Blog Post Monday: World of Warcraft closing to the Seventh Anniversary.
Almost one month from now (11th February) will mark the 7th anniversary from the release of World of Warcraft. The mmorpg that made gamers go crazy to the point that for a weapon they killed each other (some even literally). But what is the future for this game, is this game popularity going downhill?
World of Warcraft is one of those games that make you quit because you get frustrated but when you watch a youtube video of someone doing something awesome you end up playing it again. Well I don’t know about you, but that is my story with World of Warcraft. I remember when the game was in Beta testing and I got my Beta access I created my night elf rogue. The game looked polished and it was something that I never experience before. Technically I come from a background of playing Ultima Online but this was totally different.
Seven years down the road and I subscribed for the annual pass, what kept me playing the game?
Honestly, I have no idea!! Don’t get me wrong I think the game is awesome but many can agree to the fact that if you play the game casually you are going to end up behind, and that is technically my story. I level a character have no time to raid, have no time (or team mates) to play arena, so I am always stuck with gear from the season before. Yet I never quit the game.
I think games like World of Warcraft give gamers the feel that they belong in the world, sort of like the Tamagotchi craze, everyone made sure that their little 8bit pet was happy. The same goes for WoW you end up feeling connected to the character and always planning on how you can improve your player status.
With the launch of SWTOR, people thought that Star Wars would kill world of warcraft, while I agree that SWTOR gave world of warcraft a run for its money I think there is no way that I can kill the game. Gamers who love to play WoW will still continue to play, most probably they will play both. A good example can be given with Starcraft, people still played Starcraft prior to the launch of Starcraft 2. This means that players were playing a 12 year old game. I believe that only a game that is launched by Blizzard themselves can kill WoW, if they show that they are not supporting the game as they are right now.
While I can never achieve any real status in the game due to time constraints and real life issues, I still enjoy logging in and play some battlegrounds. Although I believe if you add the social aspect to the whole formula you have a very addictive game on your hands. I think World of Warcraft has to be named one of the top games of our generation because no other game had the same impact on the world (and I am not talking about the gaming world). People got jobs playing the game, companies starting selling in game gold and goverments thought that they should add tax to anything bought with WoW currency.
To conclude I don’t see this year to be the end of WoW especially since a new expansion is coming out and it includes cuddly pandas. However I do believe when blizzard will launch their new MMORPG we will definitely see a shift in gamers to the new game. We just have to wait and see.
Ruben Gatt
Ruben has been into gaming since he was 9 years old. He first started off as an avid pc gamer and later expanded his horizons to xbox gaming. Follow his blog and his youtube channel.
