[0:01] [Music]
[0:14] [Music]
[0:31] released in 2004 the world of warcraft
[0:35] has left quite the impact in the MMO
[0:37] genre and PC gaming as a whole when
[0:40] someone says videogame the first thing
[0:42] that most people think of is mario zelda
[0:46] danky kang and world of warcraft
[0:50] jokingly referred to as world of
[0:52] warcraft due to its addicting nature it
[0:55] took the MMORPG world by storm and
[0:57] reached tens of millions of subscribers
[1:00] it's been parodied to death emulated and
[1:03] due to its success even a movie was
[1:06] created about the Warcraft universe
[1:08] everyone is plated or at least know
[1:11] someone who's played it at some point
[1:13] [Music]
[1:23] [Music]
[1:49] [Music]
[1:56] [Music]
[1:59] but the question is why what secret does
[2:03] this game hold and how did it capture
[2:05] such a broad audience in this video
[2:08] we'll cover its creation and go over all
[2:10] of the major events in the games near
[2:13] 14-year timeline as of 2018 that made it
[2:16] what it is today
[2:25] so it all began in 1999 George Lucas's
[2:30] Star Wars the episode 1 The Phantom
[2:32] Menace was just released Pokemon had the
[2:35] entire US population firmly in its grasp
[2:37] the world was getting ready for the y2k
[2:40] Armageddon and more importantly the game
[2:43] every quest was launched this was a
[2:46] massively multiplayer online
[2:47] role-playing game or MMORPG for short
[2:50] and it was the first commercially
[2:52] successful one to use a 3d game engine
[2:54] it really brought the genre to the
[2:57] forefront and showed just how much
[2:58] potential it had straying away from the
[3:02] established linear style RPG at the time
[3:04] rather going for more of an open-world
[3:06] sandbox and focusing on that massively
[3:09] multiplayer aspect behind the scenes of
[3:14] all of this the first pulse of the world
[3:16] of warcraft was recorded blizzards
[3:19] Warcraft franchise was rolling strong at
[3:21] this point with the first Warcraft orcs
[3:24] and humans being released in 1994 and
[3:27] following shortly after its sequel
[3:28] Warcraft 2 the tides of darkness in 1995
[3:32] these were fun little strategy games
[3:34] received quite well with the sequel
[3:37] selling over 2 million copies and even
[3:39] getting an expansion called beyond the
[3:41] dark portal
[3:43] enter the world of Azeroth humans elves
[3:47] works trolls
[3:49] it's the bread and butter fantasy
[3:51] setting with spells dragons and most
[3:54] importantly a lot of potential too much
[3:57] to fit into a simple RTS game as most of
[4:00] the lore was packed into the manuals
[4:02] that came with the game but with this
[4:06] Blizzard had three great franchises
[4:08] under their belts Starcraft Diablo and
[4:12] their flagship Warcraft Diablo would see
[4:16] how widely acclaimed sequel in year 2000
[4:19] and Starcraft in 2010 over a decade
[4:21] after the first and in 2002 Warcraft saw
[4:26] a third installment in the series with
[4:28] reign of chaos and the Frozen Throne an
[4:30] expansion pack one year later in 2003
[4:34] once again great little RTS games that
[4:37] improved on the previous games in almost
[4:39] every way but still too small a vessel
[4:43] for what Blizzard imagined the franchise
[4:45] to be lurking in the background they had
[4:48] something else in mind
[4:50] during these early 2000s these MMORPGs
[4:54] were growing in popularity with games
[4:56] like EverQuest as mentioned earlier
[4:58] Ultima Online runescape Star Wars
[5:01] Galaxies and so on it was something
[5:04] totally different a huge virtual sandbox
[5:07] world for you to explore with people
[5:10] from all over at the real world the goal
[5:12] wasn't to finish a storyline or see a
[5:14] credits screen it was what you made of
[5:17] it you built your own story and with
[5:20] thousands of others you built your own
[5:21] communities and virtual world the
[5:24] potential was there and it was just a
[5:27] matter of time before one game in
[5:29] particular caught fire
[5:36] beyond the gates of mighty kingdoms lies
[5:41] a vast unexplored
[5:48] best board the 2001 world of warcraft
[5:51] was first announced at the European
[5:53] computer tradeshow making its debut with
[5:57] the cinematic it promised a world of
[5:59] mystery adventure and danger not just a
[6:03] single-player realtime strategy game
[6:05] with the campaign bed you could beat in
[6:07] a day like the previous games of the
[6:09] franchise but rather well a whole world
[6:12] a full 3d environment a personalised
[6:16] avatar that you created multiple
[6:19] continent zones races classes all of the
[6:23] bells and whistles of the MMORPG genre
[6:25] at the time it was clear that every
[6:29] quest was an inspiration in its design
[6:31] but a simple clone won't cut it they had
[6:34] to do something different so was their
[6:37] hook well basically it was that it would
[6:40] be more accessible to the everyday
[6:42] player at this point things such as XP
[6:46] or gear laughs upon death or even
[6:49] permanent character death were a
[6:50] commonplace in the MMO scene as well as
[6:53] picking your stats and putting in points
[6:55] during the character creation before you
[6:57] even knew what you were doing it was
[7:00] pretty hardcore so the world of warcraft
[7:02] wanted to give a more laid-back and
[7:04] casual experience that didn't punish the
[7:06] player for dying or require extreme
[7:09] knowledge of RPGs in general to play in
[7:12] a genre that was growing rapidly in
[7:14] popularity they tried to appeal to this
[7:16] untapped market all the while
[7:18] maintaining that while it'll be easy to
[7:20] learn it'll still be just as hard as the
[7:23] others to master
[7:28] [Music]
[7:30] as more and more details at the game
[7:33] were unveiled the initial reaction was
[7:36] actually uneasiness from the fans of the
[7:38] series the previous games are simple
[7:41] single-player experiences you buy a game
[7:44] you pop it into your system and you
[7:47] start playing that's all you need
[7:49] but MMORPGs broke these rules you need
[7:53] an active internet connection to even
[7:55] play it and not only that in addition to
[7:58] the game he also needed to pay an extra
[8:00] monthly subscription fee today this is
[8:03] common but back in 2001 even computers
[8:07] were still pretty new to a lot of us
[8:09] what if we got a phone call while we
[8:12] were playing what happens then you had
[8:14] better hoped that you weren't in combat
[8:16] that's for sure I can hear those AOL
[8:19] logging sounds now and as for the
[8:29] subscription fee is this a game or a
[8:32] magazine it was much more foreign to the
[8:35] average gamer and left many unsure of
[8:37] the direction of the series
[8:40] regardless development continued
[8:43] throughout the years as more and more of
[8:44] the finer details of how the game was
[8:47] going to work were released via the
[8:50] computer gaming world magazine issued
[8:52] 208 released in November 2001 initially
[8:57] there are just three races humans orcs
[8:59] and torrents and you would have vast
[9:02] character customization options a huge
[9:04] selection of different armor and weapons
[9:06] to obtain you'll be able to visit an old
[9:09] areas in past Warcraft games and of
[9:12] course new ones as well fans odd and odd
[9:16] had the preview screenshots and slowly
[9:19] but surely started to get an idea of the
[9:21] world that Blizzard was creating and the
[9:23] anticipation of the end product grew and
[9:26] grew
[9:28] to tide them over the third installment
[9:30] of the Warcraft franchise was released
[9:32] in July of 2002 as mentioned earlier the
[9:36] big project though was World of Warcraft
[9:39] at this point around 50 people were all
[9:42] working together around the clock on the
[9:44] game adding more and more of their
[9:46] planned features giving previews
[9:48] building the world and trying to create
[9:51] something playable for the eager fans to
[9:53] test they were stepping into unfamiliar
[9:56] territory for sure but the passion for
[9:59] what they were creating carried them
[10:01] through it
[10:09] this development continued until
[10:11] February 2004 when the first beta test
[10:14] launched finally the game was opened up
[10:17] to the general public three years after
[10:21] the initial announcement and looking at
[10:23] screenshots reading articles and
[10:25] watching gameplay trailers players at
[10:28] last got to enter the world of warcraft
[10:30] they were finally able to create their
[10:33] own avatar and start their own adventure
[10:36] at this point players found something
[10:39] that more resembled the actual November
[10:41] 2004 release of the game many more races
[10:45] were playable several different classes
[10:47] a working questing system and so on it
[10:51] was an MMO in the Warcraft universe and
[10:54] after several months of testing its
[10:57] official release in North America
[10:58] Australia and New Zealand on November
[11:02] 23rd 2004
[11:12] just as they had promised the game
[11:14] offered a far more casual experience
[11:16] with low penalty to dying easy to jump
[11:19] in an easier learning curve with the
[11:21] combat questing and character building
[11:24] systems
[11:25] it was the casual players MMORPG and at
[11:29] the time very polished all in all it
[11:32] launched with 60 levels of character
[11:34] progression to continents with 41 zones
[11:38] to factions the whoredom alliance with
[11:41] eight playable races nine different
[11:43] character classes hundreds and hundreds
[11:45] of quests dozens of dungeons to crawl
[11:48] through and to rates to complete and to
[11:51] support the eager fanbase eighty-eight
[11:54] servers critics found few negative
[11:57] aspects to bring up and it received
[11:59] numerous awards upon launch with many
[12:01] more in the months to come the world was
[12:05] entirely new and for a lot of players so
[12:08] too was the genre there were refugees
[12:10] from other big animals like EverQuest or
[12:13] Star Wars Galaxies but due to its casual
[12:16] nature the world of warcraft was the
[12:18] first MMO for a lot of people about
[12:22] 250,000 in fact judging by the archived
[12:24] subscriber numbers which was very good
[12:26] at the time remember MMOs are still
[12:29] growing in popularity and unlike the RTS
[12:32] games which sold millions within the
[12:34] first few months of release these
[12:36] required an active internet connection
[12:37] and a monthly subscription fee combine
[12:41] that with the stellar graphics at the
[12:43] time and thus a good computer recorded
[12:45] to run it properly to reach 250,000
[12:48] sales and subscriptions through all of
[12:50] these hurdles was impressive to say the
[12:52] least
[12:53] and as word spread this would be just a
[12:56] fraction of the games peak
[13:03] it's major competitor was EverQuest and
[13:07] although their subscription numbers were
[13:08] never public based off of press sources
[13:11] they were estimated to have around
[13:13] 400,000 ish around the time World of
[13:15] Warcraft released and this would
[13:17] decrease in the months to come
[13:18] as Warcraft gained popularity whether it
[13:22] was dungeon crawling with a group of
[13:24] four friends facing off against enemy
[13:27] players of the opposing faction or going
[13:29] through a raid with 39 other members of
[13:31] your guild players found themselves
[13:33] gripped by the new MMO and found it hard
[13:36] to put it down it was everything they
[13:39] wanted and more remember that term world
[13:42] of warcraft
[13:44] even reaching the maximum level was very
[13:47] time consuming and addiction started
[13:50] becoming a common thing people got fired
[13:53] from their jobs or they just flat-out
[13:55] quit to play more
[13:56] and sadly friendships and even lives
[13:59] were claimed with the most extreme cases
[14:04] it was almost frightening how addicted
[14:07] people would get it's a trait with
[14:09] MMORPGs in general but it said a lot
[14:11] about the quality of World of Warcraft
[14:13] in particular with how wide it spread as
[14:16] the subscriber numbers grew into grew
[14:19] and it was becoming clear that this was
[14:22] the new MMO to play Blizzard expanded
[14:25] into other regions with releases to
[14:27] South Korea in January of 2005 Europe
[14:31] one month later in February and China in
[14:34] June of the same year the race was on
[14:38] between regions and guilds two level to
[14:40] the max and to be the first to claim a
[14:43] raid boss kill and finally after two
[14:46] months the raid boss Onyxia fell at the
[14:48] hands of the guild ruined from the US on
[14:51] January 30th 2005
[14:55] as the players were progressing through
[14:57] these dungeons and raids the subscribers
[14:59] grew and grew and thus too did the
[15:02] investment of time and money into the
[15:04] game over time it's on provements in
[15:07] every aspect Warcraft as a series was no
[15:11] longer blizzards flagship it was World
[15:13] of Warcraft itself more dungeons and
[15:17] raids would be added the PvP would be
[15:19] improved and so on to retain the player
[15:22] base the subscriptions rose reaching a
[15:25] staggering 1 million in February 2005
[15:28] just four months after the launch and
[15:31] more than double than ever quests
[15:33] projected peak just a few months later
[15:36] in June of the same year this number had
[15:38] tripled to an astonishing 3 million the
[15:42] gaming world had World of Warcraft fever
[16:09] [Music]
[16:12] lizard projected 1 million subscribers
[16:15] in one year so to triple that and just
[16:18] half a year after lunch
[16:19] was astounding they weren't prepared
[16:21] hardware wise and struggled to keep up
[16:24] with the growing player base server
[16:27] downtime that became commonplace as they
[16:29] struggled to keep up kind of a good
[16:31] problem to have but the frustration
[16:33] still arose as you would imagine being
[16:36] that it was a monthly subscription based
[16:37] game it was during this boom then it
[16:45] started spilling out into the real world
[16:47] the first viral video showcased a player
[16:50] named Leroy Jenkins half-assedly
[16:52] charging into a dungeon room while his
[16:54] comrades came up with a plan for attack
[16:57] resulting in their deaths the video
[17:14] caught on and was shared all over the
[17:16] place in various gaming forums news
[17:19] websites and even created a new term
[17:22] within the genre called Leroy Inge where
[17:24] a player foolishly charges into the fray
[17:26] with no regard to his own safety or that
[17:29] of his party members in November of the
[17:33] same year it became a piece of trivia in
[17:35] the popular game show Jeopardy although
[17:38] all three contestants didn't know the
[17:40] answer and that would be the world of
[17:44] warcraft all right we have Leroy you
[17:48] were just stupid as hell
[17:50] [Music]
[17:55] interestingly enough going back to our
[17:58] subscriber chart here the video released
[18:00] in May and just one month later the game
[18:03] saw one of its biggest spikes and
[18:04] subscriber numbers you can't officially
[18:07] confirm any correlation here but it's
[18:10] funny to think that one video may have
[18:12] actually had such a substantial impact
[18:14] in the popularity and spread of the game
[18:18] in September of the same year the world
[18:23] of warcraft became a subject of study in
[18:25] epidemic and terrorism research when a
[18:28] virtual pandemic broke out within the
[18:30] world of Azeroth players could be
[18:33] afflicted with the spell called
[18:35] corrupted blood which would damage them
[18:37] and also spread to nearby party members
[18:40] this was intended to remain within the
[18:42] confines of a great instance but players
[18:45] found out how to bring it into the major
[18:47] cities with dense populations and
[18:49] maliciously spread it to other annoying
[18:52] players and non player characters within
[18:55] hours these major hubs became
[18:57] uninhabitable as the disease spread
[19:00] between its dense population until
[19:03] finally days later Blizzard was able to
[19:05] remedy the situation by introducing a
[19:08] patch and restarting every server this
[19:11] event would later be compared to the
[19:14] swine flu pandemic and is still used
[19:16] today in research in the spread of
[19:18] diseases the world of warcraft continued
[19:23] to grow either through word of mouth or
[19:25] commercial advertisements and nearly a
[19:28] year later after the Leroy Jenkins video
[19:30] released another video related to world
[19:33] of warcraft went viral in April of 2006
[19:36] [Music]
[19:39] that means five
[19:48] titled the Onyxia wipe animation this
[19:52] didn't show the light-hearted mishaps of
[19:54] an overzealous adventurer but rather
[19:56] than of a raid leader who is less than
[19:59] impressed at the performance of his
[20:01] comrades and their attempt to kill
[20:02] Onyxia a raid boss this instead
[20:19] displayed a darker side of the game of
[20:21] how much it gripped people and the
[20:23] consequences of addiction
[20:35] months later in October more light was
[20:38] shed on the game via the cartoon series
[20:40] South Park with her Warcraft theme make
[20:42] love not war craft episode the plot
[20:46] centered around four friends who cast
[20:48] away their social lives and health in
[20:50] exchange for becoming more powerful in
[20:52] the game to defeat an unnamed player who
[20:55] continuously kills lower level players
[20:57] for his amusement this episode was
[21:00] watched by 3.4 million viewers making it
[21:04] the highest rated midseason premiere on
[21:06] the Comedy Central Network since the
[21:08] year 2000 and receiving the Primetime
[21:10] Emmy Award for outstanding animated
[21:12] programs in 2007 over a decade later it
[21:17] still ranks upon the series most popular
[21:20] episodes with all of this surrounding
[21:23] the world of warcraft the game grew and
[21:25] so too did its subscriber count and by
[21:29] the end of the lifespan of the base game
[21:31] eight million players worldwide found
[21:33] themselves lost in the world of Azeroth
[21:38] [Music]
[21:42] On January 16 2007 the first expansion
[21:47] set for World of Warcraft launched named
[21:50] the Burning Crusade this expansion
[21:52] focused on calling the invasion of a
[21:55] demon army upon Azeroth going through a
[21:57] portal into their realm and taking out
[22:00] their commanders including returning
[22:02] protagonists and antagonists from the
[22:05] Warcraft franchise such as Illidan
[22:07] Stormrage and Kael'thas Sunstrider it
[22:12] sold nearly 2.4 million copies within 24
[22:15] hours of launch making it the fastest
[22:18] selling PC game ever made at that point
[22:20] the world was built in the base game so
[22:23] now is the time to start adding more and
[22:25] more story every gameplay system was
[22:28] updated and improved classes were
[22:31] balanced further new dungeons and raids
[22:33] were added it was an expansion set a
[22:36] good one too as the subscriptions
[22:39] continued to increase
[22:41] astonishingly enough throughout the
[22:43] course of the base game and this
[22:45] expansion there hadn't been a single
[22:47] month in which the world of warcraft had
[22:49] lost subscribers not only was Blizzard
[22:53] drying in new fans but they were also
[22:55] retaining the current ones and it was
[22:58] also during this time when Blizzard
[23:00] launched their unique ad campaign where
[23:02] celebrities would talk about their
[23:04] experiences in the world of warcraft
[23:05] such as Verne Troyer mr. t and William
[23:10] Shatner
[23:10] although Verne was the only one
[23:12] confirmed to have actually played the
[23:14] game
[23:15] [Music]
[23:18] the Warcraft the number one online game
[23:20] try it for free at Warcraft calm
[23:27] [Music]
[23:51] the game progressed is normal receiving
[23:54] more and more updates and in January
[23:57] 2008 it broke the 10 million subscriber
[24:00] milestone and even still this would not
[24:03] be the peak it was still the top MMO in
[24:07] the entire genre by a longshot
[24:09] dwarf in all competition which struggled
[24:12] to reach just 1 million subscribers the
[24:15] competition did start to ramp up though
[24:17] one of the first games not to be quote
[24:20] the wild killer was the Age of Conan and
[24:23] it's our release in May of 2008 the game
[24:27] boasted a unique reactive combat system
[24:30] stunning graphics and an adult theme it
[24:34] won many awards for its showing at
[24:36] various gaming conventions upon release
[24:40] it received favorable review from
[24:42] critics but poor reviews from the
[24:44] players citing bugs missing zones and a
[24:47] complete lack of endgame content 1
[24:51] million copies were shipped upon launch
[24:53] but the subscriber number quickly
[24:55] declined as those flaws were uncovered
[24:58] [Music]
[25:00] Warhammer Online released in September
[25:03] of the same year was also anticipated to
[25:05] be the MMO to overtake World of Warcraft
[25:08] similar in the fantasy setting with orcs
[25:11] elves and magic it was the most
[25:14] comparable MMO to world of warcraft yet
[25:16] with the long-running franchise to back
[25:18] it up the game saw little success
[25:21] however peaking with the mere 800
[25:23] thousand subscribers compared the World
[25:25] of Warcraft's 10 million and dropping
[25:28] further to 300,000 in the months to come
[25:31] before going free-to-play and eventually
[25:34] a total shutdown on December of 2013
[25:37] five years later this was due to an
[25:41] overall unpolished experience compared
[25:43] to the world of warcraft a lacking
[25:45] endgame and various technical problems
[25:48] such as erroneously billing players for
[25:50] multiple subscriptions in a single day
[25:53] with the highest charges reported and
[25:55] going into the thousands
[26:01] through all of this the world of
[26:03] warcraft sailed on with great success
[26:05] and on November 13th 2008 it's not
[26:09] second expansion the wrath of the lich
[26:11] king
[26:12] [Music]
[26:20] following suit with the Burning Crusade
[26:22] another antagonist was brought in from
[26:25] the Warcraft franchise as Blizzard
[26:27] sought to bring more story and lore into
[26:29] the series this time it was Arthas
[26:33] Menethil the Lich King and master of the
[26:36] undead players launched a campaign in
[26:39] the continent of north Rend to challenge
[26:41] the Lich Lord at his own seat of power
[26:43] and just as you'd expect more dungeons
[26:47] raids and more gameplay systems were
[26:50] added to satiate the now 10 million
[26:52] strong player base 2.8 million copies in
[26:56] total were sold breaking their own
[26:58] record of the fastest selling PC game of
[27:00] all time set by the Burning Crusade
[27:02] expansion
[27:03] [Music]
[27:20] this expansion revisited their initial
[27:23] design of the casual friendly and memo
[27:26] RPG combined with easier access to
[27:28] dungeons via a new system called the
[27:31] dungeon finder this expansion was seen
[27:33] as the end of the hardcore era of World
[27:35] of Warcraft by many players and many
[27:38] hold it in high regard as the peak of
[27:40] the game
[27:41] I thought supported by the ever-growing
[27:43] subscriber numbers with the game
[27:45] reaching its all-time peak of 12 million
[27:48] in October of 2010 out of the released
[27:51] numbers the game at this point had still
[27:54] never had a month where the subscribers
[27:56] dipped although reports came in less and
[27:59] less starting with the Burning Crusade
[28:01] there are a lot of skipped months where
[28:03] we very well could have seen a small dip
[28:07] in the same year China finally saw a
[28:11] release of the Burning Crusade expansion
[28:13] three years after its original release
[28:16] this is due to the amount of censorship
[28:18] needed to release the game bones and
[28:21] gore weren't allowed to be shown in
[28:23] excess so many of the in-game assets had
[28:26] to be altered both in the base game and
[28:28] all of its expansions thus slowing their
[28:31] release they would only see a Wrath of
[28:34] the Lich King release months later due
[28:36] to the same reason the expansion overall
[28:41] was a huge financial and critical
[28:43] success however although it was received
[28:46] well by players it wasn't without
[28:48] problems outside of the game I'm July
[28:51] 6th towards the tail end of the
[28:53] expansion Blizzard announced their plans
[28:55] to introduce the Real ID system on their
[28:58] official forums which would change the
[29:00] author of all posts from the normally
[29:03] used in game avatar to the real-life
[29:05] named tied to the posters account this
[29:08] was met with Swift and heavy backlash by
[29:10] players and curious onlookers alike
[29:13] spurring hundreds of third-party
[29:15] articles being published about the
[29:17] fiasco addressing concerns about the
[29:20] privacy of the forum users the situation
[29:24] quickly turned ugly as users started
[29:26] posting personal information of
[29:28] employees of blizzards such as phone
[29:30] numbers
[29:30] their personal facebook pages and even
[29:33] their street addresses and that of their
[29:35] friends and family three days later
[29:38] after an overwhelming negative response
[29:40] Blizzard rescinded their plans to make
[29:43] the posters names visible although to
[29:45] this day it still remains to be one of
[29:48] their biggest controversies
[29:56] [Music]
[29:58] at the end of 2010 in November the world
[30:01] Warcraft side's biggest change yet in
[30:04] its current six-year run the original
[30:06] launch continents the Eastern Kingdoms
[30:08] and calendar had been completely changed
[30:11] and reworked in preparation for the new
[30:14] expansion Cataclysm feeling that the
[30:17] world that they created in 2004 had
[30:20] become outdated the land quests and
[30:23] classes major reworks in the game's most
[30:26] volatile expansion yet
[30:28] more content was added just like the
[30:31] previous expansion and the ease of
[30:33] access design approach accelerated with
[30:36] the introduction of the looking for raid
[30:38] system termed LFR for short which made
[30:41] the endgame activity rating much more
[30:43] accessible to the everyday player more
[30:47] dungeons raids and the normal expansion
[30:49] updates came as you would expect the
[30:52] hype was huge and players were eager for
[30:55] a new adventure and in similar fashion
[30:58] Blizzard once more broke the record of
[31:00] the fastest selling PC game of all time
[31:02] with 3.3 million copies sold on release
[31:07] once the players dived into the game
[31:09] however the reception was mixed for the
[31:12] first time and in March of 2011 the
[31:15] world of warcraft sats first public loss
[31:18] of subscribers since its release in
[31:20] november 2004 over six years ago the MMO
[31:25] genre in general at this point also
[31:27] declined in popularity the market had
[31:30] become oversaturated with hundreds and
[31:32] hundreds of free-to-play MMORPG G's and
[31:35] what used to be a rising unique genre
[31:38] became almost exhausting for gamers
[31:41] because of this and the volatility of
[31:44] the Cataclysm expansion itself the
[31:46] subscriber numbers continued to wane for
[31:48] Blizzard throughout the years of 2011
[31:51] and 2012 dropping to its lowest to nine
[31:54] million in July of 2012 just 75 percent
[31:58] of its peak two years prior another
[32:03] contributing factor to this decrease was
[32:05] the slowdown of content the game is
[32:08] updated through major content patches a
[32:10] practice that's been maintained at a
[32:12] steady pace up until the end of the
[32:15] Wrath of the Lich King expansion inter
[32:18] expansion updates at this point were
[32:20] fairly reasonable the time between the
[32:23] last patch for the base game and the
[32:25] release of the Burning Crusade was just
[32:27] under three months this increased to
[32:30] just under 7 months between the end of
[32:32] the Burning Crusade and the beginning of
[32:34] the Wrath of the Lich King and even
[32:37] further to 9 to 10 months between the
[32:39] end of the Lich King 2 Cataclysm and
[32:41] Cataclysm 2 Pandaria these content
[32:45] droughts were seen as far too long by
[32:47] players and slowly but surely the last
[32:50] interest and found their gaming fix
[32:52] elsewhere Blizzard finally saw their
[32:56] first increase in subscribers two years
[32:58] later with the release of the mists of
[33:00] pandaria expansion where the war between
[33:03] the horde and Alliance is reignited and
[33:05] they fight over control of an unexplored
[33:08] world this would be short-lived however
[33:10] as the hype died down shortly after its
[33:13] release and interest continued to wane
[33:16] dropping as low as 6.8 million
[33:18] subscribers in June of 2014 the lowest
[33:22] it's been since its initial rise to
[33:24] glory in 2006
[33:26] the inter expansion patch gap grew to 13
[33:29] months the longest yet
[33:43] the new warlords of draenor expansion
[33:45] was announced promising to go back to
[33:47] the roots of World of Warcraft
[33:49] and revisiting the same world as the
[33:51] Burning Crusade expansion before it
[33:53] became corrupted by the Burning Legion
[33:55] we would go through the dark portal once
[33:58] more seven years later and visit the
[34:00] world of Draenor and once again stop an
[34:03] invasion that threatens all life on
[34:05] Azeroth this time the antagonist is
[34:09] Grommash Hellscream an orc warlord and
[34:12] the leader of the iron horde the hyper
[34:15] reached critical mass and many
[34:18] anticipated the grand return of the
[34:20] World of Warcraft and relived their days
[34:22] in the Outland the expansion saw release
[34:26] on November 13 to 2014 and the game saw
[34:29] an explosion of new and returning
[34:31] players in just three months the game
[34:35] saw 2.6 million subscriber increase
[34:38] bringing it back to 10 million the
[34:40] highest it's been since the launch of
[34:42] the mists of pandaria expansion just in
[34:45] time for its 10-year anniversary the
[34:48] expansion itself sold 3.3 million copies
[34:51] matching their sales of the Cataclysm
[34:54] expansion four years ago for the first
[34:57] time in a long time
[34:59] players experienced queues to log into
[35:01] the game due to the servers being at
[35:03] full capacity a good problem to have you
[35:06] would think but after three days of
[35:08] queues and extreme leg from the bustling
[35:11] launch the patience of the players was
[35:13] tested while the release of Draenor was
[35:17] a financial success
[35:19] the expansion as a whole had little to
[35:21] offer the raids added were far fewer
[35:24] compared to previous expansions with
[35:26] just three throughout the entirety event
[35:28] a large amount of energy instead went
[35:31] into the garrison system which served as
[35:34] the base of operations for the player in
[35:36] their campaign against the iron horde
[35:38] something that was met with heavy
[35:40] criticism by the game's player base
[35:42] citing that these Garrison's had aspects
[35:45] of mobile gaming such as daily missions
[35:47] to launch to get rewards in both gear
[35:49] and gold the garrisons themselves were
[35:53] also seen to be too powerful
[35:55] offering too much to the player in their
[35:57] own separate instance thus leaving
[36:00] little reason to ever leave them taking
[36:02] away the biggest aspect of any MMO and
[36:05] it made it seem like a single-player
[36:07] game at times a problem that was
[36:09] exacerbated with the extreme loss of
[36:11] subscriptions that followed after the
[36:15] initial height down the game sides
[36:17] sharpest declined subscribers yet
[36:19] quickly dropping from 10 million in
[36:21] December of 2014 to 7.1 just three
[36:25] months later in March of 2015 and
[36:28] further to 5.6 million in June of the
[36:31] same year its lowest since December of
[36:34] 2005 during its rise Blizzard chose to
[36:38] withhold information of their amount of
[36:40] subscribers from this point forward with
[36:45] a little amount of content and had the
[36:47] warlords of draenor trudged forward with
[36:49] its final patch 6.2 just one of three
[36:52] major patches and the expansion if you
[36:54] count the pre patch the inter expansion
[36:57] patch downtime was against staggering
[36:59] clocking in at 13 months between six
[37:02] point two on June 23rd 2015 and seven
[37:06] point 0.3 on July 19 2016 through the
[37:12] success of the cash shop and the ability
[37:14] to buy level boosts and other cosmetic
[37:16] items the warlords of draenor turned out
[37:19] better than expected financially for
[37:21] Blizzard
[37:22] but the future of the game looked bleak
[37:26] during this time Blizzard looked for
[37:28] success outside of the game with their
[37:30] feature film Warcraft directed by Duncan
[37:34] Jones this movie brought the story of
[37:37] the Warcraft universe to the big screen
[37:39] and had been announced as early as 2006
[37:42] it premiered in the United States on
[37:45] June 10th 2016 and while it grossed over
[37:48] 400 million dollars worldwide it was met
[37:52] with negative reviews and a
[37:53] disappointing domestic box-office
[37:55] performance
[37:56] critics itíd that the plot was confusing
[37:59] and hard to follow for those unfamiliar
[38:02] with the franchise
[38:08] the next expansion World of Warcraft
[38:11] Legion released on August 30th 2016 this
[38:15] expansion promised all of the normal
[38:17] things that players have come to expect
[38:19] out of an expansion at this point more
[38:21] character levels new gameplay features
[38:24] raids major updates to the core gameplay
[38:27] of each class and most importantly a
[38:30] faster patch cycle including pre-orders
[38:34] they had sold 3.3 million copies by the
[38:37] end of its release date the actual
[38:40] expansion received a fair reception
[38:43] without any public subscription numbers
[38:45] only Blizzard knows but overall Legion
[38:48] was a nice recovery from the warlords of
[38:51] Draenor the more minor patches became
[38:54] more major and their speed in general
[38:56] was increased with around 11 weeks
[38:59] between these patches giving players
[39:01] something to work on and trying to avoid
[39:03] those long droughts that became
[39:05] commonplace at this point the problems
[39:08] from Draenor were addressed and there
[39:10] were no Garrison's instead being
[39:12] replaced by the toned down order Hall
[39:14] system and over the course of its
[39:16] two-year run its add 5 raids a
[39:18] respectable amount and many new features
[39:21] added within the game making it
[39:23] technically one of the biggest
[39:25] expansions yet in terms of rock content
[39:27] and new features
[39:32] this brings us to the current day the
[39:36] next expansion is the battle for Azeroth
[39:38] which seemingly reignites the War
[39:40] Between the Alliance and the Horde once
[39:42] more it's set to launch on August 14
[39:45] 2018 this video was made during the
[39:49] inter expansion downtime which will be
[39:51] about six months not too bad and it's a
[39:56] number that they haven't met since the
[39:58] Burning Crusade - the wrath of the lich
[40:00] king drive so that's the current near 14
[40:05] year history of World of Warcraft what a
[40:09] long strange trip it's been highs and
[40:11] lows for sure some people believe that
[40:14] the highs are all behind us and what's
[40:17] made the game special has faded away
[40:19] during its 14-year run and others still
[40:22] have just as much fun as they did back
[40:24] in November 2004 in the beginning of the
[40:28] video I asked what made it special what
[40:31] was it about this MMO that touched so
[40:34] many for the past 14 years such that
[40:37] there exists several emulated servers
[40:39] for each expansion and even an upcoming
[40:42] official release by Blizzard of the game
[40:44] in its original vanilla state over a
[40:46] decade ago I don't think it's one simple
[40:50] answer but it's what I said earlier in
[40:53] comparison to the other reigning and the
[40:55] Mo's at the time it was designed to be
[40:57] much easier to get into forgoing those
[41:00] harsh penalties to dying and just having
[41:02] an easier learning curve in general the
[41:05] ease of access quickly caught on and it
[41:08] was the first MMO for many people and
[41:10] your first MMO is a pretty unique and
[41:12] memorable experience being used to
[41:16] linear single-player RPGs such as Final
[41:19] Fantasy or Zelda and stepping into this
[41:22] massive world for the first time and you
[41:25] didn't go through it alone you made
[41:26] friends joined guilds and went through
[41:29] the toughest challenges together the
[41:31] concept of a boss that took 40 people to
[41:34] kill was foreign to a lot of players
[41:37] you watched your character and the game
[41:39] evolve before your very eyes over the
[41:41] course of years not days nor weeks like
[41:44] the classic RPGs it delivered a fresh
[41:47] and unique product in a growing genre
[41:50] and left a huge impact in the MMO scene
[41:52] on the gaming industry as a whole and on
[41:55] the people who've played it and it'll go
[41:58] down as one of the greats in gaming
[42:00] history it's a story that's had ups and
[42:03] downs and continues to this day
[42:06] for some it ended long ago but for
[42:10] others the drums of war Thunder once
[42:14] again
[42:43] farewell for now mortals hope you
[42:47] enjoyed today's the deal see you were
[42:50] gay