Maybe it's just because my life has changed dramatically in the past ten years, but things before 2010 feel like they were a lifetime ago. When I started thinking about the most significant changes in World of Warcraft in the past ten years, things got even more confusing. Then I remembered that Cataclysm was not released until the end of 2010. For much of that year, we were still doing something else, either busy dating in the game, or collecting World of Warcraft Classic Gold crazy in the game. To find out when the story happened, I looked at the World of Warcraft timeline.

Wrath of the Lich King is over
The first major upgrade in 2010 was the release of the 3.3.5 patch, which includes the implementation of Real ID. Before Real ID, the buddy list was limited to your character and server. The advent of Real ID changed all this, players can choose who to become friends with in the game, and also can make friends across servers and factions. For the most part, this is a welcome change, and the fact that players choose to join makes it perfect. Another improvement, allowing players to choose names for battle tags, was not implemented until version 5.0.4.


Part of Real ID is like a balloon, forcing all players in forums and unions to post using their real identity. There is even an option to make your protagonist's name visible next to your real name. Although some support this change, more players still prefer the habit of posting anonymously. So many people still strongly oppose this decision. Of course, I believe that some people will feel sad about malicious destruction with their real names, but most people are worried about security issues, especially for children who play World of Warcraft, because unlike games, this change is not voluntary. Thankfully, Blizzard cancelled the plan just three days later.


Another key point cited most often is "WoW was the most popular during Wrath, so that was the best expansion." Icecrown joined in late 2009 and was fully open in January 2010. If anger was really attracting people, I thought the submarine would arrive earlier. If people are waiting to fight the Lich King, the upgrade at the end of 2009 will make the most sense. Not to mention we spent a whole year at Icecrown.