The Third War
Warcraft 3, released in 2002, takes place in Azeroth, where the Burning Legion, a vast army of demons, is currently beginning it's third invasion. They used a strain of magical disease that killed it's victims and reincarnated them as undead controlled by the Lich King, Ner'Zhul. As the plague spread through the Eastern Kingdoms of Azeroth, the Kingdom of Lordaeron and the Magocracy of Dalaran sent a revered paladin, Uther, a sorceress, Jaina Proudmoore, and a young prince, Arthas to investigate it's origins.
Arthas would determine that to stop the plague, which was being spread by grain, was to purge the major city of Stratholme of all people, infected or not. There he found a demon, Mal'Ganis, who taunted and goaded Arthas to follow him to the cold land of Northrend. There, Arthas found the accursed blade Frostmourne, which allowed him to slay Mal'Ganis but also tainted his soul and spoke to him.
It would lead him to slay his former teacher Uther, resurrect the necromancer, Kel'Thuzad, as a lich, slay his father, the king, turn Lordaeron into a desolate, ghoul-filled wasteland, summon the Demon Lord , Archimonde to Azeroth, and then return to Northrend where he would don the armor imbued with the spirit of the Lich King, thus becoming one with it. Archimonde commanded the full force of the Burning Legion on Azeroth, and used his magic to obliterate the city of Dalaran, Meanwhile, Jaina relocated to the westernmost continent of Azeroth, Kalimdor, where she met the orc warchief, Thrall and formed an alliance.
A contingent of Thrall's Horde, the Warsong Clan, would be tempted by a powerful demon, Mannoroth, to drink his blood to gain immense power, and be able to succesfully invade the neighboring Night Elves territory. Their leader, Grom Hellscream, accepted the offer, but they would be subjugated by Mannoroth. When Thrall and Jaina found out, they managed to save Grom from the influence of Mannoroth, whereafter he heroicly sacrificed his life to slay Mannoroth, finally freeing the Orcs from the Burning Legion's grip.
The leaders of the Night Elves, Tyrande Whisperwind and Malfurion Stormrage, at their home in the forests of Ashenvale and Hyjal began investigating the recent demonic activity, sending the recently freed demon hunter Illidan Stormrage to deal with the demon lord Tichondrius. Then Prince Arthas, now a shadow of his former self, shows up to inform Illidan of the presence of a powerful artifact that was the source of the corruption seeping through the forests of Ashenvale, the Skull of Gul'dan. Desperate to cleanse his homeland of the Legion's forces, Illidan consumed it's demonic power, with which he defeated Tichondrius, but also disgusted his brother Malfurion and Tyrande.
Tyrande, Malfurion, Jaina, Thrall, and many others would form an alliance to defend Kalimdor from the Burning Legion invasion. Archimonde set his sights on Mount Hyjal, where the Night Elves, the most ardent defenders of Azeroth, maintained the World Tree, Nordrassil. This tree gave the elves their immortality. Little did Archimonde know, the defenders of Azeroth set a trap, and Archimonde was slain while climbing the World Tree, and the Third War was over.
WC3 World Editor
I used to make Warcraft 3 maps all the time, more than I even played the game. They would range from silly and meaningless maps to be tosses aside to ,sometimes, year long projects that never came to fruition. I've gone through many crappy computers, each with an installation of wc3 and a bunch of maps I created for fun, but when those computers would die I would lose all of my mapmaking progress, thusly I don't have any of my old maps, which saddens me. Recently I've been working on a map, mostly for fun, that loosely fits within the Warcraft lore while inserting my own, non-canon additions. Here are some screenshots:
Blizzard
The fall of Blizzard has been a long time coming. Once considered the only good guy in the gaming industry, Blizzard was known for the polish they gave their games
and the interactivity between the Blizzard staff and fans. After releasing classics such as Diablo 1 and 2, Warcraft 1-3, World of Warcraft, Starcraft 1-2, and Overwatch, they were a company I had looked up to since the first time I played a video game. In 2007, Blizzard was absorbed by Activision to become Activision-Blizzard, and since then the quality of their games, customer service, and most importantly the treatment of their employees has taken a nosedive. Blizzard would go on to release such failures as Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor as well as shelving some of their greatest franchises. In 2018, they would announce the release of Diablo: Immortal for mobile devices, which no one wanted, and they would also release the worst WoW expansion yet. They would go on to release Warcraft 3: Reforged, a massive flop that embarassed long-time fans of the series and killed it for good, causing the president and original co-founder of Blizzard, Mike Morhaime, to lose faith in the company and step down.
Things at Blizzard would only continue to get worse. They would go on to lay off 800 employees on a year of record profits, and still have enought to stuff Big Boi Bobby's pockets and give the other higher-ups their "much needed" bonuses. In 2019, they would fire two presenters and ban a streamer after the streamer, Ng Wai Chung, would denounce China's abuses on the rights of the Hong Kong people, calling out "Free Hong Kong!". That brings us to today. Blizzard has been accused of fostering a toxic work environment like no other. This place was the job of hell. Your fellow male employees would be able to freely harass you with no repercussion. Blizzard faces major litigation against them after an employee killed herself due to employees sharing nude photos of her throughout the workplace. Me? I hope Blizzard crumbles, and that companies of former Blizzard employees like Frost Giant, Mythical Games, and Dreamhaven can take up the torch held by the original founders of Blizzard and pursue the vision that they had, which wasn't to make a bunch of money or exploit their workers, but to make awesome games with an awesome team of people.
Microsoft bought Blizzard, this could really change everything, or it could change nothing. I'm betting on the former because I don't believe Microsoft spent such an overvaluation to run the company into the ground, and they have the resources to really do something great with the languishing company.
