Wowhead's 2020 Winter Veil Giveaway - We're Celebrating Our 15th Anniversary!

Wowhead Publié 23/12/2020 à 01:37 par perculia

THREE150 prizesWowhead's 15th Anniversary

In 2005 the explosively growing MySpace was just purchased for over half a billion dollars, Google purchased a 5% share of the massive America Online for $1 billion, and a talent calculator for World of Warcraft appeared on Wowhead.com for the first time. Built by Skosiris and mystadio, Wowhead was quickly noticed by the WoW community for its easy to use talent calculator. Database pages for spells, items, NPCs, and quests started to appear, and it was clear that the reigning WoW database Thottbot was facing some major competition from a stylish newcomer.

I was very impressed when I first saw Wowhead. I loved its dark and sleek design, and how you could rapidly page between lists of items, unlike other sites where it had to load a whole new web page every time you clicked “Next”. There were so many things on Wowhead that had great little improvements like that over what had come before, and I thought it was inspiring. When I saw a message on the homepage in 2007 that they were hiring I lept at the chance, and could hardly believe my luck when I got the job.

I learned that Wowhead was a part of ZAM Network, and included Thottbot and Allakhazam, the other two of the major WoW databases. I worked on various new and existing projects throughout our network of sites before arriving on the project that really excited me the most: Wowhead. The site’s features had grown tremendously since its founding, and we continued to add more to it. Web development had come a long way with many new ideas and best practices to build more sustainable code, but Wowhead predated these and was starting to show its age, and reliability of the site had diminished when combined with the constant increase in demand. We started to make more significant underlying changes to the code, and made refactoring a major goal.

We’ve made many improvements since, and Wowhead has come a long way, particularly in reliability. The development team has been more stable than ever. We’ve forged a new heart in Wowhead’s code, and while there’s much more to do, I’m proud of the work we’ve done. And simultaneously we’ve also continued to support the many new things that continue to appear in WoW, such as in the Soulbind Calc, the Legendary Calc, and support for the many new types of item and spell data that need constant updates. It’s been a wild ride, but we wouldn’t be here without you. Thank you to all of our visitors, and I look forward to seeing where this journey takes us next.

Even back in my earliest days of making web apps for WoW, I relied on Wowhead for their tooltips script. I built an Armory clone which would use Wowhead's icons and tooltips to show character details, and to this day, Wowhead has served the greater WoW community by providing easy-to-use tooltips to all kinds of apps. So, thanks, Wowhead, for so many years of consistent support. And along those lines, let's remember some of Wowhead's greatest assets since so long ago: comprehensive results of everything in WoW from behind a big central search box, and user comments and screenshots attached to almost everything. Anyone else still remember when Maître des traditions Skosiris became an NPC in-game? Epic.

*creaky old man voice* Well, back in those days we played WoW on our 2400-baud dial-up modems. You'd cast a spell and then come back the next day to see how much damage it did! In the meantime, you'd leaf through Wowhead, which was a book on real paper, none of this new-fangled computer nonsense. I still remember listening to the first Ragnaros kill on the radio. "Boldly, you sought the..." What was it? Strength, or something? Power, that was it. Hah! Now those were real adventurers. Why, today's whippersnappers—no, I don't need my medication, I feel fine. Just give me a flask of water and I'll be up at full mana in no time. Is it time for my nap? I think I'm out of rest exp...

As someone who has been playing WoW for 15 years now, Wowhead has been a daily visit for a long time, and I'm honored to be a part of the team that strives to make the site better every day! I have two fond memories of when the site has helped me most:

During WoD, I had to quit the game for a few months to work on my law school dissertation. When I returned to the gane, I used Wowhead to help myself catch-up progression wise, and while reading the database, I had learned about the Serre du Vide de l'Étoile noire, a rare spawn mount in Draenor. As Purple is my all time favorite color, I had to go after it! After learning how to obtain this mount, I went on to chase portals in Draenor and I managed to find it in 30 minutes! Since then, the mount has held a favorite spot in my collection, even though it cannot fly.
I have also won a Wowhead giveaway! It was a Discord giveaway in early 2017 and was my first actual contact with the Wowhead team. I won a Bébé sélénien and after joining the team officially in 2018, the battle pet was renamed after Sas148, our beloved community manager.

Good luck to everyone on the giveaway!

Courroux du dragon, le Repos de Tarecgosa

I first started to use Wowhead at the end of Wrath of the Lich King. I remember being curious about what pieces of loot were going to drop from Lich King, since they all seemed to have some sort of lore links attached to them, and the only place I could find with the info was on Wowhead.

Fast-forward a couple of months later, Blizzard announces the legendary staff, Courroux du dragon, le Repos de Tarecgosa, which I immediately started to look into how to get. Back then, finding info on the questline was really difficult, as guides and information weren't as prevalent, so I remember spending an afternoon at work puzzling the questline together using Wowhead's database. From that research came some of the first few comments I left on the site, on each of the Courroux du dragon, le Repos de Tarecgosa questline pages, which linked all quests together to help people navigate in the legendary acquisition. To this day, those are some of my highest voted comments on the site, years before I started working for it.

I remember playing WoW in a time before Wowhead, but I honestly couldn't tell you what it was like - the site has been a literal game changer, irrevocably affecting the way we approach the game and helping untold thousands find success within it. I began working as a guide writer, but quickly realized how much more there was to Wowhead beyond simple quest help, guide writing, or raid strategies. News isn't just about achievements, guides, wholesome moments, or success stories; it's become a chance to shape a global community which affects the lives of millions, even though you may never meet or speak to them. WoW has been a part of my life for a long time, but I could hardly imagine it without Wowhead as well, so I'm honored to have the ability to help it grow and continue to assist so many others find enjoyment in their favorite pastime.

When I joined World of Warcraft back in 2005, my first place to find answers for quests in the game was Thottbot. Wowhead was there just as a talent calculator site, but later on as it grew, it ended up as my number one site for World of Warcraft resources. As I was a site dev, Wowhead inspired me to make my own World of Warcraft fansite, wow-serbia.com, which became the biggest Balkan fansite.

Wowhead changed my life. It showed me what skills to acquire next so I become better and more-resourceful. In the end, I have ended up working the last 5 years for Wowhead (it was my 5th anniversary last month), and I am glad that I use my skills to show what goodies are hidden inside of World of Warcraft to millions of players as best I can. It is a big milestone for me as it is for site itself, and it's a great honor to work with such good people in this team. Love you all.

This is just my third year working for Wowhead, but like most people I've been using site since I started playing Wow. I remember I saw other players riding on their mechanostrider mounts and I really loved them. Wowhead helped me a lot on how to get the reputation which you need at the time to buy those mounts. I would have never thought I would be part of this wonderful 15-year-old site working with our awesome team. I'm sure there will be many more amazing years to come. Happy 15th Wowhead!

Wowhead has been part of my life almost as long as World of Warcraft itself has been around. I remember extensively using it near-daily as far back as Wrath. So since World of Warcraft has been a part of my life for so long, it is hard to imagine it without Wowhead being a part of it as well.

It was surprising during the start of Legion Alpha to receive a message from someone whose name was very familiar but I had not have had many interactions with. Perculia messaged me with a proposition to become a part of the team after she saw me using my Legion Alpha access with passion and drive to gather information and share all the interesting things I discovered along the way. I am grateful dearly and daily for the chance I was given to become a part of the Wowhead family and I couldn't be happier. I hope in the future we can continue to improve and grow the site further as not only one of the best sources for anything related to World of Warcraft but as a community in general.

Quite honestly I don't think I have a very good long-term memory. If I'm not thinking about someone or something at least once a month it just fades away until someone or something strolls along and reminds me of some distant memory. I worry at least half of my college education has entirely vanished. That said, when trying to drum up some recollections of my earliest experiences with Wowhead, I decided to dig into old emails containing the keyword and apparently I have been using the site since 2008. Evidently I didn't decide to create an account until 2010 and I believe that was to allow myself to volunteer in some capacity here while I was heavily involved in WoW. At the time I had just relocated from the Midwest to California and didn't even have a job, so I had time to spare. This volunteer role eventually evolved into something more, and more, and then even more and here we are 10 years later: married, two college degrees, and still a full-time Fanbyte/Wowhead employee!

The most rewarding responsibility I oversee here are our giveaways. Prior to my arrival we weren't the best at communicating with winners and ensuring they received their prize in a timely manner. I'm proud to say that in nearly all cases winners receive prompt communication and timely prizing. We've also expanded the frequency and types of giveaways we offer. It's a lot of work, but a lot of fun and can be very gratifying. There's also the Wowhead Shop. The current version is actually the 2nd attempt we made at starting a shop. I wasn't very involved with the first one and I don't believe it lasted very long. The pin craze that started at Blizzard in 2014 really got ours off the ground and we're primarily focused on that category. I have been experimenting with other items, like apparel, a face mask for COVID and a canvas print. We'll see how it goes!

There's probably an entire book of things I could mention, if only my brain would allow me to easily access it *waves fist*. In closing, I'm grateful for this place, my coworkers, my role here and I'm humbled by how long it has lasted. I genuinely hope it'll last at least another 15 years and that each of us will still be here making this place the best we can through all of it. Happy 15th Wowhead and thank you to our entire community for being here with us!

Vision maudite de Sargeras

One of my earliest memories of using Wowhead was scanning Leather Legs in the item database, opening up each item in the brand-new model viewer to find kilts that would match Vision maudite de Sargeras for a Demon Hunter aesthetic. I was the first person in my guild to get Vision maudite de Sargeras in The Burning Crusade, and I liked the RP concept of a Demon Hunter for my Night Elf so I wanted to collect a fashion set to use for kill shots. Over a decade later, I am still using some of those early items for transmog! I remember the process of looking up models back in TBC was slow-going, so it has been great fun to expand the model viewer on Wowhead, through sections like the Transmog database and Dressing Room.

Wowhead also helped me get an edge at the start of several expansions. Back in Wrath, many of us were unsure if realm-first kills would award special titles. I remember pulling up achievement pages like Tueur de l'obsidien « Prem's » du royaume as proof that they did, and the guild went on to get all notable realm firsts in the expansion! Then at the start of Cataclysm, I was pushing for Realm First rogue but ran into some computer troubles which set me back some time. Some players ahead of me ran into a series of confusing quests in Twilight Highlands, and by using Wowhead comments, I was able to catch up, complete the quests quickly, and achieve Voleur « Prem's » au niveau 85 sur le royaume. I ended up with such a comfortable lead as a result of reading the comments, I delayed dinging 85 so others in the guild could catch up and ding within a minute, giving all of us the Feat of Strength.

I've been with Wowhead for over 10 years now, starting as a volunteer and currently serving as Site Director, picking up Chevalière spéciale de Perculia along the way. In that time, I've lived in five places across three states, moved cross-country, and spontaneously adopted a cat. We've continually striven to improve Wowhead, developing new parts of the site as the game has evolved like news, guides, and Discord alerts, while remaining an inclusive welcoming community.

I am very proud of everyone on the Wowhead team and grateful for all our past employees and contributors for their work on the site. Thank you to our community for supporting us and here's to another 15 years!

Meow! My earliest memory of using Wowhead was pawing at the screen watching Patte-Radieuse dance in the modelviewer. I sat on the keyboard and opened 20 site tabs, it was fun! So many of you from the WoW community sent Perc well-wishes and cat toys when she adopted me, making this stray kitty feel very loved.

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