World of Warcraft

"WoW" redirects here. For other uses, see Wow.

World of Warcraft
File:WoW Box Art1.jpg
Developer(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Vivendi Universal
Designer(s)	Rob Pardo Jeff Kaplan Tom Chilton
Platform(s)	Mac OS X, Windows
Release	November 23, 2004 January 18, 2005 February 11, 2005 June 6, 2005 July 21, 2005 November 8, 2005 August 1, 2006
Genre(s)	Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

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The first official expansion pack of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. Blizzard announced a second expansion pack called Wrath of the Lich King on August 3, 2007. The release date of Wrath of the Lich King has not yet been announced.

WoW has become increasingly referenced in popular culture as a result of the game's popularity. Notable examples include the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" and the Louisville World Series of Video Games competition in which World of Warcraft was a featured game. WoW itself also contains references to pop culture within the game. The popularity of the game has also led to a board game and a collectible card game based on WoW.

Gameplay

Unlike previous games in the Warcraft series, World of Warcraft is not a real-time strategy game, but a MMORPG. As with other MMORPGs, players control a character avatar within a persistent game world, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, and interacting with NPCs as well as other players. The game rewards success with money, items, and experience, which in turn allow players to improve their skill and power. Players can level their characters from level one up to level 60, level 70 if they have The Burning Crusade expansion (released on January 16 2007), or level 80 if they have the yet to be released Wrath of the Lich King expansion. In addition, players may opt to take part in battles against other players of an enemy faction, in PvP battlegrounds or in normal world zones subject to the rules in place on the particular server. Duels can also be fought between members of the same or opposing factions, although these do not provide tangible rewards. Many players also choose to join guilds in order to conduct raids against enemy territory and instances.

Characters

Races

Main article: Races in the Warcraft universe

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 (two more are introduced in the expansion). The races are split into two diametrically opposed factions, the Alliance and the Horde.

• The Alliance currently consists of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Draenei. (Draenei characters require The Burning Crusade expansion in order to be created.)
• The Horde currently consists of Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls and Blood Elves. (Blood Elf characters require The Burning Crusade expansion in order to be created.)

In addition to the ten playable races there are many NPC races including (but not limited to) Goblins, Ogres, Murlocs, and Naga.

Classes

The game has nine character classes that a player can choose from. Some class restrictions are imposed based on race, so not all classes are available for each race. Each class has a set of unique abilities and talents. Abilities are general skills and spells available to the entire class, while talents allow players to specialize their character and further refine their role. Each class has a set of three talent trees from which a player may choose. Players may choose to build their talent trees for damage-dealing (also called damage-per-second, DPS), healing, tanking, or even a mix of these, called a "hybrid class". Some classes are able to perform different roles depending on the group's needs.

The nine available classes in World of Warcraft are:

• Druid: Hybrid class. A nature-oriented class capable of fulfilling the role of a damage dealer, a tank, or a healer. The druid can shapeshift into many animal/nature forms: a bear (for tanking), a panther or lion (for melee damage), a "moonkin" (for ranged magical damage), a cheetah (high-speed land travel), a seal (water travel), and a "Tree of Life" (for healing).
• Hunter: Damage class. A combination of a marksman/archer and animal specialist, the hunter specializes in ranged damage dealt by means of a bow, crossbow, or gun with the help of an animal pet. The hunter also employs a series of traps for damaging or disabling enemies.
• Mage: Damage class. The wizard-esque damage dealer of World of Warcraft, the mage employs spells of the "arcane," fire, and frost elements. The mage can also notably conjure food and water to replenish group members.
• Paladin: Hybrid class. A heavily-armored holy warrior that serves primarily as a durable combat healer. Like the druid, paladins can specialize to fulfill each of the three major roles in World of Warcraft. (See also: Paladin (character class).)
• Priest: Healer/damage class. A lightly-armored class that typically either represents the forces of "good" (as a "Holy Priest") or evil (as a "Shadow Priest"), becoming a healer or damage dealer through each type of "faith" respectively.
• Rogue: Damage class. The rogue is World of Warcraft's shadowy, assassin class that can "stealth" to avoid being seen by enemies (providing near-invisibility). The rogue deals damage by dual-wielding daggers, swords, or "maces" (blunt melee weapons—typically in the form of war hammers).
• Shaman: Hybrid class. Unlike other hybrid classes (Paladins and Druids), the totem-wielding shaman's tanking abilities are quite limited. However, appropriately equipped shamans can do more melee damage than paladins or more spell damage than druids.
• Warlock: Damage class. The warlock is, in essence, a sinister combination of the mage and the hunter in that warlocks deal magical damage like a mage but also have demonic "pets" (called minions) like hunters. Though a spell-caster like the mage, the warlock's damaging spells come chiefly in the form of so-called "damage over time" spells that, after being placed on an enemy, slowly deal their damage, rather than hitting the opponent all at once as a mage's do.
• Warrior: Tank/damage class.World of Warcraft's most heavily-armored class, the warrior is a general melee fighter who can use any non-magical weapon in the game and who can specialize to be either a damage dealer or a tank.

The Paladin class was previously only available to the Alliance, and the Shaman only available to the Horde. Now, with the release of The Burning Crusade, the Draenei (Alliance) are able to be Shamans and the Blood Elves (Horde) are able to be Paladins, removing the previous faction exclusivity. In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, a tenth class known as the Death Knight will be added, which will also be the game's first Hero class.

Character types

There are two types of characters in the game: Player Characters (PC) and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). A Player Character is a player's avatar in the world of Azeroth. The color of a PC's name tag can be blue, green, yellow or red depending on faction and Player vs. Player (PvP) status. Non-Player Characters are AI-controlled characters that can only interact with PCs through scripted events or artificial intelligence (AI).

There are three types of NPCs. Friendly NPCs, whose names are displayed in green, cannot attack friendly characters and vice versa. Hostile NPCs, whose names are in red, are either of the opposing faction or are mobs (enemies controlled by AI) and will freely attack any PC with whom they are hostile. Neutral NPCs, whose names are displayed in yellow, are neutral and will only attack if provoked. Some NPC interaction is affected by the reputation a PC has with them.

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

Professions

During the course of playing the game, players may choose to develop side skills for their character(s). These non-combat skills are called professions. Professions are divided into two categories, primary and secondary.

Primary professions are skills related to the creation and enhancement of weapons and armor, and can be subdivided into gathering and crafting professions. The gathering professions in WoW are Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning. Crafting professions include Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Alchemy, Engineering, Enchanting, Jewelcrafting (added in The Burning Crusade expansion), and Inscription (to be added in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion). Crafting professions also have specialization categories that when trained, allow for more diverse items to be created, depending on the character's direction in the game. There is also the Enchanting profession, which allows a character to enchant weapons and armor, and also disenchant magical items in his or her possession. A character is limited to two primary professions.

Secondary professions are skills that serve to enhance the player's experience. The secondary professions are First Aid, Cooking and Fishing. Characters can learn all three Secondary professions. The Rogue class has two unique secondary professions: Poisons and Lock Picking.

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 armor, either to customize their character or improve abilities such as better attacks or defense skills. Item rarity is classified by the color of the item name: grey means "poor" (otherwise known as "vendor trash"), white means "common", green means "uncommon", blue means "rare", purple means "epic" and orange means "legendary".

Mounts

A mount refers to an item that, upon activation, depicts the character as riding a mount, as opposed to the normal movement of walking/running. Characters of certain levels and skill ability can acquire these mounts in order to increase their movement speed on land. Mounts can also be acquired via reputation with certain factions, completion of quests, or through special items produced in related material or as very rare loot drops obtained by defeating bosses in instances. In the expansion pack The Burning Crusade, the ability to purchase or acquire flying mounts became available in the expansion areas.

PvP rankings

Upon defeating another player of the opposite faction in a PvP combat the victor earns "Honor Points" which may be spent as currency to purchase various rewards like armor, weapons and mounts. Some rewards require marks of honor from various Battlegrounds as well (a loss in a battleground awards the losing team 1 mark, while a victory awards the winning team 3). A recently added PvP activity, "Arenas" offer gladiator-like combat in a World of Warcraft setting. The Arenas have a separate system from the Battlegrounds. Instead of honor, the Arenas give "Arena Points" which can be spent to purchase items just like Honor Points. There are also "Arena seasons" where, at the end of each season, the best Arena teams in each category(2v2, 3v3 and 5v5) are awarded unique Epic or Legendary quality items. Only level 70 players can participate in rated arena matches. Lower level players can always participate in arenas but no arena points are awarded.

Players can also be rewarded with titles in the Arenas if they belong to one of the top teams at the end of an Arena season. These ranks are (from highest to lowest) Gladiator, Duelist, Rival and Challenger.

With the release of version 2.0, a change was made to the honor system making it easier to obtain certain powerful items. This change was met with mixed reactions. Some criticized the change, claiming that the huge dedication in time and effort that players put forth under the old system had now been cheapened. Others, however, welcomed the change, since they felt the massive amount of time required under the old system was excessive and unhealthy, and was unreasonable for most people with jobs and other responsibilities.

As of March 2007, Blizzard added "The Armory" to their web site. The Armory allows everyone to view any WoW player's character sheet, reputation, skills, talents, arena teams and guild information. Only players of level 10 or greater are displayed in the Armory. It also allows the ability to look up even more detailed information about any guild from any server in addition to any item in the game.

Reputation

The reputation system is complex and can have direct impact on character advancement. In World of Warcraft, there are many groups of NPCs known as "factions" (two of the most notable being the Alliance and the Horde). Characters' reputation with a faction can be increased or decreased by killing certain mobs or handing in items to certain NPCs. Higher reputation can grant many benefits to characters including reduced prices from vendors, the ability to purchase unique items including specialized mounts, and expanded access to certain areas of the game.

However, characters cannot gain reputation with opposing factions, so a Horde character cannot gain reputation with any Alliance-only faction and vice versa. There are also diametrically opposed factions in which gaining reputation with one will result in loss of reputation with another.

World

Geography

See also: List of major cities in World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft Cosmic Map (Including 'Outland')

The current virtual world consists of two planets; Azeroth and Draenor (a.k.a Outland). Azeroth consists of two main continents, the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor; Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles, are located northwest of Kalimdor; and Teldrassil, which is also located to the northwest of Kalimdor.

Kalimdor contains the starting areas for the Horde races of the Orcs, Trolls, and Tauren. The Alliance Night Elves and Draenei both begin in areas off the coast of Kalimdor (Teldrassil and Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles respectively), but move to the mainland fairly early. The Eastern Kingdoms contain the beginning areas for the Horde races of the Undead and Blood Elves as well as the Alliance races of the Humans, Dwarves, and Gnomes.

Draenor, added with the release of The Burning Crusade, is only accessible to those who have purchased and activated the expansion pack. It is reached through the Dark Portal in the south of the Eastern Kingdoms or through in-game teleportation. Draenor was the original home of the Orcs and was also inhabited by the Draenei for over 200 years.

The Wrath of the Lich King expansion will add the continent of Northrend in the northern region of Azeroth and will be available exclusively to those players who purchase and activate that expansion pack.

Instances

Instances, also known as instance dungeons or simply "dungeons", are areas where multiple copies of the same area can exist concurrently. This means that multiple groups can both be doing the same activities in the same location, yet not interfere with one another.

"Instance" can also refer to a particular copy of such an area. Other areas, such as battlegrounds, are also instances, enabling multiple groups of players to participate at the same time.

Major in-game events

For a time, it was argued that dynamic world-changing events were in extremely short supply in WoW. There was an overall feeling that the ongoing "wars" from which the game takes its name were external and out of touch from the player base. 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.

Blizzard has also implemented holiday content that could be considered a world event. Valentine's Day, Easter, Independence Day, Oktoberfest, 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). Other major world events include the Darkmoon Faire, the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, the Scourge Invasion, and the opening of the Dark Portal which signaled the beginning of The Burning Crusade expansion, along with other less notable events.

Voice chat

As of Patch 2.2.0, Blizzard has introduced an in-game voice chat feature. The program is designed to replace text chat more efficiently and provide voice chat to more players. Channels are set for various things such as groups, instances, raids, battlegrounds and general zones. Players may also join, create and moderate their own channels. Players may enable the program through their sound options, which means that no third-party programs are needed, reducing computer usage and game latency. The program features "push-to-talk" and "voice activated" features to the players' preference. Upon the release of patch 2.2.0, the feature was only enabled among certain servers, with a planned and gradual roll out, for load testing, to the rest of the servers.

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. There are four types of realms: Normal (also known as PvE or player versus environment), PvP (player versus player), RP (a roleplaying Normal/PvE server) and RP-PvP (roleplaying PvP server). The latter two enforce a set of roleplaying rules - players can be penalized for not roleplaying.

Characters can be moved between realms in the same region (e.g., from one European server to another, but not from a European server to an American one) for a fee. As of this time, one may move a character from a Player Versus Player (PvP) realm to another PvP realm, or a Player Versus Environment (PvE) realm, but one may not move a character from a PvE realm to a PvP realm.

Blizzard posts announcements on the login screen of World of Warcraft and on the official forums 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 (also known as Normal) realms throughout most of the world the PvP flag may only be enabled by actively turning it on, attacking a PvP-flagged player or NPC, entering a "PvP Territory" (such as a Battleground), entering an "Enemy Territory" (an enemy faction Capital City) or casting a positive spell on a friendly PvP-flagged player or NPC. The PvP flag will be removed after 5 minutes from the last PvP action. If the PvP flag was enabled using the command the player will need to turn it off using the same command and then avoid PvP combat for 5 minutes.

• Player versus Player (PvP)

On a PvP realm, players are flagged for PvP by default. This flag is only disabled when a character is in a friendly faction city or a zone dedicated to newly created characters. All other zones are considered "contested territory" - players are automatically flagged for PvP upon entering a contested zone. Most players will not need to enter a contested zone until roughly level 20.

On PvP servers, a player is limited to creating characters on one faction. This is in contrast to PvE servers, where a player may create both Horde and Alliance characters.

The PvP servers also feature a more "hands-off" approach to server policies, facilitating the state of open war in these servers. Thus, The in-game GMs will deal with PvP related offenses differently than on the PvE realms, and some player actions are allowed to occur. These actions include, but are not limited to, corpse camping, ganking, and other PvP related sections of Blizzard's harassment policy.

• Roleplaying (RP)

The roleplaying servers use the same ruleset as PvE realms, with the exception that players must act and behave in character, and must follow "naming rules" when they name their character. This means that if players go onto one of these realms, those players act as their characters and anything that is not said in character is then out of character and usually in ((double parentheses)), or preceded by "OOC:". It is also against the rules to be off-topic in all public channels, such as General and Trade. However, out of character chat is not uncommon on RP servers, though usually not in such a blatant manner as on non-RP servers.

• Role-playing Player versus Player (RPPvP)

The role-playing PvP realms are an extension to the role-playing realms in that they use the PvP ruleset instead of the Normal (PvE) ruleset. Blizzard did not initially have this server type when the game was launched; it was added later, largely due to player request.

• Public Test Realm

The public test realm is a separate realm for testing new content patches when needed. Players must register each character individually into the test realm, which creates an "instance" of the character in the test realm. The player must download the test realm client to play in this realm. Changes made in the test realm do not affect the original character but a "copy" of the character.

Version history

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.

Although there is no official version for any other platform, support for World of Warcraft is present in Windows API implementations Wine and Cedega, allowing the game to be played under Linux and FreeBSD.

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 defined by Apple). 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.

Due to the fact that new content is constantly being added to the game official system requirements often change. As of version 1.12.0 the requirements for Windows have increased from requiring 256 MB to 512 MB of RAM and official Windows 98 technical support has been dropped even though the game should still run fine.

Pricing

File:ExWoW2.jpg

The current login screen, as of the release of the Burning Crusade

World of Warcraft is priced differently in different regions of the world. Usually, the pricing model is similar to that of MMORPGs previously released in the market.

In the United States and Canada, Blizzard distributes World of Warcraft via retail software packages that originally had a suggested retail price of US$50 at the time of release, but have since dropped to around $20. The software package includes 30 days of gameplay (worth $15) for no additional cost. After 30 days in order to continue playing additional play time must be purchased using a credit card or prepaid game card. The minimum gameplay duration that a player can purchase is 30 days using a credit card, 60 using a prepaid game card. A player also has the option of purchasing three or six months of gameplay at once for a slight (6% to 15%) discount. A player pays about US$0.50 for one day of gameplay.

In South Korea, there is no software package or CD key requirement to activate the account. In order to play the game, however, players need to purchase time credits online via credit card or the ARS billing system. The minimum gameplay duration that a player can purchase via credit card is five hours. A player may also purchase game time by thirty hours or by increments of one week. A player also has the option of purchasing game time by one, three or six months of gameplay at once for a slight discount. As of December 17 2006, 30 days of gameplay costs ₩19,800 (US$21.46).

In China, because a large number of the players do not own the computer they use to play games (e.g. Internet cafes), the CD keys can be purchased independently of the software package. The CD key, which is required to activate an account, is sold for ¥30 (US$3.75) each. The software packages vary in price depending on the items they contain. In order to play the game, the player would need to purchase prepaid game cards in denominations of ¥30 each that can be played for 66 hours and 40 minutes. This equates to exactly ¥0.45 (US$0.06) for one hour of gameplay. A monthly fee model is not available to players of this region.

In Australia, the United States and many European countries video game stores commonly stock the trial version of World of Warcraft in DVD form priced at A$2 or €2 including VAT, which include the game and 14 days of gameplay, after which the player would have to upgrade to a retail account by supplying a valid credit card, or purchasing a game card as well as a retail copy of the game.

	Suggested Retail Price	Monthly Fee	Paid Character Transfer Fee
Europe	€19.99	€11-€13	€19.99
United Kingdom	£14.99	£7.70-£9	£14.99
North America Oceania	US$20	$13-$15	$25

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 and comic strip style storytelling. 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 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," 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 are machinima videos such as the one starring a player named Leeroy Jenkins, showing him and his guild in a funny encounter. Leeroy's popularity inspired more videos and 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!. These memes gain notoriety through postings on the World of Warcraft Forums.

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.

Modifications

A heavily modified World of Warcraft user interface

World of Warcraft includes significant support for modifications to the user interface (UI) of a game, colloquially known as "mods" and "addons". 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 trade skills, 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.

As of the 2.0 release of World of Warcraft, certain modifications and "Addons" no longer function the way they were intended by the addon designer, as the way that an addon interacts with the game has been changed. This has forced all addons pre-2.0 to have to be rewritten. This is such a drastic change to the addons that all players must now download new copies of the addon that they were using. More information on this topic is available in this forum post.

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 UI modders. However, Blizzard is unable to endorse or provide support for third party interfaces due to issues that may be caused by them.

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.

Corrupted Blood plague incident

Main article: Corrupted Blood

The Corrupted Blood Plague incident 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 Hakkar, 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 or warlock 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. Eventually Blizzard fixed the issue so that the plague could not exist outside of Zul'Gurub.

The corrupted blood plague so closely resembled the outbreak of real-world epidemics that scientists are currently looking at ways MMORPGs or other massively-distributed systems can model human behavior during outbreaks. The reaction of players to the plague closely resembled previously hard-to-model aspects of human behavior that may allow researchers to more accurately predict how diseases and outbreaks spread amongst a population .

Reception

Although its initial release was hampered by overpopulated servers, the game became a financial success. On July 24 2007, Blizzard announced that the user base for World of Warcraft had reached a new milestone, with 9 million players worldwide. There are more than 2 million players in North America, 1.5 million players in Europe and 3.5 million players in China as of January, 2007 and as of August, 2007; the game has over 8 million subscribers worldwide. The game has been consistently ranked as one of the best by review sites and has won numerous awards, including GameSpot's Game of the Year Award for 2004 and IGNs Editor's Choice Award.

Controversy and criticism

Main article: Criticism of World of Warcraft

Although widely popular with 9 million players, World of Warcraft has received a fair amount of criticism. Stories of game addiction are a common source of criticism. In June 2005 it was reported that a child had died due to neglect by her World of Warcraft-addicted parents in Korea. In August of that year, the government of the People's Republic of China proposed new rules to curb what they perceived to be social and financial costs brought on by the popularity of games such as World of Warcraft. The measure would enforce a time limit on China's estimated total of 20 million gamers. The Chinese government and The9, the licensee for World of Warcraft in China, have likewise imposed a modification on Chinese versions of the game which places flesh on bare-boned skeletons and transforms dead character corpses into tidy graves. These changes were done as a result of the Chinese government seeing it highly due to attempt to "promote a healthy and harmonious online game environment" in World of Warcraft.

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." The 40% 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." Also, according to Dr. John Grohol, a colleague of Orzack's, "Dr. Orzack is not claiming that up to 40 percent of World 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."

After Blizzard started offering free trial gameplay accounts, players started receiving increasing numbers of spam sent by bots in the virtual mailboxes of their characters, advertising virtual gold, honor, and experience selling services. One study shows that this problem is particularly prevalent on the European realms. In patch 2.1, Blizzard responded to this by adding additional anti-spam mechanics including whisper throttling, and the report spam function.

A Beijing-based software company has filed a lawsuit against the creator of the "World of Warcraft" and the game's local operator for allegedly using its Chinese character fonts illegally.

A gentleman appeared on the Tyra Banks show, where his wife complained the WoW destroyed their lives. Tyra then shredded the disc. at no time during the segment did Tyra or the supposed experts mention the possibility of a obsessive compulsive disorder, instead WoW was blamed and the shredding of the WoW disk apparently was suppose to cure the individual. Ms. Banks was criticized afterwards for sensationalism, and attempting to practice counseling without a license.

Film adaptation

In May 2006, production company Legendary Pictures acquired film rights to adapt Warcraft for the big screen with the game's publisher, Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard had originally considered hiring a scribe for the film adaptation before teaming up with Legendary Pictures. The companies plan to create a film that would not follow one specific Warcraft games' storyline, but would still take place in the fantasy universe. According to Blizzard's Chief Operating Officer Paul Sams, the film's budget would be over $100 million.

In June 2007, Legendary Pictures chairman Thomas Tull said that the studio was working closely with Blizzard's designers and writers to adapt World of Warcraft. Tull explained the desire to have a good story for the film adaptation, "I think some of the stuff that makes a game translate well... if there's a lore, if there's a road and story and a world that's been created, and characters that are interesting in a way that's more than just point and shoot." World of Warcraft's lead designer Rob Pardo expressed interest in being able to adapt the intellectual property of World of Warcraft to the appropriate medium of the film. He also added that the designers were collaborating with Legendary Pictures on story and script development.

In August 2007, at BlizzCon, it was unveiled that the film will aim for a projected 2009 release. It was also revealed that the movie will take place from an Alliance perspective and will be geared towards a PG-13 audience, with a storyline set one year before the beginning of the World of Warcraft. As of this time no director or cast are yet associated. Thomas Tull stated that, "It’s not so much a quest movie. It’s more of a war movie."

See also

Related topics

• BlizzCon
• Corrupted Blood
• Leeroy Jenkins, a popular WoW meme
• Gold farming

Game technology

• .BLP, .DBC, and .MPQ file formats
• Glider, a MMORPG bot

WoW in other media

• Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game
• World of Warcraft: The Board Game
• World of Warcraft Soundtrack
• World of Warcraft Trading Card Game

Warcraft universe

• List of Warcraft characters
• List of Warcraft locations
• List of Warcraft races

External links

Official websites

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

Useful information

• Allakhazam
• Thottbot
• Wowhead
• World of War
• World of Warcraft Vault
• WoWWiki

Modification Info

• Curse
• WoWInterface
• ui.worldofwar.net
• Official Interface Customization forum

Other sites

• World of Warcraft review listings on Metacritic
• Template:Dmoz