The fantasy MMO World of Warcraft will turn ten in November. Plans for the celebrations have now been revealed. Blizzard is not hiring a party planner but is organizing a massacre. Ragnaros is taking over the grill, and a memorial is being set up to the roots of PvP in Hillsbrad Foothills with a new retro battleground.
World of Warcraft has been around for ten years. It’s unbelievable. In 2004, there wasn’t even Facebook at the beginning of the year. People were on MySpace. And it was the last year that Friends was airing. And it was the year World of Warcraft was released.
Other well-known games from 2004: Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Rome: Total War, GTA: San Andreas. When was the last time you played one of those?
At the top of the German music charts that year: “Is the old Holzmichl still alive?” Okay, no one really wants to be reminded of that.
2004 is definitely a very, very long time ago. And the MMO that was released back then is an incredible achievement to still be active today, and how much more remarkable it is to still captivate the most players among all pay-to-play MMOs. Ten is a biblical age for MMOs. Although World of Warcraft has recently faced some challenges, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate in Azeroth.
World of Warcraft goes full retro: PvP in Hillsbrad Foothills, Ragnaros as grill master
It’s no wonder that Blizzard is going all out. For November, they plan to:
- Gift players a Molten Core pet, the little Corgi: a molten core puppy.
- As a special event, they are boosting the absolute cult raid, the Molten Core, to the current maximum level and setting it to 40-player level. This will allow the old Ragnaros to become the roast master once again. As a reward for successfully completing this retro instance, a special mount is waiting.
- Those who were there in Vanilla World of Warcraft surely remember the open PvP around Hillsbrad Foothills (and constantly tell everyone else about it). Blizzard is paying tribute to this original PvP with a retro team deathmatch. A new battleground is set to remember these epic battles.
All these events and rewards are only available for a limited time. But that’s a great birthday surprise.
