The very first screenshots of World of Warcraft
And of the 60-person team that built it.
Blizzard recruitment marketing manager Dave Wilson has provided a fascinating turn-of-the-millennia look back at original World of Warcraft development, including sharing the very first screenshot of the genre-conquering online game.
There's a look at the game in 1999...
And another that must have been taken around that time.
He shared the first character-select screen from the game (note: the game originally had only six races)...
As well as early designs of the undead race...
And female trolls.
He revealed that Molten Core wasn't finished and was going to be cut from original release...
And that Onyxia wasn't finished until 12th August 2004.
This is the first test fight against Onyxia. My, what a big arrow that is in her neck.
And this is the first test of the Blackwing Lair raid, added after launch. Note the placeholder shout by the boss Razorgore.
Finally, here's the original 60-person Blizzard team that launched the game in 2004. Remarkable.
There's plenty more, some newer cobbled together on Storify by user Pike.
World of Warcraft turned 10 years old in the US last November, and in Europe in February. We wrote a handful of articles to celebrate what has been phenomena in the gaming world. Long-time WOW player John Bedford told the tale of his bizarre obsession with earning the outrageously obscure "Salty" fishing title; he also reminisced about what he believes is the game's finest raid, Karazhan.
Editor Oli Welsh declared World of Warcraft a Game of the Generation, and me, well, I resurrected a character and a part of my life I'd left behind nine years ago. What a game.