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15 Crazy World of Warcraft Facts That Will Impress Your Guildies
World of Warcraft has been hot-button political issue.
Should playing World of Warcraft disqualify you from holding political office? In 2012, the Maine Republican Party mailed out this ad attacking Democratic State Senate candidate Colleen Lachowicz for having a what Maine GOP Communications Director David Sorensen calls a "disturbing alter-ego."
He further suggested that playing World of Warcraft "raise(s) questions about Lachowicz's maturity and her ability to make serious decisions for the people of Senate District 25."
Lachowicz ultimately won the race.
Image credit: Maine Republican Party
WoW has been blamed for some deaths in the past.
Plenty of people have become addicted to playing World of Warcraft. But some gamers take the game too far, playing non-stop until they ... just ... die.
In 2015, The Daily Mail reported that a Shanghai man died after playing the game for 19 hours straight, continuing even as he was coughing up blood. And that's not even the saddest World of Warcraft death story out there.
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Mila Kunis had a serious WoW addiction, too. (But not puke-up-blood serious.)
Mila Kunis is a huge World of Warcraft fan -- or at least she was. In 2010, the actress told MTV News that she had to quit the game because she got too addicted to it.
"I'm off," she said. "I took it off the computer. I did. I didn't cancel my account, so I still have my little twinks running around, but I had to take it off."
"I feel like a drug addict talking about a drug," she added.
Image credit: Tinseltown/Shutterstock
Robin Williams loved the game so much he has an in-game memorial.
Robin Williams was a notorious gamer -- he named his daughter Zelda, after all. So then it should come as no surprise that Williams loved playing World of Warcraft. Rumor has it he especially enjoyed trolling the Horde-side trade chat on the Mannoroth server.
If you want to visit Robin in-game, you'll need to head to the island off the south coast of Talador and rub the Ever-Burning Lamp located there.
Image credit: Composite by Fox Van Allen
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker played World of Warcraft together.
You probably know that Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker were best bros on the movie screen and in real life. But they were tight in Azeroth too -- the duo used to play the game together.
Vin Diesel has even posted to Facebook footage of Walker and himself playing World of Warcraft in 2010.
Image credit: Universal
Hodor is a shaman healer IRL.
Of course, still-living celebs love World of Warcraft too.
Kristian Nairn, Game of Throne's Hodor, told Engadget's Lisa Poisso that he plays a shaman healer and mage on the Kil'jaeden PvP server.
We presume he'll have a lot of time to focus on his characters for Legion. (Too soon?)
Image credit: HBO
You can visit a World of Warcraft theme park.
Want to spend a real-world holiday in Azeroth? Hop on to the next plane to China and make it happen.
Located in Changzhou, World Joyland is an (unlicensed) theme park designed around Blizzard games World of Warcraft and Starcraft. Here, you can see the "Dragon Roaring Heaven" coaster as experienced by YouTube coaster fanatic David Ellis.
Image credit: Davidjellis via YouTube
Copyright infringement? What's that?
Here's another photo from World Joyland. The tower at the left has clearly been inspired by Orgrimmar architecture.
You can explore more of the park in this YouTube video from texcoaster.
Image credit: texcoaster via YouTube
Gnomes are too short for this ride
Apparently, the raid on Icecrown Citadel translates pretty well into a dope log flume ride. You know, once everything is all melted.
Say hi to Arthas on the way down!
Image credit: James Timbers via YouTube
Blizzard made a dying child's wish come true in the most beautiful way.
Blizzard has really come through for Make-A-Wish Foundation patients.
In the best-known World of Warcraft "wish," brain cancer patient Ezra Chatterton was brought to Blizzard Entertainment's offices in Anaheim to design his own non-player character for the game. Erza created and provided the voice for Tauren Ahab Wheathoof.
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Ezra also received the most-lusted-after mount in all of Azeroth ...
Ezra -- better known to his fellow gamers as Ephoenix -- was also the first ever player to be given the stunningly beautiful (and still ultra-rare) Ashes of Al'ar flying phoenix mount.
Though Ezra passed away in 2008, his legacy lives forever in World of Warcraft.
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
A virtual plague killed everyone. By accident.
The Corrupted Blood incident has gone down in history as the biggest World of Warcraft glitch of all time, and it's not hard to see why.
Corrupted Blood was a powerful disease debuff that worked similar to a real-world virus -- it was transmitted by close contact with others, even NPCs. It didn't take long for the disease to spread across all of Azeroth's cities (thanks to some griefers), killing every low-level character and the misfortune to contract it. But that was actually a good thing, because ...
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Corrupted Blood led to beneficial real-world disease research.
Physician Ran Balicer published an article about the incident in the journal Epidemiology, suggesting that the games could be a tool for researchers to model the spread of both SARS and the bird flu.
Charles Blair, deputy director of the Center of Terrorism and Intelligence Studies, suggested that the game could also be used to model bio-terrorism attacks.
Image credit: Looker_studio/Shutterstock
Be nice to gold farmers. They might be Chinese prisoners.
These days, gold-starved players can buy in-game currency straight from Blizzard. But in the old days, third-party gold selling was so profitable that Chinese prisoners were forced to become gold farmers when not otherwise performing physical labor.
"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labor," a former Jixi labor camp prisoner told The Guardian. "We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000 to 6,000rmb ($800) a day."
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Skeletons are too unhealthy for China's censors.
As any World of Warcraft superfan will attest, there are lots of skeletons in the game -- piles of bones are strewn almost everywhere. But not in the Chinese version of the game.
Worried that the presence of skulls and skeletons failed to "promote a healthy and harmonious online environment" as required by the China Ministry of Culture, Blizzard delayed the launch of its Wrath of the Lich King expansion for years until they could literally add some meat to their bones.
Image credit: Composite by Fox Van Allen
This is the most expensive mount. Ever.
Want to prove you're a WoW high roller? Then you need this ultra-rare Swift Spectral Tiger. It's the most expensive mount you can purchase in the game.
Prices vary from seller to seller, of course, but a review of auction house pricing suggests that you'll need to drop roughly 750,000 gold to buy one. That's the equivalent of $300 in U.S. currency at the current exchange rate. And it can't even fly!
Image credit: Screenshot by Fox Van Allen
More...
Should playing World of Warcraft disqualify you from holding political office? In 2012, the Maine Republican Party mailed out this ad attacking Democratic State Senate candidate Colleen Lachowicz for having a what Maine GOP Communications Director David Sorensen calls a "disturbing alter-ego."
He further suggested that playing World of Warcraft "raise(s) questions about Lachowicz's maturity and her ability to make serious decisions for the people of Senate District 25."
Lachowicz ultimately won the race.
Image credit: Maine Republican Party
WoW has been blamed for some deaths in the past.
Plenty of people have become addicted to playing World of Warcraft. But some gamers take the game too far, playing non-stop until they ... just ... die.
In 2015, The Daily Mail reported that a Shanghai man died after playing the game for 19 hours straight, continuing even as he was coughing up blood. And that's not even the saddest World of Warcraft death story out there.
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Mila Kunis had a serious WoW addiction, too. (But not puke-up-blood serious.)
Mila Kunis is a huge World of Warcraft fan -- or at least she was. In 2010, the actress told MTV News that she had to quit the game because she got too addicted to it.
"I'm off," she said. "I took it off the computer. I did. I didn't cancel my account, so I still have my little twinks running around, but I had to take it off."
"I feel like a drug addict talking about a drug," she added.
Image credit: Tinseltown/Shutterstock
Robin Williams loved the game so much he has an in-game memorial.
Robin Williams was a notorious gamer -- he named his daughter Zelda, after all. So then it should come as no surprise that Williams loved playing World of Warcraft. Rumor has it he especially enjoyed trolling the Horde-side trade chat on the Mannoroth server.
If you want to visit Robin in-game, you'll need to head to the island off the south coast of Talador and rub the Ever-Burning Lamp located there.
Image credit: Composite by Fox Van Allen
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker played World of Warcraft together.
You probably know that Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker were best bros on the movie screen and in real life. But they were tight in Azeroth too -- the duo used to play the game together.
Vin Diesel has even posted to Facebook footage of Walker and himself playing World of Warcraft in 2010.
Image credit: Universal
Hodor is a shaman healer IRL.
Of course, still-living celebs love World of Warcraft too.
Kristian Nairn, Game of Throne's Hodor, told Engadget's Lisa Poisso that he plays a shaman healer and mage on the Kil'jaeden PvP server.
We presume he'll have a lot of time to focus on his characters for Legion. (Too soon?)
Image credit: HBO
You can visit a World of Warcraft theme park.
Want to spend a real-world holiday in Azeroth? Hop on to the next plane to China and make it happen.
Located in Changzhou, World Joyland is an (unlicensed) theme park designed around Blizzard games World of Warcraft and Starcraft. Here, you can see the "Dragon Roaring Heaven" coaster as experienced by YouTube coaster fanatic David Ellis.
Image credit: Davidjellis via YouTube
Copyright infringement? What's that?
Here's another photo from World Joyland. The tower at the left has clearly been inspired by Orgrimmar architecture.
You can explore more of the park in this YouTube video from texcoaster.
Image credit: texcoaster via YouTube
Gnomes are too short for this ride
Apparently, the raid on Icecrown Citadel translates pretty well into a dope log flume ride. You know, once everything is all melted.
Say hi to Arthas on the way down!
Image credit: James Timbers via YouTube
Blizzard made a dying child's wish come true in the most beautiful way.
Blizzard has really come through for Make-A-Wish Foundation patients.
In the best-known World of Warcraft "wish," brain cancer patient Ezra Chatterton was brought to Blizzard Entertainment's offices in Anaheim to design his own non-player character for the game. Erza created and provided the voice for Tauren Ahab Wheathoof.
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Ezra also received the most-lusted-after mount in all of Azeroth ...
Ezra -- better known to his fellow gamers as Ephoenix -- was also the first ever player to be given the stunningly beautiful (and still ultra-rare) Ashes of Al'ar flying phoenix mount.
Though Ezra passed away in 2008, his legacy lives forever in World of Warcraft.
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
A virtual plague killed everyone. By accident.
The Corrupted Blood incident has gone down in history as the biggest World of Warcraft glitch of all time, and it's not hard to see why.
Corrupted Blood was a powerful disease debuff that worked similar to a real-world virus -- it was transmitted by close contact with others, even NPCs. It didn't take long for the disease to spread across all of Azeroth's cities (thanks to some griefers), killing every low-level character and the misfortune to contract it. But that was actually a good thing, because ...
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Corrupted Blood led to beneficial real-world disease research.
Physician Ran Balicer published an article about the incident in the journal Epidemiology, suggesting that the games could be a tool for researchers to model the spread of both SARS and the bird flu.
Charles Blair, deputy director of the Center of Terrorism and Intelligence Studies, suggested that the game could also be used to model bio-terrorism attacks.
Image credit: Looker_studio/Shutterstock
Be nice to gold farmers. They might be Chinese prisoners.
These days, gold-starved players can buy in-game currency straight from Blizzard. But in the old days, third-party gold selling was so profitable that Chinese prisoners were forced to become gold farmers when not otherwise performing physical labor.
"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labor," a former Jixi labor camp prisoner told The Guardian. "We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000 to 6,000rmb ($800) a day."
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Skeletons are too unhealthy for China's censors.
As any World of Warcraft superfan will attest, there are lots of skeletons in the game -- piles of bones are strewn almost everywhere. But not in the Chinese version of the game.
Worried that the presence of skulls and skeletons failed to "promote a healthy and harmonious online environment" as required by the China Ministry of Culture, Blizzard delayed the launch of its Wrath of the Lich King expansion for years until they could literally add some meat to their bones.
Image credit: Composite by Fox Van Allen
This is the most expensive mount. Ever.
Want to prove you're a WoW high roller? Then you need this ultra-rare Swift Spectral Tiger. It's the most expensive mount you can purchase in the game.
Prices vary from seller to seller, of course, but a review of auction house pricing suggests that you'll need to drop roughly 750,000 gold to buy one. That's the equivalent of $300 in U.S. currency at the current exchange rate. And it can't even fly!
Image credit: Screenshot by Fox Van Allen
More...