World of Warcraft, often referred to as WoW, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994.[5] World of Warcraft takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous Warcraft release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.[6] Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001.[7] The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. The first expansion set of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007.[8] The second expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, was released on November 13, 2008.[9] The third expansion set, Cataclysm, was announced at BlizzCon 2009.[10][11] With more than 11.5 million monthly subscriptions in December 2008,[12][13] World of Warcraft is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG,[9][14][15] and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers.[16][17][18][19] In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62 percent of the MMORPG subscription market. As with other MMORPGs, players control a character avatar within a game world in third- or first-person view, exploring the landscape, fighting various monsters, completing quests, and interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) or other players. Also similar to other MMORPGs, World of Warcraft requires the player to pay for a subscription, either by buying prepaid game cards for a selected amount of playing time, or by using a credit or debit card to pay on a regular basis.[21] To enter the game, the player must select a realm�sometimes referred to as a server. Each realm acts as an individual copy of the game world, and falls into one of four categories. Realms are either player versus player (PvP), where open combat among players is more common, or player versus environment (PvE), where the gameplay is more focused on defeating monsters and completing quests. Roleplay (RP) and roleplay-PvP (RP-PVP) variants of both primary realm types are also available. Realms are also categorized by language, with in-game support in the language available.[22] Players can make new characters on all realms, and it is also possible to move already established characters between realms for a fee.[23] To create a new character, in keeping with the storyline of previous Warcraft series games, players must choose between the opposing factions of Alliance or Horde. Characters from the opposing factions can perform rudimentary communication, but only members of the same faction can speak, email, group, and share guilds. The player selects the new character's race, such as Orcs or Trolls for the Horde or Humans or Dwarves for the Alliance.[24] Players must also select the class for the character, with choices such as mages, warriors and priests available.[25] All classes, except for special "Hero classes", are limited to particular races. As characters become more developed, they gain various talents and skills, requiring the player to further define the abilities of that character.[26] Professions such as tailoring, blacksmithing, and mining can be learned. The three secondary skills, cooking, fishing, and first-aid, can also be learned by characters.[27] Characters may also form and join guilds, allowing characters within the guild access to the guild's chat channel, the guild name and optionally allowing other features, including a guild tabard, guild bank, and dues.[28] Much of World of Warcraft play involves "questing". These quests, also called "tasks" or "missions", are usually available from NPCs.[29] Quests usually reward the player with some combination of experience points, items, and in-game money. Quests also allow characters to gain access to new skills and abilities, and explore new areas.[30] It is also through quests that much of the game's story is told, both through the quest's text and through scripted NPC actions.[31] Quests are linked by a common theme, with each consecutive quest triggered by the completion of the previous, forming a quest chain. 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. While a character can be played on its own, players can also 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.[29][32] World of Warcraft uses a "rested bonus" system, increasing the rate that a character can gain experience points after the player has spent time away from the game.[26] When a character dies, it becomes a ghost�or wisp for Night Elf characters�at a nearby graveyard.[30] Characters can be resurrected by other characters that have the ability, or can self-resurrect by moving from the graveyard to the place where they died. When a character dies, 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 characters 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 special items or spells.[33][34] World of Warcraft contains a variety of mechanisms for PvP play. Players on PvE servers can opt to "flag" themselves, making themselves attackable to players of the opposite faction.[35] Depending on the mode of the realm, PvP combat between members of opposing factions is possible at almost any time or location in the game word - the only exception being the starting zones, where the PvP "flag" must be enabled by the player wishing to fight against 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: only a set number of characters can enter a single battleground, but additional copies of the battleground can be made to accommodate additional players.[36] Each battleground has a set objective, such as capturing a flag or defeating an opposing general, that must be completed in order to win the battleground. Competing in battlegrounds rewards the character with tokens and honor points that can be used to buy armour, weapons and other general items that can aid a player in many areas of the game. Winners get more honor and tokens than losers. However, you also earn honor when you or nearby teammates kill players in a battleground.[35] [edit] Setting World of Warcraft shares the Warcraft title with the Warcraft series of real-time strategy games, is set in that series' world of Azeroth, and has similar art direction.[21] World of Warcraft contains traditional fantasy elements, such as griffons, dragons, and elves; steam-powered automata and extreme engineering typical of steampunk; zombies, vampires, and other undead typical of horror; as well as time travel, spaceships, and alien worlds typical of science fiction.[37][38][citation needed] 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. Two separate expansions later added to the game's playable area the realm of Outlands and the continent of Northrend. As a player explores new locations, different routes and means of transportion become available. Players can access "flight masters" in newly discovered locations to fly to previously discovered locations in other parts of the world.[39] Players can also use boats, zeppelins, or portals to move from one continent to another. Although the game world remains relatively similar from day to day, seasonal events reflecting real world events�such as Halloween,[40] Christmas, Children's Week,[35] Easter and Midsummer�have been represented in the game world. Locations also have variable weather including, among other things, rain, snow, and dust storms.[39] A number of facilities are available for characters while in towns and cities. In each major city, characters can access a bank in order 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.[41] Additionally, guild banks are available for use by members of a guild with restrictions being set by the guild leader.[42] Auction houses are also available for players to buy and sell items to others in a similar way to online auction sites such as eBay.[43] Players can also use mailboxes, which can be found in almost every town. Mailboxes are used to collect items won at auction, and send messages, items and in-game money to other characters.[26] 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.[44] This allows a group to explore areas and complete quests without others interfering. 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.[45] As well as dungeon-based raid challenges, several creatures exist in the normal game environment that are designed for raids to attack.[40][46] [edit] Development The World Of Warcraft Launcher or Patcher World of Warcraft was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001.[47] Development of the game took roughly 4�5 years, and included extensive testing.World of Warcraft codes ,The 3-D graphics in WoW use elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in Warcraft III.[47] The game was designed to be an open environment where players are allowed to do what they please.[48] Quests are optional and were designed to help guide players, allow character development, and to spread characters across different zones to try to avoid what developers called 'player collision'.[49] The game interface allows players to customize appearance and controls, and to install add-ons and other modifications.[50] 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,World of Warcraft keys,wow online, 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.[51] [edit] Regional variations In the United States, Canada and Europe, Blizzard distributes World of Warcraft via retail software packages.[52] The software package includes 30 days of gameplay 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.[53] In Australia, the United States, and many European countries, video game stores commonly stock the trial version of World of Warcraft in DVD form, 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,World of Warcraft game card,World of Warcraft time card, or purchasing a game card as well as a retail copy of the game. 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. There are two kinds of time credits available, one where the player is billed based on the actual number of minutes that will be available, and one where the player can play the game for a number of days. wow game keys,World of Warcraft serial number,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.[54] As software packages are not required, expansion pack contents are available to all players on launch day.