World of WarCraft
(WoW) is a race/class-based massively multiplayer online
role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It
is the 4th game in the Warcraft legacy, excluding all expansion
packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans.
The Warcraft games are set in the eponymous Warcraft Universe, a
fantasy setting introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in
1994. World of Warcraft is set four years after the events at
the conclusion of Blizzard's previous release, Warcraft III: The
Frozen Throne.
World
of Warcraft General information
World of Warcraft was simultaneously released on both Windows
and Macintosh computer systems in North America, Australia and New
Zealand on November 23, 2004. The game sold more than 240,000 copies
in its first 24 hours on the market, more than any other PC game in
history. Though not officially released in South Korea until January
18, 2005, it had been found on store shelves since November 2004.
The game was released in Europe on February 11, 2005 with English,
French and German language versions. On March 2, 2005, 100,000
testers signed up for China's World of Warcraft beta test within the
first hour. The game was released in China on June 6, 2005. The game
won high praise at E in 2003, including Gamer's Pulse's Best of
Show award. World of Warcraft was declared by many in the computer
gaming industry, including GameSpot and GameSpy, as 2004's game of
the year. And, as with any game, it has its own terminology.
The
World of Warcraft Launch
As is common with the launch of a MMORPG, World of Warcraft had
its share of problems at first. Partly because of the huge number of
people who bought the game, along with server instability, Blizzard
chose to stop selling copies of the game some time after the launch.
Sales were limited accordingly until more servers, called worlds, or
realms, could be assembled. Due to the massive initial sales, there
were also periods where players had to wait in queues before
playing, as some realms were at their maximum player limit. When
more servers were added, these queues became less common and sales
of the game resumed. Still, in certain high population areas with
World of Warcraft like Ironforge or Orgrimmar, players continued to
experience game performance delays.
World of
Warcraft Sales
As of August 2005, World of Warcraft has more than 4,000,000 players
worldwide, making it the most popular MMORPG in the world. Over 1
million of these players live in the US. 1.5 million of these are
from the World of Warcraft Chinese launch on July 7, 2005. These
numbers exclude all players under free promotional subscriptions,
expired or canceled subscriptions, and expired pre-paid cards.
Blizzard also stated that at any given time at least 500,000 World
of Warcraft subscribers are online. Due to World of Warcraft's high
sales it has been described as a "runaway success" with
"overwhelming popularity", which other games, like The Matrix
Online, blame for their lackluster sales.
On August 3, 2005, China implemented legislation which forbids
minors from playing games in which players kill each other. The
impact of this on World of Warcraft's revenue is still to be
determined.
World of
Warcraft Characters
Because World of Warcraft is a role-playing game, players create
characters which serve as their avatar in the online world.
When creating a character in World of Warcraft, the player can
choose from eight different races and nine different character
classes. The races are split into two equally sized factions, the
Alliance and the Horde:
*The Alliance consists of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes.
*The Horde consists of Orcs, Tauren, Undead (a.k.a. Forsaken) and
Trolls.
*Additionally, there are many NPC races such as Goblins, Ogres, High
Elves and Murlocs.
The nine available classes are Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest,
Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and Warrior. Two of the classes are
faction-specific: Paladins for the Alliance and Shamans for the
Horde. Classes are also limited by race.
World of
Warcraft
Professions
In addition to the character classes in World of Warcraft, a player
may choose two primary professions and as many secondary professions
as they wish. The professions consist of two types: gathering and
item creation/service. Many players choose to pair two related
professions, thus allowing the character to gather the required
materials for the crafting skill. Some of the most commonly paired
skills are Mining and Blacksmithing or Alchemy and Herbalism. Some
World of Warcraft players choose to select only "gathering"
professions, opting to simply supply resources to players with item
creation skills. This type of player will typically offer gathered
items for sale on World of Warcraft's auction houses.
World
of Warcraft Virtual world
The current World of Warcraft virtual world is built around
two main continents: The Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. The new
World Tree of Teldrassil is off the northwestern coast of Kalimdor.
While not all of the history between the end of The Frozen Throne
and the four years between the start of World of Warcraft has been
revealed, it is assumed that the conflict between the Horde's forces
and the marines of the Theramore Isles at the end of the Orc
mini-campaign were at least the kindling for the blaze of the
current conflict.
Some of the notable landmarks and locations in World of Warcraft
that were featured in previous Warcraft games, namely Warcraft III,
are:
The Undercity, which resides under the Ruins of Lordaeron, is the
main city of the Undead, ruled by Sylvanas Windrunner and
Varimathras. Here they are engineering a new plague to wipe out the
Scourge and all other life forms in Azeroth; The Eastern and Western
Plaguelands, including places such as Andorhal, the place of origin
of the Scourge and the Plague of Undeath, and Stratholme, the site
of Arthas' initial fall into insanity; The Blasted Lands, home of
the original Dark Portal out of which the Orcs first came into
Azeroth; and Kalimdor, home to the Tauren, Orcs, Trolls, and Night
Elves. Areas to the north include Ashenvale Forest, Felwood,
Winterspring, Azshara and the Moonglade. These regions surround Mt.
Hyjal, where the final battle against Archimonde was held and the
fall of the Burning Legion's Second Invasion took place.
As of mid-2005 a number of areas in World of Warcraft's virtual
world have yet to be implemented. Some examples of this are:
In Kalimdor: Mount Hyjal (south-east of Winterspring), Ahn'qiraj
(south of the Scarab Wall in Silithus), and the Caverns of Time and
Uldum (both in Tanaris).
In Lordaeron: Gilneas (south of the Greymane Wall), Quel'Thalas
(north-east of Stratholme), and Zul'Aman (east of Quel'Thalas).
In Khaz Modan: Grim Batol (in the far east of the Wetlands).
In Azeroth (confusingly both the name of the southern continent and
the name of the world): Medivh's Tower (in Deadwind Pass).
It is possible to enter these World of Warcraft zones, either
accidentally or intentionally. It is however not advised as it is a
bannable offense.
Several islands named on the map cannot be reached: Kul Tiras, Tol
Barad, Zul'Dare, Crestfall, and Sunwell Grove.
An example of a portal from World of Warcraft.
Five portals are present but currently serve no purpose:
*The Dark Portal
*The portal in Duskwood
*The portal in Ashenvale Forest
*The portal in Feralas
*The portal in Hinterlands
The Dark Portal should lead to the Outlands. It is possible that
this portal will be opened when a World of Warcraft player acquires
the Book of Medivh. This book might be found on Kel'Thuzad who ought
to be found in the Naxxaramas Necropolis, above Stratholme. The
Naxxaramas Necropolis is not yet implemented, although you can see
an inactive portal deep inside Stratholme. (Note: This is
speculation based on lore; there may be more to opening the portal
than just acquiring the Book of Medivh.)
The other four portals, in Ashenvale, Duskwood, Feralas, and the
Hinterlands are connected to the Emerald Dream. Ysera or the Dreamer
is one of the five Dragon Aspects that watch over the world of
Azeroth. The green dragon and younger sister to Alexstrasza, she was
empowered by the titan Eonar to be bound to the Emerald Dream in an
eternal trance to forever watch over the wilds and the druids in the
Emerald Dream. It is also thought that the Essence of Eranikus
trinket quest will be continued and will include Emerald Dream
content. The current quest chain ends when you talk to Umbranse the
Spiritspeaker. He says that Eranikus is not dead and he can contact
him, but he needs a powerful augur device that was stolen from him.
It is unknown where this device is, how to acquire it, or whether
its currently in the game right now at all. The World of Warcraft
patch 1.8 introduces Emeriss, Taerar, Ysondre, and Lethon, four
outdoor raid encounter dragons that protect the four portals to the
Emerald Dream, and hints at further development of this storyline.
The 3rd major continent, Northrend, which was featured in Warcraft
III and The Frozen Throne expansion, does not appear in the World of
Warcraft at all. Given that every game like World of Warcraft has
had new content sold as a new game expansion, this might be added in
the confirmed expansion for this game.
World
of Warcraft Instances
World of Warcraft also features instances. Instances, or "Instanced
Dungeons", are dungeons that have been designed and tailored
specifically for certain sizes of groups and are duplicated for each
group that enters it. This way a party can experience a dungeon
without interference from other World of Warcraft players, and
cannot zerg it by bringing in outside help to overwhelm the
opposition. Instances will allow only a certain maximum group size
to enter, ranging from 5-man groups in some small instances, to 40.
As of mid-2005 there are three instances which allow for a maximum
of 40 people: Onyxia's Lair, The Molten Core, and Blackwing Lair.
These are the toughest areas in the game and success in these three
instances is hardly possible without great organization and good
equipment. The recently added World of Warcraft Zul'Gurub instance
allows for a maximum of 20 people and offers a more casual gameplay
experience.
Typically, World of Warcraft instanced dungeons are more elaborate
and require more steps to be taken in a particular order for
successful completion than are necessary in the main world. For
example, requiring that a large group of enemies be defeated so that
one can pull a lever to rotate a bridge in order to access a new
section of the map makes sense when one group is traversing the
dungeon linearly; it makes far less sense in public areas where
hundreds of other World of Warcraft players might be in the same
area. Therefore, instanced dungeons tend to be much more interesting
than normal areas, in which quest requirements are very simple (e.g.
kill a certain number of enemies, or collect a certain number of
objects).
On January 16 & 17, 2007
World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade was released.
Blizzard also announced the subscription base has reached 8 million.
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