The year was 2001. Rather than battling evil computers on white-washed spaceships, we were instead still living on Earth playing PC games, and stuck in that awkward phase between the pre-WoW Blizzard and its post-StarCraft efforts.
That phase is perfectly illustrated here in this cover feature in the sadly now-defunct CGW magazine, giving the world its first look at World of Warcraft a full three years before its eventual release in 2004.
Some of the feature is telling, some of it is spot-on, while other parts are downright hilarious given the passage of time, but on the whole it's a fascinating read given the kind of success the game would find when it was actually out.
World of Warcraft magazine revealing from 2001 [Reddit]
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