MARCH 2020 PCWorld 39months in the making. It’s two corporations
coming together to sell more of their
respective products.
Warcraft III became a Lord of the Rings
vehicle out of happenstance though. Blizzard
released a popular (and modular) fantasy
game just as Peter Jackson turned fantasy into
a box office juggernaut. Then bystanders said
“Wouldn’t these be great together?”
And they were.
BOTTOM LINE
As I prepare to dip into Warcraft III: Reforged, I
find myself hoping I can find a few people
playing Helm’s Deep again. I’m sure it won’t
live up to my memories, because it can’t.
Even the films don’t entirely hold up for me,
Warcraft III: Reforged.
almost twenty years later. A bunch of Warcraft
III maps built with 2002’s finest map-making
tools probably won’t cut it.
I can’t imagine Warcraft III without Lord of
the Rings, though. It wouldn’t have been the
same game, for me and (I imagine) so many
others. And sure, I could say the same of Dota
and tower defense—but those already get
plenty of credit when people discuss Warcraft
III’s legacy. The Lord of the Rings? Not so much.
It was very much of that time and place, two of
2002’s brightest stars overlapping by mere
coincidence and then largely forgotten after
pop culture moved on, the only record being
the dozens of Helm’s Deep maps that come up
when you search for “Lord of the Rings Warcraft
III” on Google.