20 years have passed since the drums of war thundered once again. That’s how long this journey has been – this year, it will be the 20th anniversary of the initial release of World of Warcraft back in 2004. As someone who played every single expansion, I thought that it was a good moment to take a look back at this journey and see what made WoW great and what turned it into .. what we have today. This article will focus on the whole game development in the previous 20 years and I will provide analysis and my perspective on where and when things went south. This is going to be a long one, so sit tight, and let’s take a trip down memory lane first.
Prologue
It`s the year 2006 and you just came home from school. You can`t wait to take a seat at your family PC and boot up a game that everyone is talking about—a game with a mouthful name, World of Warcraft. While waiting for your PC to do its thing, you keep rolling through your mind all the stories and rumors you`ve heard about this game and what effect it has on the now-growing gamer population. Indeed, this sort of excitement made your imagination run wild, full of mystery, and exploration. A whole new sense of adventure. After loading up the game, you find yourself immediately blown away. The title screen, captivating music, the sheer epicness of it all … Everything you previously imagined this game would look, sound, and feel like is now gone. In a near instant, you are enthralled by its sense of grand, vast, and beautiful lands with uncovered mysteries daring thirsty and brave adventurers to come closer. Just one more quest, one more dungeon, one more zone…Next thing you know, it`s 6 AM and you haven`t got the slightest idea what happened to you.
If this sounds familiar to you, then I am afraid you went through possibly one of the greatest experiences that modern gaming had to offer. You grew up in the golden time of MMOs. Of course, these sensations awoken in you will persist even today, an astonishing 20 years after its initial release. From its humble beginnings to the most popular and well-known game ever. From nearly 12 million players to its rapid and steady decline, this titan defined and still defines the whole of the genre of MMOs, games, and gamers. Taking a look back through its now long journey from development, and early access to the latest expansion I can’t help but sense a strong nostalgia for those days. As that is probably a big understatement, I must confess that some of my feelings and memories are being looked at through those good old “pink glasses“. However, in whole sincerity and honesty, I hope this article will find its way through all of the pink dizziness that has accumulated throughout these now more than 20 years of me actively playing this award-winning game.
From Warcraft to World of Warcraft
Before we sink our teeth into spicy things that made and broke this titan of a game, we need to go a little back and put some things in perspective. Back to where it all began. The early 2000s were very promising when it came to games. New engines were developed and the rapid growth of hardware and software, especially the internet had slowly but steadily started to reshape the game foundations and concepts. With a somewhat timid introduction to 3D games in the late 90’s, the early 2000s will redefine gaming as a whole. This had an incremental effect on the whole sense and perception of games. More importantly, it started to change gamer’s tastes. This was the early sign that something big was approaching. A new genre of games that has been dormant, and enjoyed only by a niche of player base: MMORGPs.
Blizzard released many excellent games in this period, and every next game was better than the previous. From Diablo to Starcraft, to Warcraft III, all of these titles showed excellence in both gameplay and sense of immersion. But Blizz had something even bigger in the plan. Something that would make all these games pale in comparison to this one. Although as the developers themselves said, they didn‘t believe that this new game, later called World of Warcraft, would have such a big impact or spark interest in so many people. It took all of us by surprise. As most players were occupied by strategies, narrative story games, RPGs, and other genres, this new survival, massively multiplayer online roleplaying game started growing from blizzard to avalanche.
Vanilla WoW and Rise of Player Count
From its release in 2004 it was apparent that the game style WoW presented was the same as many players tasted before, but then again so different. It followed a very easy formula. Stand, hit, defeat your enemies, gain levels. As you gain levels you unlock new and more powerful abilities. At first, you start as a lowly peon with nothing on you, facing one enemy at a time. Slowly and gradually through this forementioned process, you will develop your character into a well-oiled killing machine, capable of taking on multiple and/or tougher foes. As you venture forth you will discover hidden, lush, beautiful, captivating, atmospheric lands. You will stand and hit more as you progress through numerous quests and get introduced to an enthralling world. As you defeat new foes they will yield shiny new loot that lets you stand and hit harder. Adventuring with friends will prove the key to success and you will start to rely more and more on other players as you continue your journey. Be it casually chatting and drinking with your guildies at Goldshire Tavern, or trying to figure out how to beat a hard raid boss, it became apparent that strong bonds and coordination between players are crucial. Everyone played a small yet crucial part in a millennia-spanning epic story. The gig was simple: you will earn your place and name in the game society, granting you glory and privileges or you will fail time and again trying. Either way, players were captivated.
Although it required a not-cheap (for that time) 12$ subscription, plus a game purchase, players viewed it as „not as so high-a-price“ to pay for a brand new and polished game. It wasn’t of course without any flaws and not very „balanced“ as many would want to think. Actually it was far from it. But an average player as the later numbers will show was ready to swallow this somewhat bitter pill in order to enjoy the higher benefits that the game offered. Regular patches and server maintenance were justifying the subscription to the game, as developers stated. All of these were the major factors that this game saw a soaring rise in player base, from early 2005 to the very end of the same year. The initial release brought in roughly 500k players, which by the end of 2006 will grow into an astonishing 8 million active accounts, and was still rising. This was a success beyond success, as even stated by the lead designers of the game, who were caught off guard yet again by the huge rise in subscription numbers.
Rise Beyond Glory: The Burning Crusade
2007 brought in a new expansion. The Burning Crusade. Alongside multiple quality-of-life improvements, new quests, zones, and flying mounts, it also brought back many inactive players for yet another journey. You could now stand and hit again at an even higher degree as the gear you received as a reward in a first quest of the expansion, surpassed even the potency of items you would get from previous end-game raid Naxxramas. The launch also brought into the world many new lore giants such as Illidan Stormrage, and players were piling up at the portal to Outland. This at first sight simple yet ridiculous formula will later prove to be one of the major selling points of this ever rapidly growing game. It will also come to show that many other companies would later (after the major success of WoW and WoW The Burning Crusade) try to copy or improve this mechanic and principle, but will in most cases fall short. These so-called „WoW killers“ as how community started referring to them, were in a nutshell plain copies of WoW and yet they were still lacking the epicness or simplicity, as will later be more apparent. In reality, they weren’t „WoW killers“ nor could they stop what was going to transpire.
It also goes without saying that neither the initial launch of WoW or TBC went as smoothly as everyone would like to, nor was the game without bugs and connectivity issues. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the moment for releasing this giant project of a game was very much favorable to Blizz in many ways. People haven‘t yet had the pleasure to experience anything quite like it. So the hick-ups went mostly unnoticed and with little to no anger from the player side. This, for now, unnoticeable flaw, will come back later to haunt Blizz with the release of every next expansion and will gain in power too. It will be detrimental in the harsh drop of player base couple of expansions in the future. Another very big bite to chew by an average Joe player was the cost of the game and subscription fee. Many other games didn‘t have this method of transaction, and with the rise of WoW, they slowly started embracing them. It most definitely changed the views and feelings of a player base as a whole and will be one of the major factors contributing not only to WoW’s fall but the fall of the whole of the genre.
Golden Age: Wrath of the Lich King
One year later, after an extremely successful release of WoW’s first expansion, Blizzard announced the now legendary next expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. Probably the most iconic, and definitely most played WoW expansion, WotLK gathered up a throng of players, that were now counting nearly 12 million. The expansion brought more of the same as previous ones: hitting harder, looting more, and venturing into frozen and distant lands. The gig was once more up, but now you will also feel the chill freezing down your spine when having a chance to get a swing at the most defining character of WoW: Arthas, the Lich King himself. The players were ecstatic, to say the least. Little did any of us know that this was the very peak of WoW. Not only WoW but MMOs in general.
It was the true golden age for the genre. Lord of the Rings Online from 2007, Knights of the Old Republic, 2008 Warhammer Online, and Guild Wars in 2006 were just some of the MMOs that were thriving and growing in this period. Some of them were even deemed and viewed as WoW killers. Maybe that could have been the case or maybe some of the players wanted them to be it, but in cold truth, they altogether combined couldn‘t make a dent in the now gigantic and huge wall that WoW had become. Everything seemed to go right and well for this game, and there was no game or actually anything else stopping this behemoth from stomping the opposition. Oh boy, how all of us were so very wrong. The changes came pretty soon as porterns of incoming doom, and they will slowly but surely steer this dreadnought into a collision course with high tides. WoW was at its peak, glory days, counting roughly 12 million subscribers, no game could measure and stand up to it. But yet first sign of its downfall didn‘t come from another vier for the title of the best MMO, no. It came from inside the company.
First Problems: Cataclysm
In 2010 Blizzard, which was now acquired by a giant Activision (a detrimental pivot in company policy) had announced yet another expansion: Cataclysm. New and revamped zones and characters, lenient leveling and difficulty setups were just some of the things this new expansion introduced, but as it would seem with less fervor than it used to. One of the biggest changes were introduction to a wider range of tools that enabled players to experience the game on their own, making players feel farther away from each other and unreversible changing the core concept of the game. Dungeon-finding tools were now a baseline feature, which started to alienate players and pave a road to a new accommodation that many would rely on and later be hard to give up on. Your characters were now and in every other expansion that comes next, viewed as heroes, not nobodies with zero copper in their inventory. Your deeds were known to all, you are a hero of Azeroth. Another big social change in players’ perspective will be the ever-stronger influence of the internet, that now become a treasure cove of how-to’s and guides impacting the gameplay and feel to a degree that the game started feeling completely different from what it was just a couple of patches ago.
It did little to offer a sense of mystery as it did on the launch and left many longing for it. Although these changes were very welcoming at the start, they will also show that they were the biggest reason why so many players started becoming fed up. Up until this point the popularity of the game, represented by a number of subscribers, has only grown. Now player count has started to decline steadily. It would feel as if players have started to feel less and less interested in spending time in the game. Subs went down, and the general feeling of the game was that it started to derail from the original concept. This will become more transparent in the coming years and future expansions. The gap between players and the game was starting to form.
Missed Opportunities: Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor…
In the coming years, the developers will release a number of expansions, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, and Legion, but their success paled in comparison to its „former glory days“. Like moths drawn to a flame, veteran players would flock to pompous releases of these new expansions in the promise of new and exciting content. This would see an immediate rise in player numbers, but who would soon abandon the game, as it time and again proven that it had less to offer and arguably in fashion so far away from what they expected. The hick-ups on the launch of every expansion made the game unplayable, and these times, unlike with the first two expansions, players were very angry. In-game shops were now the key new „features“ of every expansion. Everyone who buys a new one will get a free max level boost. Characters were handed out legendary weapons for little to no deed at all. Soon it lost its whole charm as you would see every Paladin wielding the Ashbringer. The content was half-baked and felt unfinished, especially in Warlords of Draenor.
Players started to feel that the game was turning into a theme park and more importantly: a cash grab. The carrot you were offered on the stick, was getting too big to swallow and people were losing interest. Instead of journeying forth with your friends, exploring new lands and mysteries, players have been spoon-fed with ridiculous amounts of grind and daily tasks. It wasn’t a journey anymore – it became a grind fest, selling that as its peak content. Character-rich story and sense of epicness this game provided so far have dwindled. Our beloved heroes and villains were either vanquished by us the players or ruined by the devs themselves. The game slipped so far away from the core philosophy, that even a horizontal progression it offered made less sense with each new release. This will be most noticeable in Shadowlands. The rise of „professional“ players and in-game boosters would have their negative impacts on the game too, ruining the gameplay itself. As if players didn‘t care actually playing the game anymore.
The direction the game was being developed seemed to have let many players down because their numbers were dropping like flies and were now back as they were ten years ago (roughly 5 million subscribers), and going down. At this crucial moment, Blizzard itself stopped reporting subscription numbers, stating they gave a false impression of the popularity of the game. They were aware of the bad state the game was but continued along the path of not having an ear to listen to their own player needs and suggestions. Players were now completely fed up and started leaving for greener pastures. In truth, the MMO market was starting to be oversaturated with games. Granted they weren‘t the WoW killers, but offered many new advantages and perspectives to the genre. Namely new engines, exciting combat gameplay, and no subscription fees, so the games such as Final Fantasy saw a big migration of players, who frustratedly came from WoW, who still despite everything charged subscription fees. This was a tough time for WoW and subsequently whole MMO genre as well, since WoW was setting extremely high standards for all those years. These standards became the seeds of its own demise.
The Return of Vanilla WoW
One of the last attempts to change the fate of now sinking game was the player and community initiative to bring back „Vanilla WoW“; the original game. This was met with utter disapproval from developers, who said: „You think you do, but you don’t!“. A now famous quote from a Blizz developer Allen Brack directed to growing pleas from players to reinstate original WoW servers, and how it would never be possible. He would later come to regret his words and spark so much discord between the game’s player base. This only goes to show how thirsty for the old concept of the game the community was, and how far away the actual game has derailed from its core philosophy. In truth, Blizzard was losing their remaining subscribers to now rising popularity of private servers, who were offering either old WoW experiences or completely new ones. Struggles and lawsuits ensued, after which Blizzard closed down one of the most popular private servers, that up until that point had lots of players. The sole purpose of that server was to bring back that nostalgic feel of the original game, which you couldn‘t get from the official game. Also, it didn‘t have any monetary gains and players loved it, which was shown by the creation of over 800k accounts. Overall it was very successful project and inevitably seized the ire of Blizz itself and was shut down.
In 2019 Blizzard would eventually release WoW Classic, which will spark huge interest and happiness among now-starved players. The rise in player count was so big that it outshined the official game player count by a huge margin. Servers were full to the brim and players were once again waiting in 2 hour-long queues to get the taste of that sweet „vanilla“ flavor. Although it could never reinvoke the same feel and experience as the original release, it definitely showed what players were looking for. The official game (end of Battle for Azeroth expansion) was in the shadows once again offering little to keep players involved. Developers will later introduce WoW Hardcore mode servers of Classic and Seasons of Discovery. The latter offers to experience the game from its stages. Sadly these game modes would also see a steady decline as the developers who were led by monetary gains introduced in-game shops and purchases to now let down the player base, despite promises not to. They also introduced the next Classic expansions, The Burning Crusade, and so on, once again derailing from the game’s original vision, and players started losing interest again. It would seem that Blizzard with now original developers in the team, and with the lead of Bobby Kotic couldn’t get a break from disasters and bad moves.
The Future of WoW
Over the years Blizzard developed a bad habit of letting go of their products and letting down their consumers, which also sadly happened to WoW, which became a dead cow that was still being milked dry. The whole company and our beloved game were in a really bad state. A potential way out or gasp at straws was Microsoft‘s acquisition of Blizzard, which many players hoped to be the salvation. Shortly after, they brought back Chris Metzen, one of the original creators, voice actor, and mastermind of the WoW’s creation. If this „revival act“ will bear fruit, and if it will come at a late moment, will remain to be seen in the coming years, and three new expansions…
When we take a look back at one of the most successful games in the history of modern gaming, it is very difficult to pinpoint the exact problem or circumstance that led to its downfall. Spanning and still existing after 20 years is a large period of time, through which the game endured changes from both inside and outside. This of course, enormously adds to the difficulty of portraying this colossal fall in one short story. From its infancy, where the game showed love and dedication from developers and adventure-hungry players to its inevitable downfall and great loss of popularity, has been a long and exciting journey. With a lot of nostalgia, sadness, and regret we, the players, have witnessed WoW’s rise and fall. 20 years have passed since they touched our hearts, and minds, and changed the way we think and view games. Although in recent years the state of the game is not something to write home about, it may not be the last effort of its comeback. And who knows, maybe the best days of the game are yet to come. Perhaps the wielder of the Sword of the Thousand Truths would finally reveal himself, and usher in the new golden age. Perhaps…
Image Credits: Blizzard Activision
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