Wow, 20 years ago today, the team at Blizzard Entertainment launched its massive online multiplayer addition to the “Warcraft” franchise, and changed the gaming industry forever. While many MMOs have followed in the footsteps of ‘World of Warcraft’ and attracted a younger audience to the genre, the game’s power that has created a massive customer service team to tackle the masses trying to log in from day 1 on the overwhelmed servers are not denied. two decades later.
“Gaming went from a niche, nerdy thing to a lifestyle. And ‘World of Warcraft’ is truly a lifestyle,” says World of Warcraft executive producer Holly Longdale Variety. “It’s not just what you do in the game, it’s outside the game too. You keep in touch with your guilds and your friends, or book time to play with your friends. So how can we amplify that in a healthy, fun way and get Azeroth into the hands of everyone?”
Longdale, who joined game developer Blizzard in 2020 just prior to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, oversees the ‘WoW’ franchise, including ongoing development of the game’s current expansion, ‘The War Within’ , as well as operating the “World of Warcraft Classic” game. Longdale, a 20-year gaming industry vet, comes from Disney studios and was previously executive producer of “EverQuest” and “EverQuest II,” friendly rivals to “World of Warcraft.”
According to Blizzard, “World of Warcraft” has attracted more than 240 million players over the past 20 years through 10 modern expansions, as well as the “World of Warcraft Classic” experiences. To celebrate the franchise’s big anniversary, Longdale and the team began planning an in-game milestone event, the “Worldsoul Saga,” over a year ago, with both virtual and in-person events planned to mark the occasion through to celebrate January.
“The anniversary of ‘World of Warcraft’ is an incredible milestone that allows us to reflect on 20 years of online adventures and lifelong friendships,” said Blizzard President Johanna Faries. “’Warcraft’ is so much more than a game; it has positively impacted the lives of players and developers alike, while also being a true cultural phenomenon over the decades. I am so humbled by the passion shown by the players who are on this wonderful journey with us. And I am incredibly proud of our ‘Warcraft’ teams for their continued innovation as they continue to create vibrant and immersive worlds for players to call their own.”
To date, the team’s offline efforts include everything from rebranding the University of Washington to the University of Warcraft for a special college football game, to acquiring the hit mobile cartoon game “Candy Crush” (a title also owned by Microsoft). ).
Holly Longdale, Executive Producer of World of Warcraft – Credit: Blizzard Entertainment
“While we certainly have our in-game 20th anniversary events to play, it’s much broader than that,” says Longdale. “The whole epic ‘Worldsoul Saga’ that we announced last year started with ‘The War Within.’ This trilogy, the saga, was a response to: what do we do to meet the moment of a twentieth anniversary? Well, we tell an epic story that applies to all marbles from the past 20 years. That was an important journey with a lot of focus and passion to get it right.”
Longdale says the entire celebration is about honoring the “WoW community” – but with a “leave no player behind” strategy aimed at longtime “Warcraft” enthusiasts and potential newcomers looking at the title during this milestone.
“We have to welcome new players. And when you have a twenty-year-old MMO, we can’t take for granted that we can have really good entry points. So the team is working hard on it: how do we keep this game going for another twenty years?” Longdale said. “We’ve made a lot of changes because ultimately we want ‘WoW’ to grow. We want everyone on the planet to get involved with ‘Warcraft’ in some way at some point. Gamers’ tastes are changing. We want to recognize that the type of gamers we have has changed over the years. Or maybe we didn’t serve them as well as we could have. And that’s what we focused on, this idea of not leaving any player behind.”
Throughout all of this, Blizzard’s new parent company remains very hands-off, letting the brand show its flowers during the big moment of “World of Warcraft.”
“It’s been amazing, the content cadence they’ve had over the last 12 months,” said Matt Booty, Xbox’s president of gaming content and studios.
“For us, it was as much about getting to know the franchise and really learning how to manage it so well. And we’re just proud that it’s one of the billion-dollar IPs that we own,” says Booty. “’Warcraft’ is a mass-market pop culture franchise that can deliver everything from games to consumer products to linear. And I think we’ve only just begun to see what we can see with that team as part of Xbox. First and foremost, it’s such a testament to the strength of the community around a game, and how they’ve done a great job of collaborating with that community and the content.”
Where Microsoft will really come into play is in the future transmedia strategy for “World of Warcraft.” And according to both Booty and Longdale, the idea of attempting another “Warcraft” film after the disaster of the 2016 film is not within the realm of possibility.
“I would say nothing is off the table,” Longdale said. “We are in a time of great optimism and aspiration for the next twenty years, and we are quite open to all the opportunities that lie ahead and that we need to consider. How you say something – without actually saying anything, when you talk about all those things.”
Following the success of Amazon’s ‘Fallout’ TV series adaptation of the Bethesda Game Studios franchise, and anticipation for next spring’s ‘A Minecraft Movie’, Microsoft is cautiously eager to adapt its other games of its own into TV shows and movies.
“One thing we always have to keep in mind is that there is no slam dunk,” Booty says. “These things need to be thought about. They have to think. As we approach linear media – and we’ve had a lot of interest, which I think is great – for us it comes back to the point of games being a mass market and interest in Hollywood, just as there has been interest in recent times. decade in comic books or Marvel and DC. So there is enough interest in us. It really has to start with the game team, and do they think the game has anything that makes sense to make linear? Not every game is an obvious choice to do that. So we always want to make sure that we start with the team and that we find a great partner. … These things take time, and we want to make sure we have a good match between the game team and the linear team that has a vision for what they want to make.
The 20th anniversary of “World of Warcraft” follows the release of journalist Jason Schreier’s “Play Nice: The Rise, Fall and Future of Blizzard Entertainment,” a detailed account of Blizzard’s early days and accusations of a very “bro ” culture within the gaming company over the years. At a time when Longdale wants to bring as many new players to “WoW” as possible and keep the old standbys, she wants to make it clear how welcome women are at today’s Blizzard, which is run by Johanna Faries.
“Honestly, for most of my career, I’ve been fortunate to have very supportive leadership, very supportive colleagues, and to have been treated professionally throughout my career,” Longdale says. “It’s no exception at Blizzard. I have this amazing job and I am surrounded by female leadership on my team who are incredibly courageous, courageous and respected. And I feel like we’re in a good place. Can we be better? Always. But we are absolutely committed to a healthy, strong, bold, creative environment, and I haven’t seen any negativity. Right now I think we’re setting ourselves up for a pretty bold and brave future.”