The countdown has begun. World of Warcraft, the most successful game to come out of Orange County, turns 5 on Nov. 23.

This marks the fifth anniversary of the chilly night thousands of local fans stood in line at Fry’s Electronics in Fountain Valley to buy the game at midnight. That was also about the time I started covering Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment,which had just a few hundred employees. Seems like yesterday.

WoW, Blizzard’s first and only massively multiplayer game, wasn’t expected to be a huge success. The company hoped to attract just a few hundred-thousand gamers willing to pay a monthly subscription to play. Today, there are more than 10 million players worldwide.

I’m working on a story and am looking for reader memories of WoW or the original game, Warcraft, which turns 15 this year. Tell me your story and you just may make it into the newspaper. E-mail me or comment below.

Samwise shares a memory

What am I looking for? Stories like one I just heard from the fabulous Blizzard artist Sam “Samwise” Didier (pictured on right during my visit to Blizzard’s Irvine headquarters this week).

While many Blizzard fans recognize the name, they may not recognize the face. However, because of public events like the BlizzCon fan convention, Didier may soon need to slip those shades on everywhere he goes.

The story goes something like this. Didier was waiting in his car at an El Pollo Loco drive-thru sometime after a BlizzCon event. The cashier had his head down when Didier drove up to the window.

“He was taking my order and then looked up and said, ‘Hey, you’re Samwise. I liked your show,’” recalled Didier, a bit bewildered. “I think he meant the concert at BlizzCon.”

Art-schmart … good enough. Didier happens to also be lead singer for the Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain band, comprised of Blizzard employees, including cofounder Mike Morahime.

Tell us: What’s your favorite personal WoW memory?

With this post, The Gadgetress welcomes Blizzard back into the blog. For those interested in just Blizzard coverage, check out the Blizzard page, at ocregister.com/blizzard, for tons of exclusive photos and older stories.