I remember the first time I ever encountered World of Warcraft. It was during elementary school, and I was sleeping over at a friend's house, and he let me watch him play the game. I can't remember the exact name or context of what was happening, but I do remember that there was a giant blue guy with a lot of mobs that my friend was attempting to defeat.
My friend told me that this guy was basically God. Not the Judeo-Christian God, but certainly a god in some sense. When my mom came to pick me up in the morning, I told her about it, and she was surprised, to say the least. This was a time when my family and I still went to church and were expressly religious, so needless to say, I never played much of the game.
But just because I never played the game doesn't mean it passed the world by on my time. Having grown into a $10 billion revenue stream over the years, a lot of people love it.
But as any game that goes on over a decade, things are bound to change. With the announcement of World of Warcraft Classic two years ago, but it's release just over a month ago, it's interesting to see where the game will go.
This is the basis for a conversation on the game by Folding Ideas, a video essayist focusing on a bevy of pop culture items.
The essay spans everything from World of Warcraft's early history (its biggest obstacle was to overturn the MMO titan Everquest, which it did handily) and even how the game used to be played. Things like coordinating enough players on a raid so that entire groups can be counted on to at least accomplish the mission, and toxic conversations with players for various reasons.
It's a great watch if you're looking for a trip down memory lane but also gives a good look at the pros and cons of nostalgic gaming.
