When do you remember WoW becoming a household name?

[Lauren Morton]

Hey PC gamers welcome back to the chat log! This week we talked with two of our long-time World of Warcraft players about the 20th anniversary of WoW. In between all our other nostalgia about favorite expansions, being converted by friends, and years of updates we also got to chatting about when we remember WoW entering the cultural consciousness. We aren't all WoW players around here and you may not be either, but there's not been any escaping its cultural power in the past 20 years.

When do you remember World of Warcraft becoming a household name?​

What was it that you remember cementing WoW as a culturally relevant name? Was it the South Park episode? The Big Bang Theory episode? Trailers on TV or your friends skipping sports practice to raid? WoW is still going strong as one of the biggest MMOs around so we may yet have 20 more years of it ahead of us. What a time!

 

[Alm]

I think the South Park episode struck me as it really becoming well known. Though I think most people have vaguely heard of it but don't know exactly what it is. I remember my Uni mates mocking people who played World of Warcraft.

I bought it early on and thought it would be an evolution in gaming. I got to the point where I needed to group with people and that's where it lost me. I found most people to be toxic / annoying in some sort of way or another. Or just not enjoyable to play with. I think maybe because I'm some kind of introverted hermit. Humbug

 

[red_5ive]

Sometime before Guild Wars released. I remember getting a few of my WoW friends to jump into GW, and their assessment was, "It isn't WoW", or, "I'm not WoW'd." Anyone I knew at that point just called it WoW.

But I never referred to it as WoW myself. Having played a lot of Warcraft and Warcraft II, it was always just Warcraft to me. But for some reason I never got into WoW.