The Warcraft 30th Anniversary World Tour finale in Boston made me feel young again

The last stop on the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Celebration World Tour was in my backyard, and I was lucky enough to get an invite and dance the night away with a few hundred other heroes of Azeroth. There was music, food, trivia, and a legendary amount of loot. This six-city international tour kicked off in February in London before moving on to Seoul, Toronto, Sydney, and São Paolo.

The epic conclusion to the globe-trotting celebration was scheduled for the Saturday night that PAX East was in full swing here in Boston, so plenty of enthusiastic gamers had already descended on Beantown. After passing through the elite-looking security, there were some photo ops with life-size replicas of some of the most iconic weapons in World of Warcraft’s history. At the top of a marble staircase, an enormous statue of Sylvanas Windrunner guarded a guest book the size of an adult kodo.

The Hearthstone Sliders were delicious and I had my share of Fel-Flame Meatballs, but the Kaldorei Chicken Kabobs proved to be the spiciest menu item. Several of the side bars were roped off and featured a hat-pressing station (I chose Horde over Alliance or any of the anniversary patches), a game of Plinko for a free commemorative item, and a setup for a developer meet and greet and poster signing. The devs were the same cast that were at PAX for the Evolving Azeroth panel plus a few Hearthstone team members.

Halfway through the evening, ten attendees were chosen to come up on the stage for a trivia contest. Spelling counted, which was unfortunate for eight of the contestants (including yours truly) who guessed that Quilboar has two ‘L’s. After that, the remainder of the event was dedicated to a set from Powerglove. This power metal trio blasted their way through several video game and TV theme covers. It was the loudest thing my middle-aged ears have heard in a decade, and yet the awesomeness of screaming the lyrics to the Pokémon anime theme song with several hundred other incredibly diverse nerds was definitely worth it.

With Boston being the last stop on the tour, I was wondering if most of the free stuff inventory had been given away at the first five events or if we would be treated to an ‘everything must go’ policy. It seems the latter may have been the case, as the end-of-night raffle was more of a color-coded free-for-all where anyone with a blue or yellow ticket got their pick of the remaining swag. In the end I came home with quite the overflowing chest of treasures (although the plushies mysteriously teleported into the arms of my little future WoW players).

In the end, the most rewarding part of the night was the chance to gather and celebrate with a large group of people who enjoy spending time in Azeroth as much as I do. There were content creators, long-time fans, and casual players. I spent much of the night with a group who were in preschool when I created my first World of Warcraft character. It may not have been Blizzcon, but the event certainly felt like a fitting 30th birthday for the Warcraft franchise.