In Vanilla, Blizzard wasn’t matching patches to story progression yet. Some progressed the story, but many did not. Patch 1.2, Mysteries of Maraudon, brought holidays and the Maraudon dungeon. I was low level at the time, so I don’t know what it was like when it was first released. Next came patch 1.3, Ruins of the Dire Maul, which brought the dungeon and player caps on dungeons. It seems odd now to think that there was a time when there weren’t player limits. The more mind-boggling aspect is that at one point Maraudon and Dire Maul were new and, presumably, people were excited about them. Those dungeons are terrible. Is that just me, or do other people agree?

Patch 1.4, The Call of War, brought the PvP honor system, Children’s Week, the Gurubashi arena, and the elemental invasion. These are all good parts of the game I think (or at least on the right track). However, I still can’t imagine being too excited about this patch. It’s not real, full-fledged content yet.

Patch 1.5, Battlegrounds, brought Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley. Here’s some actual content finally. However, it’s still only PVP content. Don’t get me wrong; I’m fine with that, but I think the vast majority of players are PVE-oriented. I couldn’t imagine the game without battlegrounds. Yeah, I enjoy some other aspects of the game, but battlegrounds are my favorite. Without them, I never would have reached endgame. I’m sure of it.

The trailer itself is terrible. It seems odd that Blizzard could make such a great trailer for the game itself and then release this. It’s bad. It’s really bad, actually. I would say it looks like a fan made it, except I’ve seen excellent fan videos. This is clearly recorded in-game withsome zoomed to first-person perspective. The camera work is shaky, and most disappointingly, there’s no voice-acting at all. At this stage of the game, Blizzard seems to be promoting mechanics more than the world itself. There’s no sense of getting into character and really making the universe come alive. Maybe it wasn’t needed back then because World of Warcraft already had the most undeniably “alive” world of any game.

Next we’ll see Blizzard gets any better with the Assault on Blackwing Lair.