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The first moment that I realized the Warcraft world was something special was probably when
we had the signing at Fry’s the evening that it was released. My friend James McCoy,
who’s our animation supervisor, and I were driving towards this event. It was one of
those things where you’d see a couple of people, but you didn’t realize what was
going on. You’d see more and more people, and they’re all walking in this direction.
And we were driving along and we finally recognized that this is happening. And we were all sitting
there, like, “I wonder if there is a rock concert going on back here or something like
that? We kept going and didn’t really think about it until we got to Fry’s and realized
there was no parking, and so on and so forth. And at that moment we realized all these people
were walking in the same direction that we were going for the Fry’s signing. And that
was pretty special. I think prior to that we had had a few hundred people at our signings
and at that one it was thousands. I don’t remember exactly how many. But that moment
was pretty cool. A personal moment that really stands out to me playing a Warcraft game would
have to be back when I was in college. In 1998, I worked at a gallery and it was really
small and no one ever came in there. So the manager and I would switch shifts, and we
would both play Warcraft II. For us it was like the real gem of the game was getting
to the end of a level that had a cinematic. So, he was always there more than I was, so
he’d be ahead of me in the game. He’d always come back and say “Did you get to
the next cinematic?” And most of the time it was, “No. But, every once in a while
it would be “Yes! And then we’d have an hour-long discussion on how cool the cinematic
was, how it’s made, and so on and so forth. At the time I was studying 3D at school and
he was studying painting. So for him it was all foreign. So, it created these really great
conversations and it also made me realize that maybe going into games was the way to
go.
So the moment I realized that the Warcraft universe was something special, I’d have
to say it was probably one of the first times When you start World of Warcraft and you play
as either Alliance or Horde, as a human or orc. When you first jump into the game and
you get that introductory experience flying through Elwynn Forest, over Stormwind Castle.
You’ve got the beautiful scenery, the landscape, the art to look at. You’ve got the just
awesome voiceover giving you the back story of what your character’s all about, what
your faction’s all about. And it’s that really immersive introductory experience,
for me, that really just set the stage for what this game is all about and what you’re
about to get into. It really just sets the right tone, the right feel, and as soon as
it plops you down right in your starting area, you know you’re in for something special.
So one of my most memorable, favorite moments of playing the Warcraft games, again, has
to probably key in on some of the art and the story. When playing Warcraft III, and
there’s the cinematic when Arthas is coming home, there’s one shot in particular. And
I think everyone would recognize and remember what it is, it’s the one where he just knocks
open the gates with his two sort of sentries walking behind him. And it’s just that shot.
The way the gates fly open, like they’re empty and hollow. And he just proceeds right
into the camera, and he’s silhouetted against the over-bright sky in the background. It’s
just such a memorable, imposing moment of the cinematics that I just remember watching
that and just getting chills in my spine and going: “That... that is an epic scene.”
The Dwarf starting zone in World of Warcraft, the first time I saw Ironforge, was really
special. This mountain kind of rising above the snowfield and there’s all these extra
little buildings and towers sticking out of there. So you got the impression that the
thing is just gigantic. And you go up this ramp up to the front gate. Everything is like,
even though they’re little dwarves, everything is huge and out of scale. There’s a great
sense that the place just goes on and on. You don’t see a lot of it in there, but
you know that this whole mountain is just honeycombed with tunnels and stuff. Very epic.
My favorite gamer moment. I’m going to go to World of Warcraft. The first time I fought
Onyxia the dragon was really epic. I mean, it’s this gigantic dragon and I always thought
Blizzard really did dragons right. I mean, it felt like a big opponent. It was something
scary, not something you just carved through by the thousands. We killed Onyxia, I was
a Protection Warrior at the time, I had my book all ready to get the Quel’Serrar. You
know, plunging it into her body and all that. It was just like... I think that was the first
time I realized you can still feel like a hero even in an MMO with lots of other people
around.
The first moment that I realized Warcraft was something special was probably the first
BlizzCon I was able to go to. Working here at Blizzard and going, it was just such a
different experience seeing that many people that care about the game. And I think it was
the fact of seeing not only people that were my age and my friends... But seeing families
that showed up to BlizzCon and they brought their kids, and they were coming up to the
stage and wanting to talk to us. Just seeing the impact that the game has on such a wide
variety of people. Because I think working on it here, we think just other gamers play
this game. But as it’s grown and gotten bigger, I think that our influence continues
to get larger. I didn’t really see that until I got to go to BlizzCon and just seeing
how many people were there. And how much they care about the game, not just as a game, but
as something that they do as a family and other people. It was something a lot bigger
than I had expected.
I definitely played all the Warcrafts before World of Warcraft. But I think definitely
the biggest moment for me was definitely the first time that we killed Ragnaros. In World
of Warcraft, I was in a guild. I was working here at Blizzard, so actually I killed him
at my desk after work one night because we were raiding here. And I think that moment,
we screamed, because we were on voice chat. Everyone yelled at the same time when we beat
him for that first time. It just felt like getting that accomplishment with 40 other
people... I had never really done that in any other game before where you work with
so many people together to get something done. And that was vanilla WoW so it was kind of
like that first real, big boss in the game that people could actually take down.
All the Warcraft games have something special. The first time I think I realized it fully
was during Warcraft II development. Warcraft I was a great game, it was a lot of fun. Did
really well, but something about Warcraft II, it just felt like it was coming together.
The idea was solidifying. The game was that much more fun and interesting. When you put
all the pieces together, there was just some sort of magic that made it more than the sum
of its parts.