Retro|Spective 163: Warcraft

[Neon Ignition]

History in Games:
1994 - Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
1995 - Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
2002 - Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
2004 - World of Warcraft
2014 - Hearthstone
2020 - Warcraft III: Reforged

Overview:
Over the span of a few years the early entries of the Warcraft series built a strong foundation within the RTS genre with players commanding armies in battle via multiplayer or against the computer. The expectations for a sequel were high but it never arrived, instead came an online phenomenon with the MMO World of Warcraft that is shortly to enter its seventeenth year of operation. Expanding into film, books and board games the franchise is a juggernaut with the only question mark over it being what will it do when the age of WOW is over.






Are you a current or old Warcraft player and what are your thoughts on the series past and future?

[chopemon]

Was a huge WC2 and 3 fan. I was into Warhammer as a kid so I was very into fantasy RTS games as well. A friend had 2 on PC but I had to make so with the PS1 version at 15 fps on a 14 inch CRT. Absolutely loved it though.

I got very into WC3 years later. When I got my first job as a QA tester at Core, the builds of Tomb Raider AOD were so unplayable that we had nothing to do for 6 months so I just played endless WC3. When we got made redundant I took my work PC home and set up LAN games for me and my brother to play for 6 hours every day while I looked for another job. I did WC3 LAN parties for ages at weekends when I got my own place.

I played WoW for a about a year when it was released. Amazing sense of adventure and had a great time playing with friends. We were crunching at a game studio when it came out and some weekends we'd work all day Saturday until 10, pop out to Sainsburys to get some beers and then play WoW until 4 am. Great times but I don't think I have another MMO in me now.

That new WC3 Reforged being a massive let down didn't really affect me. I think I'm done with Western games now, especially RTS games. It's a shame but I don't think Blizzard has the magic any more now that the clawed hand of Kotick has them by the balls.

[fuse]

Also have pretty significant history with these games. Wrote a massive post about how WC3 and WoW in particular intertwined with a whole load of personal memories and circumstances, then got bizarrely self-conscious and deleted it all.

In short though: WC3 was great and was one of the few things that stopped me just playing Quake non-stop, and WoW ate up a good two years of my life with the worst possible timing. 40 person raids were incredible but also became something akin to a second job that I quickly came to hate. Definitely for the best that they've scaled back that nonsense, but also don't think I could ever go back.