World of Warcraft’s 20th anniversary was a bittersweet trip through time

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We shall never see its likes again.

“Stand in the circles of death,” our raid leader said as our Blackrock Depths group came up on Lord Incendius, a giant fire (what else, with a name like that?) elemental.

“That sounds safe,” someone responded.

“Otherwise, he’ll kaboom the raid,” the raid leader finished. It was peak World of Warcraft raid chat.

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Reader, we stood in the circles of death, and the only person that got kaboomed was the fire lord. Our group finished him off, several “ty all” comments appeared in chat, including one from yours truly, and my Demon Hunter was back outside the Caverns of Time, ready to hit the next element of the MMORPG’s anniversary event.

Blizzard went all out for World of Warcraft’s 20th birthday. The multi-month, in-game party was at a size and scale that we don’t typically see from events of its kind. Maybe Blizzard understood the gravity of the moment, the rarity of it, and figured, “Why the hell not?” How many games get to do something like this, really? Given the current state of online games still eyeing Warcraft‘s throne (and, honestly, the whole industry), the odds of another game doing something like this down the road seems … small. The king stays the king.

All Tomorrow’s Parties

World of Warcraft‘s anniversary has traditionally been a fun, albeit small, shindig. There are some quests to complete and special bonuses for things like experience and reputation gain, but for the most part, it’s a little celebration. This year? It felt like a party. There was a giant stage where everyone’s favorite Jim Cummings-voiced storytelling panda, Lorewalker Cho, told stories from Warcraft’s history, and you could cry and throw tomatoes. There was a fashion show where players could