techmo

At its peak, World of Warcraft had more than 12 million people paying every month to live in the same world. By 2014, over 100 million accounts had been created. In 7 days it comes back as WoW: Forever. Retail turned into a second job. Weekly vault, a rating to keep up, and the fear that skipping a week leaves you behind. You queue from a city, run the dungeon with four strangers, and they leave without a word. WoW was a game you played because you liked being there, whenever you had a free evening. A stranger helped you with an elite quest in Stranglethorn, and a week later you were in his guild. You spent Friday nights together wiping in Molten Core with 39 people you had never met, and some of them became real friends, the kind you later met in person. Whole servers spent months hauling copper bars and bandages to Ironforge and Orgrimmar so the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj would open. Guilds stormed Orgrimmar to kill Thrall and Stormwind to kill Bolvar, and half the server dropped what they were doing to defend their city. It was more than just a game. It was an entire world, populated with real people playing in it. That's the game I want back on November 4.