Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard a lot of people pronounce it like that, but I'm pretty sure that's not correct. It's clearly the English word "wares"[1] with the S replaced with a Z, similar to "hackz" and "cheatz", which were also common in that era. I think the "wah-rez" pronunciation came from people seeing the l33tspeak and not recognizing the original word behind it. [1] A synonym for "goods" or "products". See https://www.merriam-w…
> I think the "wah-rez" pronunciation came from people seeing the l33tspeak and not recognizing the original word behind it. I think it was explicitly luls a lot of the time. I saw "warez" spelled as "juar3z", etc, a lot.
To be fair, L-thirtythreet-speak pronunciations can be quite confusing!