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 series, excluding 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 | |
|---|---|
| World of Warcraft box art | |
| Developer(s) | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Vivendi Universal |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS X |
| Release | November 23, 2004 (US), (CA), (AU), (NZ) January 18, 2005 (KR) February 11, 2005 (EU) June 6, 2005 (CN) July 21, 2005 (SG) |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
General information
The game 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 WoW beta test within the first hour. The game was released in China on June 6, 2005. The game won high praise at E³ 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 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 (like Ironforge or Orgrimmar), players continue to experience game performance delays.
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 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 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. [1]
On August 3, 2005, China implemented legislation which forbids minors from playing games in which players kill each other. The impact of this on Blizzard's revenue is still to be determined.
Collector's Edition
Blizzard released two versions of the game upon its launch. One was the regular CD edition, and the other was the limited Collector's Edition. The collector's box contained the following items:
- The entire game on both one DVD and four CDs.
- One-month subscription to the game.
- A guest pass to the game providing ten days of access.
- A Behind the Scenes DVD.
- Collector's Edition Soundtrack.
- Collector's Edition manual.
- The Art of World of Warcraft. (hardcover book)
- A cloth map of Azeroth.
- Exclusive in-game pets (Zergling, Panda or Mini Diablo).
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.
- See also: Warcraft races
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. There are 20 possible combinations of race and class for each faction, for a total of 40.
Template:World of Warcraft classes
Professions
Template:World of Warcraft professions In addition to the character classes, 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 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 the game's auction houses.
Deviance from the MMORPG archetype
Blizzard has used World of Warcraft to make some changes to the typical MMORPG in response to the common 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, players gain similar experience overall from completing quests as by only killing monsters ("grinding"). Many players find grinding uninteresting and opt instead to continue to do quests.
The other system used by Blizzard to help the casual player is the "rested state". While in rested state, a character will earn twice as much experience as would normally be gained from killing monsters, but will gain the standard amount of experience from completing quests and exploring. This feature allows someone who has been away from the game for a period of time to double their leveling capability until they leave 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.
Virtual world
The current 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 the game 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 the virtual world have yet to be implemented. Some examples of this are:
- In Kalimdor: Mount Hyjal (south-west 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 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.
- 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 will lead to the Outlands. It is possible that this portal will be opened when a 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 recently released 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.
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 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 virtually impossible without great organization and good equipment. The recently added Zul'Gurub instance allows for a maximum of 20 people and offers a more casual gameplay experience.
Typically, 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 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).
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, comic strip style storytelling or even recording songs devoted to deleted NPCs such as Captain Placeholder.
Another popular phenomenon in the community is a staged video starring a player named Leeroy Jenkins, intended to provide publicity for Leeroy's guild. Leeroy's popularity is even present in other games, such as Guild Wars, where an NPC named Kilroy Stonekin rushes into battle while yelling his name in a direct reference, and in Adventure Quest, where a direct tribute to Leeroy Jenkins is replayed by players in the Vamprook Spyre.
On some servers and to a lesser extent, YTMND, this has become a popular meme. There are various other memes, including "Face Melting", a reference to a distinctive magic attack often used by the Priest player class when engaged in player versus player combat.
Problems facing the WoW community
As World of Warcraft is a constant work in progress, there are a number of issues affecting it.
- Low population servers: Some World of Warcraft players created characters on servers with medium to low populations. Certain low population servers are experiencing a vast number of players leaving the servers, making it harder for people to find groups, and affecting the in game economy. Blizzard has taken certain measures to alleviate this problem by allowing character transfers on certain servers, but it is still something of a problem. The opposite of this is also true; some servers are too overpopulated and are hard to play on because of server load and long queues to log in.
- Lopsided Horde to Alliance ratio: Many of the servers are becoming out numbered on one faction side or the other. This affects PvP and the quality of gameplay for some players.
- Unbalanced classes: Many people tend to believe that certain classes or races are over or underpowered. Blizzard periodically releases patches which, along with adding features or fixing bugs, also attempt to balance gameplay by updating the class skill trees and spells.
- Long time online required at high level: High level dungeons can take many hours of party finding, strategy discussion and battles.
- As with other online games, server and network stability is critical (World of Warcraft is not playable offline). Due to failures in these, there have been times when the game has been unplayable by a large number of players. For example, in September 2005, Blizzard gave all European players two free days of play as compensation for repeated network failures (Even though the issues were suspected to be Blizzard's upstream Internet service provider) [2].
Operating systems
World of Warcraft runs natively on both Macintosh and Microsoft 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.
As of July 2005, Blizzard has no immediate plans to release a Linux version, but there is an online petition aimed at convincing Blizzard to release a true Linux port. However, support for World of Warcraft is present in Windows API implementations Wine and Cedega, allowing the game to be played on Linux. FreeBSD users have also been successful in using Wine to run the game.
System requirements
The following requirements are as stated on the official World of Warcraft website, but generally players believe that these specifications are too low for the game to be played enjoyably.
- Windows 98/ME/2000/XP:
- 800 MHz or higher CPU
- 256 MB or more of RAM
- 32 MB 3D graphics card with hardware transform and lighting, such as GeForce 2 or better
- 4 GB or more of available hard drive space
- DirectX 9.0c
- 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection
Blizzard allows all users to play together, regardless of their operating system.
Version
As of October 11, 2005, World of Warcraft is operating version 1.8.
Expansion Pack
At 10:34 AM September 16, 2005 Blizzard announced via the in game notice at the World of Warcraft login screen that the long rumored World of Warcraft expansion pack beta will be publicly shown at BlizzCon. To date, all information regarding the pack is speculation, conjecture or wishful thinking.
Modifications
Modifying the graphical user interface (GUI) of a game is nothing new, but Blizzard has included exceptional support for modifications. 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 control Winamp in-game, to adding extra rows of button bars for spells, skills and more. There are also various cosmetic mods, including one that reproduces the infamous 'Leeroy Jenkins' sound [3].
All addons are created using the Lua programming language and XML, and images used for any modification are created using the .TGA (Targa) and .BLP image formats. Blizzard has released a User Interface Customization tool which they call "Cui" [4].
Some programs that operate stand-alone, 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, so 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.
Exploits
As with all massive multiplayer online games, World of Warcraft has had its share of players who exploit the world of Azeroth. Such abuse ranges from gold farming to selling accounts on eBay. One common exploit was the use of leet to communicate between the Horde and the Alliance, since symbols and numbers were left unmodified in otherwise scrambled communications. This has since been stopped by improving the linguistics engine to remove punctuation and numbers from the text.
Known types of exploits
- Speed Hacking/Teleporting/subterrain travel - Since character position in World of Warcraft is determined by the client side, it is possible for players to send out artificial positional data and be instantly transported to any part of the world (even underground) or used to speed up traveling speed by increasing positional deltas.
- Botting - A player who runs a third party program to control their character. The bot will kill monsters, loot gold, mine ore, collect herbs or gain levels automatically without the player having to be in front of the computer.
- Duping - Replicating items or gold
- Game Mechanics Exploits - There are also other exploits involving the physics of the game, sometimes in conjunction with items. This includes using wall-walking to get into unfinished areas or abilities like the Sentry Totem to make one's character unattackable by other players. These exploits are usually not discovered right away and are allowed to be used (though typically thought of as unfair) until stated otherwise by Blizzard.
- Data Mining - This is typically most common around the time that a patch is released on the public test realm. Players will try to access files not yet in game and then host them on websites to expose content not yet released (usually new zones, items, and graphics).
Legality
The World of Warcraft End User License Agreement specifically forbids this kind of activity. Blizzard takes action against anyone who exploits the game by temporarily and permanently suspending accounts. So far, Blizzard has banned well over 10,000 players from the game. Blizzard makes heavy use of a system known as Warden on the Windows version of the game in order to detect third-party programs, such as botting software. There has been some controversy as to the legality of Warden, since it allegedly uses techniques similar to spyware in order to analyse other running software on the players' PCs, as well as the file system. However, software such as anti-virus software loosely falls into this definition as well. Debates regarding the game's EULA as well as the rights of the players continue.
Defenses against banning
Although Blizzard continues to ban players when they are detected as cheating, many players have found ways to escape detection. In particular, Blizzard relies heavily on a technology known as Warden which can detect some botting and cheating programs. However, such anti-cheat software can only follow a set of rules, so there follows a cat and mouse game as the game developers and cheat programmers attempt to circumvent each other.
Major Incidents
Corrupted Blood epidemic
- Main article Corrupted Blood
On September 20, 2005, Blizzard introduced a new instance Zul'Gurub which introduced a debuff Corrupted Blood, which can spread between players. The debuff was intended to exist in the instance only. However, unknown to developers, pets could be infected with it and players brought the infected pet back to town, causing a large-scale epidemic.
Pop culture references
- Main article: Pop culture references in World of Warcraft
There are many in World of Warcraft. Everything from movies, books, music and games are all represented by the developers in some form or another. Be it by names that resemble fictional or living people to weapons that have been used in other games, movies and the like.
Awards
World of Warcraft won critical acclaim in 2004 and achieved many awards as a result of this, some which can be found at the official World of Warcraft list of awards.
Penny Arcade awarded it with the Game of the Year Award for 2004 but rescinded it in January 2005 due to the persistent problems with the game servers soon after the game was launched. It was re-instated in July 2005.
See also
- Locations in the Warcraft Universe
- Races in the Warcraft universe
- List of Warcraft characters
- Pure Pwnage
- BlizzCon
- .BLP and .MPQ - file formats used by Blizzard games
References
External links
Official websites
- The official US World of Warcraft website
- The official EU World of Warcraft website (English version)
Useful resources
- Allakhazam - World of Warcraft database
- Curse Gaming - World of Warcraft UIs (mods)
- The Goblin Workshop - World of Warcraft database
- Thottbot - World of Warcraft database
- World of Warcraft cartography
- World of Warcraft wiki
- World of Warcraft Azzor
Reviews