World of Warcraft turns 20

Blizzard Entertainment first released World of Warcraft (WoW) in November 2004, so The New York Times celebrated the anniversary by outlining the many ways we can still see the massively multiplayer online role-playing game’s influence’s 20 years later.

For one thing, while multiplayer games and early social networks such as MySpace already existed, WoW provided a real preview of a future where everyone would connect to friends and strangers online. For another, the game made billions of dollars with a business model combining monthly subscriptions with in-game purchases (including for pets and animals that players could ride), becoming a massive cash cow for Blizzard and pointing the way to future internet business models.

The game also spawned immortal memes, attracted celebrity fans, and prompted epidemiologists to argue that an incident involving the uncontrolled spread of a fantasy disease could be studied for insights into real-world epidemics.

Also, for the record, I thought the movie wasn’t that bad.