The story of how the Warcraft universe has grown over the course of the past 15 years is every bit as epic as the Warcraft games themselves. In the following video interviews, the people who shaped Warcraft were asked two simple questions: one about the moment they realized Warcraft universe was something special, and one about a personal moment while playing any of the Warcraft games. We captured their answers, and we would like to share their memories with you.
Full Interview (subtitled)
Jeff Kaplan[Question 1, Question 2]
00:02As silly as it sounds, if I had to go back and look at one moment that made me think, “This is something special, 00:09It wasn’t one of the big, grand moments where Arthas stormed into Lordaeron and killed his father or anything like that 00:18It was actually just the first time that I walked down the road in Elwynn in the game 00:23and I remember looking around and I walked into Goldshire and just thought, 00:27“This is so beautiful and it feels so real and so fantastic.” 00:32And I think it’s a lot of the little, understated moments and the coolness of the world 00:37that are really what sort of stick with me in terms of what makes Warcraft special. 00:48Probably my favorite moment in any Warcraft game...I’m going to be selfish and pick World of Warcraft, 00:55it’s some of the early moments in the raiding game when some of the early raiding guilds 01:02first were killing dragons like Onyxia and Nefarion and they would all travel to either Stormwind or Orgrimmar 01:10to mount the dragon's head on the stick and what I would do is I would go watch them in GM mode. 01:17We were watching a lot of these raiding guilds and following their progress 01:20and making sure everything was working ok and fun. 01:24And I remember going and watching entire servers form around these guilds 01:28and the excitement that everybody would have about this big, epic moment 01:34that happened that was very focused on one guild yet, somehow, it was shared by everybody in the community. 01:41And I think that we spent a lot of time creating a lot of big, epic Warcraft moments for people. 01:47Obviously, there was the scene at the Wrath Gate that’s really memorable, 01:51but really it was the moments that the players created that stand out, 01:56for me, more than anything, more than any moment that we could have created in the Warcraft universe.Sam Didier[Question 1, Question 2]
02:06I believe it was at one of the first or second Blizzcons and it was early in the morning. 02:12Well, game player early... it was 9:30 or 10:00 and I was riding up the escalators going to an interview with some magazine. 02:22Probably Muscle Fitness or something like that, they like to keep tabs on me... 02:26and I’m riding up the escalator, I look down and I just see thousands and thousands of people. 02:32All just sitting there waiting to get in to the Con, and I was like “Oh my God...all these people are here 02:39from across the world, different realms, all here to celebrate Blizzard games. 02:45And I got so swelled with company pride I yelled “For The Horde!” 02:50And everyone looks up and thousands of people yell, “FOR THE HORDE! 02:57And then there was a few hundred “Booooo,” Alliance people 03:01and so the Horde start going “For the Horde!” and the Alliance started going 03:05“For Gnomeregan!” and they just started yelling back and forth until the doors opened. 03:11That’s when I knew that we were doing something right 03:13and that was a great moment in Blizzard history for me. 03:21Well, specifically in World of Warcraft, I was playing in Alterac Valley. 03:27We were at the Alliance base right at the bridge, there’s two bunkers and a bridge. 03:34We are storming across the bridge and, somehow, some little gnome mage 03:39worked his way around the gorge and dropped off on some little ledge. 03:44And so we’re trying to run across the bridge and he’s blasting the heck out of everybody! 03:49So I turn my mount, and I charge off the bridge...and as I’m falling, 03:58I hit charge and start hurdling upwards through the air at the gnome. 04:04Hack, chop, slash, execute! And that was the end of that little guy... 04:10but that was a pretty epic moment of riding, jumping off a bridge on my Brewfest ram 04:17and beating the hell out of a little gnome mage. 04:21Dress wearers....Alex Afrasiabi[Question 1, Question 2]
04:27For me, the moment I realized that the Warcraft universe was something special was probably an early World of Warcraft alpha. 04:36The first time, actually, when I logged my character in and I rolled a warrior orc...it was during the orc alpha... 04:44and I realized that I had more than one button to press. That was a huge revelation for me, it was just this incredible, 04:53“Really, games can actually do this?” Learning further down the line that I got even more abilities it was like, 05:00“Holy moly, how are they doing this? How can they possibly be giving these abilities out? 05:04So that was a special moment. 05:12I think my favorite moment definitely, in WoW, is probably a tie between seeing the Wrath Gate actually come to life 05:22and happen in game for the first time and I guess they say the first time is always the best time but, 05:30for me, the In Dreams quest in Eastern Plaguelands. It’s the end of the chain that Tirion Fordring gives. 05:41It’s the first time that you meet Tirion Fordring, who is now a huge character in our universe, 05:45and it’s when you escort his son Taelan out of Hearthglen. 05:50And it’s that moment when Taelan’s coming down and he’s kicking butt down Hearthglen 05:54and he’s killing everyone in his way to get to his father. 05:57He’s interrupted as he’s just leaving Hearthglen and a battle happens and Taelan is killed. 06:06Tirion rides down just as he’s killed and then the grieving father gets down on one knee 06:15and says a line very reminiscent of the Godfather, you know: 06:21“Look what they did to my boy...” and then just proceeds to stomp the ground of all the bad guys, all the crusaders. 06:29That was a powerful moment for me. It was one of my first and one of the first times, 06:36I think that we really kind of took storytelling in our game to that next level. 06:39It worked really well.J. Allen Brack[Question 1, Question 2]
06:46I would have to say; the first time I ever played Warcraft I on multiplayer. 06:50Multiplayer games were pretty unknown at that time; they were a pretty new thing for people 06:56to play and experience and being able to actually play against your friends 07:00using a null modem cable and educating yourself on how that technology worked and figuring out how to connect two computers together. 07:06It was an awesome experience. 07:12My favorite experience in any Warcraft game is actually in World of Warcraft. 07:15It’s probably the first time that the guild I was involved in ever killed Ragnaros. 07:20Ragnaros was a very big boss at the time and our 40 person guild was... 07:25not very good, but we slowly geared up, slowly got enough people to a point where we were able to actually make real attempts. 07:33I think we spent about a month kind of in the neighborhood of beating on Ragnoros and making progress... 07:39but killing Ragnaros was just a really awesome experience the first time it happened. 07:43It's, you know, one of those throw your hands up in the air and scream at the top of your lungs, awesome experience.Russell Brower[Question 1, Question 2]
07:52Well, I think I’m primarily a solo gamer, so the moment that World of Warcraft made me a social gamer, 07:59I was very impressed. My whole family plays it and we actually have a guild and we hang out together 08:07and it’s a really amazing experience. 08:14Well, there was one family member in particular that I just don’t see as often anymore and I really miss that. 08:20And in the first year of WoW, we got together online and we played through the 08:25Lunar Festival experience, the whole world event together. 08:29And there was just that moment when we had shot off all these fireworks and it was three in the morning, real time, 08:37and we found that we had been hanging out for quite a long time 08:40and had been talking and chatting and sharing this experience. 08:44And it felt like more than a game, it felt like we had gone off on a family retreat together.Chris Metzen[Question 1, Question 2]
08:57The moment I realized that Warcraft was kind of becoming something special, I think, 09:02was during Warcraft III. We had been playing with the theme of the orc’s corruption, 09:07you know the demon Mannoroth had put the orcs under a blood curse and, 09:09all the while, the character of Thrall was trying to convince his people that: 09:14“We can be better than this, we can raise above this. 09:15The corruption was most seen in the character of Grom Hellscream, who kind of railed against the corruption 09:21and knew that he wanted to find a better way, and get rid of his rage but he just kept failing and failing. 09:27Finally, at the end of the campaign, we did a cinematic directed by Nick Carpenter 09:32where Grom finally raised up and directed all that rage and anger and all the corruption that was in him at the source of the corruption, 09:39which was the demon Mannoroth. 09:40And he scored a crit, and he took Mannoroth down and as he lay there dying, he would say to Thrall, his brother, 09:47“I’ve done it, I’ve finally freed myself,” and Thrall says, “No, you have freed us all... 09:53and it was probably one of the most poignant moments we had ever attempted to create in the series. 09:58So, I was very proud of the scenes fidelity that it wasn’t a bombastic combat scene 10:05but it just had a lot of heart and it just really stirred my tank, as it were. 10:11I was very proud of the moment, but upon reflection, I really enjoyed the idea that you are watching this scene, 10:18that it’s pretty engaging and its two orcs, the classic fantasy “bad guys. 10:24And suddenly, they are as dimensional as any other characters you have met, certainly within our franchise. 10:29And I was very proud of that, that we had turned that archetype on its head 10:33and suddenly you are caring and invested in what would otherwise just have been two dimensional “bad guy” characters. 10:40So I have always been very proud of that and through the lens of that scene specifically. 10:51My favorite personal moment, in terms of just playing the games, 10:56has to be a quest line that we constructed in Northrend and unrelated to the main story. 11:01It involved an Argent Crusader who had contracted the plague, the scourge, and he was dying 11:09and the heroes wanted to see if they could save this man who was so noble and had served with such distinction. 11:15The quest line was actually originally based on one of our buddies here 11:20Rob Bridenbecker had his brother pass away, his brother Bradley from cancer. 11:24And we wanted to do something for Rob and just honor his brother and just rally around the family a little bit. 11:30So Alex Afrasiabi and I came up with this story line that would have players go and interact with the great world powers: 11:39The Red Dragonflight, the druids, and the angelic Naaru of Outland. 11:44And one by one, as the player went to these people and asked for help to save this noble soul 11:50it becomes clear that death will be inevitable. 11:54But the nobility that “Bridenbrad” exhibited really spoke to us and even in the face of all this darkness and the Scourge within this fiction, 12:04the nobility of the human spirit is very, very powerful and I love that the quest line felt so emotional, 12:11especially the point where Bridenbrad is going out, there is no saving this man, 12:18and the way that Alex handled the end of the sequence where the Naaru come down 12:22and, essentially, beam him up and whisk him away to some unseen paradise 12:27was very satisfying to me from a story angle and from a personal angle. 12:32I talked to Rob Bridenbecker about it after the fact and he was really touched and he even showed his dad, his family 12:40and maybe it even helped a little bit in their grief...this goofy, video game thing... 12:46It was just such a great moment for me fictionally and, more importantly, personally... 12:53that sometimes this clumsy craft of making video games and things can sing beyond the game itself, 12:59beyond the gameplay itself and really touch people and I get a huge kick out of that.Rob Bridenbecker[Question 1, Question 2]
13:09So, it actually had to do with when I was in QA and we were testing out the Warcraft II map editor. 13:18For me, it was pretty personal, just because I’m a coder and I am self-taught and I realized: 13:28“Wow, this is hugely different than any game on the market...” because, here you have the ability to 13:34really extend the universe in whatever fashion that you want to extend it. 13:38So I am sitting down and I’m playing around with this thing and 13:41I’m just doing everything that I can possibly do to kind of break the system but, at the same time, 13:47explore some of the creativity and, as a coder, a lot of time you don’t get to put the designer hat on too often. 13:52But then, I started playing with it a little bit and I said, “You know, there are certain things here that I would like to change 13:57and some of the bells and whistles aren’t working as well as I would hope they would work.” 14:02So, when I went home in the evening time, I decided, “I’m actually going to start coding myself, “ 14:10and so I recreated the map editor...and even though I was in QA, that effort in recreating the map editor 14:17was what ultimately what allowed me to move over to become a coder at Blizzard. 14:21So it was personal for me but it was also one of these things where you look at it and you say: 14:27“Wow, here is this tool we are making, as a company,” and we are basically saying, 14:31“Put on your designer hat, be whoever you want to be and create these awesome maps. “ 14:36We have kind of held on to that over the years and we’ve provided not only just the tools but that 14:44embracing of the community throughout all of our franchises. 14:53I was thinking a little bit about the personal moments and the storyline in the Warcraft universe 15:00has been something that’s been really captivating, whether it’s the Illidan quest line... 15:05like, Warcraft III for me was just awesome and my brother was a really big Warcraft fan and... 15:15when he was 31 he was diagnosed with cancer. 15:23He, basically, he would sit at home and he’d be doing his thing, but then he’d play WoW when it first came out and 15:35he’d always be bugging me, you I was always a little too busy at work, but he would play WoW 15:39and he’s like: “Hey, have you checked out this?” and he would just geek up on everything WoW related. 15:46And he had a couple kids and he enjoyed sitting down and playing with them as well. 15:50When he died...I guess it was about two years ago...I remember I was sitting out by my pool 16:05and I banged off a quick email to the guys on Team 2 just basically said 16:11“Hey, the storyline in the Warcraft universe has always been awesome, 16:20is there any way we can maybe do something for my brother?” 16:24It was kind of crazy, Metzen got wind of it and he had gone to my brother’s funeral with me, which I thought was awesome, 16:35and he wrote back and said “Well, we can approach this a couple of different ways... 16:42we can make him part of the main story line for Lich King or we could do a really epic quest.” 16:52And he found this way, actually I forget who did the writing behind it, I know that Metzen really gave a lot of direction 17:04because I remember the e-mail where he, basically, described the quest line and his vision for the quest line. 17:11It was wild because he was able to take my brother’s struggle for about 4 or 5 years and represent it in this fantasy universe. 17:27And just reading it...just going through and actually reading what Metzen had paraphrased 17:40of what had gone on was pretty amazing. And then I sat down and I shared it with my Dad... 17:50and my Dad, he didn’t really...he didn’t know how to react. 17:58He was obviously moved by it. But he’s not Mr. Emotional Dude. 18:03So the first time that I saw the storyline in game... 18:12my hat goes off to the creative department here, the writing abilities and the guys on Team 2... 18:23and what’s wild is I actually had the crew here put together the DVD montage of that storyline 18:36and I gave that to my parents...and my Mom, she kind of refuses to watch it, 18:44just because it’s too much for her, I think. 18:48My Dad, I guess he snuck out with a little portable DVD player and he had to watch it in private in a car. 18:55And I ended up taking a copy of it as well...and buried that along with some of his personal belongings 19:08up in the Arctic Circle... So I would say that, without question, one of the most personal moments for me 19:17is that Bridenbrad quest line. 19:20Every once in a while I Google the quest line and there’s dudes who are like, 19:27you know they are actually checking out the lore behind the various quest lines that are out there. 19:38And I Google Bridenbrad and it’s actually kind of cool because there are these guys who are like” Oh my God, this quest line is awesome! 19:49and they don’t get it, but then some other people, I guess the guys on the RP servers 19:56fully geek out on it and they are like “Hey, I was rooting through the manual and there’s a line in the manual that’s talking about how... 20:10I basically did a dedication in the manual for Brad and then they Google his name and they found out 20:19that he had died and basically they put two and two together. 20:25They go through and they review the kind of cancer that he had and 20:31it’s just kind of crazy because is sort of a way to immortalize him...I don’t know it was...it was good stuff. 20:41I mean, I guess, on the lighter side of things, that’s just cool. 20:49I’ve gotten some his friends that have e-mailed me that play WoW and they’re just like: 20:52“Dude, that was epic. That was a thing you needed to do for Brad.Shane Dabiri[Question 1, Question 2]
21:04Well, it kind of has a two-parter here, so, back in '94, early '95, after we shipped Warcraft I, 21:11we went to the Consumer Electronic Show, this was before the big E3's and whatnot, 21:16and we had a ten by ten booth showing Warcraft I, 21:22and we had a little...like a thirty-seven inch monitor that was showing the cinematic 21:27and it was initially, we were really scared..... weren't sure if people were going to like this or not, 21:33you know a couple of people showed up...it turned into five people....turned to ten and then it was a small crowd out there. 21:38At that moment we were like, kinda beside ourselves, because this was a Consumer Electronic Show... 21:44a lot of other game companies here, small game studios and we had this nice crowd looking at our cinematic, 21:49Comparing that to our first Blizzcon and to think we had a small crowd out in front of our ten by ten booth 21:57and next we are at the Anaheim Convention Center and we have ten thousand people of our best 22:06and brightest fans out there. That's probably the moment that really stood out to me as the most 22:12because it was a comparing that first moment to where we first went to that CES, 22:15to where we came ten years later which was probably my biggest moment. 22:24So it's actually more recent, recent I should say... World of Warcraft the original, 22:31it was with the group of guys at work and we raided Onyxia for the first time 22:37and just the experience of .... you know, we worked on this dragon, 22:45we worked on the zone, we knew everything about it. 22:48But the actual experience of being in there as a player with all the guys on the team.... 22:53It was just awesome. I mean, it was the most exhilarating experience I've had in any of our games, 23:01to kind of look at it not from a developer's side, but now we are on the gamer's side, 23:06we are on the player's side we got to be one of them. And we actually...obviously we didn't take her down on the first, 23:10second or even third attempt, but when we finally did... 23:14There were cheers throughout the office, we were all so excited, and the thing is, 23:19the players had all actually done it before we had, but for us it was the first achievement internally. 23:25For us to do...so that was probably my biggest.Frank Pearce[Question 1, Question 2]
23:33So I feel very fortunate because I have been a part of the Warcraft franchise since its inception 23:40when we originally started working on Orcs and Humans way back in early '94, maybe even late 1993. 23:48But one of the experiences that I remember from that development process was an internal tournament 23:55that we hosted long before anyone had any concept of eSport 24:00and long before people were playing games competitively on the internet. 24:04We hosted an internal tournament before the game was ever released. One-on-one single elimination tournament. 24:11It was really fun and Allen Adham I both made it to the final match and elected not to play that final match, 24:23which I know in today's eSport state is sacrilege and you have to have a champion. 24:29But I remember the head-to-head experience being really compelling, 24:35more immersive and more exciting than the experience you get with playing against just a computer AI 24:43and looking back and knowing what we do with eSport today, it's just a moment in time that really stands out for me. 24:57I would have to say that my favorite experience as a gamer, from the Warcraft games, 25:02would definitely be an experience I had with World of Warcraft. 25:05I am a member of a guild, World of Warcraft is the first MMO I ever played. 25:11It's a very social experience...exceptionally more so than any games I had played previously 25:18and our guild worked up the courage to try to raid Molten Core. 25:26We had been raiding in a twenty man raid but we weren't having much success, 25:32and so we gathered up forty people and actually got a co-worker that was in another guild 25:39that was more successful that we were to lead us through Molten Core...so there are two experiences that I remember. 25:47The first time we went through Molten Core with this guy from another guild leading the way 25:53and after that first run he handed that experience off to us, and we had to run our own Molten Core Raid after that. 26:00And we spent a lot of time raiding Molten Core...and this was long after the high-end guilds 26:06had mastered this content, so for a lot of people this was a trivial experience 26:10but for us it was new and for me it was really new because it was my first MMO and my first raiding experience. 26:17So I remembered distinctly the first run where this guy held our hand through the experience, 26:23we didn't get very far and then handed off to us, and what was really gratifying... 26:28satisfying was after many many weeks of running Molten Core we finally summoned Ragnaros 26:37and proceeded to get our asses handed to us in very short order and we called it an evening. 26:44But then, several weeks later, after a lot of effort and after a lot of people geared up with fire resistance gear, 26:54we were actually able to successfully defeat Ragnaros and it was a really satisfying experience 26:59in terms of accomplishment, in terms of the teamwork that we had to employ to achieve that goal, 27:08after we did it we all posed for an in-game photo or screenshot, and I still have the screenshot on my desktop 27:19that one of my guildmates took of my character from that experience and that... 27:23at this point was several years ago .. and you know we've all leveled up to 80 now 27:30and at the time we were only level 60, it really emphasized for me the importance of the social element 27:38and the importance of the teamwork experience in World of Warcraft. It was a really cool experience.Mike Morhaime[Question 1, Question 2]
27:48The moment that I realized Warcraft was something special, 27:52I think there were many moments because there were several different points at which... 27:58there were moments that just exceeded all the other moments that came before. 28:02I think one moment that just completely sticks out for me is the midnight launch of World of Warcraft. 28:11Because here we were, you know, launching this massively multiplayer game. 28:15It was our first subscription game and the beta was pretty successful, but you really have no idea 28:22when you launch a game how many people are going to show up and want to buy it and play it. 28:27You just don't know how it's going to do and leading up to World of Warcraft there was a lot of buzz and excitement. 28:34So we drove out to the local Fry's Electronics and driving up I still remember the feeling... 28:41I got there and there's traffic to get to Fry's, to get off the freeway, it's completely backed up. 28:48And there's crowds and crowds of people walking towards Fry's and there was no parking within blocks. 28:58And I was thinking, 'Gosh, did someone else schedule an event the same time as us...?' 29:03But how likely is that? It's 10:30 PM, nothing is really open, could all these people be here for the World of Warcraft midnight opening? 29:10You know, I get there, and the line wrapped around Fry's twice, wrapped around the entire parking lot of Fry's, 29:20and if you know the Fountain Valley Fry's, it's a huge parking lot. 29:25It wrapped all the way around that, then continued on down the street, 29:29and this was still an hour-and-a-half to go before we opened, and that just... 29:33The feeling of driving up, walking up and seeing all these people excited to buy this game before it had even come out yet... 29:40was pretty special. 29:46In terms of moments I think about when I think about Warcraft, 29:50some of my favorite moments...actually I'm going to go back to Warcraft I ... Warcraft Orcs and Humans, 29:58because the defeat screen when you are playing as an Orc, on the Orc side... 30:04that you are presented with, was Bill Roper basically doing his voice for the Orc just berating you for losing. 30:15And he said, 'You pitiful worm, your defeat could mean our loss in the war against the humans.' I loved it.Paul Sams[Question 1, Question 2]
30:30It's a hard one to kind of narrow down because there are a number of things I have observed 30:37that made me feel that way. I think my first memory of it being really special, was when I worked with Davidson and Associates, 30:44Blizzard's original parent company. Bob Davidson, who viewed Blizzard as kind of his crown jewel of sorts, 30:52was nearly running up and down the halls when Warcraft Orcs and Human released. 30:58He was telling everybody that we had sold a couple hundred thousand units. 31:02It was beyond any of the educational software that was selling on the other part of the company. 31:08He was going on and on about how brilliant the Blizzard guys were and how incredible this product was. 31:13I hadn't seen the management of Blizzard's parent company ever have that kind of reaction to any of the other products 31:23that had ever come out. So in the company that was the first indication. 31:26I think outside the company, probably when I started getting calls for the first time ever from friends of mine 31:34talking about this Warcraft game and asking, is that part of your guys' company? 31:39I think when you start having people that you know call you about the products you are working on 31:45out of the blue that you hadn't heard from in a long time...that's where you start thinking to yourself... 31:51Wow, this may have some heat behind it. 31:53And then, you know, I think the midnight opening for War III also really resonated. 31:59And then the subsequent World of Warcraft midnight opening, being able to see those things happening around the world. 32:04You know, I think each time we do that it just further cements 32:07how big and how meaningful this franchise has become to so many people around the world. 32:17My favorite personal experience... I don't know if I would position it that way, 32:20but rather, my favorite point in the Warcraft universe, lore, and history, is an interesting one. 32:28I don't know if anybody else will talk about this but my favorite is Thrall's origin story. 32:34Basically where, as a baby, when his parents were killed, Durotan and his mother were killed... 32:42Blackmoore brought him in to human care and basically raised him in kind of the human environment 32:53and trained him to be as savage as an orc can be, but also be as cunning and smart as a human. 33:00And the whole thing of him coming out of that, finding escape through a human girl and then ultimately reuniting the clans... 33:11That, to me, was one of my favorite stories within there, and I know that when were originally doing Warcraft Lord of the Clans.... 33:19we ultimately didn't do it, but that was one of my favorite stories and one that I hope we highlight more in the future. 33:27Certainly, there's a whole lot of other points that are special. 33:31Certainly playing the game with my friends and what have you, and meeting people online, 33:36but I think for me I kinda wanted to focus on a point in the history or lore of the game that really special and I love that.Rob Pardo[Question 1, Question 2]
33:49I think the moment that really made Warcraft special to me was when we went to announce the product of Warcraft III. 33:58We were over in London at the time and we were in a packed room of reporters that wanted to see what we were doing next. 34:05And not only were they blown away by what we were showing, but they were really amazed at the depth of the universe 34:12and that we were going to be able to tell a story. 34:15There were so many people in the room that we actually had to repeat the conference to be able to show it twice. 34:25So my favorite moment as a player, predates me even working at Blizzard. 34:28I actually started in the games industry at Interplay Productions 34:32Warcraft II came out, and we were playing the game pretty much all the time. 34:36I was one of the best players of the company, and my boss Brian Fargo, 34:41one of the founders of the company, he bet on me against the top player in the 3D department. 34:46We ended up playing the best-of-three series in front of the company with my boss standing over my shoulder the entire time. 34:52Luckily, through grunt rush magic, I was able to win the best two-out-of-three games.Tom Chilton[Question 1, Question 2]
35:03So there are a lot of moments in World of Warcraft and Warcraft lore from previous Warcraft games 35:09that I would consider to be really special moments, all the way back to when I first played Warcraft I a long time ago 35:16and saw in Orcs versus Humans the water elementals and the demons being summoned in that game 35:21and thought that was really cool and captivated my imagination. 35:26But more than anything else as far as an epic storytelling experience goes 35:30I would have to say that when Arthas Menethil committed patricide in the Warcraft III game, 35:37where he kind of fell into the grip and took over his role as the Lich King, 35:42it was probably the most epic experience for me. It really made me realize that you could tell an amazing story 35:49and really kind of create something more than just a game, with the Warcraft universe. 36:00Well one of my probably favorite experiences within a Warcraft game, 36:05is interestingly enough during the early alpha stages of World of Warcraft 36:11where I really first got to see the amazing transitions that were being done in World of Warcraft. 36:19Crossing the boundaries between Elwynn Forest and Westfall and seeing how the landscape changed 36:26and the world changed and the color palettes changed and the whole feel and vibe of the world changes 36:31as you cross from one area to another, really stood out for me as a special moment. 36:35Both experiencing it as a player and also experiencing it as a developer, really seeing that 36:41Azeroth as a world was going to come to life by having these amazing transitions between zones.Joeyray Hall[Question 1, Question 2]
36:54I don' t actually think there was a moment... I think it was many moments throughout the years. 36:59I think that one of the first ones for me was when Bob Davidson made the ruling long ago with Warcraft I 37:06that we wouldn't just put out 50,000 copies that we would put out 70,000 copies, and everybody was like... 37:12And we were kind of afraid that it wasn't going to go anywhere and we actually did very, very well, 37:16and we sold out...so that was a really good one. 37:23The thing for me with all our games is that, because of the early years when I just meticulously went through everything. .. 37:29I love it, when one of our RTS games like Warcraft or Starcraft are over and everyone leaves the game – 37:36and then I go back into whatever level we were playing and I just strip everything. 37:40I take all the trees, I take all the vespene gas, I just take absolutely everything out.Matt Samia[Question 1, Question 2]
37:49The moment I realized the Warcraft was something very special 37:54was when we worked with Coke in China for the first commercial, 37:59and we went to Shanghai and went to all of the game rooms and everybody was playing World of Warcraft. 38:07We were out on the street and there were billboards for World of Warcraft, 38:10and there were big plastered artworks of World of Warcraft on the sides of buses, 38:17and we were going, 'Wow, this is amazing.' 38:21We go halfway around the world and here are all these people enjoying something we created. 38:26It was just mind boggling. 38:34I'd say the moment that stands out in my mind is from Warcraft III. 38:39Arthas coming home and claiming the throne from Terenas. 38:45That to me was just ... what a moment. What a moment. Amazing.Micky Neilson[Question 1, Question 2]
38:55Well, this is kind of the opposite of that, in a way, but it’s a fun story. 39:00I was having lunch with Matt Samia and Chris Metzen. 39:06This was back in the day when WoW was still really just kind of a rough idea. 39:12It wasn’t even very far along in the development process. 39:15I knew a little about the type of game that they were going for. 39:20And I said to them, you know, guys, this whole WoW idea, I just... 39:26I don’t know that it’s got much potential. I don’t think it’s going to make it. 39:30So now, looking back in retrospect, I was definitely wrong about that. 39:36But it’s kind of a fun story. 39:39Now that WoW is further along in development, I can see that, yeah, I got it all wrong.Nick Carpenter[Question 1, Question 2]
39:50The moment that I realized that the Warcraft world was special was probably my first year working at Blizzard Entertainment. 39:58Allen Adham was the President at the time, and he asked me to play this game that they had been working on. 40:02To me, it looked like a chess game. I had never played PC games. I was always into things like Super Nintendo and those types of games. 40:11And I sat down, played it. I’m like, “I don’t want to do this, this is gonna be weird. 40:16When I finished playing the first game, I remember looking up and going, “Where is Allen? I’ve got to grab him! Where is he? 40:23And thinking to myself that it was the funnest game I had ever played on PC-slash-any-console. 40:28And thinking to myself, “Woah, this could be something big, you know? 40:33And then seeing the reaction that it had, you know? I think it was a sleeper. 40:38It took about 6 to 7 months for people it to realize there was something out there that was actually fun to play. 40:42And thinking to myself, “Yep, we had lightning in a bottle! Right there. 40:51When I realized that this universe was specifically special, I think was Warcraft III. 40:57I had been playing the single-player campaign. We had just finished the game, and I had time on my hands. 41:02It was a great way to cool down and just experience the game first-hand, instead of thinking about it from actually a “making it” standpoint. 41:09It was Warcraft III, and Arthas had just denounced Uther and he had told him that this was an act of treason. 41:19It was the moment that Arthas actually went in a different direction. 41:24I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, we’re actually telling stories for real. I’m really caught up in this world. 41:30I just remember getting chills even sitting there. 41:32And watching this little in-game cinematic and thinking to myself, like, “My god! What an incredible moment we’ve created right here! 41:39Yeah. It’s absolutely stuck with me.Jeff Chamberlain[Question 1, Question 2]
41:47The 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. 41:57My friend James McCoy, who’s our animation supervisor, and I were driving towards this event. 42:02It was one of those things where you’d see a couple of people, but you didn’t realize what was going on. 42:09You’d see more and more people, and they’re all walking in this direction. 42:12And we were driving along and we finally recognized that this is happening. 42:15And we were all sitting there, like, “I wonder if there is a rock concert going on back here or something like that? 42:20We 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. 42:26And at that moment we realized all these people were walking in the same direction that we were going for the Fry’s signing. 42:31And that was pretty special. 42:33I 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. 42:39But that moment was pretty cool. 42:47A personal moment that really stands out to me playing a Warcraft game would have to be back when I was in college. 42:53In 1998, I worked at a gallery and it was really small and no one ever came in there. 43:00So the manager and I would switch shifts, and we would both play Warcraft II. 43:03For us it was like the real gem of the game was getting to the end of a level that had a cinematic. 43:12So, he was always there more than I was, so he’d be ahead of me in the game. 43:16He’d always come back and say “Did you get to the next cinematic?” And most of the time it was, “No. 43:21But, every once in a while it would be “Yes! 43:23And then we’d have an hour-long discussion on how cool the cinematic was, how it’s made, and so on and so forth. 43:28At the time I was studying 3D at school and he was studying painting. So for him it was all foreign. 43:34So, it created these really great conversations and it also made me realize that maybe going into games was the way to go.Justin Thavirat[Question 1, Question 2]
43:48So the moment I realized that the Warcraft universe was something special, I’d have to say it was probably one of the first times 43:56When you start World of Warcraft and you play as either Alliance or Horde, as a human or orc. 44:02When you first jump into the game and you get that introductory experience flying through Elwynn Forest, over Stormwind Castle. 44:10You’ve got the beautiful scenery, the landscape, the art to look at. 44:16You’ve got the just awesome voiceover giving you the back story of what your character’s all about, what your faction’s all about. 44:23And 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. 44:32It 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. 44:43So 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. 44:51When playing Warcraft III, and there’s the cinematic when Arthas is coming home, there’s one shot in particular. 45:00And 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. 45:07And it’s just that shot. The way the gates fly open, like they’re empty and hollow. 45:12And he just proceeds right into the camera, and he’s silhouetted against the over-bright sky in the background. 45:17It’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: 45:26“That... that is an epic scene.”Greg Street[Question 1, Question 2]
45:33The Dwarf starting zone in World of Warcraft, the first time I saw Ironforge, was really special. 45:38This mountain kind of rising above the snowfield and there’s all these extra little buildings and towers sticking out of there. 45:45So you got the impression that the thing is just gigantic. And you go up this ramp up to the front gate. 45:49Everything is like, even though they’re little dwarves, everything is huge and out of scale. 45:53There’s a great sense that the place just goes on and on. 45:55You don’t see a lot of it in there, but you know that this whole mountain is just honeycombed with tunnels and stuff. 46:00Very epic. 46:06My favorite gamer moment. I’m going to go to World of Warcraft. 46:10The first time I fought Onyxia the dragon was really epic. 46:15I mean, it’s this gigantic dragon and I always thought Blizzard really did dragons right. 46:19I mean, it felt like a big opponent. It was something scary, not something you just carved through by the thousands. 46:25We 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... 46:34I 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.Cory Stockton[Question 1, Question 2]
46:45The first moment that I realized Warcraft was something special was probably the first BlizzCon I was able to go to. 46:52Working here at Blizzard and going, it was just such a different experience seeing that many people that care about the game. 47:00And I think it was the fact of seeing not only people that were my age and my friends... 47:05But 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. 47:11Just seeing the impact that the game has on such a wide variety of people. 47:17Because I think working on it here, we think just other gamers play this game. 47:21But as it’s grown and gotten bigger, I think that our influence continues to get larger. 47:26I didn’t really see that until I got to go to BlizzCon and just seeing how many people were there. 47:30And how much they care about the game, not just as a game, but as something that they do as a family and other people. 47:37It was something a lot bigger than I had expected. 47:45I definitely played all the Warcrafts before World of Warcraft. 47:50But I think definitely the biggest moment for me was definitely the first time that we killed Ragnaros. 47:55In World of Warcraft, I was in a guild. 47:57I was working here at Blizzard, so actually I killed him at my desk after work one night because we were raiding here. 48:05And I think that moment, we screamed, because we were on voice chat. 48:12Everyone yelled at the same time when we beat him for that first time. 48:16It just felt like getting that accomplishment with 40 other people... 48:19I had never really done that in any other game before where you work with so many people together to get something done. 48:24And that was vanilla WoW so it was kind of like that first real, big boss in the game that people could actually take down.Glenn Stafford[Question 1, Question 2]
48:36All the Warcraft games have something special. 48:40The first time I think I realized it fully was during Warcraft II development. 48:48Warcraft I was a great game, it was a lot of fun. 48:52Did really well, but something about Warcraft II, it just felt like it was coming together. 49:00The idea was solidifying. The game was that much more fun and interesting. 49:06When you put all the pieces together, there was just some sort of magic that made it more than the sum of its parts.Micky Neilson
Publishing Lead
[Question 1]
Publishing Lead
Glenn Stafford
Senior Sound Designer/Composer
[Question 1]
Senior Sound Designer/Composer