World of Warcraft

Gameplay
Unlike previous games in the Warcraft series, World of Warcraft is a MMORPG, not a real-time strategy game. There are some similarities with previous games in the series, including the use of the same setting of the world of Azeroth as well as following a similar art direction. As with other MMORPGs, players control a character avatar within a game world, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, completing quests and interacting with NPCs or other players. In common with many other MMORPGs, World of Warcraft requires the player to pay for a subscription, either by buying game cards for a pre-selected amount of playing time from a retailer, or by using a credit or debit card to pay on a regular basis.

In order to enter the game, the player must select a realm or server to play on. Each realm acts as an individual copy of the game world, and falls into one of four different categories depending on the rules that realm uses. Realms can be classed as Player versus player (PvP) where open combat between other players is allowed, or Player versus environment (PvE) where the focus is mainly on defeating monsters and completing quests. Roleplay variants of each of these are also available. On a PvP or RP-PvP server a player may create characters belonging to only one faction, either Horde or Alliance, but not both. Realms are also categorized by language, with in-game support in the language available. Players can move established characters between realms for a fee.

Once a realm has been selected, the player can either select one of their previously made characters to play or create a new one. Following on from the storyline in the previous games in the Warcraft series, players can choose their character to be a member of either the opposing factions of the Alliance or Horde. Only characters from the same faction can communicate, group with and trade with each other. From there a player selects which race, such as Orcs or Trolls for the Horde or Humans or Dwarves for the Alliance. Players also select which class they wish their character to be, with choices such as mages, warriors and priests available. Some classes are limited to particular races. Players can further customize their characters as they play—as characters become more developed, they gain talents, allowing the player to improve the abilities of that character. Professions such as tailoring, blacksmithing, mining, cooking and first aid can also be learned by characters. While a character can be played on its own, players can also group up with others in order to tackle more challenging content. In this way, character classes are used in specific roles within a group. Players can also team up their characters with others to form guilds, allowing characters in the same guild unified communications and a shared guild name and identity.

A large amount of World of Warcraft revolves around questing. These tasks or missions are usually available from non-player characters (NPCs). Quests usually reward the player with experience points and in-game money that the character can then spend on buying new skills and buying new equipment. It is also through the use of quests that much of the game’s story is told, with NPCs sometimes performing a small routine once a quest is handed in. Sometimes, quests of this nature are linked together by a common theme. Where one quest ends, another starts, forming a quest chain. A unique aspect of World of Warcraft is the use of a “rested bonus” system, increasing the rate that a character can gain experience points after the player has spent time away from the game.

Quests commonly involve killing a number of creatures, gathering a certain number of resources, finding a difficult to locate object, or delivering an item from one place to another. During this process, a character may get attacked and killed by a creature, becoming a ghost at a nearby graveyard. 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. If this location is unreachable, they can use a special NPC known as a spirit healer to resurrect at the graveyard. When a character dies the items being carried degrade, requiring in-game money and a specialist NPC to repair them. Items that degrade heavily can become unusable until they are repaired.

As well as being able to complete quests and enter dungeons, players can also fight against other players in the game. World of Warcraft contains a variety of mechanisms for this. Firstly, some realms allow player versus player to take combat almost anywhere in the game world. In these environments, members of opposing factions can attack each other at any time. Player versus environment (PvE) servers, by contrast, allow a player to choose 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.

World of Warcraft also makes use of battlegrounds. These locations act in a similar way to dungeons or instances in that only a set number of characters can enter a single battleground, but additional copies of the battleground can be made to accommodate additional players.[26] 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 and weapons. Initially a ladder-based system was implemented, where the honour points accumulated in a week would affect that character’s standing in the ladder, allowing them to purchase more powerful weapons and armour.