Using the term “4-D thrill ride” to describe something likely conjures forth the presumption of commercial hype-up word salad that can only come from the deepest crevasses of a marketing department mind, which kind of tracks with a setup put together by Blizzard at Gamescom this year that’s drawing attention to World of Warcraft: The War Within and the MMORPG’s 20th anniversary.
The Escape from Dalaran VR experience combines advanced haptics, spatial audio, wind simulation, and six axes of motion to let visitors experience a flight through the Nerubian invasion of Dalaran and into the new zone of Azj-Kahet while riding on the back of a dragon. Blizzard brought in several contracted teams to assemble the ride, which has players sitting in a shifting chair that angles and moves with the dragon’s banking turns, all while a fan blows air to simulate speed and air cannons fire puffs of air at certain times.
The ride will be open on the Gamescom floor from now until August 25th. As promotional items go, it’s certainly an impressive if overdone one, and fans can see some of it in action and how it was assembled below.
