Forums » Smalltalk » AMA: Twenty Years of World of Warcraft.

Not really a secret that I play World of Warcraft. But I haven't ever gone in depth with how long I have been playing it.


World of Warcraft launched on November 23rd, 2004. I remember seeing it in the local Staples store (office supplies chain) as a demon on some of the display computers. I played it off as weird and stupid, up until I got it for Christmas of 2004. I was very young at the time, and also, sorry to put a bit of a sad note on this, very poor. Having a game like this was suddenly a rather big deal.

I will say that over the years, WoW had become a bit of a special interest of mine (one of many, but it was the most prominent for a good portion of my life, still is, in fact), and a sort of...home away from home.

The game has changed so much over the years, and it vastly different from how it was since my Prime Time, for lack of a better term. I may never hardcore raid again, but even still, I thoroughly love this game.

All of this is to say..I quite enjoy talking about this game and all the lore/mechanics/aspects involved. I don't expect it to get others to start buying in and playing, but...either way, ask me anything about World of Warcraft.

Never played it, but I've heard that a lot of people like, genuinely love that game to the point where having to cancel an account can bring them to tears.
Whats a good memory you have from the game?





also ahaha LEROOOOY JEEEENKIIINNS

What's your favorite class/spec combo?

Alliance or Horde?

What are your thoughts on selling sub tokens for gold?

Any opinions on the need to grind rep to unlock races?

(I haven't played since BfA and before then, only a wee bit of BC and WotLK.)

@Cold_Atlas : A lot of my memories of that time are a bit tucked away/muddled, but I do recall the moment my old, old guild officially became one of the top 5 guilds worldwide, back in the era of the first expansion, The Burning Crusade.

@Auberon : My all time favorite class/spec(s) are Beastmaster Hunter and Enhancement Shaman. They've always felt REALLY good to play. I play on Alliance, mainly, too. As for the tokens, I'm...indifferent. I barely make enough gold these days to afford one, seeing as all the gold I DO make is put towards upgrading my character's gear and the like.

I really wasn't a fan of the rep/quest/campaign requirements to unlock the Allied Races, I still did most of them, but at some point they removed all the difficult stuff needed to do it all. All you need is to have a level 40 character on either faction, do a short quest, and then you can unlock the Allied Races depending on your chosen faction.

That's actually really good to know. The grind for everything was one of my biggest turn-offs and one of the reasons I could never stick with WoW. I'm more of a FFXIV guy these days, but I'll keep that in mind.

What's your favorite expack? Least favorite?

My favorite expansion is Wrath of the Lich King. Class Fantasy felt like it was at peak during that time. My least favorite would have to be Cataclysm, as cool as the Deathwing stuff was - mainly because of the world rehaul. By that I mean, I wish MORE of the world got updated a bit, instead of only pieces of it. It's wishful thinking, but I'd love for all the previous expansion zones to get some love like the recent ones got.

Did you ever play any of the previous Warcraft games before they turned it into an MMO?

I never got the chance when they were at peak/relevance/etc. I really enjoy RTS stuff so I would very much enjoy them now, if I ever managed to get them.

Looks like you're in luck, there was a surprise announcement today that all three have been remastered! Talk about good timing with my question.

Yeah! I watched the direct, too, lots of good stuff, I'm going to see if I can get my hands on the new Warcraft bundle soon, looks great.

What are some of your favorite memories with the game? Do you have any favorite zones or events from the past 20 years? Did you make any friends there that you've kept in touch with? ^^

A lot of the fun/good memories were for sure of my old guild for sure. We had enough people, rather often, to queue into a 40 versus 40 battleground against other people on the opposite faction. All 40 on our side being from our guild, it was always CRAZY, and of course, we would win such games, too, with the ability to communicate over Ventrilo voice comms.

As for favorite zones, I have a few, but the two that stand out the most are Un'Goro Crater, and Sholazar Basin. Both of them being HUGE craterous jungles/wildlands, which in turn inspired a region in my own setting.

Unfortunately, I lost/broke off contact with my old guild after some drama tore the guild apart. I have a few friends in-game that I met with over the last handful of years, however.