It has been almost 13 and a half years since World of Warcraft (WoW) was released, and it’s still going strong.
WoW is a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMO-RPG) set in the world of Azeroth first seen in the original real time strategy game Warcraft. Released on 23 Nov., 2004 WoW quickly became the gold standard for MMO-RPGs.
I first started playing WoW in 2006, shortly before its first expansion, The Burning Crusade, was released. I was immediately hooked on the game, drawn into its deep story and unique gameplay.
Over the years I have played the game a lot. I took some breaks from playing when other things in my life took priority, but I always returned.
Earlier this month I returned to the game after being gone more than three years. Even after not playing for that long I was able to jump back in with no problem.
One of the great things about WoW is that you can decide how deep you want to get into the game. I am typically a pretty casual player, primarily playing alone and only grouping up for larger quests, like dungeons.
Some other players are extremely dedicated to the game, playing multiple hours every day. Many actually make money by streaming their gameplay on sites like YouTube.
Although I normally don’t spend a lot of time playing, I have found a wonderful group of people to play with that make me want to get more involved. Having other players to join really makes it a lot more fun.
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., the developer of WoW, has ensured that they keep a strong player base through many changes to the game over the years. Most of the major changes have come from the six expansions the game has had so far, and their seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, is coming out this September.
Many of these changes have been received well, yet a few have caused WoW to lose a number of players. After the fifth expansion, Warlords of Draenor, there was a large spike in the number of subscription players, but there was an abrupt drop off that took those numbers to a nine-year low.
Following this drop off in players, Blizzard announced they would no longer be reporting the number of subscribers. Although this leads some to question the future of the game, Blizzard still went on to release the sixth expansion, Legion.
Even without knowing the exact number of subscribers, it was apparent that Legion helped bring back some players that had left, as well as bring new players to WoW.
This rise and fall in subscribers is fairly typical, and looking at the last numbers released by Blizzard it shows that even when the numbers drop for WoW it is still one of the most played games in the world.
Eventually even World of Warcraft will end, but with a new expansion coming out later this year, and players like myself returning, it appears to be holding on for a while longer.
Daniel Riley
Managing Editor