Because in a way WoW was Blizz peak “immersion” game. I dont know about US but in Russia you would know Illidan and Thrall as soon as you got into school PC and booted Warcraft 3, you couldnt find a machine without Warcraft hidden somewhere in the files between porn folder and homework.
Then WoW came out and it was basically all the rush, cause before that we scarcely had good MMOs here. Plus again it rode on the back of Dota and Warcraft being super popular amongst younger generation.
And of course lore of the game, “the feel” and etc created a ton of “superfans” or just people who really were into it.
After all between chugging a beer in the dark with the gopniks you could chug beer in your room while raiding or PvPing and Northrend seems like a cheery place compared to the usual 10x10 concrete house block.
Basically a lot of people used WoW to cope with sheer misery of our modern life of endless and pointless work and “keeping on keeping on”.
Now imagine how it feels when the game turns from escapism into… hmmm… anti-escapism? Depressivism? Whatever, you got the idea. It really leaves a mark.
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Vol’jin got assassinated by the Jailer who cut off his power to get him killed.
And Horde kept everything they took during Cata, while Alliance signed Azshara off to them entirely.
And you “win” by “losing” when you win all the battles but devs say that Alliance “won” but then they offer you concessions because thats what victors do, totally.
Basically you win in the beginning, middle and the end, but in the last moment Blizz reassure Alliance that they “totally had it” but when it comes to the spoils of war only Horde gets a cut.