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124-448: World of Warcraft ( WoW ) is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game produced by Blizzard Entertainment . Set in the Warcraft fantasy universe, World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth , approximately four years after the events of the previous game in the series, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne . The game was announced in 2001, and

248-748: 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

372-512: A universal application . 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. PowerPC architecture Macs are no longer supported since version 4.0.1. When new content is added to the game, official system requirements may change. In version 1.12.0 the requirements for Windows were increased from requiring 256 MB to 512 MB of RAM. Official Windows 98 technical support

496-570: A vanilla version of the game titled World of Warcraft Classic was launched, allowing players to experience the base game before any of its expansions launched. Versions of Classic for some expansions were released later, with minor changes. 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

620-408: A "rested bonus" system, increasing the rate that a character can gain experience points after the player has spent time away from the game. When a character dies, it becomes a ghost—or wisp for Night Elf characters—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 a character

744-631: A bank to deposit items, such as treasures or crafted items. Each character has access to personal bank storage with the option to purchase additional storage space using in-game gold. Additionally, guild banks are available for use by members of a guild with restrictions being set by the guild leader. Auction houses are available for players to buy and sell items to others in a similar way to online auction sites such as eBay . Players can use mailboxes, which can be found in almost every town. Mailboxes are used to collect items won at auction, and to send messages, items, and in-game money to other characters. Some of

868-399: A cross-realm "looking for group" system to help players form groups for instanced content (though not for open-world questing) from a larger pool of characters than their home server can necessarily provide. MMORPGs today use a wide range of business models, from free of charge, free with microtransactions , advertise funded, to various kinds of payment plans. Some MMORPGs require payment or

992-494: A difficult proposition. The hosted infrastructure for a commercial-grade MMORPG requires the deployment of hundreds (or even thousands) of servers. Developing an affordable infrastructure for an online game requires developers to scale large numbers of players with less hardware and network investment. In addition, the development team will need to have expertise with the fundamentals of game design: world-building, lore and game mechanics, as well as what makes games fun. Though

1116-477: A micropayment model where the core content is free, but players are given the option to purchase additional content, such as equipment, aesthetic items, or pets. Games that make use of this model often have originated in Korea, such as Flyff and MapleStory . This business model is alternately called " pay for perks " or " freemium ", and games using it often describe themselves with the term " free-to-play ". MMORPG

1240-434: A monthly subscription to play. By definition, " massively multiplayer " games are always online, and most require some sort of continuous revenue (such as monthly subscriptions and advertisements) for maintenance and development purposes. Some games, such as Guild Wars , have disposed of the 'monthly fee' model entirely, and recover costs directly through sales of the software and associated expansion packs. Still others adopt

1364-651: A native Linux client is neither released nor announced by Blizzard, in January 2011 IT journalist Michael Larabel indicated in a Phoronix article that an internal Linux client might exist but is not released due to the non- standardization of the Linux distro ecosystem. In the United States, Canada, and Europe, Blizzard distributes World of Warcraft via retail software packages. The software package includes 30 days of gameplay for no additional cost. To continue playing after

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1488-452: A number of vital tasks. The server must be able to handle and verify a large number of connections, prevent cheating , and apply changes (bug fixes or added content) to the game. A system for recording the games data at regular intervals, without stopping the game, is also important. Maintenance requires sufficient servers and bandwidth , and a dedicated support staff. Insufficient resources for maintenance lead to lag and frustration for

1612-567: A particular creature to complete a quest. Some critics mentioned that the lack of quests that required players to group up made the game feel as if it were designed for solo play. Others complained that some dungeon or instanced group quests were not friendly to new players, and could take several hours to complete. Upon release, a small number of quests had software bugs that made them impossible to complete. Characters were felt to be implemented well, with each class appearing "viable and interesting", having unique and different mechanisms, and each of

1736-600: A platform specifically for independent MMOG developers. As there are a number of wildly different titles within the genre, and since the genre develops so rapidly, it is difficult to definitively state that the genre is heading in one direction or another. Still, there are a few obvious developments. One of these developments is the raid group quest, or "raid", which is an adventure designed for large groups of players (often twenty or more). Instance dungeons , sometimes shortened to "instances", are game areas that are "copied" for individual players or groups, which keeps those in

1860-613: 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 contains elements from fantasy , steampunk , and science fiction, including gryphons, dragons, elves, steam-powered automata, zombies, werewolves, other horror monsters, time travel , spaceships, and alien worlds. World of Warcraft takes place in

1984-455: 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 other characters on the account are still in that guild. In April 2015, an alternate way to cover the subscription was introduced. A player may spend real money ($ 20 in North America and differing amounts in other regions) on a WoW Token, which

2108-429: A player wants to play a priest role in his MMORPG world, that player might buy a cope from a shop and learn priestly skills, proceeding to speak, act, and interact with others as their character would. This may or may not include pursuing other goals such as wealth or experience. Guilds or similar groups with a focus on roleplaying may develop extended in-depth narratives using the setting and resources similar to those in

2232-422: A profound effect on players and the game industry, and even the courts. The virtual currency selling pioneer IGE received a lawsuit from a World of Warcraft player for interfering in the economics and intended use of the game by selling WoW gold. Castronova's first study in 2002 found that a highly liquid (if illegal) currency market existed, with the value of Everquest' s in-game currency exceeding that of

2356-434: A range of computer systems, although some described it as basic, and mentioned that the bloom light rendering effect can blur things. One reviewer described the ability to fly over long stretches of scenery as "very atmospheric". The user interface was liked, being described as "simple", with tooltips helping to get the player started. Massively multiplayer online role-playing game As in role-playing games (RPGs),

2480-462: A remix of the song from the game, "Hymn of the Firstborn Son", was nominated for "Best Game Music Cover/Remix" at the 16th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards. World of Warcraft received very positive reviews upon release, following a period of high anticipation before launch. Although the game follows a similar model to—and was noted for using many familiar concepts from—the role-playing genre,

2604-511: 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: the Old God C'Thun, an ancient entity whose pervasive evil had suffused Azeroth since time immemorial. As C'Thun incited the qiraji to frenzy, both the Alliance and Horde prepared for a massive war effort. A mixed force of Alliance and Horde soldiers, dubbed

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2728-412: A single battleground, but additional copies of the battleground can be made to accommodate additional players. Each battleground has a set objective, such as capturing a flag or defeating an opposing general, that must be completed to win the battleground. 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

2852-409: A space to freely develop social skills and communication skills without the stress of face-to-face contact. This in turn opens new pathways for social therapy for individuals with developmental disabilities. Many MMORPGs feature living economies. Virtual items and currency have to be gained through play and have definite value for players. Such a virtual economy can be analyzed (using data logged by

2976-454: A starting point for World of Warcraft players. It provides a way to launch World of Warcraft and starts the Blizzard updater. It was first included with the version 1.8.3 patch. The 2.1.0 patch allowed for an option to bypass the use of the launcher. Features of the launcher include news and updates for World of Warcraft players, access to World of Warcraft ' s support website, access to

3100-412: 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" using in-game currency. Expansion packs are available online and from retailers. As the game client is the same regardless of the version of World of Warcraft the user owns, the option to purchase expansions online

3224-515: A temporary design glitch attracted the attention of psychologists and epidemiologists across North America, when the " Corrupted Blood " disease of a monster began to spread unintentionally—and uncontrollably—into the wider game world. The Centers for Disease Control intended to use the incident as a research model to chart both the progression of a disease, and the potential human response to large-scale epidemic infection. However, due to Blizzard Entertainment 's failure to keep statistical records of

3348-417: A variety of mechanisms for player versus player (PvP) play. Players on player versus environment (PvE) servers can opt to toggle "War Mode" themselves, making themselves attackable to players of the opposite faction. 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 world—the only exception being the starting zones, where

3472-428: A wide spectrum of genres, gameplay types, and revenue systems. Some independent MMORPG projects are completely open source , while others feature proprietary content made with an open-source game engine. The WorldForge project has been active since 1998 and formed a community of independent developers who are working on creating framework for a number of open-source MMORPGs. The Multiverse Foundation has also created

3596-603: Is a prominent example, with each separate server housing several thousand players. In many MMORPGs the number of players in one world is often limited to around a few thousand, but a notable example of the opposite is EVE Online , which accommodates several hundred thousand players on the same server, with over 60,000 playing simultaneously (June 2010 ) at certain times. Some games allow characters to appear on any world, but not simultaneously (such as Seal Online: Evolution or Kolossium competition in Dofus ); others limit each character to

3720-437: Is a significant determining factor in their success or failure in combat-related situations. MMORPGs almost always have tools to facilitate communication between players. Many MMORPGs offer support for in-game guilds or clans , though these will usually form whether the game supports them or not. In addition, most MMOGs require some degree of teamwork in parts of the game. These tasks usually require players to take on roles in

3844-484: Is a term coined by Richard Garriott to refer to massive multiplayer online role-playing games and their social communities. Previous to this and related coinages, these games were generally called graphical MUDs ; the history of MMORPGs traces back directly through the MUD genre. Through this connection, MMORPGs can be seen to have roots in the earliest multi-user games such as Mazewar (1974) and MUD1 (1978). 1985 saw

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3968-425: 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: 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. In the former, time can be purchased in multiples of 5 hours or 30 hours, and in

4092-475: Is particularly common in South Korea such as MapleStory , Rohan: Blood Feud , Atlantica Online and Lost Ark . Also, there are some free-to-play games, such as RuneScape and Tibia , where the game is free, but one would have to pay monthly to play the game with more features. Guild Wars and its sequel avoid some degree of competition with other MMORPGs by only requiring the initial purchase of

4216-424: 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

4340-433: 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. The company supports this kind of protection as otherwise

4464-420: Is sold on the auction house for the in-game currency, gold, that initially could only be used to add 30 days of playtime. At the launch of the feature in North America, a token sold for 30,000 gold and 24 hours later sold for 20,000 gold; therefore, the gold amount changes depending on what players are willing to spend. Subsequently, the amount that a North American token sells for remained at above 30,000 gold, and

4588-503: The Warcraft series and improving on aspects that they felt did not work from EverQuest . In a management vote, all but Duane Stinnett, the project lead on Nomad , voted for this shift, and work on Nomad stopped by the end of 1999 as World of Warcraft was initiated. World of Warcraft was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001. Released in 2004, development of

4712-571: The occult , and other genres . These elements are often developed using similar tasks and scenarios involving quests , monsters , and loot . In nearly all MMORPGs, the development of the player's character is the primary goal. Nearly all MMORPGs feature a character progression system, in which players earn experience points for their actions and use those points to reach character "levels", which makes them better at whatever they do. Traditionally, combat with monsters and completing quests for non-player characters , either alone or in groups, are

4836-499: The Alliance or the Horde; Pandaren, which were added in Mists of Pandaria , do not commit to a faction until after the starting zone is completed. Characters from the opposing factions can perform rudimentary communication (most often just "emotes"), but only members of the same faction can speak, mail, group and join guilds. The player selects the new character's race , such as orcs or trolls for

4960-518: The Central Institute of Mental Health points towards impairments in social, emotional and physical aspects of the self-concept and a higher degree in avatar identification in addicted MMORPG players, compared to non-addicted and naive (nonexperienced) people. These findings generally support Davis' cognitive behavioral model of Internet addiction, which postulates that dysfunctional self-related cognitions represent central factors contributing towards

5084-564: 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,

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5208-701: The Horde, or humans or dwarves for the Alliance. Players must select the class for the character, with choices such as mages, warriors, and priests available. Most 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. Characters can choose two primary professions that can focus on producing items, such as tailoring, blacksmithing or jewelcrafting or on gathering from resource nodes, such as skinning or mining. Characters can learn all three secondary skills: archeology, cooking, and fishing. Characters may form and join guilds , allowing characters within

5332-473: The Internet up for game developers, which allowed for the first truly "massively"-scoped titles. Finally, MMORPGs as defined today began with Meridian 59 in 1996, innovative both in its scope and in offering first-person 3D graphics, with The Realm Online appearing nearly simultaneously. Ultima Online , released in 1997, is often credited with first popularizing the genre, though more mainstream attention

5456-484: The MP3 format. More music was composed for each of the game's expansions, which were also given their own album releases. On January 12, 2011, Alfred Publishing produced a 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. In 2018,

5580-567: The Might of Kalimdor, opened the gates of Ahn'Qiraj under the command of the orc Varok Saurfang. 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

5704-473: 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

5828-530: The Rings Online , EverQuest , EverQuest II , Aion , Final Fantasy XIV , Guild Wars , Rift , RuneScape , Star Trek Online , Star Wars: The Old Republic , and DC Universe Online . Increased amounts of " player-created content " is another trend. The use of intellectual property licensing common in other video game genres has also appeared in MMORPGs. 2007 saw the release of The Lord of

5952-537: The Rings Online , based on J. R. R. Tolkien 's Middle-earth . Other licensed MMORPGs include The Matrix Online , based on the Matrix trilogy of films, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning , based on Games Workshop 's table top game , Star Wars Galaxies , Star Wars The Old Republic , Champions Online and Age of Conan . Additionally, several licenses from television have been optioned for MMORPGs, for example Star Trek Online and Stargate Worlds (which

6076-555: 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. After releasing StarCraft in 1998, Blizzard began work on its next title. Initially, this

6200-500: The Summer of 2024, later leading to a livestream on June 27, 2024, in which Blizzard team members outlined the release of the Wrath of the Lich King for World of Warcraft Classic and The War Within expansion for World of Warcraft for Chinese players. 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

6324-509: The ability to explore new areas. It is through quests that much of the game's story is told, both through the quest's text and through scripted NPC actions. 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

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6448-402: The base game. The soundtrack for the original release of World of Warcraft was composed and arranged by Jason Hayes, Tracy W. Bush, Derek Duke, and Glenn Stafford and conducted by Eímear Noone . Most of the music from the game and the cinematic trailers was released in the official album on November 23, 2004, together with the collector's edition of the game. It is sold separately on one CD in

6572-518: 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

6696-537: 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. This allows a group to explore areas and complete quests without others interfering. Dungeons are spread over

6820-428: 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

6944-500: The concept into the thirty-question Bartle Test that helps players determine which category they are associated with. With over 650,000 test responses as of 2011, this is perhaps the largest ongoing survey of multiplayer game players. Based on Bartle and Yee's research, Jon Radoff has published an updated model of player motivation that focuses on immersion, competition, cooperation and achievement. These elements may be found not only in MMORPGs, but many other types of games and within

7068-729: The development and maintenance of MMORPG addiction. The high degree of avatar identification found by Leménager et al. in the addicted group of this study indicates that MMORPG playing may represent an attempt to compensate for impairments in self-concept. Psychotherapeutic interventions should therefore focus on the development of coping strategies for real-life situations in which addicted players tend to experience themselves as incompetent and inferior. Richard Bartle , author of Designing Virtual Worlds , classified multiplayer RPG-players into four primary psychological groups. His classifications were then expanded upon by Erwin Andreasen, who developed

7192-604: The emerging field of gamification . There have been numerous discussions and evaluations by various scholarly institutions regarding the long-term effects of video game overuse. Many news agencies have criticized video games as promoting violent tendencies in its player base and encouraging anti-social behaviors. Ultimately this culminated in the World Health Organization classifying the overuse of video games as "Technological Addiction" in May 2019. In World of Warcraft ,

7316-444: The emotions they feel while playing an MMORPG are very strong, to the extent that 8.7% of male and 23.2% of female players in a statistical study have had an online wedding. Other researchers have found that the enjoyment of a game is directly related to the social organization of a game, ranging from brief encounters between players to highly organized play in structured groups. In a study by Zaheer Hussain and Mark D. Griffiths , it

7440-615: The event, the 2005 Corrupted Blood Outbreak ultimately failed to produce any results. Nevertheless, the CDC has continued to express interest in the use of MMORPGs for disease research. It has been suggested by Springer University in Germany that MMORPGs encourage and provide opportunities to study and improve in economic theory by providing a controlled environment for the natural development of economic practices between players of including professions, trade, and services. Research has shown that for

7564-538: The front-end requires expertise with implementing 3D engines , real-time shader techniques and physics simulation. The actual visual content (areas, creatures, characters, weapons, spaceships and so forth) is developed by artists who typically begin with two-dimensional concept art, and later convert these concepts into animated 3D scenes, models and texture maps. Developing an MMOG server requires expertise with client/server architecture, network protocols, security, and database design. MMORPGs include reliable systems for

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7688-433: The game can also be played solo without interacting with others. The game primarily focuses on character progression, in which players earn experience points to level up their character to make them more powerful and buy and sell items using in-game currency to acquire better equipment, among other game systems. World of Warcraft was a major critical and commercial success upon its original release in 2004 and quickly became

7812-578: The game on North American and European servers. 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 Chinese government delayed

7936-454: The game to play. The cost of developing a competitive commercial MMORPG title often exceeded $ 10 million in 2003. These projects require multiple disciplines within game design and development such as 3D modeling, 2D art, animation, user interfaces, client/server engineering, database architecture, and network infrastructure. The front-end (or client) component of a commercial, modern MMORPG features 3D graphics. As with other modern 3D games,

8060-743: The game took roughly 4–5 years, including extensive testing. The 3D graphics in World of Warcraft use elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in Warcraft III . The game was designed to be an open environment where players are allowed to do what they please. 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 . The game interface allows players to customize appearance and controls, and to install add-ons and other modifications. World of Warcraft runs natively on both Mac and Windows platforms. Boxed copies of

8184-479: 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 CrossOver allowing the game to be played under Linux and FreeBSD . While

8308-458: 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. As well as dungeon-based raid challenges, several creatures exist in the normal game environment that are designed for raids to attack. World of Warcraft requires

8432-530: The game world and falls into one of two categories. Available realm types are: Before the introduction of World of Warcraft's seventh expansion "Battle for Azeroth", both "Normal" and "RP" servers were each divided into two separate categories: PvE servers and PvP servers. This has since been removed after the implementation of the "War Mode" option, which allows any player (of level 20 and higher) on any server to determine whether they want to actively participate in PvP combat or not, by enabling War Mode in two of

8556-546: The game world. Over time, the MMORPG community has developed a sub-culture with its own slang and metaphors, as well as an unwritten list of social rules and taboos. Players will often complain about 'grind' (a slang term for any repetitive, time-consuming activity in an MMORPG), or talk about 'buffs' and 'nerfs' (respectively an upgrade or downgrade of a particular game mechanic). As with all such cultures, social rules exist for such things as invitations to join an adventuring party,

8680-417: The game's capital cities. Realms are also categorized by language, with in-game support in the language available. Players can make new characters on all realms within the region, and it is also possible to move already established characters between realms for a fee. To create a new character, in keeping with the storyline of previous Warcraft games, players must choose between the opposing factions of

8804-438: The game's website or posting their stats on a high score screen. Another common practice is to enforce a maximum reachable level for all players, often referred to as a level cap. Once reached, the definition of a player's progression changes. Instead of being awarded primarily with experience for completing quests and dungeons, the player's motivation to continue playing will be replaced with collecting money and equipment. Often,

8928-444: The game) and has value in economic research. More significantly, these "virtual" economies can affect the economies of the real world. One of the early researchers of MMORPGs was Edward Castronova , who demonstrated that a supply-and-demand market exists for virtual items and that it crosses over with the real world. This crossover has some requirements of the game: The idea of attaching real-world value to "virtual" items has had

9052-420: The game, and often involve elements of collaboration and trust between players. Most MMORPGs provide different types of classes that players can choose. Among those classes, a small portion of players choose to roleplay their characters, and there are rules that provide functionality and content to those who do. Community resources such as forums and guides exist in support of this play style. For example, if

9176-505: The game, often being used to continue a storyline or lead the player through the game. The high number of quests in each location was popular, as well as the rewards for completing them. It was felt that the range of quests removed the need for a player to "grind", or carry out repetitive tasks, to advance their character. Quests also require players to explore every section of the game world, potentially causing problems for social gamers or roleplayers seeking somewhere quiet. Quests that required

9300-524: The game. EverQuest and Guild Wars are two examples of games that use such a format. Players generally must purchase the client software for a one-time fee, although an increasing trend is for MMORPGs to work using pre-existing "thin" clients, such as a web browser. Depending on the number of players and the system architecture, an MMORPG might be run on multiple separate servers, each representing an independent world, where players from one server cannot interact with those from another; World of Warcraft

9424-422: The genre more accessible to casual players—those who play for short periods of time— while still having "deep" gameplay that would attract players of all levels of interest. The concept of a "rested bonus", or increasing the rate at which a player's character gains experience, was also welcomed as a way for players to quickly catch up with their friends in progression. Questing was described as an integral part of

9548-581: The group, such as protecting other players from damage (called tanking), "healing" damage done to other players or damaging enemies. MMORPGs generally have Game Moderators or Game Masters (frequently referred to as GMs or "mods"), who may be paid employees or unpaid volunteers who attempt to supervise the world. Some GMs may have additional access to features and information related to the game that are not available to other players and roles. Relationships formed in MMORPGs can often be just as intense as relationships formed between friends or partners met outside

9672-465: The guild access to the guild's chat channel, the guild name and optionally allowing other features, including a guild tabard, guild bank, guild repairs, and dues. Much of World of Warcraft play involves the completion of quests . These quests are usually available from NPCs . Quests usually reward the player with some combination of experience points, items, and in-game money. Quests allow characters to gain access to new skills and abilities, as well as

9796-423: 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 6–15% discount. In Australia, the United States, and many European countries, video game stores commonly stock

9920-1081: The installation folder. Since 5.0, the 64-bit client is automatically installed, and used by default. Since World IPv6 Day , the client and most of the servers support IPv6 . Ten expansions have been released: The Burning Crusade , released in January 2007; Wrath of the Lich King , released in November 2008; Cataclysm , released in December 2010; Mists of Pandaria , released in September 2012; Warlords of Draenor , released in November 2014; Legion , released in August 2016; Battle for Azeroth , released in August 2018; Shadowlands , released in November 2020; Dragonflight , released in November 2022 and The War Within , released in August 2024. 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. The fifth expansion, Warlords of Draenor ,

10044-572: The instance separated from the rest of the game world. This reduces competition, and also reducing the amount of data that needs to be sent to and from the server, reducing lag. The Realm Online was the first MMORPG to begin to use a rudimentary form of this technique and Anarchy Online would develop it further, using instances as a key element of gameplay. Since then, instancing has become increasingly common. The "raids", as mentioned above, often involve instance dungeons. Examples of games which feature instances are World of Warcraft , The Lord of

10168-429: The interactions between MMORPG players are real, even if the environments are virtual, psychologists and sociologists are able to use MMORPGs as tools for academic research. Sherry Turkle has found that many people have expanded their emotional range by exploring the many different roles (including gender identities) that MMORPGs allow a person to explore. Nick Yee has surveyed more than 35,000 MMORPG players over

10292-440: The latter, time can be purchased in multiples of 7 days, 1 month, or 3 months. As software packages are not required, expansion pack contents are available to all players on launch day. In World of Warcraft's initial Chinese release, players could purchase hourly and daily tokens, which were typically used to play at Internet cafés . The initial Chinese release was immensely popular, in part because many Chinese had already played

10416-612: 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

10540-576: The most popular MMORPG of all time, reaching a peak of 12 million subscribers in 2010. The game had over one hundred million registered accounts by 2014 and by 2017, had grossed over $ 9.23 billion in revenue, making Warcraft of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time. The game has been cited by gaming journalists as the greatest MMORPG of all time and one of the greatest video games of all time and has also been noted for its long lifespan, continuing to receive developer support and expansion packs over 20 years since its initial release. In 2019,

10664-529: The new approaches to reducing pauses between game encounters were well liked. A common example was the approach to character death. 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. Combat was another area where "downtime", or pauses between play, was reduced. By allowing all character types to recover from damage taken, players can return to combat quickly. Reviewers felt that these changes in pacing would make

10788-576: The other Battle.net regions were well above that value. Once a player buys a token on the auction house, it is account bound and cannot be resold. As of February 2017, the WoW Token can also be exchanged for $ 15 in Battle.net balance that can be used as credit for purchases in most of Blizzard's games as well as in Destiny 2 . The company offers parental controls that allow various limits to be set on playing time. It

10912-415: The other without having to pause at a "loading screen" while part of the game is retrieved from storage. The environment was described as "breathtaking". 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. Critics described the environment as "a careful blend of cartoon, fantasy art, and realism". The game was found to run smoothly on

11036-434: The past several years, focusing on psychological and sociological aspects of these games. Recent findings included that 15% of players become a guild-leader at one time or another, but most generally find the job tough and thankless; and that players spend a considerable amount of time (often a third of their total time investment) doing things that are external to gameplay but part of the metagame . Many players report that

11160-415: The player assumes the role of a character (often in a fantasy world or science-fiction world) and takes control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players able to interact together, and by the game's persistent world (usually hosted by the game's publisher ), which continues to exist and evolve while

11284-479: The player is offline and away from the game. MMORPGs are played throughout the world. Global revenues for MMORPGs exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005, and the western world 's revenues exceeded a billion dollars in 2006. In 2008, the spending on subscription MMORPGs by consumers in North America and Europe grew to $ 1.4 billion. World of Warcraft , a popular MMORPG, had over 10 million subscribers as of November 2014. World of Warcraft ' s total revenue

11408-404: The player to collect items from the corpses of creatures they had killed were also unpopular; the low "drop rate", or chance of finding the items, makes them feel repetitive as a high number of creatures need to be killed to complete the quest. A large number of new players in a particular area meant that there were often no creatures to kill, or that players would have to wait and take turns to kill

11532-410: The player to pay a subscription by using a credit or debit card, using prepaid Blizzard game cards or using a WoW Token purchased in-game . Players without a subscription may use a trial account that lets the player's character reach level 20, but has many features locked. To enter the game, the player must select a server , referred to in-game as a 'realm'. Each realm acts as an individual copy of

11656-517: The players, and can severely damage the reputation of a game, especially at launch. Care must also be taken to ensure that player population remains at an acceptable level by adding or removing servers. Peer-to-peer MMORPGs could theoretically work cheaply and efficiently in regulating server load, but practical issues such as asymmetrical network bandwidth, CPU-hungry rendering engines, unreliability of individual nodes, and inherent lack of security (opening fertile new grounds for cheating ) can make them

11780-513: The popularization of Facebook and microtransactions came a wave of Flash and HTML5 based MMORPGs that use the free to play model. They require no download outside of a browser and usually have heavily integrated social media sharing features. Smartphones with their GPS capabilities (amongst others) enable augmented reality in games such as Ingress and Pokémon Go . The games are enhanced by location and distance based tracking, bench marking goals or facilitating trade between players. Since

11904-563: The positive learner, game-based interaction could reduce inhibition as well as enhance the enjoyment and motivation of second language learning , but appears to be more suitable for learners of intermediate and higher levels of proficiency than language beginners. The Division of Autism and developmental disabilities published a significant report detailing the value of MMORPGs for the treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The report suggests that individuals with autism spectrum disorder could benefit from MMORPGs by being provided

12028-544: The potential players or their supervisors may choose to uninstall or block the game permanently. 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

12152-436: The primary ways to earn experience points. The accumulation of wealth (including combat-useful items) is also a way to progress in many MMORPGs. This is traditionally best accomplished via combat. The cycle produced by these conditions, combat leading to new items allowing for more combat with no change in gameplay, is sometimes pejoratively referred to as the level treadmill , or "grinding". The role-playing game Progress Quest

12276-491: The proper division of treasure, and how a player is expected to behave while grouped with other players. Most MMORPGs are deployed using a client–server system architecture . The server software generates a persistent instance of the virtual world that runs continuously, and players connect to it via a client software. The client software may provide access to the entire playing world, or further 'expansions' may be required to be purchased to allow access to certain areas of

12400-406: The races having a distinct look and feel. Character development was also liked, with the talent mechanism offering choice to players, and profession options being praised. Character customization options were felt to be low, but the detail of character models was praised. The appearance of the game world was praised by critics. Most popular was that a player could run from one end of the continent to

12524-591: The release of a roguelike (pseudo-graphical) MUD called Island of Kesmai on CompuServe and Lucasfilm 's graphical MUD Habitat . The first fully graphical multi-user RPG was Neverwinter Nights , which was delivered through America Online in 1991 and was personally championed by AOL President Steve Case . Other early proprietary graphical online RPGs include three on The Sierra Network : The Shadow of Yserbius in 1992, The Fates of Twinion in 1993, and The Ruins of Cawdor in 1995. Another milestone came in 1995 as NSFNET restrictions were lifted, opening

12648-449: The release of the Warcraft movie that gives a 30-day trial of the game. All The Burning Crusade , Wrath of the Lich King , Cataclysm , Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor content is now effectively part of the original game, with all new World of Warcraft accounts automatically including these expansions upon creation. As of the release of The War Within expansion in 2024, all expansions up to Dragonflight are included in

12772-572: The release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, due to what it deemed objectionable content. NetEase took over licensing of World of Warcraft from The9 in June 2009 following the expiration of The9's contract, and were able to secure a launch for Wrath of the Lich King on August 31, 2010, nearly two years after its Western release. Due to a contract dispute, these servers were shut down on January 23, 2023. In April 2024, NetEase announced that World of Warcraft services would be returning to China in

12896-531: The test version of World of Warcraft when it is available to test upcoming patches, updates to Warden , and updates to the updater itself. The 3.0.8 patch redesigned the launcher and added the ability to change the game settings from the launcher itself. The launcher update from patch 4.0.1 also allows people to play the game while non-crucial pieces of the game are downloaded. This requires a high-speed broadband internet connection. Patch 1.9.3 added native support for Intel-powered Macs , making World of Warcraft

13020-542: The trial version of World of Warcraft in DVD form, which includes the game and 20 levels 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. In Brazil, World of Warcraft was released on December 6, 2011, via BattleNet. The first three expansions are currently available, fully translated, including voice acting, into Brazilian Portuguese . In South Korea, there

13144-463: The vast majority of MMORPGs are produced by companies, many small teams of programmers and artists have contributed to the genre. As shown above, the average MMORPG development project requires enormous investments of time and money, and running the game can be a long-term commitment. As a result, non-corporate (or independent, or " indie ") development of MMORPGs is less common compared to other genres. Still, many independent MMORPGs do exist, representing

13268-417: The widened range of equipment available at the maximum level will have increased aesthetic value to distinguish high ranking players in game between lower ranked players. Colloquially known as endgame gear, this set of empowered weapons and armor adds a competitive edge to both scripted boss encounters as well as player vs player combat. Player motivation to outperform others is fueled by acquiring such items and

13392-466: The world in which it was created. World of Warcraft has experimented with "cross-realm" (i.e. cross-server) interaction in player vs player "battlegrounds", using server clusters or "battlegroups" to co-ordinate players looking to participate in structured player vs player content such as the Warsong Gulch or Alterac Valley battlegrounds. Additionally, patch 3.3, released on December 8, 2009, introduced

13516-407: 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 such 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. World of Warcraft uses

13640-586: The world. 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 (Hallow's End), Christmas (Winter Veil), Children's Week, Easter (Noblegarden), 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

13764-783: Was $ 1.04 billion US dollars in 2014. Star Wars: The Old Republic , released in 2011, became the world's "fastest-growing subscription MMO in history" after gaining more than 1 million players within the first three days of its launch. Although modern MMORPGs sometimes differ dramatically from their predecessors, many of them share the same basic characteristics. These include several common features: The majority of popular MMORPGs are based on traditional fantasy themes, often occurring in an in-game universe comparable to that of Dungeons & Dragons . Some employ hybrid themes that either merge or replace fantasy elements with those of science fiction , sword and sorcery , or crime fiction . Others draw thematic material from American comic books ,

13888-551: Was a project known as Nomad , based on the tabletop role-playing game Necromunda that took place in a post-apocalyptic setting. Over its first year of development, Nomad did not have a strong sense of direction; at that time, many of the Blizzard developers had also become fans of the MMORPG EverQuest , released in 1999 by Verant Interactive . Interest waned in Nomad as the company talked about making their own MMORPG, based on

14012-539: 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 2015, accounts that have lapsed subscriptions, which previously would not let

14136-554: 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. The heroes of the Horde and Alliance defeated Onyxia and sent Ragnaros back to the Elemental Plane. Deep within Blackrock Mountain, the black dragon Nefarian conducted twisted experiments with

14260-535: Was announced at BlizzCon 2013 on November 8, 2013, and entered beta on June 27, 2014. Warlords of Draenor was released on November 13, 2014. On August 6, 2015, Blizzard announced the sixth expansion, Legion , at Gamescom 2015 . In November 2015, the Legion 's alpha testing started and in April 2016 the beta test started; the Legion expansion was released on August 30, 2016. The seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth ,

14384-486: Was automatically applied to all previous Warcraft accounts at no cost. On September 19, 2012, the same thing was done with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and on October 15, 2013, the Cataclysm expansion was also applied. On October 15, 2014, Mists of Pandaria was applied to all accounts following the release of Warlords of Draenor . On May 17, 2016, Warlords of Draenor was applied to all accounts to coincide with

14508-430: Was created as a parody of this trend. Eve Online , a space-based MMORPG, uses an alternative method of progression where users train skills in real-time rather than using experience points as a measure of progression. In some MMORPGs, there is no limit to a player's level, allowing the grinding experience to continue indefinitely. MMORPGs that use this model often glorify top ranked players by displaying their avatars on

14632-453: Was dropped, but the game continued to run there until version 2.2.3. Before Mists of Pandaria in 2012, World of Warcraft officially dropped support for Windows 2000 , followed by Windows XP and Vista in October 2017, as well as all 32-bit support. Starting with 4.3, players could try out an experimental 64-bit version of the client, which required manual downloading and copying files into

14756-445: Was found that just over one in five gamers (21%) said they preferred socializing online to offline. Significantly more male gamers than female gamers said that they found it easier to converse online than offline. It was also found that 57% of gamers had created a character of the opposite gender, and it is suggested that the online female persona has a number of positive social attributes. A German fMRT-study conducted by researchers of

14880-792: Was garnered by 1999's EverQuest and Asheron's Call in the West and 1996's Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds in South Korea. The financial success of these early titles has ensured competition in the genre since that time. MMORPG titles now exist on consoles and in new settings. In 2008, the market for MMORPGs had Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft dominating as the largest MMORPG, alongside other titles such as Final Fantasy XIV and Guild Wars 2 , though an additional market exists for free-to-play MMORPGs, which are supported by advertising and purchases of in-game items. This free-to-play model

15004-565: Was inspired by other MMORPG's, particularly EverQuest , with Blizzard setting out to make their own MMORPG and improving on the features of EverQuest . The game allows players to create a character avatar and explore an open 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. The game encourages players to work together to complete quests, enter dungeons and engage in player versus player (PvP) combat, however,

15128-582: Was later canceled). The first console-based MMORPG was Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast . The first console-based open-world MMORPG was Final Fantasy XI for the PlayStation 2 . EverQuest Online Adventures , also on the PlayStation 2, was the first console MMORPG in North America. Although console-based MMORPGs are considered more difficult to produce, the platform is gaining more attention. With

15252-541: Was released for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, World of Warcraft has had ten major expansion packs : The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), Mists of Pandaria (2012), Warlords of Draenor (2014), Legion (2016), Battle for Azeroth (2018), Shadowlands (2020), Dragonflight (2022), and The War Within (2024). Two further expansions, Midnight and The Last Titan , were announced in 2023. World of Warcraft

15376-684: Was released worldwide on August 13 and 14 (depending on location) in 2018. The eighth expansion, Shadowlands , was announced on November 1, 2019, and released on November 23, 2020. The ninth expansion, Dragonflight , was announced on April 19, 2022 and was released on November 28, 2022. At BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard announced the Worldsoul Saga , a story arc that would span the course of three expansions: The War Within , Midnight and The Last Titan , set to begin in 2024. Blizzard routinely applies older expansions to all accounts as new expansions are released. On June 28, 2011, The Burning Crusade expansion

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