World of Warcraft (commonly known as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It is Blizzard Entertainment's fourth game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994.[3] World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001.[4] The game was released on November 23, 2004, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. It is currently the world's largest MMORPG in terms of monthly subscribers.[5][6][7] World of Warcraft currently holds 62% of the MMOG market at 10 million subscribers. The current subscriber base for all MMOGs is 16 million.[citation needed]
The first official expansion pack of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. During the 2007 BlizzCon event, Blizzard announced a second expansion pack called Wrath of the Lich King on August 3, 2007.[8] The release date of Wrath of the Lich King has not been announced.
Gameplay
Unlike previous games in the Warcraft series, World of Warcraft is a MMORPG, not a real-time strategy game. As with other MMORPGs, people control a character avatar within a persistent game world, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, performing quests, building skills, and interacting with NPCs, as well as other players. The game rewards success with in-game money, items, experience and reputation, all of which in turn allow players to improve their skill and power. Players can level up their characters from level one to level 60, level 70 if they have The Burning Crusade expansion. Upon release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, players will be able to attain level 80 after purchasing the expansion.[8] In addition, players may opt to take part in battles against other players of an enemy faction, in PvP battlegrounds or in normal world zones subject to the rules in place on the particular server. Duels can also be fought between members of the same or opposing factions, although these do not provide tangible rewards. Many players also choose to join guilds. Short-term parties and raid groups can be formed to conduct raids against enemy territories and instances.
Characters
There are two types of characters: Player Characters (PCs, or simply "players") and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). A Player Character is an avatar in the game environment that is controlled by a player, whilst Non-Player Characters are controlled by the game software and can only interact with PCs through scripted events or artificial intelligence (AI). There are three types of NPCs. Friendly NPCs cannot attack friendly characters and vice versa. Hostile NPCs are either of the opposing faction or are mobs (enemies controlled by AI) and will freely attack any PC with whom they are hostile. Neutral NPCs will only attack if provoked. Some NPC interaction is affected by the reputation a PC has with them.
NPCs in major and minor cities can buy and sell merchandise, train class and profession skills, give quests and provide a large number of services that are needed in the game. While some will merely offer advice or further the story, others, such as city guards, patrol around set paths to keep cities defended against attacking PCs or hostile NPCs that may attempt to invade. Guards can also provide directions to common locations within their city.
When creating a character in World of Warcraft, the player can choose from ten different races in two factions: Alliance and Horde. Race determines the character's appearance, starting location, and initial skill set, called "racial traits".
* The Alliance currently consists of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarfs, Gnomes and Draenei.
* The Horde currently consists of Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls and Blood Elves.
Draenei [9] and Blood Elf characters were introduced in The Burning Crusade, and require that expansion in order to be created.
In addition to the ten playable races, there are many NPC races including (but not limited to) Goblins, Ogres, Murlocs, and Naga.
Classes
The game has nine character classes that a player can choose from, though not all classes are available for each race. Each class has a set of unique abilities and talents. Abilities are general skills and spells available to the entire class, while talents allow players to specialize their character and further refine their role. Each class has a set of three talent trees. Depending on class, players may choose to build their character's talent trees for damage-dealing (also called damage-per-second, or DPS), healing, tanking, or a mix of these.[10] Some classes, known as "hybrid classes," are able to perform different roles depending on a group's needs.[11]
The nine available classes in World of Warcraft are:
* Druid (Hybrid class)
A nature-oriented class capable of fulfilling the role of damage-dealer, tank, or healer. The druid can shape-shift into many forms to increase its combat or movement abilities, including a bear (for tanking), a sea lion (for water travel), a Lion/Panther form (Horde/Alliance) for damage-dealing, and a cheetah (for outside land travelling). Through specialization of the character, other forms are also available. In humanoid form, the druid can cast a variety of healing or damaging spells.
* Hunter (Ranged damage class)
A combination of a marksman/archer and animal specialist, the hunter specializes in ranged damage dealt by means of a bow, crossbow, or gun with the help of an animal pet. The hunter also employs a series of traps for damaging or disabling enemies.
* Mage (Spell damage class)
The wizard-esque damage-dealer of World of Warcraft, the mage employs spells of the "arcane", fire, and frost elements. They have minimal armor. Mages can also conjure food and water to replenish group members, and teleport themselves and others to most major cities.
* Paladin (Hybrid class)
A heavily armored holy warrior. Like druids, paladins can specialize to fulfill each of the three major roles in World of Warcraft. (See also: Paladin (character class).)
* Priest (Healer/Spell damage class)
A lightly armored class that can protect and heal allies (with "Holy" spells) or bring harm to enemies (with "Shadow" spells).
* Rogue (Melee damage class)
A shadowy assassin that can "stealth" to avoid being seen by enemies (providing near-invisibility). The rogue deals damage by dual-wielding small mêlée weapons, and also provides traditional thief skills like lock-picking, pickpocketing, and poisoning.
* Shaman (Hybrid class)
Unlike other hybrid classes (paladins and druids), the totem-wielding shaman's tanking abilities are quite limited. However, they can specialize to become effective healers, or damage dealers using either mêlée weapons or spells.
* Warlock (Spell damage class)
A sinister combination of the mage and the hunter, the warlock deals magical damage like a mage, but also has demonic "pets" (called minions) like hunters. Depending on their specialization, the warlock's damaging spells can come chiefly in the form of "damage over time" spells that, after being placed on an enemy, slowly deal damage, or in the form of direct damage spells that deal damage all at once, as those of a mage or shaman do.
* Warrior (Tank/melee damage class)
A heavily armored class, the warrior is a general mêlée fighter who can wield any non-magical weapon in the game.
The Paladin class was previously only available to the Alliance, and the Shaman only available to the Horde. Now, with the release of The Burning Crusade, the Draenei (Alliance) are able to be shamans and the Blood Elves (Horde) are able to be paladins, removing the previous faction exclusivity. In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, a tenth class known as the Death Knight will be added, which will also be the game's first Hero class. [8]
Items and equipment
Player characters can acquire various "items" in the game, which can aid in character customization, or which can otherwise be of aid to them. Items can vary from resources such as herbs or raw ores to items to be retrieved for quests. Player characters can also equip different weapons and armor, either to customize their character or to improve abilities (such as better attack or defense skills).[12] Items improve character effectiveness to such a degree as to make acquisition of these items necessary and highly desirable for progression. World of Warcraft’s item mechanics are complex and have undergone many changes in an attempt to keep the system balanced. Items play a significant role in the outcome of all confrontations within the game and a character’s effectiveness is directly linked to the quality of gear currently equipped. After the release of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, players could redeem codes found on "loot cards" for in-game items.
One of the more notable items are "mounts", which are items or spells which, when activated, summon an animal or machine which increase the character's land movement speed. In the expansion pack The Burning Crusade, the ability to purchase or acquire flying mounts became available in the expansion areas. Each playable race can use a certain mount type strongly associated with their race.[13]
Professions
During the course of playing the game, players may choose to develop side skills for their character(s). These non-combat skills are called professions. Professions are divided into two categories, primary and secondary.
Primary professions are skills related to the creation and enhancement of weapons and armor, and can be subdivided into gathering and crafting professions. The gathering professions in WoW are herbalism, mining, and skinning. Crafting professions include blacksmithing, leatherworking, tailoring, alchemy, engineering, enchanting, jewelcrafting (added in The Burning Crusade expansion), and inscription (to be added in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion[8]). Crafting professions also have specialization categories that when trained, allow for more diverse items to be created, depending on the character's direction in the game. There is also the Enchanting profession, which allows a character to enchant weapons and armor, and also disenchant magical items in his or her possession. A character is limited to two primary professions.
Secondary professions are skills that serve to enhance the player's experience and self-sufficiency. The secondary professions are first aid, cooking, and fishing. Characters can learn all three secondary professions. The Rogue class has two unique secondary professions: poisons and lock-picking.
PvP rankings
Upon defeating another player of the opposite faction in player versus player (PvP) combat the victor earns "Honor Points". Some servers allow for unrestricted PvP in most areas of the game, while others restrict this so-called "world PvP" to voluntary action only. All players also may choose to participate in the Battlegrounds - areas designed for multiplayer combat. In addition to honor points, the losing team in a Battleground receives one "mark of honor", while the winning team earns three marks. Honor Points and marks may be spent as currency to purchase various rewards like armor, weapons and mounts. Prior to patch 2.0.1, significant PvP achievements would allow characters to display various titles. After the patch new titles are no longer available, however previously earned titles can still be displayed.
The Arenas,[14] added in The Burning Crusade, offer gladiator-like combat in a World of Warcraft setting. The Arenas have a separate system from the Battlegrounds. Instead of honor, the Arenas give "Arena Points" which can be spent to purchase items in a manner similar to Honor Points. Only level 70 players can participate in rated arena matches. Lower level players can participate in practice arena matches, or "skirmishes", but no arena points are awarded.
The Arena system is broken into seasons. At the end of each season the best Arena teams in each category (2 versus 2, 3 versus 3 and 5 versus 5) are rewarded with titles.[15] From highest to lowest these ranks are Gladiator, Duelist, Rival and Challenger.
Reputation
The reputation system is complex and can have direct impact on character advancement. In World of Warcraft, there are many groups of NPCs known as "factions". The two primary factions are the Alliance and the Horde, and each one features a large number of sub-factions primarily based on race and geographic location. Characters' reputation with a faction can be increased or decreased by killing certain mobs, completing quests, or handing in items to certain NPCs. Higher reputation can grant many benefits to characters including reduced prices from vendors, the ability to purchase unique items including specialized mounts, and expanded access to certain areas of the game. [16]
However, characters cannot gain reputation with opposing factions, so a Horde character cannot gain reputation with any Alliance-only faction and vice versa. There are also diametrically opposed factions in which gaining reputation with one will result in loss of reputation with another.
Quests
Quests in WoW are tasks given to PCs by NPCs. The completion of quests provides many different rewards to the player, including reputation, experience, items, and gold. There are a variety of quests available, from single objective tasks to epic multi-step endeavors. Currently (BC-patch 2.4) there are more than 2000 quests in World of Warcraft.
Realms
World of Warcraft uses server clusters (known as "realms") to allow players to choose their preferred gameplay type and to allow the game to support as many subscribers as it does. There are four types of realms: Normal (also known as PvE or player versus environment), PvP (player versus player), RP (a roleplaying Normal/PvE server) and RP-PvP (roleplaying PvP server):
* Normal
On the Normal (also know as PvE, Player versus Environment) realms throughout most of the world players cannot attack or be attacked by each other, except by actively enabling the character's PvP flag, attacking a PvP-flagged character, entering a "PvP Territory" (such as a Battleground) or an enemy faction Capital City, or casting a positive spell on a friendly PvP-flagged character. The PvP flag is removed after 5 minutes from the last PvP action. If the PvP flag was enabled using the command the player will need to turn it off using the same command and then avoid PvP combat for 5 minutes.
* PVP (Player versus Player)
On a PvP realm, players are flagged for PvP by default. This flag is only disabled when a character is in a friendly faction city or a zone dedicated to newly created characters. All other zones are considered "contested territory" where players are automatically flagged for PvP upon entering. Most players will not need to enter a contested zone until roughly level 20.
On PvP servers, a player is limited to creating characters on one faction. This is in contrast to PvE servers, where a player may create characters from both factions.
The PvP servers also feature a more "hands–off" approach to server policies, facilitating the state of open war in these servers. Thus, The in-game GMs will deal with PvP related offenses differently than on the PvE realms, and some player actions are allowed to occur.[17] These actions include, but are not limited to, corpse camping, ganking, and other PvP related sections of Blizzard's harassment policy.
* RP (Roleplaying)
The roleplaying servers use the same ruleset as PvE realms, with the exception that players must act and behave in character, and must follow "naming rules" when they name their character. On these realms, players act and speak as their characters would, and anything said out of character is usually preceded by "OOC:" or presented in ((double parentheses)). It is also against the rules to be off-topic in all public channels, such as General and Trade.[18]
* RP-PvP (Roleplaying Player versus Player)
The roleplaying PvP realms are an extension to the role-playing realms that use the PvP ruleset instead of the Normal (PvE) ruleset. Blizzard did not initially have this server type when the game was launched; it was added later.[19]
* Public test realm
A public test realm, also called a test server, is used to test features in development for the next patch. Players can copy a character to the test realm or can sometimes copy a premade character. Players on test realms may encounter character wipes, item wipes, or frequent downtime to make changes or apply patches.
Users may have up to ten characters per realm and up to a maximum of fifty characters per account.[20] Characters can be moved between realms in the same region (e.g., from one European server to another, but not from a European server to an American one) for a fee.
Blizzard posts announcements on the login screen of World of Warcraft and on the official forums about realm status or other technical issues. The status for each realm can also be viewed on their main website.
Voice chat
In patch 2.2.0, Blizzard introduced an in-game voice chat feature. This feature is intended to complement the traditional text chat with a more efficient means of communication between players. Similar to text chat, voice chat is limited to communications between characters of the same faction. Channels can be set for various purposes such as groups, instances, raids, battlegrounds or general zones. Players may also join, create and moderate their own channels.[21] Players may enable this feature through the in-game options; no third-party applications are needed. Options for "push-to-talk" and "voice activated" modes are available. A microphone and speaker are required however, as with other similar voice chat products.
2008 Arena Tournament
Early in 2008 Blizzard announced they would be creating multiple Arena Realms in conjunction with patch 2.4, this realm would be to give anyone that considered themselves skilled enough to compete against one another. These realms are completely separate from the current arena season rewards and give cash rewards instead. In order to be eligible for the rewards of this tournament the player must compete in various matches and meet requirements set by Blizzard.
Geography:
The current virtual world consists of two planets, Azeroth and Draenor (also known as "Outland"). Azeroth consists of two main continents, the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Located to the northwest of Kalimdor are the Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles, and Teldrassil.
Kalimdor contains the starting areas for the Orc, Troll, and Tauren races of the Horde. The Night Elves and Draenei of the Alliance both begin in areas off the coast of Kalimdor (Teldrassil and Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles respectively). The Night Elves have the capability to move to the mainland fairly early as well. The Eastern Kingdoms contain the beginning areas for the Undead and Blood Elves of the Horde, as well as the Humans, Dwarves and Gnomes of the Alliance.
Draenor, added with the release of The Burning Crusade, is only accessible to those who have purchased and activated the expansion pack. It is reached through the Dark Portal in the south of the Eastern Kingdoms or through in-game teleportation. Draenor was the original home of the Orcs and was also inhabited by the Draenei for over 200 years.
The Wrath of the Lich King expansion will add the continent of Northrend in the northern region of Azeroth and will be available exclusively to those players who purchase and activate that expansion pack.
Instances
Instances, also known as instance dungeons or simply "dungeons", are areas where multiple copies of the same area can exist concurrently.[23] This means that multiple groups can both be doing the same activities in the same location, yet not interfere with one another.
"Instance" can also refer to a particular copy of such an area. Other areas such as battlegrounds are also instances, enabling multiple groups of players to participate at the same time. Instances other than battlegrounds can hold as many as forty different players each, pitting them against dragons or other creatures of greater power.
Instance in World of Warcraft are designed around specific level ranges and general group setups. Currently (BC-patch 2.4) instances are designed around 5-player groups, 10-player groups and 25-player groups. Instances designed for 25 or more players are referred to as raid instances. In The Burning Crusade expansion, Blizzard created a heroic difficulty for many of the 5-player instances found in Outland. Heroic difficulty is designed around max level characters.
Generally, to complete an instance, a group must be comprised of players that fill three roles. The “tank” (withstand and hold a direct onslaught), “healer” (heal the damage caused by attacks), and “DPS” (Damage per Second, used in this context refers to a class whose main concern is causing damage).
World of Warcraft currently (BC-patch 2.4) maintains 57 instances. These instances are broken down as follows:
Pre BC 5-player instances-24; Pre BC raid instances-8; Post BC-patch 2.4 5-player instances-16; Post BC-patch 2.4 raid instances-9
Blizzard will be adding twelve new instances with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, seven new 5-man instances and five raid instances.
Major in-game events
In an effort to further players' enjoyment and create common goals for large groups to accomplish,[24] game developers added World Events into the game. The first world events were outdoor raid bosses that could be challenged without entering an instance. These bosses were the blue dragon Azuregos of Azshara and the Burning Legion demon Lord Kazzak in the Blasted Lands. These were followed by four green dragons corrupted by the "Emerald Nightmare." In addition, certain areas of Azeroth experience an "elemental invasion" where waves of elemental-class monsters will run rampant for a time or until they are destroyed.
Blizzard has also implemented holiday content. Valentine's Day, Easter, Independence Day, Oktoberfest, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, as well as New Year's and its lunar counterpart all have their Warcraft-themed counterparts. During these week-long events players partake in holiday-themed quests usually involving humorous references to real-world pop culture surrounding the holiday. For example, one of the Winter's Veil (Christmas) quests involves fighting a creature known as the Greench (a parody of the Grinch) and rescuing a kidnapped reindeer named Metzen (styled after lead designer, Chris Metzen). Some world events are designed to repeat themselves on a regular basis such as the Darkmoon Faire. Others have been a one-time event that marked a large change in the in-game world like the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, the Scourge Invasion and the opening of the Dark Portal which signaled the beginning of The Burning Crusade expansion, along with other less notable events.[24]
Corrupted Blood plague incident
"Main article: Corrupted Blood"
The Corrupted Blood plague incident was one of the first events to affect entire servers. Patch 1.7 saw the opening of Zul'Gurub, the game's first 20-player raid dungeon where players faced off against an ancient tribe of jungle trolls under the sway of the ancient Blood God, Hakkar the Soulflayer. Upon engaging Hakkar, players were stricken by a debuff called "Corrupted Blood" which would periodically sap their life. The disease would also be passed on to other players who were simply standing close to an infected person. Originally this malady was confined within the Zul'Gurub instance but made its way into the outside world by way of hunter or warlock pets that contracted the disease.
Within hours Corrupted Blood had infected entire cities such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar because of their high player concentrations. Low-level players were killed in seconds by the high-damage disease. Eventually Blizzard fixed the issue so that the plague could not exist outside of Zul'Gurub.
The corrupted blood plague so closely resembled the outbreak of real-world epidemics that scientists are currently looking at ways MMORPGs or other massively-distributed systems can model human behavior during outbreaks. The reaction of players to the plague closely resembled previously hard-to-model aspects of human behavior that may allow researchers to more accurately predict how diseases and outbreaks spread amongst a population.

"Development":
World of Warcraft was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001. Development of the game took about five years with extensive testing done to make sure everything was ready for launch. The 3-D graphics in WoW use elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in Warcraft III. The game was designed to be an open environment where players are allowed to do what they please, alongside optional quests that players can complete to advance further in the game. In addition, the quests were made to help guide players to spread across different zones to try to avoid what developers called 'player collision'. [28] The game interface was also designed to be easy to use allowing players to customize areas to their likings and also allows for add-ons and other modification