World of Warcraft turns 20 years old

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

First, while multiplayer games and early social networks like MySpace already existed, WoW provided a real preview of a future where everyone would connect to friends and strangers online. For one thing, the game makes billions of dollars with a business model that combines monthly subscriptions and in-game purchases (including pets and animals that players can ride), becoming Blizzard’s biggest cash cow and pointing the way for future online business models.

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

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