The New York Times Celebrates 20 Years of Orcs, Guilds and Memes in World of Warcraft

Live Posted 12 hr 20 min ago by Archimtiros

WoW was a social network before social media, and continues to prove that the connections made inside it are
just as real as any other.

Politicians have used WoW as a campaign tool, in an attempt to connect with younger, disaffected voters.

A ‘South Park’ episode about WoW won an Emmy, and continues to be one of the highest ranked episodes in the show's history!

There is a high-minded academia within WoW, extending to Blizzard's own Student Art Contests and even university sports as well!

WoW showed that subscription services could pay off, despite long-time criticisms of the model and similar games shifting to more freemium styles.

WoW said orcs could be heroic, offering players an entirely new perspective.

A meeeeeeeeme is booooooooorn, after Leeroy Jenkins took the world by storm and continues to this day.

WoW provided a case study on epidemics, with the Corrupted Blood incident marking the first online instance of uncontrolled plague to affect millions of real people.

Celebrities are not immune to WoW fervor, from Jamie Lee Curtis, to David Harbour, Kristian Nairn, Henry Cavill, and many more.

Steve Bannon participated in WoW’s fringe economy, eventually using Chinese gold farmers as a conceptual framework to help build an audience for Breitbart news.

Players opened their wallets for WoW. Whether supporting charity pets or getting their own extravagant mount, players purchase them in record numbers, despite the sales being one of the game's most hotly debated controversies.

Successful games can make bad movies, though its reputation and reception have improved over the years.

WoW jargon spread to the alt-right, attempting to co-opt "kek," though the the Horde translation of "lol" may be seen less often these days as players can much more easily communicate with each other now.

‘I’m a Night Elf Mohawk’ was another wildly successful celebrity campaign in a time where video games were just starting to reach the wider television audience. More recently, the 20th Anniversary celebrated the return of the infamous Mohawk Grenade to engage a whole new generation of players!

Cryptocurrency developers were inspired by WoW, purportedly being an inspiration for the creation of Ethereum, although the creator later retracted the claim.

Many women found WoW welcoming, which Blizzard has fostered through several events and scholarships.

WoW merged our modern worlds, bringing the digital world into the physical with a wide and ever evolving line of props, toys, card games, and more.

WoW is a place to love and to grieve, again proving that the relationships formed online can be just as real as those in person.

WoW became a virtual stage for artists, with Blizzard continuing to foster their development and celebrating some of the best talent in the industry!

WoW harnessed the power of nostalgia, first by bringing back WoW Classic, changing up the game with a fresh spin, and then starting all over again! More than ever before, World of Warcraft has strived to provide something for everyone.

Comment by ScaryfoxI honestly thought there was going to be a bunch of unfunny memes. I'm glad this was more of a restropective look since it's easy to just focus on the criticism. I don't understand how the Warcraft movie's rep improved, though. Sure, it wasn't a bad movie; Duncan Hines (I believe) already had a story written for him. And it probably would've helped people like me whose only really familiar with the MMORPG version.

Oh, and I still think WoW's just survived this long because every other MMO that drops immediately gets labeled a clone. And if you can't count on enough people playing it, why make it good? Again, for the most part since I can think of a couple that can give this a run for its money...until they don't know how to crank up the difficulty.Comment by TequimaThey missed out the Robin Williams tribute in the summary. It brings a smile when a new alt visits Nagrand and I take a brief diversion there & rub the lamp.

You can read a limited number of more parts of the article via Press Reader (you'll need to change the advanced search > date to cover a wider range if reading this more than 3 days after 17 November 2024).Comment by MiewPawWhy is everyone saying pay wall, I have no account and I could read the whole article on the site. I live in EUComment by Pandaabear*pssst* archivebuttons com *pssst*

If you wanna bypass the paywall. Tho, I doubt they will let me have the comment up.Comment by ElunarioThe scientists in the fictional Stargate laboratories talk about WoW very often. Looks that the NYT folks did not watch Stargate.Comment by IncandioI sub to the NYT. It's a real humdinger of an article, probably the best article ever written about WoW. If you can't read it, you're missing out on something incredibly important that will almost certainly radically alter your view of the game.

Best of all, it's full of controversial statements that are simply begging to be angrily corrected. And there's a comment section!Comment by kentis1992Nope. Not making an account for that.