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World of Warcraft - Very First Site Ever

Aurigon

Authorized
Joined
Nov 21, 2014
Location
Italy
Here's a little nostalgia treat.

While I was scouring through web.archive.org (the online library that stores snapshots for even the oldest sites from the Internet, dating back to 1995) I decided to have a check and see what would come out that's WoW-related.

To my surprise, I found the first and the oldest WoW site ever, the page that your screens would display if you browsed to www.worldofwarcraft.com in the first days of September 2001. It's astounding when you consider it dates back to when the Twin Towers were still standing, The Lord of the Rings was months away from its debut in theatres worldwide, and Warcraft III itself was in the final stage of development (it would be shipped in the first months of 2002).

So if you missed it back then, or had totally forgotten about it, or were yet to be born around that time... I proudly present you the earliest, original WoW homepage! This is where it all began ladies and gents :wub:

The actual snapshot is from 5 September 2001, and it's especially amazing when you look at this:

wQzfzJ7.png

...which clearly refers to the press release where the game was first announced, happened only 3 days before (2 September 2001).

The page appears in its original HTML 4.0 layout, with various subsections (not so many, actually), as well as later versions, still working and viewable - that is, linking to other accessible pages from the same records, with screenshots and preview articles (Brann's Journal etc.).

The memories... :crying:
 
Amazing! Thanks for sharing!

P.S. Can't click cool 'couse I'm having trouble loading Google APIs scripts >_<
 
There is a a news post on the left saying "First screen shots posted". Any chance to get those? I always love to look at alpha/beta screen shots and find it very interesting to see what has changed during development.
 
There is a a news post on the left saying "First screen shots posted". Any chance to get those? I always love to look at alpha/beta screen shots and find it very interesting to see what has changed during development.
Yep... You can't follow the link in the news post though, you'll have to click Screenshots in the menu at the top.
 
Oh my goodness!

This is absolutely beautiful! I will forever love Blizzard Entertainment! I am so happy to have been a Warcraft III baby and a WoW Vanilla Day 1 baby and been committed to Blizzard Entertainment ever since! They have impacted my life in countless ways. It is amazing to see this archive and the earliest site and the PRESS RELEASE! How awesome is that!

Thank you so much for posting this Aurigon! This is very interesting!
 
There is a a news post on the left saying "First screen shots posted". Any chance to get those? I always love to look at alpha/beta screen shots and find it very interesting to see what has changed during development.

WoW ALPHA screenshot

ss010.jpg
 
You can easily find wow alpha server and check content that was cut off

I really liked pre-vanilla BWL map layout
 
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