Posted on 01/12/2007 5:23:46 PM PST by MCH
IRVINE, Calif. – January 11, 2007 – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that World of Warcraft®, its subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), is now played by more than 8 million gamers around the world. World of Warcraft has also achieved new regional subscriber milestones, with more than 2 million players in North America, more than 1.5 million players in Europe, and more than 3.5 million players in China.
"We're ecstatic that the World of Warcraft community has continued to grow steadily since we launched the game," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment®. "This milestone wouldn't have been possible for us to achieve without the incredible support of our players. With the release of our expansion pack, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade™, coming next week, we're looking forward to welcoming more players to Azeroth and offering even more quality content for our community to enjoy."
Since debuting in North America on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft has become the most popular MMORPG around the world. Today, World of Warcraft is available in seven different languages and is played in North America, Europe, mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
World of Warcraft will soon see the launch of its first expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, which will be available in North America and Europe on January 16, 2007. The expansion will be available in Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand the same week, with availability in mainland China and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau to be announced at a later date. The Burning Crusade will add a tremendous amount of new content to the game, including an entire new continent to explore; an increase in the level cap up to 70, complete with new talents and abilities; flying mounts; new quests, creatures, and items; new dungeons; two new playable races; a new profession; and more.
For further information on World of Warcraft, please visit the game's official website at www.worldofwarcraft.com. Information on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade can be found at www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade.
Oh hell yes. That would be a blast!
Horde or Alliance? Hehe
Either one! I'm a total n00b.
lol I'm a lvl 60 and I'm a noob too. I still have fun getting my ass kicked on a pvp server though! LOL
"The Internet is really, really great--"
"For porn!"
"I've got a fast connection so I don't have to wait--"
"For porn!"
"There's always some new site--"
"For porn!"
"I browse all day and night--"
"For porn!"
"It's like I'm surfing at the speed of liiiiiight--"
"For! Porn!"
"Trekkie!"
"The Internet is for porn--"
"Trekkie!"
"The Internet is for porn--"
"What are you doing?"
"Why you think the Net was born?
"Porn! Porn! Porn!"
It's really amazing how you find WoW players everywhere now days. The game really took MMORPGs out of the realm of geekdom and into the mainstream in a big way. I was formerly a Ultima Online (old-school MMORPG) player, took a few years off from these type of games, then started playing WoW around it's release in late 2004.
Have to say I got a lot of entertainment value out of it in those 2 years. I played the Burning Crusade Beta a little bit and I don't think anyone will be disappointed. It will be good for the hardcore players and the more casual players alike. The only other MMORPG I am looking at is Warhammer Online which is supposed to be coming out sometime this year. Might be an interesting more PvP oriented alternative to WoW. Anyway, for the people here playing Ally on Dragonblight - I have a 60 Human Warrior on that server who is currently guild-less.
Beautiful. I am a pinball fanatic. I used to own a Captain Fantastic along with two or three others, plus a TRON arcade upright. Neat stuff.
Anyway, for the people here playing Ally on Dragonblight - I have a 60 Human Warrior on that server who is currently guild-less.
/Whisper Serenety of Peacekeepers of Azeroth, or Flintstrike of The Ivory Tower - both are small guilds, and both are part of a small guild alliance that runs Zul Gurub regulary and is planning on MC/Outland soon, and are great people. No auditions or requirements, just be friendly and want to have fun. :) We're mostly older folks and college kids, swearing is kept at a minimum, and we're pretty casual.
Tell 'em Pril sent ya, but don't say where (we keep things fairly politics-free, it rarely comes up)
are u gonna be at the dark portal at midinight? and is that server time?
dude that is an extereme spec isnt it? whats your max crit?
ok. so the question is roll blood elf or dranei, and which classs?
pls dont tell me pally
60 disc/holy priest
42 lock
47 hunter
31 pally
lets do a fr guild. you call it
Cool. Thanks. I'll look you guys up soon. Sounds like just my speed. I'm a casual who plays a few nights a week. I've raided ZG, AQ20 and MC a few times, but am by no means a real hardcore raider. Looking forward to running some of the new 5-man dungeons in Burning Crusade.
Internet for porn video rofl, I remember that -- that was hysterical -
I have a 60 hunter on garona, and loved waiting 1/2 hour+ queues so much I went back to EQ -- not to mention the fubar'ed patch last week.
What was once very apealing in WoW (solo-ability)is now zzz. Love wow, the graphics, music, content -- but the patching headaches and such, I'm takin a break, and then I'll consider wether or not to buy expan.
I am raiding again with my 70 EQ monk.. I played for 5 years, took a break after PoP and GoD. So, the new stuff is neat to see. And not too many monks around anymore.
And, I'm rationing myself to 3-4 hours a night, lol
shoot...I don't even know where the portal is. And not sure I'll even have the expansion loaded, so I will probably wait a day or so to cross over. ;)
Only if they're giving it away for free. Otherwise, they're pretty much engaging in textbook capitalism.
Remember the late '80s and early '90s, when everyone expected and every sci-fi novel predicted a future world with Japan as the dominant power? Turned out, Japan's young people love fast food, video games and Hollywood movies as much as, if not more than, anyone else's. China will eventually go the same way.
Enemies of the West claim, and have forever, that our "decadence" will be our undoing -- instead, it's becoming our chief export. And the more folks discover these kinds of solitary yet social pursuits, the more they interact with the rest of the world while also becoming more individualistic, they're's an Ayn Randian (think "Anthem") revelation.
Think back to 1991. The coup in the USSR was shut down by a grass-roots information revolution that was pretty primitive by today's standards, mostly photocopiers and fax machines. In 1998, the Serbs took down Milosevic with computer bulletin boards in a country that was at least ten years behind ours in computer availability, and spearheaded by B-98 -- which sounds like a soft-rock FM station, which is exactly what it was before it was the vanguard of the revolution.
I'm not as utopian as some, but I believe that every conduit for information is another root breaking through the hard soil, even something like World of Warcraft.
The Chinese are not Islamofascists. The bulk of the Chinese people are not ideologically motivated. They're as selfish and materialistic as anyone else, and I do not mean that as an insult; it's our greatest hope. Every tie to the rest of the world is another tendril creeping through the ChiCom mortar, and every concession they give makes it more difficult to pull back.
It might seem silly to look at World of Warcraft as a conduit for revolution, but jazz helped bring down the USSR. It was exciting. It stirred a yearning for something new, something better. Russians would tune into the VOA to listen, and pass cassettes through the black market.
A former coworker who grew up in Cuba told me that his whole family would listen to Celia Cruz records on Radio Marti, huddled around the radio with the volume low. Couldn't let the neighbors hear, because being turned in for listening meant prison or worse. It was like a small beam of light streaming through a crack in the wall, and people gravitated toward it.
If WoW can be another small crack in the wall, then I hope the Chinese geek the f out on it.
That means that W.O.W. is 32 times more popular than anything on CNN or MSNBC!!
I'm doing wow since september. I did the beta, wasn't happy with it, too like DAOC for my taste at the time, have been bored, so it's ok for now. I did EQ1 in 99 for just over a year and UO back in the day. I buy the GW expansions now since they are essentially free forever. I played COH up to about level 35...it was way too repetitive.
The reason I responded...Vangrind? You're going for the Brad Mcfag game? He's the reason 90% of people quit EQ1 in the first year. He's the ass responsible for "rare spawns" in MMORPGs. He's the ass responsible for making camping "a viable game mechanic". Ancient Cyclops anyone? Terrorantula? Gads, he's a frackwit. I'd rather chop my schwantz off and eat it than to play any tedious camp fest made by that jackass much less pay him for the pleasure.
It ain't got nuthin' on Toon Town!
Toontown is fun for a while.
My ony guy, Super Loopy Goofus is 99 Laff and my other guy, Fleabag BigginStink is 112 Laff :)
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