These quests are usually available from NPCs. Quests allow characters to gain access to new skills and abilities, as well as the ability to explore new areas. Quests commonly involve killing a number of creatures, gathering a certain number of resources, finding a difficult to locate object, speaking to various NPCs, visiting specific locations, interacting with objects in the world, or delivering an item from one place to another to acquire experience and treasures. While a character can be played on its own, players can group with others to tackle more challenging content.
Most end-game challenges are designed in a way that they can only be overcome while in a group. In this way, character classes are used in specific roles within a group.
If a character is past level ten and they resurrect at a graveyard, the items equipped by the character degrade, requiring in-game money and a specialist NPC to repair them. Items that have degraded heavily become unusable until they are repaired. If the location of the character's body is unreachable, they can use a special "spirit healer" NPC to resurrect at the graveyard.
When the spirit healer revives a character, items equipped by the character at that time are further degraded, and the character is significantly weakened by what is in-game called "resurrection sickness" for up to ten minutes, depending on the character's level. This "resurrection sickness" does not occur and item degradation is less severe if the character revives by locating its body, or is resurrected by another player through spells or special items. World of Warcraft contains a variety of mechanisms for player versus player PvP play.
Players on player versus environment PvE servers can opt to "flag" themselves, making themselves attackable to players of the opposite faction. PvE called normal or RP servers, by contrast, allow a player to choose whether or not to engage in combat against other players. On both server types, there are special areas of the world where free-for-all combat is permitted. Battlegrounds, for example, are similar to dungeons: Competing in battlegrounds rewards the character with tokens and honor points that can be used to buy armor, weapons, and other general items that can aid a player in many areas of the game.
Winning a battleground awards more honor and tokens than losing. In addition, players also earn honor when they or nearby teammates kill players in a battleground. World of Warcraft is set in the same universe as the Warcraft series of real-time strategy games and has a similar art direction. World of Warcraft takes place in a 3D representation of the Warcraft universe that players can interact with through their characters.
The game world initially consisted of the two continents in Azeroth: Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Four separate expansions later added to the game's playable area the realms of Outland and Draenor and the continents of Northrend and Pandaria. As a player explores new locations, different routes and means of transportation become available. Players can access "flight masters" in newly discovered locations to fly to previously discovered locations in other parts of the world. Although the game world remains relatively similar from day to day, seasonal events reflecting real world events, such as Halloween, [28] Christmas, Children's Week, [25] Easter, and Midsummer have been represented in the game world.
Locations also have variable weather including, among other things, rain, snow, and dust storms. A number of facilities are available for characters while in towns and cities. In each major city, characters can access a bank to deposit items, such as treasure or crafted items. Each character has access to personal bank storage with the option to purchase additional storage space using in-game gold. Mailboxes are used to collect items won at auction, and to send messages, items, and in-game money to other characters.
Some of the challenges in World of Warcraft require players to group together to complete them. These usually take place in dungeons—also known as "instances"—that a group of characters can enter together. The term "instance" comes from each group or party having a separate copy, or instance, of the dungeon, complete with their own enemies to defeat and their own treasure or rewards. Dungeons are spread over the game world and are designed for characters of varying progression.
A typical dungeon will allow up to five characters to enter as part of a group. Some dungeons require more players to group together and form a "raid" of up to forty players to face some of the most difficult challenges. World of Warcraft requires a subscription to allow continued play, with options to pay in one-month, three-month, or six-month blocks, and time cards of varying lengths available from retailers, or purchasing a "WoW Token" in-game. As the game client is the same regardless of the version of World of Warcraft the user owns, the option to purchase expansions online was added as it allows for a quick upgrade.
World of Warcraft is also available as a free Starter Edition, which is free to play for an unlimited amount of time. Starter Edition characters are unable to gain experience after reaching level 20, and there are other restrictions in effect for Starter Edition accounts, including the inability to trade, use mail, use Auction House, use public chat channels, join guilds or amass more than ten gold.
In January , accounts that have lapsed subscriptions, which previously would not let a player log in, work like a restricted Starter Edition account with the one difference that sub-level 20 characters will be able to join a guild if any of your other characters are still in that guild. In April , an alternate way to cover the subscription was introduced. Subsequently, the amount that an NA token sells for remained selling at above 30, gold and the other Battle. Once a player buys a token on the auction house, it is account bound and cannot be resold.
The company offers parental controls [40] that allow various limits to be set on playing time. It is possible to set a daily limit, a weekly limit, or to specify an allowed playing schedule. In order to control these settings, it is necessary to log in with different credentials than are used just to enter the game. It is also possible to receive statistics on the time spent playing. Apart from controlling children, adults sometimes use parental controls on themselves.
Intent on settling in Durotar, Thrall's Horde expanded its ranks by inviting the undead Forsaken to join orcs, tauren, and trolls. Meanwhile, dwarves, gnomes, and the ancient night elves pledged their loyalties to the Alliance, guided by the human kingdom of Stormwind. After Stormwind's king, Varian Wrynn, mysteriously disappeared, Highlord Bolvar Fordragon served as Regent but his service was affected by the mind control of the black dragon Onyxia, who ruled in disguise as a human noblewoman.
As heroes investigated Onyxia's manipulations, the ancient elemental lord Ragnaros resurfaced to endanger both the Horde and Alliance. Deep within Blackrock Mountain, the black dragon Nefarian conducted twisted experiments with the blood of other dragonflights. Intent on seizing the entire area for his own, he recruited the remaining Dark Horde, a rogue army that embraced the demonic bloodlust of the old Horde.
These corrupt orcs, trolls, and other races battled against Ragnaros and the Dark Iron dwarves for control of the mountain. Nefarian created the twisted chromatic dragons and a legion of other aberrations in his bid to form an army powerful enough to control Azeroth and continue the legacy of his infamous father, Deathwing the Destroyer. Nefarian was vanquished by the heroes from the Horde and the Alliance. Years ago, in the ruined temple of Atal'Hakkar, loyal priests of the Blood God Hakkar the Soulflayer attempted to summon the wrathful deity's avatar into the world.
But his followers, the Atal'ai priesthood, discovered that the Soulflayer could only be summoned within the Gurubashi tribe's ancient capital, Zul'Gurub. Newly reborn in this jungle fortress, Hakkar took control of the Gurubashi tribe and mortal champions of the trolls' mighty animal gods.
The Soulflayer's dark influence was halted when the Zandalari tribe recruited heroes and invaded Zul'Gurub. The great desert fortress of Ahn'Qiraj, long sealed behind the Scarab Wall, was home to the insectoid qiraji, a savage race that had once mounted an assault to devastate the continent of Kalimdor. But something far more sinister lurked behind Ahn'Qiraj's walls: As C'Thun incited the qiraji to frenzy, both the Alliance and Horde prepared for a massive war effort.
The heroes laid siege to the ruins and temples of Ahn'Qiraj and vanquished C'Thun. In the Lich King's haste to spread the plague of undeath over Azeroth, he gifted one of his greatest servants, the lich Kel'Thuzad, with the flying citadel of Naxxramas, as a base of operations for the Scourge. Consistent attacks from the Scarlet Crusade and Argent Dawn factions weakened the defenses of the floating fortress, enabling an incursion from the heroes that led to Kel'Thuzad's defeat.
However, a traitor among the ranks of the knightly order of the Argent Dawn ran away with Kel'Thuzad's cursed remains and fled to Northrend, where the fallen lich could be reanimated. 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.
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. The first three expansions are currently available, fully translated, including voice acting, into Brazilian Portuguese.
In South Korea, there is no software package or CD key requirement to activate the account. However, to play the game, players must purchase time credits online. There are two kinds of time credits available: In the former, time can be purchased in multiples of 5 hours or 30 hours, and in the latter, time can be purchased in multiples of 7 days, 1 month, or 3 months. In China, because a large number of players do not own the computer on which they play games e. To play the game, players must also purchase prepaid game cards that can be played for 66 hours and 40 minutes.
The Chinese government and NetEase , the licensee for World of Warcraft in China, have 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 imposed by the Chinese government in an attempt to "promote a healthy and harmonious online game environment" in World of Warcraft. The World of Warcraft launcher referred to in press releases and the menu bar as the "Blizzard Launcher" is a program designed to act as a starting point for World of Warcraft players.
World of Warcraft
It provides a way to launch World of Warcraft and starts the Blizzard updater. It was first included with the version 1. Features of the launcher include news and updates for World of Warcraft players, access to World of Warcraft ' s support website, access to the test version of World of Warcraft when it is available to test upcoming patches, updates to Warden , [60] and updates to the updater itself. The launcher update from patch 4. This requires a high-speed broadband internet connection.
As a result of this, the minimum supported Mac OS X version has been changed to When new content is added to the game, official system requirements may change. Official Windows 98 technical support was dropped, but the game continued to run there until version 2. Seven expansions have been released: Players are not required to purchase expansions in order to continue playing; however, new content and features such as higher level caps and new areas may not be available until they do so. Blizzard routinely applies older expansions to all accounts as new expansions are released.
On June 28, , The Burning Crusade expansion was automatically applied to all previous Warcraft accounts at no cost. On September 19, , the same thing was done with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, [67] and on October 15, the Cataclysm expansion was also applied. The fifth expansion, Warlords of Draenor , was announced at BlizzCon on November 8, , [72] [73] and entered beta on June 27, The seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth , was released worldwide on August 13 and 14 depending on location It was released on November 23, , together with the collector's edition of the game.
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It is sold separately on one CD in the MP3 format. On January 12, , Alfred Publishing produced an officially licensed sheet music series for vocalists, pianists, strings, and other instruments, World of Warcraft Sheet Music Anthology in solo and accompaniment formats with CD.
These works include four pages of collectible artwork and vary by number of songs included. World of Warcraft received very positive reviews upon release, [80] following a period of high anticipation before launch. In some previous MMORPGs, a player would suffer a high penalty for character death; in World of Warcraft , a player is able to recover and start playing quickly.
By allowing all character types to recover from damage taken, players can return to combat quickly. Questing was described as an integral part of the game, often being used to continue a storyline or lead the player through the game. Characters were felt to be implemented well, with each class appearing "viable and interesting", having unique and different mechanisms, [83] and each of the races having a distinct look and feel. The appearance of the game world was praised by critics. Most popular was the fact that a player could run from one end of the continent to the other without having to pause at a "loading screen" while part of the game is retrieved from storage.
Players found it difficult to become lost, and each area in the game world had a distinct look that blended from one to the next. The game's audio was well received, particularly the background music. By assigning music to different areas of the game world, reviewers felt that the fantasy style added to the player's immersion, [81] and that the replay value was increased. World of Warcraft won several awards from critics upon release, including Editor's Choice awards.
World of Warcraft was the best-selling PC game of and It was the country's third best-selling computer game between January and August Less than two months after beginning operation of World of Warcraft in China on September 19, , NetEase was ordered to immediately stop charging players and to cease accepting registrations. When players create World of Warcraft accounts, they are asked to choose a username and password. Afterward, whenever they play World of Warcraft , they are asked to supply the same username and password in full.
This is also the case when using account management facilities online. This type of authentication is vulnerable to keystroke logging. While this is not unique to World of Warcraft and is common to many MMORPGs , the game has been directly targeted with trojans being specifically crafted to capture account login details. In September , reports emerged of spoof World of Warcraft game advice websites that contained malware.
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- World of Warcraft - Wowpedia - Your wiki guide to the World of Warcraft.
Vulnerable computers would be infected through their web browsers , downloading a program that would then relay back account information. Blizzard's account support teams experienced high demand during this episode, stating that many users had been affected. Claims were also made that telephone support was closed for isolated periods due to the volume of calls and resulting queues.
The token generates a one-time password based code that the player supplies when logging on. The password, used in addition to the user's own password, is only valid for a couple of minutes, thus providing extra security against keylogging malware. Blizzard makes use of a system known as Warden on the Windows version of the game to detect third-party programs, such as botting software, allowing World of Warcraft to be played unattended. There has been some controversy as to the legality of Warden. Warden uses techniques similar to anti-virus software to analyze other running software on the players' PCs, as well as the file system.
However, unlike most anti-virus software, it sends a portion of this information back to Blizzard, which caused privacy advocates to accuse it of being spyware. Donnelly was included in the suit as the creator of MMO Glider , software that can automatically play many tasks in the game. Blizzard claimed the software is an infringement of its copyright and software license agreement , stating that "Glider use severely harms the WoW gaming experience for other players by altering the balance of play, disrupting the social and immersive aspects of the game, and undermining the in-game economy.
On July 6, , Blizzard Entertainment announced that on its forums for all games, users' accounts would display the real names tied to their accounts. The integration of the feature into the forums on the Blizzard Entertainment site raised concerns amongst fans of the many game series Blizzard has created over the years. In response to the concerns, Blizzard released an updated statement on July 9, , announcing that the Real ID integration with the official forums was being canceled. In addition to playing the game itself and conversing on discussion forums provided by Blizzard, World of Warcraft players often participate in the virtual community in creative ways, including fan artwork [] and comic strip style storytelling.
Blizzard garnered criticism for its decision in January to ban guilds from advertising sexual orientation preferences. The incident occurred after several players were cited for "harassment" after advocating a group that was a gay-straight alliance. On October 7, World of Warcraft reached a subscriber base of over 12 million players.
The practice of amassing gold and in-game items for financial profit is frequently referred to as gold farming. After Blizzard started offering free trial gameplay accounts, players noticed an increase in spam from bots advertising these services. Additionally, trial accounts are prevented from speaking in the public chat channels although they may speak to players within range or whisper to other players that have first whispered to them , participating in in-game trades, and using the Auction House and the mail feature, among other limitations.
In February , the parties filed a consent decree in which in Game Dollar agreed to refrain from using any World of Warcraft chat or communication to advertise any business or sell any services relating to World of Warcraft. As characters progress in World of Warcraft and take on some of the toughest challenges, many of the rewards received are bound to that character and cannot be traded, generating a market for the trading of accounts with well-equipped characters. The high price was due to the character possessing items that at the time were owned by only a handful out of the millions of active players, due to the difficulty in acquiring them.
However, Blizzard banned the account five days after the purchase. The practice of buying or selling gold in World of Warcraft has generated significant controversy. Blizzard reported that an "alarmingly high" proportion of all gold bought originates from "hacked" accounts. The article also stated that customers who had paid for character leveling services had found their accounts compromised months later, with all items stripped and sold for virtual gold.
The article noted that leveling service companies often used "disruptive hacks The Corrupted Blood plague incident was one of the first events to affect entire servers. Upon engaging the final boss, players were stricken by a debuff called "Corrupted Blood" which would periodically sap their life.
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The disease was passed on to other players simply by being near infected players. Originally this malady was confined within the Zul'Gurub instance, but it made its way into the outside world by way of hunter pets or warlock minions that contracted the disease. Within hours, Corrupted Blood had completely infected major cities 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 the 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. World of Warcraft has inspired artists to satirize it and acknowledge its mark in popular culture.
The game has been used to advertise unrelated products, such as Toyota trucks. In late , 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. World of Warcraft has inspired two board games: There is also a trading card game , [] and a collectible miniatures game [] on the market, both formerly produced by Upper Deck Entertainment , now produced by Cryptozoic Entertainment.
Cryptozoic released an "Archives" set which contains foil reproductions of older cards produced by Upper Deck. In August , Megabloks launched a licensed line of World of Warcraft 'building block' toys based on the game scenes, scenarios and characters. Heroes of Warcraft was released, which is a free-to-play digital card game based on the Warcraft universe, using classes similar to World of Warcraft.
In , Blizzard released Heroes of the Storm , their own crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game in which players can control over 35 heroes from Warcraft universe such as Arthas, Gul'dan, Kel'thuzad, Malfurion, Ragnaros, Sylvanas, Thrall and Varian. To mark the release of Hearthstone , Blizzard released the Hearthsteed mount for World of Warcraft players. The mount is obtained through winning three games in Arena or Play mode. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. February 11, [2].
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