World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is what is known as a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG. Published by Blizzard Entertainment, it is set in the fantasy realm of Warcraft Universe. This realm first came on the scene in 1994, and was part of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. The game is set in a world called Azeroth, and is four years following the end of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise, it was announced to the world on November 23, 2004. Currently, it has the honor of being the worldís largest MMORPG regarding monthly subscribers. It also has the Guinness World Record of being the most popular MMORPG. World of Warcraft has a subscriber base of 16,000,000 people at this time.
On January 16, 2007, Blizzard released the first official expansion game pack called The Burning Crusade. A second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, was announced during the 2007 BlizzCon event on August 3, 2007.
This is not a real-time strategy game. Players choose a character avatar, and this is who they are within the game. They explore the land, fight monsters, complete quests, and interact with other players. Like most other MMORPGs, players must pay for a subscription in order to play the game. This can be done by either buying game cards to play for a certain amount of time sold by retailers, or paying regularly through a credit or debit card.
To begin playing World of Warcraft, each player has to choose a realm or server to play on. The realm is a copy of the game world. The realm classes are Player versus player or Player versus environment. If a player wants variations of the roleplay, they are available, and can move their set characters between realms if they pay for this.
After selecting the realm, a player can choose to use one of their previous characters or make up a new one. These characters can be a member of either the Alliance or Horde. In order to communicate, group or trade with each other, characters must be from the same faction. The next step is to choose which race and class the character will be in the game. There are also many professions that can be learned. A character can be played by itself, or players can form groups so they can enjoy more challenging quests.
While there have been a few issues with World of Warcraft along the way, most players fully enjoy the game. They donít mind paying the fees to play it, either. You can find out more by visiting www.worldofwarcraft.com.
