Realm (World of Warcraft)

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World of Warcraft uses server clusters, known as 'realms', to allow players to choose their preferred gameplay type, and to allow the game to support as many subscribers as it does. Users may have up to ten characters per realm, and up to a maximum of fifty characters per account. There are four types of realms: Normal (also known as PvE or player versus environment), PvP (player versus player), RP (roleplaying) and RP-PvP (roleplaying with player versus player features).

Blizzard posts announcements on the login screen of World of Warcraft about realm status or issues. The status for each realm can also be viewed on their main website.[1]

1 Type
2 List of Realms

[edit] Type

Below are the four different realm types that World of Warcraft offers.

[edit] Player vs. Environment (PvE)

On the PvE realms, throughout most of the world, the PvP flag may only be enabled by actively turning it on using the command /pvp or by attacking a hostile player, entering a city of the opposing faction or casting a buff/healing spell on a friendly PvP-flagged player. In battlegrounds and free-for-all arenas the PvP flag is also turned on. The PvP flag will be removed when the player has been out of PvP combat for 5 minutes. If the PvP flag was enabled using /pvp, the player will need to turn it off using the same command and then avoiding PvP combat for 5 minutes.

[edit] Player vs. player (PvP)

PvP realms will flag the player for PvP as soon as he or she leaves a friendly zone (indicated by the green color of the zone name). Faction specific zones (Zones made for characters between levels 1–20 and the major cities) are friendly to the player. Other zones are contested (indicated by an orange color), and unfriendly (indicated by a red color). PvP-flagged players may attack any other PvP-flagged player of the opposing faction without any moderation from the gamemasters.

[edit] Roleplaying (RP)

The roleplaying realms use the same ruleset as PvE realms, with the exception that players must act and behave in character.

[edit] Roleplaying PvP (RPPvP)

The roleplaying PvP realms are an extension to the roleplaying realms in that they use the PvP ruleset instead of the PvE ruleset. Blizzard did not initially have this server type when the game was launched. It was added due directly to player feedback.