With the excitement of BlizzCon right around the corner and World of Warcraft nearing its fifth anniversary, it's hard to remember a time when the Warcraft universe wasn't the center of attention for countless gamers. Actually, countless isn't the right word. According to Blizzard's last announcement in December 2008, the chart-topping MMO is played by more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide. And that number doesn't take into account the PC games, books, comics, board game, pen-and-paper RPG, trading cards, miniatures, action figures and the upcoming movie that all bear the familiar yellow and orange logo of the franchise.
So how did Azeroth get its start and become the stomping grounds of so many avatars? Well, the MMO behemoth actually has its roots set in some very humble beginnings. Blizzard Entertainment was founded in 1991 by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce as Silicon & Synapse. Luckily the name changed, or we'd all be attending or downloading streaming footage from SiliCon this weekend. The trio had just graduated from UCLA and initially focused on making ports before developing such gems as The Lost Vikings and Rock N' Roll Racing. I'm personally hoping we'll hear plans for a Lost Vikings III at BlizzCon, but I'm not holding my breath.