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2004 Launch of World of Warcraft
It innovated the genre of MMORPG through its easily accessible gameplay and a world in which it allowed players to get completely immersed, setting a new bar for player interaction. -
2005: First Expansion - The Burning Crusade
It promoted big content updates and expansions as part of a business model, something that would go on to define how future games would deliver ongoing content updates. -
2006: Peak Subscription Numbers
WoW reached over 8 million subscribers and proved subscription-based models could work in gaming. This subsequently led to other developers investigating similar subscription models. -
2007: Introduction of User-Generated Content
Features such as addons fostered community-created content and showed the path for future games to take in embracing modding and user-generated content. -
2012: Mists of Pandaria Expansion
Stronger storytelling with deeper lore and character development; a greater emphasis on narrative in MMORPGs, which bled into other RPGs afterward. -
2010: Cataclysm Expansion
Set the precedent for redefining world-building by severely altering existing game environments, along with new ways developers will approach narrative and world evolution. -
2014: Warlords of Draenor Expansion
A new concept called "Garrisons" shaped player housing and personal spaces that have affected social elements in online games. -
2015: Rise of eSports
Competitive gameplay in WoW contributed to the rise of eSports, and this in turn drives developers to include competitive play and spectator features in other games. -
2020: Shadowlands Expansion
Designed to meet current gaming trends, it allows cross-faction play and its developers have placed immense importance on player agency, which shifts like the desert sands of player expectations.