Seeing that we are all playing WoW now, I would like to take this time to reflect on my experiences with its developer Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard has been in my life ever since Diablo in 1996. I was around four years old when this game burst onto the scenes and of course my Dad (a hardcore WoW player these days) picked it right up for himself. Now at the time I had no idea what it was, but a few yeas later (when I was around 6) I got my first chance to play it, and all I can say was from that day my life changed forever. Not only was this game rated M (for Mature) it was my first M game. As a six year old I felt like a total bad ass (although in reality I wasn't allowed to play it, but I found ways to sneak it). Diablo is the game that introduced me to RPGs, before that it was all Mario and Megaman (which are also amazing franchises). It doesn't stop there though, in 1998 (the year I started playing Diablo) another little game came out.....Starcraft.
I had no concept of what a RTS (Real Time Strategy) game was all about, but Blizzard introduced me to that genre with arguably the GREATEST RTS EVER MADE (just ask the Koreans). This game was rated T (for Teen) so I had no problems asking my Dad if I could play it (the only problem was I had to share the computer with my older brother,twin brother, and father). Nevertheless, I got to play and develop a love affair with Starcraft. My favorite race was the Terran and their totally awesome siege tanks then in 2000 the sequel to Diablo debuted: Diablo II.
Not only was Diablo II bigger and better; it gave me the chance to interact with other players around the world via Battle.net. I did use Battle.net on the first Diablo, but I didn't really understand it. Luckily I was old enough to realize how awesome it was to play with other people online and Blizzard put another change on my concept of games, online games. I actually rarely got the chance to play this game due to my brothers interest in it. It was a dark time where I moved from being part of the PC master race, to a lowly console gamer (tragic I know).
I was first introduced to the Warcraft mythology in Warcraft III (for those who don't know Warcraft was a RTS before a MMORPG). Here (and the expansion that came out a year later) I learned the story behind the MMO through this game (I don't want to bore you with the details, if you aren't already bored). Then in 2004 the whole gaming medium was changed forever by (cue dramatic music) World of Warcraft.
This is were my life stops for a good four years, everything else just became a joke compared to the all powerful WoW (now you may have different opinions on this, but it's my blog so shut up). There were a couple of false starts with characters, an undead warlock, a dwarf warrior, and a night elf hunter, but finally my dwarf priest was created (my first level 60, they grow up so fast). Healing I found was my strong suit and I really enjoyed playing it. I was a member of my Dad's guild "The Snow Goons." My life was consumed by Thursday night raids until 2am and all nighters on the weekends. But tragically all good things had to come to an end, and in 2008 that's where I stopped playing and really got into Halo. Blizzard was on the back burner until 2010 when Starcraft II came out, but by this time I was too big into competitive online and Starcraft II was just way too hard for my taste.
Now you know my life story with Blizzard Entertainment (sorry if it ran a little long). This leads me into a point I wanted to reach: Is there any games/developer that completely changed how you game and/or the way you look at games. You obviously know mine, but I'm curious to learn what you think.
