Bryce Hansen, 20, waited 2 1/2 hours outside the Missoula Best Buy outlet, huddled under the overhanging facade with four friends, to purchase the newest expansion of the wildly popular “World of Warcraft” fantasy video game when it was released at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
“It's a really addictive game,” said Hansen, who was first in the line of nearly 100 people. “Ninety percent of the people I know who play video games play (‘World of Warcraft'), so this is how I keep up with them.”
With 11 million subscribers around the world (each of whom pays a subscription fee of $15 per month, in addition to the price of the game purchase), “World of Warcraft” is both the 800-pound gorilla and the cash cow of the so-called “massively multiplayer online game” category.
“Wrath of the Lich King,” the second expansion of the game, allows players to enter a new continent in the world, where an evil undead king named Arthas is threatening to destroy all of Azeroth.
Anticipation of the expansion has run high for months: Google listed more than 6 million Web references to the expansion before it was even released Thursday morning. Given that the previous expansion of the game, “The Burning Crusade,” was the top-selling computer game of 2007, industry analysts expect “Wrath of the Lich King” to be one of the top video game releases of this holiday season.
Indeed, even among those who showed up early to pick up their midnight copies in Missoula, anticipation bordered on frustration after months of waiting.
“It's not fair. People on the East Coast were able to buy the game two hours ago,” said Rory Baker, 23, who says he spends “as much time playing (‘World of Warcraft') as I spend at my job.”
“My parents are both psychologists so they hate the game,” noted Baker. “But my cats love me because I'm home all the time.”
Most of the people who showed up early fell into the game's primary demographic of 20- and 30-year olds; but a few younger players showed up as well, including Darron Comstock, 12, and his brother Daniel, 10. In a sign of the game's cross-generational popularity, the two brothers credited their father, Daryl, with introducing them to the game.
“We both played Xbox games a lot but dad was the one who started playing ‘World of Warcraft,' ” said Darron as his father listened, grinning sheepishly. “We begged him until he said we could play, too.”
Eric Nugent, 39, didn't bring his family with him, but he nonetheless showed up to satiate more than his own passion for the game.
“My whole family plays,” he said. “My wife, my 12-year-old son, my 10-year-old daughter, my 8-year-old son - we share a computer so it's contentious at times, but it's something we all enjoy.”
Perhaps because of the wet weather, none of the game's fans showed up in character costumes. But one person waiting toward the front of the line did arrive wearing armor and equipped with a weapon.
“I saved up my shift breaks all week so I could wait in line for this,” said Missoula police officer Stacy Lear, who said she was one of about six officers in the department who play the game.
Her game character? A Holy Paladin, of course - the game's most blessed defender of goodness and order.
“Most of the guys at the jail play Horde,” she said, referring to an evil faction in the game.
As of Thursday afternoon, a sales associate at Missoula's Best Buy confirmed that the store still had “a few” copies of the game expansion left in stock, out of an initial shipment of nearly 500. Other local and online retail outlets including Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon.com also still had copies of the expansion, which retails for $39.99 or $69.99 for a Collector's Edition.
Reporter Joe Nickell (aka Ghotipheis, a level 70 Ice Mage on the Scryers server) can be reached at jnickell@missoulian.com or at 523-5358.
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