world of warcraft

World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated to WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. The Warcraft games are set in the Warcraft Universe, a fantasy setting introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. World of Warcraft itself 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. World of Warcraft's release celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.

Although its initial release was hampered by server stability and performance issues, problems which still intermittently recur,^[1] the game is widely regarded as a success. World of Warcraft has almost seven million active subscriptions worldwide as of September 2006.^[2]

Gameplay

As an MMORPG, World of Warcraft is a radical departure from the standard real-time strategy wargame style of the other Warcraft games. As with other MMORPGs such as Everquest, players control a character avatar within a persistent gameworld, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters and performing quests on behalf of computer controlled characters. The game rewards success through money, items and experience which allow players' characters to improve in skill and power. In addition, players may opt to take part in battles against other players, including both duels and fights against player characters allied with an enemy faction.

Many quests and monsters through the early and middle stages of gameplay can be conquered alone without the help of other players, particularly if the player's character is higher level than his opponents. Other portions of the game, such as its instanced dungeon areas, are designed to require players to work together for success. Dungeons are designed for parties ranging from two to five players, up to significantly more difficult "raids" (a term originating from EverQuest gameplay) requiring up to a maximum of 40 players. The highest level, most complex dungeons and encounters are designed to take raiding guilds months of playtime and many attempts before they succeed.

In particular, the game areas designed specifically for level 60 characters are generally much more raid-dependent (and time-consuming) than the relatively more casual experience of advancing one's character from levels 1 to 60.^[3] The majority of World of Warcraft's endgame content (i.e., content specifically designed for level 60 characters) requires raiding, with raids making up the bulk of the game's development since release.^[4]

Because characters can not currently progress in experience level beyond 60, gameplay focus at that level typically changes for players wishing to further improve their combat power and effectiveness. Since combat and quests at level 60 earn the character money and items, but no experience, characters improve by continuing to upgrade their equipment. With few exceptions, the most powerful gear in the game is earned either as PVP rewards in battlegrounds, or by fighting consistently over a long course of time in the highest difficulty raid instances. Large PvE raids normally take a few hours to clear entire dungeons, such as Molten Core, Ahn'Qiraj, and Blackwing Lair. Because of the extreme damage monsters at this level of play can inflict, a common practice is to equip with 'resist' gear, meaning equipment specifically designed to maximize a character's resistance and defense against the opponents he expects to face in that particular raid, such as equipping items with high fire resistance before facing a raid involving monsters that primarilly deal fire damage. It also helps to improve a character's reputation for factions associated with the instance, to make sure the character has enough cash saved up for repairs, and to purchase consumable items for use within the instance. For example, the newest 40 man instance, Naxxramas, requires the right reputation level to be allowed to enter the instance without expensive material costs.

System requirements

World of Warcraft runs natively on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Boxed copies of the game use a hybrid CD to install the game, eliminating the need for separate Mac and Windows retail products. The game allows all users to play together, regardless of their operating system.

As of July 2005, Blizzard has no immediate plans to release a Linux version.^{citation needed]} However, support for World of Warcraft is present in Windows API implementations Wine and Cedega, allowing the game to be played on Linux.^[5] FreeBSD users have also been successful in using Wine to run the game.^[6]

As of Patch 1.9.3 the game added native support for the newer Intel-powered Macs, making World of Warcraft a Universal application. As a result of this the minimum supported Mac OS X version has been changed to 10.3.9; World of Warcraft version 1.9.3 and later will not launch on older versions of Mac OS X.^[7]

Due to the fact that new content is constantly being added to the game, official system requirements frequently change. As of version 1.12.0, the requirements for Windows have increased from requiring 256 MB to 512 MB of RAM and from Windows 98 to Windows 2000.^[8] The system requirements currently are as follows:^[9]

Windows

• Windows 2000 or newer
• Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon 800 MHz
• 512 MB or more of RAM
• 32 MB 3D video card with Hardware T&L or better
• 6.0 GB free HD space
• 4x CD-ROM drive
• 56k or better Internet connection

Macintosh

• Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer
• 933 MHz or higher G4, or G5, or Intel processor
• 512 MB RAM or higher
• ATI or NVIDIA video card with 32 MB Video RAM or more
• 6.0 GB free HD space
• 4x CD-ROM drive
• 56k or better Internet connection

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. Users may have up to ten characters per realm, and up to a maximum of fifty characters per account.^[10] There are four types of realms: Normal (also known as PvE or player versus environment), PvP (player versus player), RP (roleplaying) and RP-PvP (roleplaying with player versus player features).

Blizzard posts announcements on the login screen of World of Warcraft about realm status or issues. The status for each realm can also be viewed on their main website.

Player versus Environment (PvE)

On the PvE realms, throughout most of the world, the PvP flag may only be enabled by actively turning it on using the command /pvp or by attacking a hostile player, entering a city of the opposing faction or casting a buff/healing spell on a friendly PvP-flagged player. In battlegrounds and free-for-all arenas the PvP flag is also turned on. The PvP flag will be removed when the player has been out of PvP combat for 5 minutes. If the PvP flag was enabled using /pvp, the player will need to turn it off using the same command and then avoid PvP combat for 5 minutes while also residing in friendly territory. In slang, PvE servers are called "carebear" servers because players are not forced into PvP combat, avoiding the danger of getting attacked by players of the opposing faction, thus making PvE content easier to a certain extent.^{citation needed]}

Player versus Player (PvP)

PvP realms will flag the player for PvP as soon as he or she leaves a friendly zone (indicated by the green color of the zone name). Faction specific zones (Zones made for characters between levels 1–20 and the major cities) are friendly to the player. Other zones are contested (indicated by a yellow color). Entering an 'opposing faction's green zone' (for example, being a human at the gates of Orgrimmar) is the far end of the spectrum, and is indicated by the zone text being red upon entering. In this situation, you alone are flagged for PVP combat. Enemy players can choose to engage you (thus flagging themselves for combat as well), or simply ignore you. This is to prevent level 60 characters from steamrolling the beginner areas.

PvP-flagged players may attack any other PvP-flagged player of the opposing faction without any moderation from the gamemasters. Players on PvP-realms can only make characters on one faction (Horde or Alliance), as opposed to PvE-realms, where players may create characters on both factions.

Roleplaying (RP)

The roleplaying realms use the same ruleset as PvE realms, with the exception that players must act and behave in character.

Roleplaying Player versus Player (RPPvP)

The roleplaying PvP realms are an extension to the roleplaying realms in that they use the PvP ruleset instead of the PvE ruleset. Blizzard did not initially have this server type when the game was launched. It was added later, largely due to player feedback.

Characters

Characters in World of Warcraft are tied to specific user accounts. User accounts can be used on all servers, or realms. Characters can be moved between servers in the same region (e.g., from one EU server to another) for a fee. Users can create up to 10 characters per realm with a maximum total of 50.^[11] The two playable factions currently in the game are the Alliance and Horde, both consisting of four different races each, of which there are 9 playable classes with one class unique to each faction.

Races and classes

Players create characters which serve as their avatars in the online world of Azeroth. 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 diametrically opposed factions, the Alliance and the Horde.

• The Alliance currently consists of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes. Draenei will be added in the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion.^[12]
• The Horde currently consists of Orcs, Tauren, Undead (also known as Forsaken) and Trolls. Blood Elves will be added in the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion.
• Additionally, there are many NPC races such as Goblins, Ogres, Murlocs and Nagas.

See also: Races in the Warcraft universe.

The nine available classes are Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior. Currently, the Paladin class is available only to the Alliance, and the Shaman is only available to the Horde. This will change upon the release of the Burning Crusade expansion, in which the two new races (Draenei for the Alliance and Blood Elf for the Horde) will be able to play both Shamans and Paladins, removing the previous faction exclusivity. Classes are primarily limited by race. There are currently 20 possible combinations of race and class for each faction, for a total of 40 combinations across both factions; however, with the upcoming expansion package, The Burning Crusade, this will increase to 26 and 52, respectively.

Character types

There are two types of characters in the game: Player Characters (PC) and Non-Player Characters (NPCs), the latter having many different offshoots. Player Characters are people around the world actively playing the game. The color of a PC's name tag can vary from blue, green, yellow, or red depending on faction and Player vs. Player (PvP) status. NPCs are the characters that can only interact with player characters through scripted events or artificial intelligence (AI).

There are many types of NPCs. First are the friendly NPCs, whose names are displayed in green. Second come the many hostile NPCs; mainly the NPCs of the opposing faction and mobs (enemies controlled by AI). Any character whose name is displayed in red is hostile and should either be avoided or dealt with accordingly. Finally, some NPCs are neutral and will only attack if provoked; their names are displayed in yellow.

NPCs in major and minor cities can buy and sell merchandise, train class and profession skills, give quests, and provide all services that are needed in the game. While some will merely offer advice or further the story, others patrol around set paths to keep cities defended against attacking players or hostile NPCs that may attempt to invade a city.

Professions

Main article: Professions (World of Warcraft)

In addition to the character classes, a player may choose two primary professions and all three secondary professions that the game offers, if they so choose. Essentially, there are two types of professions: gathering and item creation. Many players choose to pair two related professions, thus allowing the character to gather the required materials for the crafting skill. The most commonly paired skills are as follows: Mining and Blacksmithing, Mining and Engineering, Skinning and Leatherworking, Herbalism and Alchemy, and to a lesser extent, Tailoring and Enchanting. Some players choose to select only "gathering" professions, opting to simply supply resources to players with item creation skills. These types of players will typically offer gathered items for sale in the game's auction houses. In the upcoming expansion, the Jewelcrafting profession will be introduced.

Items and equipment

Player characters can acquire various items in the game. 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 armour, either to customise their character or improve abilities such as better attacks or defense skills. Items are classified by the colour their name is displayed in, Grey being the worst, White being Common, Green being Uncommon, Blue being Rare, Purple being Epic, Orange being Legendary, and Red being Artifact. Needless to say, Epic and Legendary items offer far better enhancements than Uncommon or Rare items. Certain items are also considered to be "Soulbound," and cannot be traded to other players. Items can start this way, being referred to as Bind on Pickup (BOP), or become bound when equipped (BOE). Players of higher levels can obtain mounts, such as horses or mechanostriders, that increase their movement speed when used.

PvP rankings

Players are ranked in the "PvP Honor System", earning points for killing a player of the opposing faction, and winning victories in the battleground instances. There are fourteen ranks, ranging from Private to Grand Marshal for Alliance players, and from Scout to High Warlord for the Horde. As players achieve higher ranks, they are able to buy items including a special PvP mount and rare and epic quality weapons and armor from military quartermasters.

See also: World of Warcraft Player versus Player.

The world

Geography

The current virtual world is built around two main continents: The Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. While not all of the history of the four years between the end of The Frozen Throne and the start of World of Warcraft has been revealed, it is known that the conflict between the Horde's forces and the marines of the Theramore Isles at the end of the Orc mini-campaign were the kindling for the current conflict. This forced the Horde to mainly reside in Kalimdor, and the Alliance to settle predominantly in the Eastern Kingdoms.

There are three main cities for each 'side' and four neutral (goblin) cities. Horde cities are Thunder Bluff, Orgrimmar, and the Undercity. Alliance cities are Stormwind, Ironforge, and Darnassus. Neutral cities are Booty Bay, Ratchet, Gadgetzan, and Everlook. There are also neutral outposts controlled by various other factions, such as Cenarion Hold in Silithus and Light's Hope Chapel in the Eastern Plaguelands.

Some of the notable landmarks and locations in the game that were featured in previous Warcraft games are featured in the game. They are:

• The Undercity, which resides under the Ruins of Lordaeron, is the main city of the Forsaken, ruled by Sylvanas Windrunner and Varimathras. Here they are engineering a new plague to wipe out the Scourge and all humans 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 (an instance), 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.
• 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 took place and the fall of the Burning Legion's Second Invasion.

As of early 2006 a number of regions in the virtual world have yet to be implemented. Some examples of this are:

• Gilneas, which is southwest of Silverpine Forest, past the Greymane Wall.
• Region beyond Grim Batol to the east (Thin strip of land, east of Wetlands and Loch Modan).
• Mount Hyjal.
• Quel'Thalas, which Blizzard has announced as the starting area for the Blood Elves in the upcoming expansion, "The Burning Crusade".
• The regions to the east and west of Burning Steppes.
• The region directly north of Eastern Plaguelands, in between Western Plaguelands and Quel'Thalas.
• The Ironforge airport (small runway with gnomes and dwarves fighting trolls, viewable when flying north from Ironforge.) According to Blizzard, this area is designed for flavor only and not intended for player access.

It should be noted that many of the unopened areas in the game are off limits to players. However, using exploits or outright hacks, players have managed to enter these areas. Blizzard Game Masters can and do monitor this and have simply asked players to leave the banned areas or in some cases, banned them outright.

The Dark Portal will reopen and lead to Outland, remnants of the Orc homeworld, Draenor, according to Blizzard game designers, when the expansion set is released. Further, opening the Dark Portal will not require the defeat of Kel'Thuzad in Naxxramas Necropolis (Jeff Kaplan, as quoted in the New York Times, May 11, 2006). The Necropolis Naxxramas was added to the game in the 1.11 patch.

The other four portals in Ashenvale, Duskwood, Feralas, and the Hinterlands are connected to the Emerald Dream. Each one of these portals is guarded by a corrupted green dragon. The Emerald Dream itself is not yet accessible.

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. This might be added in a future expansion for this game.

Virtual community

In addition to playing the game itself and conversing on discussion forums provided by Blizzard, World of Warcraft players often participate in the World of Warcraft virtual community in creative ways, including fan artwork ^[13] and comic strip style storytelling^[14]. Blizzard furthers this community by offering in-game and out-of-game prizes, as well as highlighting community events and occurrences. Blizzard has also provided incentives for introducing new members to World of Warcraft. In late October 2005 each subscribed player received a 10-day free pass^[15] which they suggested be employed as seasonal gifts that could either be used by the current player or given to a friend. These passes would generate a free month's usage if the guest player purchased a full account.

There are various memes, including "Face Melting,"^[16] a reference to a very long thread on the priest forums on the World of Warcraft website that consisted of players saying, "You will melt faces as a Shadow Priest in PvP" in different ways. This is because the icon for Mind Flay, a powerful skill used heavily by Shadow Priests, looks like a melting face. Another popular phenomenon in the community is a video^[17] starring a player named Leeroy Jenkins, intended to provide publicity for Leeroy's guild. Leeroy's popularity inspired tributes in other games, and he was even part of a clue on the November 16, 2005 episode of the TV game show College Jeopardy!. ^[18] These memes gain notoriety through postings on the World of Warcraft Forums. ^{citation needed]}

As of August 2005, the Dark Iron server has been home to the guilds of web-comic creators Scott Kurtz (PvP) and Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (Penny Arcade). Kurtz created Panda Attack and Djörk on the Horde side, while Holkins and Krahulik initiated a series of guilds that is now known as the Penny Arcade Alliance. This event is referred to as the Comic Guild Wars, and has created healthy competition between the authors, to the extent of dedicating some of their strips to the subject. Tim Buckley of Ctrl+Alt+Del and the creators of Holy Bibble have also joined in on making guilds for Dark Iron players, while VG Cats forum members established their own guild on the Shadow Council server. ^{citation needed]}

Major world events

For a time it was argued that dynamic world-changing events were in extremely short supply in Warcraft. There was an overall feeling that the ongoing "wars" from which the game takes its name were external and out of touch from the playerbase. The only cross-faction interaction took place during server-crashing city raids and skirmishes in certain "hot spots" around the world such as the popular "Southshore Tug of War" in which Alliance and Horde forces would fight back and forth over the stretch of land between Southshore and Tarren Mill.

The first world events were added in the form of outdoor raid bosses that could be accessed 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.^[19]

Blizzard has also implemented holiday content that could be considered a world event. Valentine's Day, Easter, Independence Day, 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 and rescuing a kidnapped reindeer named Metzen (styled after lead designer, Chris Metzen). In Blizzard style most of these events also include the consumption of generous amounts of in-game alcohol. ^{citation needed]}

The Darkmoon Faire

In patch 1.6 players were given the opportunity to plunder the first new 40-player raid dungeon added since launch: Blackwing Lair. However, a more peaceful distraction appeared traveling across Azeroth and coming to rest in Mulgore and Elwynn Forest on opposing months called The Darkmoon Faire. The Darkmoon Faire features attractions from across the globe such as the world's strongest woman, a petting zoo for some of Azeroth's most interesting creatures, various games of skill, a fortune teller, a giant human-launching cannon, and plenty of ale.

Players can perform quests for various members of the Faire and receive Darkmoon Prize Tickets in return. These tickets can then be redeemed for items of various quality from "Month-old Mutton" to epic-quality jewelry. Additionally, players can occasionally find Darkmoon Cards scattered throughout the world. Four sets exist at the present time: Elementals, Beasts, Warlords, and Portals. Collecting all eight cards of a set (Ace through 8, there are no face cards) allows the player to combine them into a deck and redeem them for a powerful, epic-quality trinket depending on which set was completed.

The Faire sees sporadic updates and expansions in a semi-regular fashion. The most recent addition was a 'battle' minigame in which players take control of tiny, remote controlled tanks called 'Tonks' which use various weapons to disable other Tonks.

Corrupted Blood plague

Main article: Corrupted Blood

While not an intentional world event, the Corrupted Blood plague nonetheless 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 the Blood God, players were stricken by a debuff (a spell that negatively affects a player) called "Corrupted Blood" which would periodically sap their life. The disease would also be passed on to other players who were simply standing in close proximity 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 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. For days carpets of skeletons riddled the highest populated towns, rendering them uninhabitable due to the persistent plague. Eventually Blizzard fixed the issue so that the plague could not exist outside of Zul'Gurub but fan reaction to the epidemic was strangely positive and may influence Blizzard's world event design for the future.

The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj

Patch 1.9 saw the first true world event in the World of Warcraft. Located in the mysterious insect-infested, quasi-Egyptian themed area of Silithus, Ahn'Qiraj was the capital city of the powerful Qiraji, a race of magical creatures under the thrall of an ancient and terrible Old God who was chained beneath the earth in ages past. A coalition of Night Elves and dragons of the Four Flights fought a war against the Qiraji and their Silithid minions and sealed them behind the Scarab Wall. However, after many centuries the bonds of their prison began to break and Silithus was overrun by the creatures once more. A call for War against Ahn'Qiraj went out and the combined might of the Alliance and Horde sealed away the menace of the Old God for good.

The world event was triggered by a twofold action. First, the entire server population was able to take part in the Ahn'Qiraj War Effort. Players of every level could turn in various items in both Ironforge and Orgrimmar for their faction's respective war preparations. Metals, herbs, textiles, and other commodities were all collected in great quantities. For example, one collector in Ironforge required players to turn in a stack of 20 runecloth bandages at a time. The total number of runecloth bandages required numbered in the tens of thousands. The faster materials were turned in, the faster the War would commence. In the weeks leading up to the opening of the gates many servers were neck-and-neck as Blizzard provided a rankings page to monitor the progress of each realm. In the end the realm Medivh succeeded in being the first to open the gates of Ahn'Qiraj.

At the same time the War Effort was taking in supplies high level players could engage in a quest chain that spanned the entire world to piece together an artifact called the Scepter of the Shifting Sands. This item would be necessary to ring the Scarab Gong and break the seals holding the Scarab Wall closed. When the War Effort was completed the armies of the Alliance and Horde would march to Ahn'Qiraj. In a spectacular set-piece the armies formed ranks outside the Scarab Wall and the gong was sounded by one lucky person per server. The gates opened and the minions of the Qiraji spilled out in a titanic melee. Additionally, invasions of Silithid insects occurred in almost every populated area of Azeroth.

With the initial event completed the gates were open to everyone on a given server and players were able to access two new raid dungeons: the 20-man ruins zone and the 40-man temple zone and a few new quests.

Reactions to this world event were mixed. Some servers, unable to handle the high poplulation levels, would crash and many players were subject to frequent disconnects. Additionally, on at least one server, a guild completed the quest only to hold the Scepter (and the subsequent opening of the Gates) for ransom, ostensibly in an attempt to force Blizzard to focus attention on often-recurring server problems. Finally, in at least one case, an established raiding guild from another server completed its scepter, transferred to a new server where players had not yet opened the gates, and triggered the AQ opening event during weekly maintanence to prevent other players on that server from experiencing the event. (Shortly after, Blizzard limited servers that could be transferred into to those which were more than six months old.)^{citation needed]}

The Scourge Invasion

For months rumors abounded about Naxxramas, the mysterious undead necropolis that hovers above the fallen city of Stratholme. It is here that Kel'Thuzad, one of the most powerful creatures in the Warcraft universe makes his seat of power and receives orders from the Lich King. In patch 1.11 the Necropolis descended and Kel'Thuzad launched a war against the whole of Azeroth. Adventurers now assault the halls of Naxxramas in hopes that they can defeat the lich Kel'Thuzad and end the Scourge's plans for conquest once and for all.

The Invasion began with the launch of patch 1.11. Outside each major city and at various high level zones in the game players could encounter floating undead constructs called a Necropolis with at least four groups of undead creatures spread out in a diamond formation below. At each point lay a necrotic crystal guarded by legions of undead. Upon destroying these crystals players could render the accompanying necropolis inert for a time and score a "victory" against the Scourge.

Meanwhile the Argent Dawn is conducting its own war against Naxxramas itself and enlisting the aid of Azeroth's heroes. Players venturing into the Necropolis report gruesome patchwork abombinations and other undead constructs, rumors of the powerful Ashbringer; a legendary sword, and perhaps the most unsettling news of all that Kel'Thuzad himself may be seeking possession of the legendary Atiesh, the staff of Medivh, the Last Guardian.

Deviation from the MMORPG archetype

Blizzard has used World of Warcraft to make some changes to the typical MMORPG in response to complaints received from players about other games in this genre. In particular the game play has been changed to make it more even and fair for both hardcore and casual players. For example, in order to help accommodate players who enjoy questing, players gain similar experience overall from completing quests as by only killing monsters ('grinding').

The other system used by Blizzard to help the casual player is the "rested state". While in rested state, a character earns twice as much experience as would normally be gained from killing monsters (experience gains from completing quests and exploring remain unchanged). This feature allows someone who has been away from the game for a period of time to double his leveling capability until he leaves the rested state, providing a "catch up" incentive upon returning to the game. However, in order to prevent players exploiting this by leaving one character logged off in an inn while playing another, the maximum amount of rest a character can accumulate is capped at 1.5 levels' worth; the quantity of experience this represents varies depending on the character's level. Players can increase the rate at which their characters gain rest by a factor of four by returning to an inn or capital city to log off. Rest increases whether or not a character is logged in, but slowly enough (10 days to reach a fully-rested state in an inn) that it is most easily noticed when a character is first logged in after not having been played for several hours or days.

Modifications

World of Warcraft includes significant support for modifications to the user interface (UI) of a game, colloquially known as "mods" At a simple level it allows full control over the content of toolbars and hot keys, as well as macros to automate sets of operations and the ability to script much more elaborate tools. The range of modifications that are available can be anything from ways to automatically advertise tradeskills, to adding extra rows of button bars for spells, skills and more. There are also various humorous mods, including one that reproduces the infamous Leeroy Jenkins sound.^[20]

Addons are created using one or both Lua and XML, and images used for modifications are created using the .TGA (Targa) and .BLP image formats. Blizzard has also released a User Interface Customization tool to support and encourage to-be UI modders.^[21] However, Blizzard is unable to endorse or provide support for third party interfaces due to issues that may be caused by them.

Common websites for obtaining various user-made interface modifications include:

• Curse Gaming
• WoWInterface
• ui.worldofwar.net
• WoWguru UI's

More information on interface customization can be found at: WoWWiki,^[22] and the official forum.^[23]

Some third-party programs that operate in a stand-alone mode, or independent of World of Warcraft may be considered exploits, especially if they automate operation beyond that made available using the built-in macro functionality, or pass information in or out of the game. Use of these is against the Terms of Service agreed to when playing the game, and as such, may lead to possible suspension or closure of accounts. Blizzard has stated on the official forums that any modification that uses the Lua programming language will not be considered an exploit, though Blizzard reserves the right to change information available via the Lua language if the modification changes the nature of encounters in the game.^{citation needed]}

Expansion pack

Main article: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

On October 28, 2005 Blizzard revealed that the first expansion pack will be called World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. It will include an increased level cap of 70, a new profession (Jewelcrafting), the ability to 'socket' jewels into certain items for increased stats, and two new playable races. The additional races are the Blood Elves for the Horde, residing in the capital city of Silvermoon, and the Draenei for the Alliance, residing in the capital city of Exodar. The expansion will also feature Outland as a new playable zone, as well as flying mounts usable only in Outland for high-level players. Some of the expansion's features will be available to all players, though the most significant additions, such as visiting Outland and creating characters of the two new races, will require the Burning Crusade expansion to be purchased and installed.^[24]

On July 21, 2006, Blizzard revealed that the new races will be able to use classes traditionally open only to the other faction, and that Blood Elves do not have the Warrior class open to them, making them the only race that cannot play a Warrior. These changes have received mixed feedback.^[25]

It has also been confirmed by a Community Manager on the general forums that the epic raid dungeons in the expansion will have a cap of 25 people, including the raid to defeat Illidan.^{citation needed]}

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of World of Warcraft

Although successful, World of Warcraft has received its share of criticism. One of the most recent of these controversies had to do with Blizzard's treatment of a transgender player when she made a guild for other gay or gay-friendly players.^[26]

World of Warcraft has also come under criticism for stories of game addictions to the popular video game. In June of 2005 it was reported that a child had died due to neglect by her World of Warcraft-addicted parents.^[27] In August of that year, the government of the People's Republic of China decided to enforce control over how many hours the country's 20 million gamers can play.^[28]

Dr. Maressa Orzack, a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, was interviewed August 8, 2006 stating that of the 6 million subscribers "I'd say that 40 percent of the players are addicted."^[29] Note that the 40 percent figure was not derived from a scientific study overseen by Dr. Orzack, but rather came from "a forum that Nick Yee runs". She added in an August 2006 interview that "even if the percentage is 5 to 10 percent which is standard for most addictive behaviors, it is a huge number of people who are out of control."^[30] Also, according to Dr. John Grohol, a colleague of Orzacks, "Dr. Orzack is not claiming that up to 40% of Word of Warcraft gamers are addicted based upon any actual evidence or surveys of players. This is just her opinion, based upon her own experience and observation of the problem."^[31]

In Popular Culture

The South Park episode Make Love, Not Warcraft prominently featured World of Warcraft through machinima animation. In the episode, the main characters team up to destroy a character whose WoW persona has been honed into a seemingly invincible being, one who aimlessly kills players and thus drives them away from the game. The line between the game's fantasy world and actuality is humorously blurred throughout the episode. ^[32]

See also

References

External links

Official websites

• The official US World of Warcraft website
• The official EU World of Warcraft website

Reviews

• World of Warcraft on GameSpot
• World of Warcraft on IGN.com
• World of Warcraft on ToTheGame

Useful information

• Thottbot
• World of War
• World of Warcraft Vault