Not for the first time, the game at the top of the UK charts for the week ending 20 January 2007 was not a game at all. Like The Sims’ ventures on holiday and nights out, The Burning Crusade was an expansion for an existing game. More than The Sims, though, it was a game which poses particular problems for me to play in the same way as others.
The Burning Crusade as it existed in 2007 completely does not exist anymore, even if it has been brought back in a form for the current focus of retro classic World of Warcraft. The queues of people lining up at midnight to buy it in 2007 weren’t just buying a new experience, but a specifically communal one, ready to tackle new challenges alongside other players old and new. It was a kind of recorded album and interactive live performance all in one.
That very ephemerality was a key part of the draw, taking the normal appeal of RPGs and adding in an evolving community (and social obligation) into the mix. Having something that would keep people coming back and connecting would get them to spend money not just as a one-off but as a regular subscription, something already on its way to being a lot more widespread in the games world. It also means that I am stuck looking at footage and missing out on what the experience was really like.
That’s not the only way in which the experience of playing The Burning Crusade as it existed in 2007 can’t exist any more. I don’t go into experiencing any of the games on Super Chart Island as I would have done at the time; historical perspective is part of the point. The difference is rarely quite as acute as for World of Warcraft these days, though. Alongside the footage of the game, there’s the footage of their convention’s all-male panel and their sneering sexist jokes, taking on a new prominence in the wake of reports of institutionalised sexism and abuse at Activision Blizzard reaching the point where the state stepped in.
The lead quest designer of The Burning Crusade (he’s the one saying “sexy sexy cow business” in the clip) has now been fired and many in-game things named after him removed after he was named as an example of someone allowed to sexually harrass others without repercussions. It’s sadly a long way from the first or only time I’ll play a game where similar can be said of prominent staff members. There’s no way to avoid the subject as I go through this story, and I don’t intend to.
World of Warcraft crosses a particular line, though, in that I can’t just play a second hand copy of it. Its nature as a subscription game means that I would have to pay money and, well, Bobby Kotick and co are still in charge, minimising everything and making the world a worse place, and I don’t intend to give them any of my money. I won’t be playing The Burning Crusade even in what form I still could.
Top of the charts for week ending 20 January 2007:
