World of Warcraft
| 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 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a class-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the 5th game in the Warcraft legacy, excluding all expansion packs and including 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.
General information
The game was simultaneously released with much anticipation on November 23, 2004 in North America, Australia and New Zealand, on both PC and Macintosh systems. 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 18th, 2005, it had been found on store shelves since November 2004. The game was released in Europe on February 11th, 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 6th, 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.
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 July 2005, World of Warcraft has more than 3,500,000 players worldwide, making it the most popular MMORPG in the world. 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.
On August 3, 2005, China implemented legislation which forbids minors from playing games in which players kill each other [1]. 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 very 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, 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.
Template:World of Warcraft classes
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 three types: gathering, item creation, and service. Many players choose to pair two related professions (allowing the character to gather the required materials for the crafting skill), such as Mining and Blacksmithing or Alchemy and Herbalism. Some players choose to select only "gathering" professions, opting to simply supply metal, skins or herbs to crafters. This type of player will typically offer gathered items for sale on the game's Auction Houses.
The primary professions are:
- Item gathering:
- Item creation/service:
The secondary professions are:
With World of Warcraft Blizzard has made 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 more experience overall from completing quests than by killing monsters ("grinding") at the early levels. While grinding is still a viable tactic for advancing lower levels, players who choose to quest will progress faster than those who simply kill monsters.
The other device used by Blizzard to help the casual player is the idea of rested experience, rested experience occurs when a player logs out inside a town or inn and accumulates while that player is offline. The longer he or she is offline, the more rested their character becomes. Rested experience is a doubling of the normal experience you would gain from killing mobs and has no effect on the experience you gain from completing quests. This allows someone who is gone from the game for a time to double their leveling capability until they run out of rested experience, giving them a nice little "catch up" incentive upon returning to the game. In order to avoid taking advantage of this however (e.g. creating a new characters and leaving them logged off in an inn while playing another) the amount of rested experience is capped to 1 and 1/2 level's worth (the amount of experience this amounts to varies depending on your character's level).
While clearly owing a debt to earlier MMORPGs, World of Warcraft features a number of design innovations.
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-east of Winterspring), Ahn'qiraj (south of the Scarab Wall in Silithus), and the Caverns of Time (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): Zul'Gurub (east of Stranglethorn Vale) and Medivh's Tower (in Deadwind Pass).
- Several islands named on the map cannot be reached: Kul Tiras, Tol Barad, Zul'Dare, Crestfall, and Sunwell Grove.
- Six portals are present but 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 leads to the Outlands. You must aquire the Book of Medivh that comes from Kel'Thuzad in Naxxaramas Necropolis, above Stratholme. This instance is not yet finished, although you can see the portal near the Baron fight in Undead Stratholme. When this is opened it may be possible to have a powerful Warlock use the Book of Medivh to gain access to the Dark Portal. (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 all connect 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 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.
World of Warcraft also has something called instances. Instances, short for "Instanced Dungeons", are dungeons in which a separate copy of the dungeon is created just for you and small group of players. Most instances allow a maximum of 10 players to be in the same instance. Any time more than 5 people go into an instance the attack is called a raid and slightly different rules apply. As of mid-2005 there are three instances which allow for a maximum of 40 people in the same instance: Onyxia's Lair, The Molten Core, and Blackwing Lair. These are the toughest areas in the game and success in these three instances is hardly possible without great organization and good equipment. The upcoming Zul'Gurub will allow for a maximum of 20 people, and will offer a new casual style of instance gameplay.
And, as with any game, it has its own terminology.
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.
Another popular phenomenon in the community is a video starring a player named Leeroy Jenkins, a staged video intended to provide publicity for Leeroy's guild. On some servers and to a lesser extent, YTMND, this has become a popular meme.
As World of Warcraft's popularity increases, so does the controversial issue of game addiction. Like EverQuest, several support groups have been created to serve the growing community of gamer widows. 2005 saw the advent of WoW Widows a yahoo email support group, and GamerWidow.com, a site devoted to the support of Gamer Widows that includes an RSS News feed and a message board with active participants.
Operating systems
World of Warcraft runs natively on both Macintosh and Microsoft Windows systems. 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.
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 playable.
- 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
- Mac OS X 10.3.5:
- 933 MHz or higher G4 or G5 processor
- 512 MB RAM or higher; DDR RAM recommended
- ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more
- 4 GB or more of available hard drive space
- MacOS X 10.3.5 or newer
- 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection
Blizzard allows all users to play together, regardless of their operating system.
Version
As of August 1, 2005, World of Warcraft is operating version 1.6.1.
Patch 1.6.0 introduced a multitude of fixes and updates to the game as well as some content additions: Blackwing Lair, the home of the powerful and scheming dragon named Nefarian; the Darkmoon Faire, a new traveling faire between Elwynn Forest and Mulgore that promises mysterious and wonderful items and experiences for players in Azeroth; and Battlemasters in each city to allow easier entrance into Battlegrounds, which were introduced in patch 1.5.0.
See also: World of Warcraft version history
Modifications
Modifying the user interface (UI) of a game is nothing new, but Blizzard has done something new with the concept. Not only can you change the setup for your buttons, you can also create macros and build entirely new sets of tools that help you along as you venture in the world of Azeroth.
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 useless but harmless ones like the "Leeroy Jenkins" mod.
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" [2].
There is also a possibility that UIs can be used to Exploit the game. These should be avoided at all costs, as they can lead to your account being temporarily and sometimes permanently suspended. To ease the concern to mod makers, Blizzard has said on the 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 dishonest players who cheat and exploit the world of Azeroth. Such abuse ranges from gold farming to actually selling accounts on eBay. Up until recently, 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 munged communications. This has since been stopped by improving the linguistics engine to remove punctuation and numbers from the text, and now results cross-faction with the message "[Player] makes some strange gestures."
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 artifical 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.
Awards
- Penny Arcade Game of the Year Award 2004
- This award was rescinded 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.
- 2005 Game Developers Choice Awards
- Excellence in Visual Arts
- Official World of Warcraft Website - List of Awards
External links
Official websites
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 War Cartography
Reviews
Wikis
- WoWwiki.com - A Wiki dedicated to World of Warcraft.