Orange County Register

Joe Simmons, a World of Warcraft player and editor here at The Orange County Register, reflects on the massively multi-player game from Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment from a player’s perspective. Simmons previously wrote on the Register’s Blizzard Blog.

“World of Warcraft” turns 5 today. On Nov. 23, 2004, game-maker Blizzard’s servers were turned on and players began romping through the lands of Azeroth. In those five years, we’ve seen the scope of the game expand to include another continent, another world and a host of fan-favorite characters.

But in one sense, the age of “World of Warcraft” is entirely meaningless. Its designers have truly embraced the Internet age’s mantra of constant change; the Warcraft we play today isn’t the same one introduced in 2004.

We could just as easily be talking about the first birthday of the “Wrath of the Lich King” expansion, released about this time last year. There’s more innovation, updates and streamlining in this game’s add-on content than many other franchises see between sequels.

When the game was first released, reviews breathlessly trumpeted the seamless transition from area to area (previous massively multiplayer games, such as “EverQuest,” had lengthy loading screens); the clean, intuitive user interface; the simple, flexible power of the game’s character customization options.

But there were rough spots, too – it was clear that design philosophy had shifted during the creation process of Dustwallow Marsh and Ashenvale, leaving the two areas feeling aimless and incomplete. The initial talent system, which allows players to tailor their characters, made it hard for some types of characters fill a useful role in groups.

However, those kinds of errors aren’t necessarily a problem. They’re the natural result of trying to implement new ideas. What’s made “World of Warcraft” so enduring is that not only does Blizzard constantly test out new ideas, but it revises ones that don’t work. Talents are, overall, much clearer and more useful now. Ashenvale and Dustwallow received massive updates, upgrading the areas from forgotten also-rans to fleshed-out destinations.

The next step for “World of Warcraft” is its release of “Cataclysm,” the game’s third expansion pack. In it, the original setting will get an update, bringing the series full-circle: Much of that initial, breakthrough content now feels outdated and upstaged by the game’s latest innovations. What better way to keep the title forward-looking than by updating and expanding what set the game apart in the first place?

Read more in the WoW birthday series:

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