Summary

  • World of Warcraft is not only celebrating its 20th anniversary with a major in-game event, but also a fun video highlighting standout moments from the MMO.
  • The game reminisces on iconic milestones like Hillsbrad Foothills War and Corrupted Blood.
  • Players have enjoyed looking back on WoW's history while creating new memories.

World of Warcraft recently shared a video highlighting some of the most memorable moments from the game’s early history. From the epic Hillsbrad Foothills War and the infamous Corrupted Blood incident to the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj and the Cataclysm world revamp, World of Warcraft is full of historical moments.

November 23 marks the 20th anniversary of World of Warcraft. To celebrate, Blizzard is holding a massive in-game event, featuring new activities, instances, and rewards for World of Warcraft players to enjoy.

world of warcraft classic timewalking dungeons tour
World of Warcraft Shows Off Classic Timewalking Dungeons

World of Warcraft showcases the iconic dungeons coming to the Classic Timewalking event during the MMO's 20th anniversary celebration.

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To celebrate the game’s storied history, World of Warcraft shared a video that looked back on some of the most iconic moments from its past. While WoW has far too many epic occurrences to name them all, this video discussed four of the most memorable: the PvP war of the Hillsbrad Foothills, the Corrupted Blood Incident, the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj, and the Cataclysm World Revamp. Each of these events left their mark on World of Warcraft, and reshaped the world of Azeroth in some significant way.

Epic Moments from World of Warcraft – 2004-2010

  • 2004 – Hillsbrad Foothills War
    • The proximity of the Alliance questing hub of Southshore and the Horde questing hub of Tarren Mill sparked constant PvP skirmishes in the area.
    • The war inspired the release of Battlegrounds a year later, and was immortalized in the PvP Brawl, Tarren Mill vs. Southshore.

  • 2005 – Corrupted Blood Incident
    • Hakkar in Zul’Gurub infected players with a DoT called Corrupted Blood that spreads to nearby characters, though it was normally removed after the encounter.
    • Hunter pets that are dismissed during the fight carried the DoT out of the instance, which spread to both PCs and NPCs for nearly a month.
    • The CDC would later use data from the incident to aid in real-life disease modeling research.

  • 2006 – Gates of Ahn’Qiraj
    • Alliance and Horde players of all levels contributed to a global war effort to complete a unified goal for the first time.
    • After the first person crafted the Scepter of the Shifting Sands and rang the Scarab Gong, players fought an army of Qiraji and Silithid for 10 hours, after which the Ahn’Qiraj raids opened.
    • The Black Qiraji Battle Tank, one of the rarest mounts in World of Warcraft, was only obtainable during this event.

  • 2010 – Cataclysm World Revamp
    • Every Vanilla WoW zone was remade in a global catastrophe that changed the face of Azeroth forever.
    • During the Pre-Patch event, Deathwing flew around, torching the countryside and any players nearby, granting them a unique achievement if they stood in the fire.

These were only some of the most iconic moments from World of Warcraft’s history. In the comments of the video, fans shared plenty of other iconic memories, including world bosses being kited into capital cities, massive raids to take down faction leaders, and World of Warcraft’s memorable pre-patch events. WoW fans have no shortage of fond memories from the last 20 years, and with no sign of the MMO slowing down, they will undoubtedly make more in the future.

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8 /10

World of Warcraft
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MMORPG
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Systems
PC-1
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Released
November 23, 2004
ESRB
T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence (online interactions not rated)
Developer(s)
Blizzard
Publisher(s)
Blizzard
Engine
Unreal Engine
Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Cross-Platform Play
pc, ps
Cross Save
yes
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
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World of Warcraft is an incredibly successful MMORPG that has been going strong for almost two decades. It's one of the highest-grossing franchises in history and is widely considered the most popular MMORPG ever made.

Franchise
Warcraft
Steam Deck Compatibility
yes
Platform(s)
PC
Genre(s)
MMORPG
X|S Optimized
yes
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