'World of Warcraft' celebrates 10-year anniversary with hot dog

Blizzard Entertainment's "World of Warcraft" launch occurred on November 23, 2004, and this weekend sees the start of a six-week celebration within the game's virtual world of Azeroth.

Starting November 21 and running through to January 6, 2015, two special events and one guaranteed gift will be available to players, Blizzard announced via its community website Battle.net.

A pet lapdog, the Molten Corgi, will be dispensed to all that log in to the game during the celebration period, while a revived Molten Core mission allows top-level participants to delve back into a classic raid scenario in pursuit of a fiery rock monster.

And with the aim of recalling the feel of early "World of Warcraft" encounters, a temporary but specially constructed battleground allows groups of players to tussle for supremacy in the hopes of winning an honorary title.

"World of Warcraft" has maintained its subscription-based model since that launch ten years ago, boasting 12 million subscribers in October 2010.

Numbers had fallen to 6.8 million by August 2014, but were boosted back to 10 million this November with the release of a fifth expansion pack "Warlords of Draenor" which offered overhauled fundamentals along with new content for its fan base.

Entrance to "World of Warcraft" costs $15 for the base game and all its previous expansions, $45 for the newly released "Warlords of Draenor," and $15 for each additional month of auto-renewing subscription (less if purchased on a 3- or 6-month basis).

A Starter Edition offers the first 20 levels of player progression for free; while "Warlords of Draenor" is aimed at characters of level 90 and above, both new and returning players have access to a one-time character boost in order to facilitate a smoother introduction.