World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (also commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that was released in North America in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth full game released by Blizzard Entertainment in the Warcraft series. WoW has seen paramount success, having sold over 11 million copies, and has been a great credit to MMORPG video games, introducing thousands of people to the genre. The game is available to play in several countries, including North America, Europe, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, and is available in five languages (English, Spanish, French, German, and Russian). World of Warcraft currently holds the Guinness World Record for Most Popular MMORPG

Blizzard has released two expansion packs to the game, each introducing additional content. The Burning Crusade (BC or TBC), released in 2007, and The Wrath of the Lich King (Wrath or WotLK), released in 2008. In August of 2009, Blizzard announced a third expansion, titled, Cataclysm (Cata).

Gameplay

© Image: Blizzard Entertainment
World Map Showing Northrend, Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor

Setting

Gameplay takes place in the world of Azeroth, a typical fantasy universe, rife with war and conflict from the races and civilizations that inhabit it. When World of Warcraft was launched, the playable area consisted of two zones known as the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. The Wrath of the Lich King introduced a third zone to the north of the original two known as Northrend. These three landmasses are separated by the Great Sea which contains a huge whirlpool known as the Maelstrom. According to lore, the three zones were once one single continent until the First Well of Eternity was destroyed during the War of the Ancients. This created the Maelstrom, destroying 80% of the worlds landmass and creating the three areas that remain today.

Eastern Kingdoms

The Eastern Kingdoms is actually made up of three continents known as Lordaeron, Khaz Modan and Azeroth (which is also the name of the planet as a whole). Most of the Eastern Kingdoms is grassland, however some parts of Lordaeron are now plaguelands and some other areas have been turned into wasteland.

• Lordaeron, found at the northern end of the Eastern Kingdoms, is the former human kingdom which has in recent years been largely taken over by the undead Scourge under the control of the Lich King. It is the location of Undercity, the capital city of the Forsaken, and also Silvermoon City, the capital city of the Blood Elves. It is also the location of Greymane City, the capital city of the Worgen.
• Khaz Modan is in the centre of the Eastern Kingdoms, and is the location of Ironforge, the Dwarven capital city, and Gnomeregan, the Gnomish capital.
• Azeroth is found at the southern end of the Eastern Kingdoms, and is the location of Stormwind, the new human capital city.

The Eastern Kingdoms is aimed at players between level 1 and level 60. It is not currently possible to fly in this area, even with a flying mount.

Kalimdor

Kalimdor is a much more diverse area than the Eastern Kingdoms, and has almost every type of area. Towards the north is the ice plains of Winterspring whilst towards the south are the harsh deserts of Tanaris and Silithus. Other areas include woodland, tropical jungles and rocky plains. Off the north-west coast of Kalimdor is the island of Teldrassil, which contains the Night Elf city of Darnassus. Nearby is Azuremyst Isle, the location of the Exodar after it crash landed there and now the capital city of the Draenai. In central Kalimdor can be found the Orc capital city of Orgrimmar and the Tauren capital city of Thunder Bluff.

Kalimdor is aimed at players between level 1 and level 60. It is not currently possible to fly in this area, even with a flying mount.

Outland

The realm of Outland was introduced in The Burning Crusade expansion, and cannot be visited by those who do not have the expansion. It is not actually on the planet Azeroth. It is the remains of the planet Draenor, homeworld of the orcs, which was destroyed in the events of Warcraft II. Now it is made up of giant pieces of floating rock that float around in the Twisting Nether, which is an alternate dimension based on different laws of physics. Outland is accessed through the Dark Portal that is located in the Blasted Lands at the southern end of the Eastern Kingdoms. It is also the location of the city Shattrath City, which is the first city to allow Horde and Alliance players to mix freely without risk of PvP conflict. Shattrath City was a major hub of activity when The Burning Crusades was the highest expansion, as it allows travel to each of the other major cities through use of portals. However, it is now almost deserted with the release of Wrath of the Lich King and the new city of Dalaran.

Outland is aimed at players between level 58 and level 70. It is not possible to enter Outland unless you are at least level 58. It is the first area of the game to allow flying mounts, which are accessible at level 70.

Northrend

The continent of Northrend was introduced in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and can only be visited by those who have the expansion. It is primarily a frozen wasteland, and home of the undead Scourge. However, some of the more southern points are not entirely frozen and one area is actually a tropical jungle. Northrend is the current location of the mage city known as Dalaran, which floats above the center of the continent. This city is similar to Shattrath in that it allows Horde and Alliance players to mix freely, and has easy access to each of the major cities through the use of portals. As such, it is a major hub of activity for top level characters.

Northrend is aimed at players between level 68 and level 80. It allows players to fly on flying mounts, but not until they have purchased 'Cold Weather Flying' which is not availiable to anyone below level 80. However, Cold Weather Flying may be purchased by a level 80 character and given to another character on the same account that is level 68 or above.

Cataclysm Changes

The Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor are due to be completely revamped with the release of the upcoming expansion Cataclysm in an attempt to update the 1 to 60 levelling process. This includes the geography of some areas completely changing and the introduction of flying mounts in these areas. New areas are also being added that were previously inaccessible, including Mount Hyjal, Uldum, Gilneas, Twilight Highlands and Deathwing Scar. The Sunken City of Vashj'ir will also be added south of the Maelstrom. Most of these zones are being added for high level characters to get from 80 to 85. However, Gilneas will be the starting area for the new playable race Worgen and a new chain of islands known as the Lost Isles will be introduced in Kalimdor as the starting area for the new playable Goblins.

Characters

After setting up a World of Warcraft account, players must create a character to use in the game world. This avatar represents the player, a standard in most RPGs. Each character has its own set of traits, and in World of Warcraft most of this character data is stored server-side to avoid hacking attempts on the client side. Each character in World of Warcraft has a race, class, and gender. Other aesthetic changes can be made to the character before creation, such as hair color and style, facial hair, and accessories. In WoW, male and female characters are considered equal, so the gender you choose for your character will only have cosmetic effects, and no effects on their abilities.

Once created, most of these traits are fixed and cannot be changed. With the introduction of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, a barbershop system was introduced to the game allowing players to change their characters hair color and style, facial hair, and other facial features such as piercings, night elf tattoos, tusks, horns and tendrils. These changes cost the player a small amount of the in-game currency known as gold. Microtransactions have also been added to the game to allow players to recustomize their character in other ways, such as changing gender, name, species, realm and even faction.

Races

The races in World of Warcraft are split into two opposing factions (or forces), the Alliance and the Horde. Each faction has five races available to it, with a sixth being added in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. There are benefits to choosing a particular race over another, as there are unique racial traits available to each race. The races are divided as follows:

Alliance	Horde
Human	Orc
Gnome	Undead (Forsaken)
Dwarf	Trolls
Night Elf	Tauren
Draenei (BC expansion required)	Blood Elf (BC expansion required)
Worgen (To be added in Catacalysm expansion)	Goblin (To be added in Catacalysm expansion)

Classes

There are ten classes available in World of Warcraft. All, except one of them, are available from the start, without any expansions. Not all classes are available to all races.

Although each class is unique and has many different abilities and advantages, each class (and player) is expected to fulfill at least one of WoW's three main character roles:

• Tanking - Which means being able to survive massive amounts of damage during enemy attacks. "Tanks" are great at drawing attention of monsters in the game, getting them to focus their attacks on the tank, thereby reducing damage done to other players and keeping the group alive.
• Damage Dealing - Often referred to as "DPS", which stands for Damage Per Second. These are characters who dish out massive amounts of damage on enemy forces.
• Healing - Players who are able to heal damage their allies have taken in battle.

List of Classes

Class	Combat Type	Playable Roles	Alliance Playable Races	Horde Playable Races	Notes
Death Knight	Melee/Magic	Tank, Melee DPS	All	All	Requires Wrath of the Lich King expansion and a level 55 character
Druid	Magic	Healing, Ranged DPS, Tanking, Melee DPS	Night elf	Tauren
Hunter	Ranged	Ranged DPS	Draenei, Dwarf, Night Elf	Blood Elf, Orc, Tauren	Have pets (beasts tamed in the wild)
Mage	Magic	Ranged DPS	Draenei, Gnome, Human	Blood Elf, Troll, Undead
Paladin	Melee	Healing, Melee DPS, Tank	Draenei, Dwarf, Human	Blood Elf
Priest	Magic	Healing, Ranged DPS	All except Gnome.	Blood Elf, Troll, Undead
Rogue	Melee	Melee DPS	All except Draenei	All except Tauren
Shaman	Magic	Healing, Ranged DPS, Melee DPS	Draenei	Orc, Tauren, Troll
Warlock	Magic	Ranged DPS	Gnome, Human	Blood Elf, Orc, Undead	Have Pets (demons that can be summoned).
Warrior	Melee	Melee DPS, Tanking	All	All except Blood Elf

Starting areas

New characters will begin in their chosen race's starting area, typically a small village. Once the character has been created and named, a narrated introductory movie explains some of the background to the game world, as well as your character's Race, and ends with giving you control of your character. New characters will be quite weak and have few skills or resources. By accepting and completing missions (or quests, as they are called in the game), as well as killing enemies, characters will earn experience points, allowing them to go up in level and power, as well as earning them money, equipment, and increased reputation with their respective faction. Originally, characters could advance from level 1 to level 60. Characters can progress to a maximum level of 70 if they have purchased the Burning Crusade expansion, and to a maximum level of 80 if they have purchased the Wrath of the Lich Kingexpansion as well. Players who also install the upcoming expansion Cataclysm will be able to progress to a maximum level of 85.

Questgiver characters are "non-player characters" (or NPCs) controlled by the game server. Eventually, the questgivers in the starting area will direct players to bring their characters to other more challenging areas, with greater risk and greater reward.

Professions

Upon reaching Level 5, a character may learn professions. The primary professions can be divided into three types, gathering,crafting, and service.

Every profession has 6 proficiency levels with all expansions, as both Burning Crucade and Wrath add one additional proficiency level to every profession.

One gathering skill, for example, is "Herbalism", which allows a character to acquire raw herbal materials, which can be either sold to NPC vendors or, more profitably, to other players via the in-game Auction House system.
However, if a herbalist also has the 'Alchemy' crafting skill, the herbs can be turned into a potion, which can be used by themselves or other characters to provide a health boost, or some other type of "buff". However, you are not required to pick these types of combinations. An example of a service profession is "Enchanting," which allows a character to give either another character or themselves a permanent buff to a weapon, or armor.
One tactic is to ignore crafting altogether and choose two gathering professions (Mining/Skinning, for example). Then you can simply sell the items gathered to crafters and earn gold without worrying about crafting.

This table outlines the primary professions.

Profession	Type	Often Paired with	Description	Notes
Alchemy	Crafting	Herbalism	Create Potions from herbs
Blacksmithing	Crafting	Mining	Create weapons and armor from ore
Enchanting	Service		Grant permanent augmentation to weapons, armor, etc.	Disenchanting is required to obtain ingredients.(it is part of the whole profession)
Engineering	Crafting	Mining	Create guns, explosives, scopes, bullets, etc
Herbalism	Gathering	Alchemy	Allows player to collect herbs
Jewelcrafting	Crafting	Mining	Creates jewels that can be placed in socketed items	Must have BC for this profession, must be Aldor affiliated in Shattrath City.
Leatherworking	Crafting	Skinning	Creates leather and mail armor, as well as armor kits from leather
Mining	Gathering	Blacksmithing, Engineering, Jewelcrafting	Gathers ore and gems from deposits
Tailoring	Crafting		Creates cloth armor, as well as bags from cloth
Skinning	Gathering	Leatherworking	Gathers leather and hides from dead beasts.
Inscription	Service		Create inscriptions that are used to enhance the spells and abilities of players, as well as creating enhancing scrolls.	Implemented in Patch 3.0.2, Glyphs can only be attached near the Lexicon of Power, located in major cities

There are also three "secondary professions" in the game - fishing, cooking and first aid. A character may learn all of the secondary professions, but is limited to a maximum of two primary professions. A fourth secondary profession, Archaeology, is being implemented in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion.

Instances

While gameplay generally takes place 'outdoors', WoW also features many dungeons, temples, castles, ruins and so on, that can only be played as an 'instance'. This means that when a character enters such an area, the server creates a unique version of that particular instance for the player and his companions.

Such areas are harder than corresponding outside areas, featuring much stronger monsters and accompanying bosses. Of course, the rewards are also better. Such is the difficulty of instances that a character venturing into one of the appropriate level will only succeed if grouped into a 'party' with some other players.

Most instances require a party of five people appropriate to the level of the instance to stand a good chance of success. Usually, these would represent a balance of classes, including a tank, a healer, and three others either "DPSing" or performing a hybrid role of dealing and healing damage.

Some instances are "raid" instances. A raid instance will be more difficult than a normal instance of the same level, and will require more people to complete it. Raids allowing a maximum of ten, 25 or even 40 characters are possible. Running successful raids requires a high degree of cooperation and organisation between players outside of the game proper.

Player Vs. Player

Some players elect to engage in Player vs. Player or PvP combat. There are two main branches of PvP, battlegrounds and arena.

There are six battlegrounds that are available. These are: Arathi Basin, Warsong Gulch, Alterac Valley, Eye of the Storm, Isle of Conquest and Strand of the Ancients. A seventh, Battle for Gilneas, is due to be added in the upcoming expansion Cataclysm. Each of these battlegrounds has their own back story and motivation for the opposing factions to fight, as well as different gameplay. For example, Arathi Basin is located in the Arathi Highlands, and is rich in resources, so both factions want to occupy it. The gameplay for Arathi Basin is to capture the 5 nodes, and while holding these nodes, points are accumulated, and when either faction reaches 2000 points, the battle ground is over.

In addition to these battlegrounds the Wrath of the Lich King expansion introduced the first non-battleground zone fully dedicated to PvP. This area, known as Wintergrasp, revolves around the keep at the north end of the zone. At any point, the keep is controlled by either the Alliance or the Horde. After being controlled for two and a half hours, a battle begins for control of the keep. If the controlling faction manage to defend the keep for thirty minutes then they have successfully defended it and control is retained by them. However, if the opposing faction manage to breach the keep, they take control of the fortress for the next period. Controlling Wintergrasp brings various benefits, including access to a raid and to easier farming for crafting materials.

A new zone known as Tol Barad will be introduced in the upcoming expansion Cataclysm. This will be another outdoor PvP zone similar to Cataclysm.

Servers

There are four types of servers on World of Warcraft: PvE (Player versus Environment), PvP (Player versus Player), RP (Role-playing), and RPPvP (Role-Playing PvP). PvE and RP servers share the same core functionality, as do PvP and RPPvP. In the first set, PvE and RP, players can only attack one another when "flagged" for doing something against the opposing force. The areas of the map share the same rules. On PvP and RPPvP servers, players are allowed to attack each other more often. The standard flagging rules apply, however there are three types of "zones" a player can be in. When starting out, a player is put into a zone controlled by his or her faction, either "Horde" or "Alliance". As levelling progresses (Somewhere usually around level 10), characters move into "Neutral Zones". While in a zone belonging to your faction, you must flag yourself to be attacked by the opposing faction. While in a neutral zone, everyone is flagged until they leave the zone. Lastly, when you're in an Enemy's zone, you are always flagged, but the opposing force is not unless they flag themselves for PvP.