World of Warcraft Is Letting One of Its Best Characters Grow Older With It

This past weekend at BlizzCon, fresh off the news that Blizzard—and the rest of Activision—would be WatchHow Invincible's Omni-Man Joined Mortal Kombat 1 CCShare SubtitlesOffEnglishPlayers last saw Anduin not in the current expansion of Warcraft, but Screenshot: Blizzard EntertainmentAdvertisementOver two decades of Much like the little lion of Stormwind, over the course of WoW’s operation I’ve grown from a young boy—taking my first steps into the wider world of Azeroth—into a grown man—cursing every week I don’t get a good roll on whatever gear the latest world-ending threat just dropped. As I went from a tween, to a teen, to a 20-something and beyond, I’ve been able to watch Anduin chart a similar path, going from the six year old of the original World of Warcraft to the mid-20s, word-weary adult we see in War Within’s announcement cinematic. I’ve watched him deal with tragedy and hardship that any person growing up would face; through the fantastical lens of Warcraft’s world, I’ve seen him reconcile his morals and ethics within the frame of The War Within Announce Cinematic | World of WarcraftAnduin’s story is, arguably, the story of WoW itself: the evolution of this world over two decades as he is impacted by it, and tries to impact upon it himself, the rare character we get to see physically and emotionally grow and change as its story develops. There are so many mechanical ways in World of Warcraft to go back to old times in terms of content—ways to run old dungeons and raids as if they were contemporary again, options to see some versions of its world before they were forever changed by certain events in the plot. For as many parts of it that are trapped in amber, WoW’s story and its world—one of its defining aspects of its endurance as a pop cultural figure—is about this unique ability to let its community witness a living, breathing creation, one that has gotten to develop and flourish over huge part of their lives.AdvertisementTime is an inevitable facet of any long-running game like an MMMORPG— Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest

Based on reporting by gizmodo.com.