s support website, access to the test version of "World of Warcraft" when it is available to test upcoming patches, updates to Warden, and updates to the updater itself. The 3.0.8 patch redesigned the launcher and added the ability to change the game settings from the launcher itself. The launcher update from patch 4.0.1 also allows people to play the game while non-crucial pieces of the game are downloaded. This requires a high-speed broadband internet connection.
StarCraft II World Championship Series
The StarCraft II World Championship Series was founded alongside a move to share branding among Blizzard Entertainment's competitive games and tournaments under the name Battle.net World Championship Series, which also included "World of Warcraft" competition. The first year of competition, the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series, featured over 30 events including national and continental championships that fed into the grand finals of the year held in Shanghai, China alongside the "World of Warcraft" finals. Events were limited to a few days or weeks of play with nationality-based limitations. This format lead to the series of events being well-viewed but not considered the peak of "StarCraft II" competition, especially all events that featured no Koreans and strict nationality requirements for players of the respective nationality or continent.
Jeff Green (writer)
In 2001, Green became editor-in-chief of "Computer Gaming World". By 2004, every person on staff at "CGW" when he first joined had left. Green contributed writing to "The Art of Warcraft", published in 2002 by BradyGames, a book detailing the art and design of the "Warcraft" series of real-time strategy games. Looking back on the job as "essentially a shill job", Green procrastinated on his writing for Brady so long that the publisher reduced his pay for the work. Green considers the late nineties to be the "peak years" of "Computer Gaming World". Issues were over 300 pages in length, and because the Internet was not as prevalent then, "magazines were all that there were. If gamers wanted gaming news, you read the magazines."
World of Warcraft
Patch 1.9.3 added native support for Intel-powered Macs, making "World of Warcraft" a universal application. As a result of this, the minimum supported Mac OS X version has been changed to 10.3.9; "World of Warcraft" version 1.9.3 and later will not launch on older versions of Mac OS X. PowerPC architecture Macs are no longer supported since version 4.0.1.
Warcraft: Orcs &amp; Humans
While the earliest real-time strategy games appeared in the 1980s, notably the multiplayer RTS game "Herzog Zwei", and others followed in the early 1990s, Westwood Studios's "Dune II", released for DOS in 1992, established the pattern of modern RTS games. Inspired by "Dune II" and "Herzog Zwei", Blizzard Entertainment was surprised that no further RTS titles appeared in 1993 and early 1994 – although in fact Westwood had quietly been working on "Command & Conquer" since the completion of "Dune II". To take advantage of the lull in RTS releases, Blizzard produced "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans". According to Bob Fitch, the theme for "Warcraft" had been inspired by taking the vikings of "The Lost Vikings" and combining with masses of creatures under their automated control similar to "Lemmings", with the multiplayer element of having these opposing masses of vikings meet up and fight each other.
State of Decay (video game)
"State of Decay" was first announced in 2011 as an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive title originally titled "Class 3". Jeff Strain, the founder of ArenaNet and co-creator of "World of Warcraft", wanted a game where individual players could make up their own zombie survival plans and put them to the test. Then, he set out to create the game, which runs on CryEngine 3. On May 16, 2013, Undead Labs announced that "State of Decay" had gone into the final certification process and is now ready for testing by the game's publisher, Microsoft Studios. "State of Decay" was envisioned as a step towards Undead Labs' full online console game, "Class4". "Class4" will be one of the first zombie massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) to come to the Xbox One. In a 2014 interview, Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain stated that "State of Decay" had officially become a franchise, with the company's partnership with Microsoft Studios confirmed. He stated that the first "State of Decay" was "just the start of (Undead Labs') long-term ambitions".
Dungeons &amp; Dragons campaign settings
The "Warcraft" campaign setting, based on the computer gaming franchise "Warcraft", was published by White Wolf Publishing via its Sword & Sorcery Studios imprint for the 3rd edition of "D&D". Under a license with Wizards of the Coast, the campaign setting was recognized as an official campaign setting, indicated by the inclusion of the official "D&D" 3rd edition logo on the cover of the initial setting book (“Warcraft The Roleplaying Game”). This product was supported by five other books, before the setting was updated as “World of Warcraft The Role Playing Game”, a self-contained game. The game is no longer supported.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
In February 2010, in an Activision Blizzard investor call, Blizzard assumed CEO Mike Morhaime revealed that "Cataclysm" was to be released in that same calendar year.
Gameplay of World of Warcraft
In a change from the previous "Warcraft" games produced by Blizzard, "World of Warcraft" is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) where thousands of players can interact with each other. Despite this change, the game draws many similarities with its predecessors. These include using the same setting of the world of Azeroth as well as following a similar art direction. In common with many MMORPGs, "World of Warcraft" requires players to pay for a subscription, usually either by credit card or by buying a card from a retailer to redeem for a predetermined amount of subscription time; in addition, game time may be acquired from using in-game gold to buy a WoW Token.
World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness
"" is the sequel to the popular real-time strategy game "", developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released in December 1995.
Virtual economy
The release of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft in 2004 and its subsequent huge success across the globe has forced both MMORPGs and their secondary markets into mainstream consciousness, and many new market places have opened up during this time. A search for WoW Gold on Google will show a multitude of sites (more than 90 sponsored results ) from which Gold can be purchased. Real money commerce in a virtual market has grown to become a multibillion-dollar industry. In 2001, EverQuest players Brock Pierce and Alan Debonneville founded "Internet Gaming Entertainment Ltd (IGE)", a company that offered not only the virtual commodities in exchange for real money but also provided professional customer service. "IGE" had a trained staff that would handle financial issues, customer inquiries and technical support to ensure that gamers are satisfied with each real money purchase. It also took advantage of the global reach of synthetic worlds by setting up a shop in Hong Kong where a small army of technically savvy but low wage workers could field orders, load up avatars, retrieve store goods and deliver them wherever necessary. This lucrative market has opened a whole new type of economy where the border between the real and the virtual is obscure.
Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game
Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game was a role-playing game line published by Sword & Sorcery Studios. It was based on the "Warcraft" computer games and set on Azeroth.
World of Warcraft
The fifth expansion, "Warlords of Draenor", was announced at BlizzCon 2013 on November 8, 2013, and entered beta on June 27, 2014. "Warlords of Draenor" was released on November 13, 2014. On August 6, 2015, Blizzard announced the sixth expansion, "", at Gamescom 2015. In November 2015, the "Legion"'s alpha testing started and in April 2016 the beta test started; the "Legion" expansion was released on August 30, 2016. The seventh expansion, "Battle for Azeroth", was released worldwide on August 13 and 14 (depending on location) 2018.
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
In 2017, Alex Cachinero-Gorman wrote that "Warcraft Adventures" "spawn[ed] wistful retrospectives every few years". "PC Gamer US" named it one of the "Greatest Games (Never Made)" in 1998, and included it in a list of the "10 Cancelled PC Games We Still Want To Play" in 2011. Its development was also the subject of a long "PC Gaming Graveyard" feature by GameSpot, the site's first in this series. However, in response to questions about the game's revival in 2009, Samwise Didier remarked, "DVDs are really popular because of deleted scenes, but when you watch them you can see why they weren't included in the movie. That's what "Warcraft Adventures" is." The cancellation of "Warcraft Adventures" is often cited as an example of Blizzard's "willingness to cancel a game late in development to protect the quality of their brand", according to Cachinero-Gorman. It was among a years-long string of cancellations at Blizzard, including "", "Shattered Nations", "Crixa", "Nomad" and "", alongside the "Titan" project canceled in 2014 after roughly seven years' development. Calling this trend the key to Blizzard's success in 2016, Kat Bailey of USgamer regarded "Warcraft Adventures" cancellation a wise choice for Blizzard's brand, as otherwise "it might still be an object of ridicule today."
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the fourth expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) "World of Warcraft", following "". It was announced on October 21, 2011, by Chris Metzen at BlizzCon 2011, and was released on September 25, 2012.
World of Warcraft
Seven expansions have been released: "", released in January 2007; "", released in November 2008; "", released in December 2010; "", released in September 2012; "", released in November 2014; "", released in August 2016; and , released in August 2018. Players are not required to purchase expansions in order to continue playing; however, new content and features such as higher level caps and new areas may not be available until they do so.
Call of Duty: World at War
"Call of Duty: World at War" was released for the Nintendo DS on November 11, 2008 in North America, and on November 14 in Europe. It was published by Activision and developed by n-Space, who used the same game engine as their previous title, "". The game's scenarios are also based on World War II's Pacific theater and Eastern front with American, British and Soviet campaigns. Up to four players can be supported online with four different types of game, as well as perks and rank-ups. Compared to "Modern Warfare", it has improved in-level geometry, has more responsive sprints and crouches and 3D-modeled guns instead of 2D sprites. However the flamethrower, which is new to the game series, is rendered with 2D sprites. The framerate is just under 30 and has lots of voice-over during the missions. Players are able to defuse mines and send Morse code with the touch screen, as well as using mortar rounds, an anti-air gun from a battleship, parachuting and using mounted guns. There is also a tank mode which allows the player to turn the main gun and fire machine gun rounds at the same time.
Warcraft
In 2015, Blizzard released "Heroes of the Storm", their own crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game in which players can control a number of heroes from Blizzard titles, the majority of which come from the "Warcraft" universe. The game also features several mounts based on mounts or other creatures from "World of Warcraft" and a battleground based on the PvP zone Alterac Pass.
Simulation
Advances in technology in the 1980s made the computer more affordable and more capable than they were in previous decades, which facilitated the rise of computer such as the Xbox gaming. The first video game consoles released in the 1970s and early 1980s fell prey to the industry crash in 1983, but in 1985, Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) which became one of the best selling consoles in video game history. In the 1990s, computer games became widely popular with the release of such game as "The Sims" and "Command & Conquer" and the still increasing power of desktop computers. Today, computer simulation games such as "World of Warcraft" are played by millions of people around the world.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
After "" was released in 1996, Blizzard originally began development of a point-and-click adventure game called "" which was supposed to tell the story after "Warcraft II". "Lord of the Clans" was canceled in favor of "Warcraft III" in 1998 which was presented to the public at the European Computer Trade Show in September 1999. The game's design and gameplay was significantly altered during development, with the final game sharing little similarities with the originally presented version. "Warcraft III" is set several years after the events of "Warcraft II" and its expansion and tells the story of the Burning Legion's attempt to conquer the fictional world of Azeroth with the help of an army of the Undead, led by fallen paladin Arthas Menethil. It also chronicles the combined efforts of the Human Alliance, Orcish Horde and Night Elves to stop them before they can corrupt the World Tree.
GU Comics
GU Comics is a single panel webcomic written, drawn, and colored by William "Woody" Hearn. Established July 10, 2000 and launched August 15, 2000, GU is published, free, five times a week on its own web site. The comic focuses on a single video game such as World of Warcraft; but, it also comments on gaming industry and community news, often lampooning gamers in general through the adventures of Hearn and his fictional roommate, Ted, and occasionally parodies contemporary social, political, and personal issues related to the online and general video game world. In recent months Hearn has focused primarily on writing comics revolving around various pen-and-paper role playing games; it is unclear if Hearns actually takes part in these games or if he simply finds humor in D&D sourcebooks over PC MMO games.
Firefall (video game)
Red 5 Studios was an American computer game company that was known for its high ratio of former employees of Blizzard Entertainment. The founders previously worked on "World of Warcraft". Mark Kern was a team lead, William Petras was art director, and Taewon Yun was part of the company's Korean operation which oversaw the launch of "World of Warcraft" in Asia. The company's only game release was "Firefall".
World of Warcraft
In September 2006, reports emerged of spoof "World of Warcraft" game advice websites that contained malware. Vulnerable computers would be infected through their web browsers, downloading a program that would then relay back account information. Blizzard's account support teams experienced high demand during this episode, stating that many users had been affected. Claims were also made that telephone support was closed for isolated periods due to the volume of calls and resulting queues. In April 2007, attacks evolved to take advantage of further exploits involving animated cursors, with multiple websites being used. Security researcher group Symantec released a report stating that a compromised "World of Warcraft" account was worth US$10 on the black market, compared to US$6 to US$12 for a compromised computer (correct as of March 2007). In February 2008, phishing emails were distributed requesting that users validate their account information using a fake version of the "World of Warcraft" account management pages. In June 2008, Blizzard announced the "Blizzard Authenticator", available as a hardware security token or mobile application that provides two-factor security. The token generates a one-time password based code that the player supplies when logging on. The password, used in addition to the user's own password, is only valid for a couple of minutes, thus providing extra security against keylogging malware.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
"Warcraft III" sold one million units in the first month after release, becoming the fastest-selling PC video game in history at that time and surpassing a record set by "Diablo II." The NPD Group declared it the third-best-selling computer game of 2002. In the United States, "Warcraft III" sold 1 million copies and earned $49.4 million by August 2006, after its release in July 2002, making it the country's seventh best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. "Warcraft III" received a "Gold" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom.
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
"The Frozen Throne's" Orc campaign lays the groundwork for "World of Warcraft" with many of the player's actions in the Orc campaign being later explored in the MMORPG. Similarly, other elements that were introduced or fleshed out in the expansion went on to become the focus in "World of Warcraft" expansions, such the Draenei and Blood Elves as well as the world of Outland in "," the fall and death of Arthas as the Lich King in "" and the Pandaren race in "". In 2017, Blizzard released an expansion to their "Hearthstone" digital collectible card game entitled "Knights of the Frozen Throne" that, among other allusions to "The Frozen Throne", contains an undead version of Rexxar the beastmaster.
Michael Morhaime
In 1995, Blizzard released "Warcraft II", its first number one selling game. "It's probably the game that put Blizzard on the map," Morhaime said. Besides its large number of sales, "it was the first game you could play over the Internet with a good experience", which was a novelty at the time, as well as being a defining selling point for its later titles. Blizzard's greatest success came with a hard but not unwelcome lesson. In planning for the release of "World of Warcraft" (WoW) in late 2004, Morhaime thought that the market for the much larger and more interactive new game -the first in their history to require players to pay a monthly subscription fee- would grow slowly and would be an unpopular surprise to the gaming community. "We felt it was very likely the fee would be a deterrent for people, and that WoW would not sell as quickly as some of our previous games," he said. All of Blizzard's production and marketing decisions were based on that assumption. To Blizzard's surprise (and very shortly later, terror) WoW sold extremely quickly, leaving the underprepared Blizzard unable to keep merchants supplied with the game for a short time. "For the whole first year, we scrambled to keep up with demand," he said. "It probably took years off of our lives." World of Warcraft had approximately 11 million subscribers as of 2010.
Blizzard Entertainment
Shortly thereafter, Blizzard released "". Blizzard created several other video games, including "Warcraft" sequels, the "Diablo" series, the "StarCraft" series, and in 2004 the massively multiplayer online role-playing game "World of Warcraft". Their most recent projects include the first expansion for "Diablo III", "", the online collectible card game "Hearthstone," the seventh expansion for "World of Warcraft", "", the multiplayer online battle arena "Heroes of the Storm," the third and final expansion for "", "", and the multiplayer first-person hero shooter "Overwatch".
Wowpedia
Wowpedia is a wiki about the "Warcraft" fictional universe. It covers all of the "Warcraft" games, including the MMORPG "World of Warcraft". It is both a specialized wiki built around the "Warcraft" universe and a collaborative space for players to develop and publish strategies for "Warcraft" games. It was officially announced on 25 October 2010.
Blizzard Entertainment
On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released "World of Warcraft", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. "World of Warcraft" is the fourth released game set in the fantasy "Warcraft" universe, which was first introduced by "" in 1994. Blizzard announced "World of Warcraft" on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the "Warcraft" franchise.
World of Warcraft
"World of Warcraft" was the best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006. In the United States, it sold 1.4 million copies ($68.1 million) by August 2006. It was the country's third best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. On January 22, 2008, "World of Warcraft" had more than 10 million subscribers worldwide, with more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and about 5.5 million in Asia. At its peak in October 2010 the game had 12 million subscribers. As of November 2014 the game has over 10 million active subscribers. On January 28, 2014 Blizzard announced that 100 million accounts have been created for the game. On May 7, 2015, it was announced that there were 7.1 million active subscriptions. At the end of June 2015, subscriptions dropped down to 5.6 million, lowest since 2005. By the end of September, subscribers were at 5.5 million.
WoWWiki
WoWWiki.com was launched on November 24, 2004, the day after the release of "World of Warcraft" (WoW), as a source of information pertaining to "WoW" and the interface modification suite Cosmos. The wiki later expanded to cover the entirety of the Warcraft universe, including RTS games, novels, RPG reference books, manga, and other written sources, along with the "WoW" expansion packs. At various points in its development history, it was described as the "best known MMO wiki", "the second largest English-language wiki in the world behind Wikipedia", and the "mother of all WoW informational sources."
Cube Life: Island Survival
Mojang's popular sandbox title "Minecraft", which saw its first console outing on the Xbox 360 in 2012, was not officially announced for the Wii U until December 2015. Prior to this, Microsoft wholly acquired Mojang in September 2014, and at the time "Minecraft" was already either available or announced for most major platforms except Nintendo's. Following the acquisition, many gaming news outlets expressed skepticism that "Minecraft" would arrive on any Nintendo platform, let alone Wii U. However, later that same month, startup developer Nexis Games announced their own sandbox title "UCraft" for the Wii U. According to Nintendo Life, "UCraft" is regarded as very similar in both graphical aesthetic and gameplay to "Minecraft", and likely "could fulfil a key gap in the market on the Wii U." Due to Nexis Games' poor track record, and following the sketchy development of "UCraft", other indie developers decided to follow suit and release their own iterations of "Minecraft"-inspired titles for Nintendo platforms. One of those developers was Cypronia.
World of Warcraft
In China, because a large number of players do not own the computer on which they play games (e.g. if they play in Internet cafés), the CD keys required to create an account can be purchased independently of the software package. To play the game, players must also purchase prepaid game cards that can be played for 66 hours and 40 minutes. A monthly fee model is not available to players of this region. The Chinese government and NetEase, the licensee for "World of Warcraft" in China, have imposed a modification on Chinese versions of the game which places flesh on bare-boned skeletons and transforms dead character corpses into tidy graves. These changes were imposed by the Chinese government in an attempt to "promote a healthy and harmonious online game environment" in "World of Warcraft". The Chinese government has delayed the release of the "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion, due to what it feels is objectionable content. NetEase took over licensing of "World of Warcraft" from The9 in June 2009 following the expiration of The9's contract, and were able to secure a launch for "Wrath of the Lich King" on August 31, 2010, nearly two years after its Western release.
World of Warcraft
"World of Warcraft" is set in the same universe as the "Warcraft" series of real-time strategy games and has a similar art direction. "World of Warcraft" contains elements from fantasy, steampunk, and science fiction: such as gryphons, dragons, and elves; steam-powered automata; zombies, werewolves, and other horror monsters; as well as time travel, spaceships, and alien worlds.
World of Warcraft
"World of Warcraft" was the world's most popular MMORPG by player count of nearly 10 million in 2009. The game had a total of over a hundred million registered accounts by 2014. By 2017, the game had grossed over in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time. At BlizzCon 2017, a "classic" version of the game was announced, which is planned to provide a way to experience the base game before any of its expansions launched. Blizzard announced at BlizzCon 2018 that "WoW Classic" will be released in the summer of 2019, and will be included with the standard subscription.
Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy
Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy is a book trilogy written by Richard A. Knaak set in Blizzard Entertainment's popular video game universe, Warcraft.
Edgeworks Entertainment
Forsaken was a planned machinima series by Edgeworks Entertainment, and would have been the group's first to be made in the "World of Warcraft" game engine. According to Edgeworks, the series centered on an "over-the-hill hero" who "must rise to the challenge when the forces of evil begin their bid for control over the land of Azeroth". The series was announced on April 12, 2006, with a teaser trailer and was to be written and directed by Malone and co-produced by Malone and Winn. "Forsaken" would have been the first Edgeworks production not to be written or directed by Winn, and Edgeworks cited the new series as the first step towards making a community for "artistic development and distribution". Unfortunately, due to the series being rendered impossible thanks to a patch released for "World of Warcraft", production of the series has halted as of January 3, 2007, and it seems unlikely that it will ever be completed or released.