While the in-game story of World of Warcraft springs from characters and storylines established in Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, many don't realize that the games shared a development timeline. Together, they help provide some structure to the story of World of Warcraft's early and continuing development. Current World of Warcraft principals like Battle for Azeroth game director Ion Hazzikostas, principal artist Jimmy Lo, and technical director Patrick Dawson are joined by former Blizzard Entertainment chief creative officer Rob Pardo (lead designer of World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade) and former lead systems designer Greg Street (World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria). We spoke with just a fraction of the folks that have been behind Blizzard's decade-plus hit. Over these past 14 years, World of Warcraft has benefited from its developers designing around player perception or learning to talk more with the community. That's clearly evident, due to the litter of defunct competitors World of Warcraft has left in its wake. Launching a successful game is difficult, and keeping a game successful for more than a decade is a combination of craft, passion, and luck. Games fail all the time, sometimes because they're broken and other times because they simply don't find the right audience.

In comparison, World of Warcraft was a breath of fresh air. I played those early MMOs myself I remember the anarchy and player-killing (Corp Por, anyone?) of Ultima Online, or the mob trains, corpse runs, and vicious grind of Everquest. Those players could explore a vast world full of heroes, villains, gods, and monsters, combined with an experience that was far more player-friendly than its contemporaries. On the backs of titles like Ultima Online and Everquest, the team at Blizzard Entertainment transported players to the world established in Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, Azeroth.

Mists of Pandaria Pre-Release: 2011-2012įrom the beginning, World of Warcraft was designed as a response to other games, with players of successful MMOs wondering if the experience could be made better.

Wrath of the Lich King: November 13, 2008.

Wrath of the Lich King Pre-Release: 2007-2008.

Some of World of Warcraft's past faction leaders strike a pose. With the release of its seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, WoW still boasts a thriving fanbase. World of Warcraft has sold millions of copies, made billions of dollars, and won hundreds of awards. It didn't define the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) genre, but continues to evolve with it. For 14 years, World of Warcraft has remained not only active, but relevant.

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