World of Warcraft Profile
World of Warcraft
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s) Vivendi Universal
Designer(s) Rob Pardo Jeff Kaplan Tom Chilton
Version US: 2.3.3, 2008-01-22 EU: 2.3.3, 2008-01-23
Platform(s) Mac OS X, Windows
Release date NA, AUS November 23, 2004 EU February 11, 2005 Genre(s) Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s)
Multiplayer
Rating(s)
ESRB: T (Teen)
PEGI: 12+
OFLC: E
USK: 12
Media
CD (4) or (5 for the game of the year edition), DVD (1), Download
System requirements
Windows
Windows 2000, Windows Vista or Windows XP 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 4× CD-ROM drive 56 kbit/s or faster 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 4× CD-ROM drive 56 kbit/s or faster Internet connection
Input method(s) Keyboard, mouse
World of Warcraft (commonly known as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It is Blizzard Entertainment's fourth game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. The first official expansion pack of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. During the 2007 Blizzcon event, 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.
Contents
1 Gameplay
1.1 Characters
1.1.1 Classes 1.1.2 Professions 1.1.3 Items and equipment 1.1.4 Mounts 1.1.5 PvP rankings 1.1.6 Reputation
1.2 Realms 1.3 Voice chat
2 Setting
2.1 Geography 2.2 Instances 2.3 Major in-game events 2.4 Corrupted Blood plague incident
3 Development 4 Version history 5 Pricing 6 Virtual community
6.1 Modifications
7 Reception 8 Controversy and criticism
8.1 Game addiction 8.2 Spam problems
9 Impact on popular culture
9.1 Film adaptation
11 References 12 External links
Gameplay Unlike previous games in the Warcraft series, World of Warcraft is a MMORPG, not a real-time strategy game. As with other MMORPGs, people control a character avatar within a persistent game world, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, performing quests, building skills, and interacting with NPCs as well as other players. The game rewards success with money, items, experience and reputation, which in turn allow players to improve their skill and power. Players can level up their characters from level one 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 territories and instances.
Characters There are two types of characters in the game: Player Characters (PCs, or simply "characters") and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). A Player Character is an avatar in the world of Azeroth that is controlled by a player. 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 controlled by the game software and 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. When creating a character in World of Warcraft, the player can choose from ten different races in two factions: Alliance and Horde. Race determines the character's appearance, starting location, and initial skill set, called "racial traits".
The Alliance currently consists of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Draenei. The Horde currently consists of Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls and Blood Elves.
Draenei and Blood Elf characters were introduced in The Burning Crusade, and require that 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, though 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. Depending on class, players may choose to build their character's talent trees for damage-dealing (also called damage-per-second, DPS), healing, tanking, or a mix of these. The nine available classes in World of Warcraft are:
Druid: Hybrid class. A nature-oriented class capable of fulfilling the role of damage-dealer, tank, or healer. The druid can shape-shift into many forms to increase its combat or movement abilities, such as a bear (for tanking), a "moonkin" (for ranged magical damage), a cat lion for horde, panther for alliance, (for rogue like attacks, See Rogue class) and a seal (for water travel). 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. Mages can also conjure food and water to replenish group members, and teleport themselves and others to most major cities. Priest: Healer/damage class. A lightly-armored class that can protect and heal allies (with "Holy" spells) or bring harm to enemies (with "Shadow" spells). Rogue: Damage class. A shadowy assassin that can "stealth" to avoid being seen by enemies (providing near-invisibility). The rogue deals damage by dual-wielding small melee weapons, and also provides traditional thief skills like lockpicking, picking pockets, and poison use. Shaman: Hybrid class. Unlike other hybrid classes (paladins and druids), the totem-wielding shaman's tanking abilities are quite limited. However, they can specialize to become effective healers, or damage dealers using either melee weapons or spells. Warlock: Damage class. Essentially a sinister combination of the mage and the hunter, the warlock deals magical damage like a mage but also has demonic "pets" (called minions) like hunters. Depending on their specialization, the warlock's damaging spells can come chiefly in the form of "damage over time" spells that, after being placed on an enemy, slowly deal their damage, or in the form of direct damage spells that deal damage all at once, as those of a mage or shaman do. Warrior: Tank/damage class. A 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.
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 to 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 or spell that, upon activation, summons a mount. Once summoned it shows the character riding atop the mount until the spell/item is dispelled or cancelled. 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, through special items produced via professions, 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 player versus player (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. Only level 70 players can participate in rated arena matches. Lower level players can always participate in arenas but no arena points are awarded. There are also "Arena seasons" where, at the end of each season, the best Arena teams in each category (2v2, 3v3 and 5v5) are rewarded with titles - from highest to lowest these ranks are 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 character's statistics, reputation, skills, talents, arena teams and guild information. Only characters 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". The two primary factions are the Alliance and the Horde, and each one features a large number of sub-factions primarily based on race and geographic location. Characters' reputation with a faction can be increased or decreased by killing certain mobs, completing quests, 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.
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. 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. Users may have up to ten characters per realm and up to a maximum of fifty characters per account. 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. Blizzard posts announcements on the login screen of World of Warcraft and on the official forums about realm status or other technical issues. The status for each realm can also be viewed on their main website.
Normal
On the Normal (also know as PvE, Player versus Environment) realms throughout most of the world players cannot attack or be attacked by each other, except by actively enabling the character's PvP flag, attacking a PvP-flagged character, entering a "PvP Territory" (such as a Battleground) or an enemy faction Capital City, or casting a positive spell on a friendly PvP-flagged character. 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.
PVP (Player versus Player)
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" where players are automatically flagged for PvP upon entering. 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 characters from both factions. 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.
RP (Roleplaying)
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. On these realms, players act and speak as their characters would, and anything said out of character is usually preceded by "OOC:" or presented in ((double parentheses)). 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.
RP-PvP (Roleplaying Player versus Player)
The roleplaying PvP realms are an extension to the role-playing realms that 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.
Public Test Realm
A Public Test Realm, also called a Test Server, is used to test features in development for the next patch. Players can copy a character to the Test Realm or can sometimes copy a premade character. Players on test realms may encounter character wipes, item wipes, or frequent downtime to make changes or apply patches.
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. The program features "push-to-talk" and "voice activated" modes to conform to the players' preference.
Setting
Geography
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. Located to the northwest of Kalimdor are the Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles, and Teldrassil. Kalimdor contains the starting areas for the Orc, Troll, and Tauren races of the Horde. The Night Elves and Draenei of the Alliance 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 Undead and Blood Elves of the Horde, as well as the Humans, Dwarves and Gnomes of the Alliance. 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 In an effort to further players' enjoyment and create common goals for large groups to accomplish, game developers began to add World Events into the game. The first world events were outdoor raid bosses that could be challenged 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 (a parody of the Grinch) and rescuing a kidnapped reindeer named Metzen (styled after lead designer, Chris Metzen). Some world events are designed to repeat themselves on a regular basis such as the Darkmoon Faire. Others have been a one-time event that marked a large change in the in-game world like 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.
Corrupted Blood plague incident 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 close 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 .
Development World of Warcraft was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001.
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 continued to run fine
Pricing
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. In order to continue playing after the initial 30 days, 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, or 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 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," 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.
Reception Although its initial release was hampered by overpopulated servers, World of Warcraft was the best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006.
Controversy and criticism
Main article: Criticism of World of Warcraft
WoW is often criticized for a number of reasons.
Game addiction 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. 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."
Spam problems 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. In patch 2.1, Blizzard responded to this by adding additional anti-spam mechanics including whisper throttling, and the report spam function. However, this may be countered by creating more accounts and characters.
Impact on popular culture WoW has become increasingly referenced in popular culture as a result of the game's popularity. One example is the Emmy Award winning South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft." In late 2007, a series of television commercials for the game began airing featuring pop culture celebrities such as Mr. T, William Shatner, and Verne Troyer discussing the virtues of the character classes they play in the game. WoW has inspired a board game produced by Fantasy Flight Games, as well as a trading card game produced by Upper Deck Entertainment. In November 2007, DC Comics published the first issue of the ongoing World of Warcraft comic under their Wildstorm imprint.
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. 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." 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 storyline. As of this time no director or cast are yet associated with its development. Thomas Tull stated that, "It’s not so much a quest movie. It’s more of a war movie."
BlizzCon Corrupted Blood Leeroy Jenkins, a popular WoW meme Gold farming Warcraft universe .BLP, .DBC, and .MPQ file formats
WoW in other media
Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game World of Warcraft: The Board Game World of Warcraft Soundtrack World of Warcraft Trading Card Game
References
^ Blizzard Entertainment announces World Of Warcraft European street date – February 11, 2005. Blizzard Entertainment (2005-02-02). Retrieved on 2007-02-09.
External links
Official websites
The official US World of Warcraft website The official EU World of Warcraft website
Information for players
Allakhazam Thottbot Wowhead World of War World of Warcraft Vault World of Warcraft at WoWWiki, a World of Warcraft wiki WoW Insider - blog
Modification Info
Curse WoWInterface ui.worldofwar.net Official Interface Customization forum
Other sites
World of Warcraft at the Open Directory Project World of Warcraft in the Yahoo! Directory
v • d • e
Video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment
Diablo series Diablo · Diablo II (Lord of Destruction)
Racing series RPM Racing · Rock N' Roll Racing
StarCraft series StarCraft (Brood War) · StarCraft II · StarCraft: Ghost
Warcraft series Warcraft · Warcraft II (Beyond the Dark Portal) · Warcraft III (The Frozen Throne) World of Warcraft (The Burning Crusade · Wrath of the Lich King)
Other games Blackthorne · Lost Vikings · Death and Return of Superman · Justice League Task Force
v • d • e
Warcraft universe
Games Warcraft: Orcs & Humans · Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness · Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos · World of Warcraft
Books Day of the Dragon · Night of the Dragon · Lord of the Clans · Of Blood and Honor · The Last Guardian · War of the Ancients Trilogy · The Sunwell Trilogy · Cycle of Hatred · Rise of the Horde · Tides of Darkness
Professional Competition 2006 e-Sports World Champions · Korean WarCraft III Championships · Korean WarCraft III Rankings · Warcraft III World Championships
Professional Players Dae Hui Cho · Jung Hee Chun · Bertrand Grospellier · Jang Jae Ho · Fredrik Johansson (electronic sports player) · Yoan Merlo · Manuel Schenkhuizen · Li Xiaofeng
Other Defense of the Ancients · JASS · MDX (file format)
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World of Warcraft
Games World of Warcraft · World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade · World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Books Cycle of Hatred · Rise of the Horde · Tides of Darkness
Other Media World of Warcraft: The Board Game · World of Warcraft Soundtrack · World of Warcraft Trading Card Game
Software Blizzard Downloader · Thottbot · Warden (software) · World of Warcraft Launcher
Culture Warcraft universe · Corrupted Blood · Criticism of World of Warcraft · Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth · Leeroy Jenkins · Make Love, Not Warcraft
Top 5 Search Results
World of Warcraft Official community site for World of Warcraft, the online role-playing game set in the Warcraft universe. Includes latest news, videos, screenshots, upcoming in-game events, and community forums.
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Official site for the first expansion to World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade features a level cap raised to 70, two new playable races, a new continent called Outland, a new profession of Jewelcrafting, and more.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Arthas, the Lich King, has begun preparations for the destruction of Azeroth. Official site for the video game offers details on the Death Knight hero class, screenshots, artwork, wallpapers, movies, and information on new zones.
World of Warcraft - Allakhazam.com Site features character profiles, forums for trades and classes, zone, quest and item information, maps, and guides.
Thottbot Database for information about the World of Warcraft, including weapons, armor, quests, NPCs, zones, pets, professions, and other skills.
