What is Fan History? • What are Fan History's goals? • What are Fan History's rules?

From Fan History Wiki

Contents 1 Introduction 2 The Lore 3 Terminology 4 Fanworks policy and history 5 Guilds with raid world firsts 5.1 Sunwell Plateau 5.2 Black Temple 5.3 Mount Hyjal 5.4 The Eye 5.5 Serpant Shrine Cavern 5.6 Naxxramas 6 Timeline 6.1 1994 6.2 1995 6.3 2001 6.4 2002 6.5 2003 6.6 2004 6.7 2005 6.8 2006 6.9 2007 6.10 2008 7 Influential fanworks 7.1 Illegal Danish Supersnacks 7.2 Web Comics 7.3 World of World of Warcraft 8 Fandom size 9 External Links 10 See also 11 Sources

[edit] Introduction

Since 2004, Blizzard has been active in encouraging gamers to create fanworks like fan art and fan videos. The company hosts some of this material on their site and runs contests related to it. The fandom has a tendency to create vids as their primary fanwork, with some of this material found on YouTube. Blizzard regularly holds contests for various forms of faworks such as art and videos [1] [2].

Warcraft itself can be divided into three separate incarnations: The real time stragety game, the mmorpg, as well as the trading card game that is related to the mmorpg. For the most part, fandom discussed in this article relates to the mmorpg, World of Warcraft.

[edit] The Lore

The history of Azeroth, the planet on which Warcraft in its various version takes place is often referred to as the Lore. Rather then being a strict cannon, it is occasionally partly rewritten to suit the goals of the developers of the game, or otherwise refined.

[edit] Terminology

Below is a list of terms and their definitions that are used in this fan community.

• Griefer is someone who deliberately sets out to disrupt gameplay in order to cause others grief. This term applies to many mmorgs and not just to World of Warcraft.
• Machinimia is the creation of films within real-time 3-D environments such as video games.[3]
• pwn To dominate an opponent. The term dates from a typo in a map in the early days of Warcraft when own was misspelled as pwn.

[edit] Fanworks policy and history

Currently Blizzard Entertainment encourages fan works, such as fan art and fan created videos by hosting fan art on the various regional World of Warcraft websites as well as holding both fan art and fan video contests. In addition to fan made machinima, Blizzard Entertainment also created machinima for fan enjoyment, including, but not limited to, in game news reports and music videos from the employee band Level 70 Elite Tauren Cheiftian or L70ETC.[4] [5]

Players also produce addons, that add functionally not built into the game. Addons are legal in the game as long as they meet with the ELUA. [6] [7]

[edit] Guilds with raid world firsts

[edit] Sunwell Plateau

• Kil'Jaeden by SK-Gaming[8]
• M'uru by SK-Gaming[9]

[edit] Black Temple

All world firsts by Nihilum [10][11]

[edit] Mount Hyjal

• Archimonde by Nihilum [12][13]
• Azgalor by Curse [14] [15]
• Kaz'rogal by Curse [16] [17]
• Anetheron by Forte [18] [19]
• Rage Winterchill by Nihilum [20][21]

[edit] The Eye

• Kael'thas by Nihilum [22][23]
• Hight Astromancer Solarian by Death Wish [24]
• Al'ar by Nihilum [25][26]
• Void Reaver by Nihilum [27][28]

[edit] Serpant Shrine Cavern

[edit] Naxxramas

[edit] Timeline

Below is a partial timeline of events that are relevant to Warcraft.

[edit] 1994

• Blizzard released Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, one of the first real time strategy games.[29]

[edit] 1995

• In December 1995, Blizzard released Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. [30]

[edit] 2001

[edit] 2002

• In July 2002, the real time strategy game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was released.[31]

[edit] 2003

• On July 1, 2003, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the expansion for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was released.[32]

[edit] 2004

• In June 2004, Blizzard added a fan art section to their website. [33]
• On November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft was released in the United States.[34]

[edit] 2005

• On February 11, 2005, World of Warcraft was released in Europe. [35]
• On June 6, 2005, World of Warcraft was released in China. [36]

[edit] 2006

• "In May 2006, production company Legendary Pictures acquired film rights to adapt Warcraft for the big screen with the game's publisher, Blizzard Entertainment." [37]
• On September 7, 2006, WOW Insider was created. [38][39]

[edit] 2007

• On January 16, 2007 Blizzard released The Burning Crusade, the first expansion to World Of Warcraft.
• In early 2007, Blizzard and fans began to try to take legal action against gold miners. [40]
• "In June 2007, Legendary Pictures chairman Thomas Tull said that the studio was working closely with Blizzard's designers and writers to adapt World of Warcraft. " [41]
• On July 24, 2007, Blizzard announced that World Of Warcraft had passed the 9 million subscriber mark.
• "In August 2007, at BlizzCon, it was unveiled that the film will aim for a projected 2009 release." [42]
• On August 4, 2007, Blizzard announced the title of the second, to be released, World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King at Blizzcon.

[edit] 2008

• In the spring of 2008, the Wrath of the Litch King closed alpa was started.

[edit] Influential fanworks

[edit] Illegal Danish Supersnacks

Illegal Danish Supersnacks[43] is a widly populary and widly viewed machinima video created by Dementia Myndflame . It was the winner of Blizzard Xfire World of Warcraft Movie Contest 2006 in the following categories: 1st Place in:

• Best Comedy
• Best Editing
• Best Original Music
• Best Dialogue
• Best Action Scene

2nd Place in:

• Best Dance

[edit] Web Comics

• LFG Comic[44] is a web comic that takes much of its inspiration from World of Warcraft.
• Dark Legacy Comic[45]
• Teh Gladiators[46]
• Release Spirit[47] Web comic in both English and Italian

[edit] World of World of Warcraft

Parody of World of Warcraft Players[48]

[edit] Fandom size

There are currently over ten million subscribers according to Blizzard Entertainment. It is unknown how many of those accounts are currently active.

[edit] External Links

• WoWWiki, the Warcraft wiki
• Blizzard Entertainment's offical site
• World of Warcraft North America
• World of Warcraft Europe
• Database of ingame information for World of Warcraft
• Myndflame Machinima Advanced
• Elitist Jerks forum
• MMO Champion

[edit] See also

• Warcraft fan fiction

[edit] Sources

Below is a partial list of articles and academic sources to help you continue to learn about this community.

This section needs more information.