by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

If you’re someone who has received notification that you’ll be receiving this gift (thanks for spoiling the surprise, UPS!) and want to be surprised, you will want to stop reading now.

SPOILERS!!

As of this writing, there’s still been no confirmation from Blizzard about who gets the gift and who doesn’t, but some players have begun to post images of the gift now that deliveries are happening. Here’s an image of the bottom of the base. (Credit to US forum poster Smitti for the images.)

Attentive readers will note that this is a replica of the Orc Raider statue that sits in front of Blizzard’s headquarters in Irvine, CA. To an extent, that’s a perfect choice for a gift you’re giving to the people who both a) bought your game before it really skyrocketed into popularity and b) never lapsed in their subscriptions, because those are the people that really enabled Blizzard to become the juggernaught that it is today.

However, what this gift is most certain to trigger is a discussion about loyalty. What is the criteria for being loyal to the game? Is it being among the few tens (or hundreds) of thousands of players who picked up the game and stuck with it? Or is it being someone who stuck with the game through their own adversity?

Personally, I’m okay if it’s the former. Realistically speaking, Blizzard probably can’t afford to spend a LOT of money on statuettes for millions of players, and regardless of where they put the cutoff, there’s always going to be someone who says “but I love this game, so why am I getting nothing?” This is a cool and unexpected present for what’s probably a very small group of people. People who will likely be very loud about receiving this gift, but a small group nonetheless.