Can you believe it’s been five years since World of Warcraft was released? I’ve been playing since back in those wholesome vanilla days, and while I was in the beta I waited a bit before I picked up the game proper…not too long though, maybe a couple of months-so I could play with my then-roommates, and I’ve been playing ever since. A lot of people I know have come and gone in that time period, and tons more people have signed up to play with the release of Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, but Blizzard is about to celebrate World of Warcraft’s 5 year anniversary with a massive sweepstakes event in which just about every WoW player is entered.

So what do you have to do to enter? Nothing, as long as you have an active account that’s in good standing – you’re automatically in!

And what do you win? Every week Blizzard will give away some prizes to a few lucky players. Check out the prize listings below.

A. On Wednesday, November 4, 2009, five (5) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before October 26, 2008 to receive one (1) “Charge of the Great Dragon Flights,” Stein, with an approximate retail value of $89.99;

B. On Wednesday, November 11, 2009, five (5) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before November 2, 2007 to receive one (1) set of PPK Gaming Glasses from Gunnar Optiks, with an approximate retail value of $59.00;

C. On Wednesday, November 18, 2009, seven (7) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before November 9, 2006 to receive a One ASUS ENGTS250 DK/DI/1GD3 video card with an approximate retail value of $149.99;

D. On Wednesday, November 25, 2009, five (5) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before November 16, 2005 to receive a prize package consisting of One (1) SteelSeries QcK Limited Edition Mousepad, One (1) SteelSeries World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse and One (1) SteelSeries Siberia V2 Full-Size Headset retailing $79.99, with each prize package having an approximate retail value of $194.97;

E. On Wednesday, December 2, 2009:
1) Three (3) qualified entrant will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before November 23, 2004 to receive a prize package consisting of One (1) ASUS ENGTX260/HTDI/896M Nvidia video card with an approximate retail value of $149.99, and One (1) Game Card redeemable for one (1) year of World of Warcraft game time with an approximate retail value of $155.88; and One (1) Autographed Onyxia Print with an approximate retail value of $19.99.

2) Two (2) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before November 23, 2004 to receive a prize package consisting of: One (1) ASUS Republic of Gamers 3D Vision enhanced laptop with an approximate retail value of $2,499.00, One (1) Game Card redeemable for one (1) year of World of Warcraft game time with an approximate retail value of $155.88; and One (1) Autographed Onyxia Print with an approximate retail value of $19.99.

(Emphasis mine.) How hot is that?! The full rules and eligability details are here at the official contest rules site. I’m actually pretty glad to see that some of the love will be given to old-timers who have had their accounts for ages like me, but then again, there are probably millions of us in each of those categories, so I’m not holding my breath to win anything. Even so, best of luck to all of you!