Robert Nideffer: 12 Years in Azeroth – The Journey Begins

Robert Nideffer's 12 Years in Azeroth - The Journey Begins fuses autobiography, fiction, and game design to explore a twelve-year immersion into the online game World of Warcraft. Commissioned for artport, The Journey Begins is the first section of the work and provides an entry to four more parts launched by the artist over the course of 2026. Anchored by a browser-based electronic manuscript tied to the artist-created game world, the complete narrative unfolds from 2006 to 2018 across three avatars, three historical periods, and three interlaced worlds represented by maps. Players can switch between Earth; Azeroth, the world in which the majority of the Warcraft series is set; and Middle-earth, the fictional continent that serves as the setting for much of J. R. R. Tolkien's famous fantasy works. Players interact with a desktop where they can access important files. Behind the retro façade of a minimalist interface runs a 3D simulation that is dynamically shaped by the player's actions. Players converse with AI-driven characters whose personalities and memories evolve during the reading process, uncover manuscript fragments, and solve narrative puzzles to progress. 12 Years in Azeroth explores how identity, memory, and history intertwine with digital experience by blurring the lines between a person and an avatar, historical facts and their fictional account, the actual and a game world. Please consult "readme.html" on the desktop once you enter the game.