World of Warcraft: Five Years In

World of Warcraft continues to enjoy an absurd amount of success even after its fifth anniversary, so the folks at IncGamers have put together a two-page editorial that analyzes what the MMORPG and its expansion packs have done right over the years.

WoW’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, built on that idea even further, with the introduction of 10 man raiding alongside the 25 man format. The game’s first hero class, the Death Knight went down a storm, partly due to the fact that, rather than having to start from level one, these deadly new characters started their journey at level 55, making the option to start another ‘toon’ much more attractive. Northrend, a continent roughly the same size as Outland, was added to the game providing yet more for end game players, and the levelling curve was adjusted again to compensate for the extra ten character levels that had been also been pinned on.

WotLK saw in another number of new features that made early and mid game content more appealing. The Achievements system gave WoW a new lease of life, suddenly giving players a reason to go back and complete content they’d skipped over or not done for years, collect certain items such as pets or mounts and carry out all the seasonal event quests to obtain a hard-to-get title or reward. Heirloom items, which grant low level characters a hefty bonus to experience, were also made available to end game players who gained tokens through daily quests or heroic dungeons, making the prospect of starting a new character even more tempting – another stroke of genius on Blizzard’s part. And as if anyone needed any more persuasion to want to start over, the level of requirement of mounts was further reduced to 20, with another drop in cost.