Blizz's 25th Anniversary is this month!

#1 - Feb. 8, 2016, 5:09 p.m.

So, I just learned this, but Blizzard's 25th Anniversary is this month! Cool coincidence is that they were formed in the same month and year as I was born which, Nerd Alert, Is super awesome and exciting to me! A hearty Happy Anniversary to you guys and keep making awesome games! Anyways, other than a congrats to Blizz, I wanted to make this post for myself and others to share what made them start playing their games. For me, I was always interested in playing WoW, I was 13 or 14 at the time, but my parents never had the money, nor would they have given me the time to play. But, when I joined the military, a good friend of mine offered to lend me his laptop and do the recruit a friend service and we would make characters together. Since then, I've been hooked, and my Hunter is still my go to Main, and now I play Diablo, Hearthstone, and I got the chance to play the Overwatch Beta Weekend, which was amazing! I now even started playing Warcraft III. So, what's your first experience?

#6 - Feb. 8, 2016, 9:10 p.m.

When I was a kid, I used to beg my parents to let me go over to my friend Ben's place so we could play Justice League Task Force on his SNES. I didn't know it until very recently, but that was my first experience with a Blizzard game.

A couple years later, my friend Aaron introduced me to Starcraft. I'd played Warcraft I and II, but Starcraft really hooked me. Many of my formative years were spent hauling my PC across town to have LAN parties and just play Starcraft for hours on end.

When Warcraft III came out, it blew my mind - both the storytelling and gameplay were top-notch. Plus, since the internet had advanced to the point that I no longer needed to tie up a phone line to play online, I was able to stay connected with my friends (some of whom had moved to other states) by playing Warcraft with them.

Then I learned that Blizzard was working on an MMORPG. I'd cut my teeth on MMOs like Anarchy Online and Star Wars: Galaxies, but I knew that Blizzard was going to make something awesome. After all, Blizzard made the best games. Of course they were going to do the same in the MMORPG genre.

I had no idea how much World of Warcraft was going to impact my life.

It started out simple enough: I was just a moderator on a set of forums focusing on Prot Paladins. Then I was a co-host on a tanking-focused podcast. Then I was making the occasional boss guides for YouTube. Then a weekly vlog series. Then two. Then I was producing a weekly live show. Then two. Then three.

And then, I saw an opening for a Community Manager position at Blizzard Entertainment. I applied. I interviewed. I got an offer, which I accepted. Then I moved to California.

It's still crazy to me how much came out of just being really into a video game. I still have days sometimes where I show up to work, look up at the building, and think to myself holy **** I work at Blizzard Entertainment. I have a career because of World of Warcraft. I met my wife because of World of Warcraft. Pretty much everything about my life is, in some way or another, caused or affected by World of Warcraft. That's crazy.

Sure, Blizzard has its missteps. Sure, we're not perfect. I don't think any collection of human beings ever can be.

But damn if we don't make some pretty good video games.