I've only ever dipped into World of Warcraft, so I can only imagine how the past eight years have felt for those who fell in love with Blizzard's new online world back in 2004. Maybe they passed quickly, in a flash of boss fights, raid wipes and ding explosions. Maybe it feels as though it's been around forever. Mists of Pandaria seems to have rekindled the post Cataclysm subs slump somewhat, so WoW will be a long while yet. But if WoW were to die, the sequence that would flash before its eyes in its final moments might look a bit like this celebratory 8th anniversary video, which revisits many of Azeroth's well-trodden lands.
November 23 is the precise anniversary date, but Blizzard say that "players who log in to World of Warcraft between November 18 and December 1" will automatically get a "unique Feat of Strength achievement and Celebration Package item.
"Using your item will kick off the celebrations by shooting off fireworks*, applying a (cosmetic only) tabard to your character, and granting an 8% bonus to experience and reputation gains from any enemies defeated while active," they add.
After having to buff event rewards 4 times in a year, WoW director Ion Hazzikostas admits there's 'a pattern' and that 'we may tend to err on the conservative side'
World of Warcraft might not have invented the wheel, but it certainly made it popular—and 20 years on, the MMO titan has fundamentally changed gaming's DNA
