Video Game Hall of Fame Posts First Class "Pong, Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Tetris and World of Warcraft"

     The World Video Game Hall of Fame has inducted the first class of video games. These include Pong, Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Tetris and World of Warcraft all named to first class.

     We however, would like to talk about World of Warcraft and how it brought tens of millions of people together in a universe like no other, which reshaped the way people think about their online lives and communities.

In 1997, the developer Richard Garriot described his game Ultima Online as the coined phrase "Massivley Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) where people could create their own personal avatars that represent them in this world of exploration, that was constantly evolving and allowing players to shape their own futures. While playing the game, you could chat with one another, form guilds and collaborate as a group, go on epic quests and fight tons of monsters around the world. 7 Years later World of Warcraft was released in 2004 and quickly became the largest and best-selling MMORPG to date. Although World of Warcraft followed the traditional flow of MMORPG's such as Ultima Online with quests, guilds and fighting enemies the games popularity stemmed from the ease at which all of these were done as it allowed both casual and hard-core players to enjoy the experience.


     World of Warcraft also provided one of the best personal and immersive experiences to date with many users viewing their digital avatars as simple extensions of themselves enabling users to create some of their closest friends and associates during their time in World of Warcraft. The game especially connected with people who perhaps had cognitive or physical disabilities and were not comfortable making friendships in the real world, and allowed them to have the safety net of a computer screen.
     Blizzard hosts World of Warcraft servers in countries all around the world, allowing it to be popular in every region and allowing people to forge relationships from across the world as well. In February of 2015 the game had posted over 10 Million subscribers which was only slightly lower than its record-setting 12 million in October of 2010 with 100 million accounts having being created since the games release. As we view the business models of games today, where free-to-play reigns supreme the game still has been able to entice players to a pay $15 monthly subscription model which really speaks to the games quality and lasting popularity.