Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) had been around for more than a decade when World of Warcraft was released in 2004. But World of Warcraft, nicknamed WoW, literally wowed a larger audience with its graphics, play, and mainstream appeal of online role-playing games.
MMORPGs had been extremely popular in the video game world prior to WoW, offering virtual worlds in which players could create their own characters and lives while in a game-oriented setting that would continue to exist and change, even when individual players were offline. However, before WoW, it was more oriented toward a niche gaming crowd. WoW changed all that.
After its release in 2004, WoW has seen steady growth and popularity. Its graphics and audio have been critically acclaimed, it was named the 11th best video game ever by Game Informer, and it was honored by the technology and engineering Emmys in 2008 for its outstanding development of MMORPGs. In 2010, the game's subscriber base peaked at 12 million people, each paying the company $14.99 per month.
