“As a way to thank our most loyal World of Warcraft players,” Blizzard explained on its support page, “we are sending a physical gift to players that have stuck with us since the very beginning.”
Eligible players have already been contacted via the e-mail address registered to their Battle.net accounts.
The statue, posted online by Battle.net user Smitti, is of an orc warrior riding a worg. It appears to be a scaled-down replica of the statue in front of Blizzard’s main campus in Irvine, Calif.. An inscription on the bottom of the gift elaborates on its significance:
“The Orc statue is a constant presence in our life at Blizzard Entertainment. It’s where we meet to talk, to eat, to celebrate. As we celebrate ten years of World of Warcraft, we present this token of appreciation to you, stalwart adventurer. Thank you for being a constant presence in our lives as we adventure together.”
The statue gift is well-timed to coincide with the announcement of the Veteran’s Edition of World of Warcraft. This new option is designed to tempt players with lapsed accounts to come back into the fold. The longtime Starter’s Edition has allowed new players to get into the game for an unlimited amount of time under particular limitations, such as a level cap at 20 and reduced communication capacity.
Until now that option has been completely unavailable to players who have ever had an account. The Veteran’s Edition fills in that gap, allowing returning players to test the waters under the same restrictions imposed by the Starter Edition with the one exception that players with characters already in a guild will be able to sign up their sub-level-20 characters to that same guild, should they want to.
