Blizzard's initial ideas for World of Warcraft were concieved in 1994

In an interview with Eurogamer, Blizzard's Mike Morhaime recently went into some depth about the origins of World of Warcraft. According to the company's CEO, the roots of the world-girding MMO giant stem from discussions held as early as 1994. Just after the release of Warcraft II, actually. Said the executive, "We thought, wow, this would be such a great game to create a virtual world around, where you're a character inside the game and you can explore this fantastic universe. Technology finally advanced to the point where it was feasible to make the game. So, genre first, then franchise."

Morhaime also steps up on the PC gaming soapbox, joining Gabe Newell in shouting down detractors that say PC gaming is 'dying'. He slams those who would rely solely on retail sales to judge the health of the marketplace, and views that sort of thinking as 'completely dead wrong.' Read into the article for all this, and a sense of what can make the CEO of a billion dollar-a-year company nervous.