Warlockthe Westrift Valley

Date 03/11/2008.

Stroke of Midnight: The Burning Crusade Begins Anew

his past Tuesday, January 16, 2007, months of anticipation came to fruition for devoted World of Warcraft players around the world -- especially for the ones waiting in line at The Burning Crusade midnight-opening events. At the stroke of midnight, thousands of dedicated soldiers of the Horde and Alliance -- as prepared as ever -- were finally able to acquire their copy of World of Warcraft's first expansion.

Fry's Electronics in Fountain Valley, California was the setting for one of several midnight events where members of the World of Warcraft development team were present. The line stretched around the outside of the warehouse-sized Fry's building and into the bone-numbingly chilly (by Southern California standards) January night. Similar scenes took place at two other Fry's developer-signing locations -- one in Anaheim, CA and one in Sunnyvale, CA.

Dressed in costumes, holding signs, but mostly just bundled up securely against the elements, the hardy souls who waited outside took solace in knowing that they would be among the first in California to receive the expansion. Dozens of development team members were there to meet and greet the players and sign autographs on anything Blizzard-related. Posters, guild banners, card-game playmats, T-shirts, art books, an original sealed copy of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, and of course, copies of The Burning Crusade were among the items to receive autographs.

Throughout the night, the gamers at these events proudly displayed their zeal for all things Warcraft, in the form of costumes, signs, cheering that was only partially muffled by scarves and coats, impromptu dancing, and some good-natured cross-faction banter. The most hardcore, those who spent the unseasonably cold night outside in tents and sleeping bags, arrived as early as 9:00 PM PST Saturday evening. Numerous media outlets captured it all for posterity with live feeds and camera crews, many of which were interested in interviewing the people in line.

In addition to the Fry's Electronics midnight signing events, Blizzard team members were also present at the GameStop/EB Games location at Universal CityWalk in Universal City, CA, near Los Angeles. All told, well over 3,500 people showed up to the events in Southern California, and nearly 3,000 people showed up at the Sunnyvale Fry's in Northern California. Including the Blizzard team members and store employees at each event, as well as the odd murloc and tauren, the midnight launch of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade amounted to a celebration of approximately 7,000 attendees in California alone. However, these events were hardly exclusive to California -- more than 5,000 stores across the United States and Canada were open at midnight for the launch of The Burning Crusade as well.

Many other countries joined the party, too, making The Burning Crusade's release an international event. There were midnight openings in Australia and New Zealand, as well as in multiple countries throughout Europe, including huge developer-attended events in Berlin, London, Paris, and Stockholm.

If you couldn't make it to the events, the intrepid Gnomeregan Gnews Gnetwork team documented the goings-on at the developer-attended launch events around the world. View part one and part two of their video featurette to get a sense of what it was like.