World of Warcraft: The Battle for Azeroth is the seventh expansion in the world’s most popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) with a current estimate of more than five million players. It’s hard to believe that the game is still the number one MMORPG after 14 years.
To give back to its fans that have been supporting it over the years, Blizzard organised a series of parties in conjunction with the worldwide launch on 14th of August 2018. Singapore was the second leg of a three-city Asian tour that kicked off in Hong Kong and ended in Taiwan.
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Launch Party at the Arts House
The Singapore party was hosted at the Arts House at The Old Parliament on 7 August 2018. The event saw some 200 lucky fans clinch a coveted ticket to this exclusive event. Fans got to meet two members of the World of Warcraft (WoW) design team, John Yang and Johnny Cash as they shared the exciting new developments of this WoW expansion.
In this instalment, the Horde is pitted against the Alliance in a fight over a new resource, Azerite, which harkens the story goes back to the roots of the Warcraft Universe in the first Warcraft game, Orcs vs Humans.
Players will get to explore two new continents, Kul Tiras and Zandalar as well as experience new dungeons, and new game mechanics like WarMode.
If you are interested entering the World of Warcraft as a new player, the game designers advised new players to take it slow as there is almost a decade and a half of history to the game, and it would take some time to catch up, alternatively a new player could pay to boost his character up to level 100.
Fans’ Response
Bryan Lim, World of Warcraft player since age 16.
A piece of advice for new players was given by communications executive Bryan Lim, 27, who had been playing the game for 11 years. He advised new players to just have fun and not be anxious trying to catch up with far more experienced players. He strongly suggested that new players find long-time players for mentorship and community.
Bryan was introduced to the game by his sister. Attracted to the fantasy world and depth of story and lore of Warcraft, he has been hooked since. A hardcore fan, he has attended three World of Warcraft events over the world and felt honoured that Blizzard would bring developers all the way to Singapore. He was grateful for the opportunity that fans were able to touch base and provide feedback.
World of Warcraft Fan, Tiffany, a.k.a. Lady Danger.
Amongst the crowd were also players who have been playing for a long time in other countries and were present in Singapore. Tiffany, 27, who has been playing for the last six years, has just arrived in Singapore 8 months ago to work here as an English teacher.
Another overseas guest present was Akarshak Tanwar, 28, an MBA student at SP-JAIN and a gamer for over 20 years. He first entered the Warcraft universe through the Defense of the Ancients (DoTA) game and then progressed to WoW.
Aspire to be a game designer?
Q & A with World of Warcraft game designers, John Yang and Johnny Cash
If you are an aspiring game designer who wants to walk in the game designers’ footsteps, John Yang advised students to not just play games but think about why and what makes a game they play fun. Johnny Cash added that when creating games, that students document the process, and write down what works and what doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter if their first game isn’t fun, but it’s the process that is important.
