User:Gazimoff/Gameplay of World of Warcraft

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Main article: World of Warcraft

In a change from the previous Warcraft games produced by Blizzard, World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) where thousands of players can interact with each other. Despite this change, the game draws many similarities with it's predecessors. These include using the same setting of the world of Azeroth as well as following a similar art direction.[1] In common with many MMORPGs, World of Warcraft requires players to pay for a subscription, usually either by credit-card or by buying a card from a retailer to redeem for a pre-determined amount of subscription time.[1]


[edit] Characters

To start, players select a game realm or server to play on. Each realm is in one of four different categories, depending on which set of combat rules it uses. These can be either where players are mainly focused on defeating monsters and completing quests (Player versus environment), or where open combat between players is permitted (Player versus player). There are also dedicated roleplay versions of both these types, where players are encouraged to control their character as if they were an inhabitant of a fantasy world. Realms are also categorised by the language players are encouraged to use, offering in-game support in that language. [2] Players are able to transfer their established characters between realms in the same territory (North America, Europe, etc) for a fee.[3] A player may create up to ten characters per realm, with a maximum number of fifty characters per account.[4]

Once a player has selected a realm, an option to create a character is available. A player can select one of two opposing factions to place their character in: the Horde or the Alliance. Characters can only communicate and group with other characters of the same faction. Each faction has five races to choose from. Race determines the character's appearance, starting location, and initial skill set, called "racial traits". The Alliance currently consists of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarfs, Gnomes and Draenei. The Horde currently consists of Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls and Blood Elves. Both Draenei and Blood Elves were added as part of the Burning Crusade expansion, which is required for these options to become available.[5] Further options to customise the appearance, such as hairstyles, skin tones etc are also available.[6]

Depending on the faction and race chosen, a player then has nine character classes to choose from. The mechanics of each class varies, with some tending towards melee combat while others are more suited to attacking from range.[7] Other classes have the ability to heal themselves and other characters , while a few are hybrids - able to perform multiple different roles.[8] Currently available classes are Druids, Hunters, Mages, Paladins, Priests, Rogues, Shamans, Warlocks and Warriors. While a character can be played on it's 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.[9] Players are also able to customise their character through the use of talents, which are further abilities related to their character class.[10][11]

Characters are also able to learn two primary professions from a list of ten. These can be gathering professions, where a character mines ores, gathers herbs or skins animals to gather raw materials. They can also be crafting professions, where a character makes armour, weapons and other items for their own use or to sell to other characters. Characters can also learn secondary professions, such as cooking, fishing and first aid. [12] In the Burning Crusade expansion, profession specialisations were added, allowing a character to gain new restricted techniques.

As well as banding together to form groups, players can also band together to form guilds. These structures allow players several benefits, such as easier communication and an identifying guild name and tabard. Guild members can also be given access to a centeral pool of resources known as a guild bank.

[edit] Setting

World of Warcraft takes place in a 3D-representation of the Warcraft universe that players can interact with through their characters. The game features two continents on the world of Azeroth. A second world, known as Outland, was later added in the expansion World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. [13] A future expansion called World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will add a third continent to Azeroth.[14] In this game world, players use their characters to explore locations, defeat creatures and complete quests.[6] By doing this, characters gain experience points. After a set amount of experience points have been gained, a character gains a level, opening up the option of learning new skills or abilities, exploring new areas and attempting new quests.[15] As a player explores new locations, a number of transport shortcuts become available. Players can discover "flight masters" in newly discovered locations and then use those NPCs in order to fly to previously discovered locations in other parts of the world. Players can also use facilities such as boats and zeppelins in order to move from one of the continents on Azeroth to the other.

A number of facilities are available to characters when 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 bank is unique to that character, with players able to purchase adittional storage space.[16]An addition in the Burning Crusade expansion was the concept of guild banks, allowing members of the same guild to contribute items, resources and in-game currency to a central pool. In the major cities of Azeroth, Auction houses also exist as a way for characters to sell items to others in a similar way to online auction sites such as eBay.[17] Finally, in almost every town can be found a mailbox. The mailbox can be used to collect items won at auction and also to send messages, items and even in-game money to other characters. A unique feature of this is the ability to send items requiring "cash on delivery", where the receiving character has to pay to accept the item.[11]

[edit] Questing

A large amount of World of Warcraft revolves around questing. These tasks or missions are usually available from non-player characters (NPCs). [1] These are indicated by having yellow exclamation marks (!) above their heads, while yellow question marks represent quests ready to hand back and complete.[18] 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. Some quests offer a selection of quest rewards, allowing the player to choose what would suit his character best.[15] 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.[6] Sometimes, quests of this nature are linked together by a common theme. Where one quest ends, another starts, forming a quest chain.[18] 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 spend some time away from the game.[11]

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.[15] Fortunately, 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 [19] 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 unsuable until they are repaired. [20]

As well as gaining in-game money, items and experience points, many quests will also increase reputation with a faction. This may be one of the two main factions of Alliance or Horde, or another non-allied faction. It can also be possible for a player to improve their character's reputation with a faction by completing further quests or killing certain types of creatures. Enhancing a character's reputation can gain access to rare items, unique abilities and profession-based patterns and plans. [21]

[edit] Dungeons

Some of the harder challenges in World of Warcraft require players to group together to defeat them. These usually take place in dungeons, also known as instances, that a group of characters can enter together. The term 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.[22] This allows players to explore areas and defeat quests without other players outside the group interfering. Dungeons are spread over the game world and are designed for characters of varying progression. In the Burning Crusade expansion, gaining reputation with certain factions gives you access to Heroic Mode dungeon keys. These re-tune a set of dungeons in the Outland area for high-end characters, improving their replay value. [23]

A typical dungeon will allow up to five characters to enter as part of a group. High end dungeons allow more players to group together and form a raid. These dungeons allow up to forty players to enter at a time in order to face some of the most difficult challenges.[24] In the Burning Crusade expansion the most common group sizes are ten and twenty-five, based on the idea that these groups would be easier to fill and coordinate.[23]

[edit] Player versus player

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. 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. Victory rewards the character with tokens and honor points that can be used to buy armour and weapons.

Arenas are a further development to player vs player that were added in the Burning Crusade expansion. In these, a player's character can join a team in order to compete in arena matches. These matches are comprised of a small number of characters (between 2 and 5 per side) made up of members of two teams. Participation in arena matches rewards the character with a numer of arena points, depending on the result of the match. Arena points can be used to buy armour and weapons of a higher quality than those available from battlegrounds. Blizzard also run a number of arena-based tournaments, where teams can compete against each other for cash prizes.


[edit] Miscellaneous

[edit] Voice chat

[edit] Armory

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Greg Kasavin (2004-11-30). World of Warcraft. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  2. ^ Realm Types. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  3. ^ Patrick Caldwell (2006-06-29). Azeroth spreads out. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2008-05-07.
  4. ^ Characters. Blizzard Entertainment (2006). Retrieved on 2006-09-06.
  5. ^ Races. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  6. ^ a b c Allen Rausch (2004-12-07). World of Warcraft. GameSpy. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  7. ^ Kieron Gillen (2005-11-18). World of Warcraft review. Eurogamer. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  8. ^ Classes. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  9. ^ Party Roles. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  10. ^ Talents. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  11. ^ a b c World of Warcraft Updated Hands-On Impressions - The Talent System Returns. GameSpot (2004-07-13). Retrieved on 2008-05-07.
  12. ^ Professions. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  13. ^ World Map. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  14. ^ World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  15. ^ a b c Tom McNamara (2004-12-10). World of Warcraft Review. IGN. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  16. ^ Justin Calvert (2004-03-02). World of Warcraft banking info. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2008-05-07.
  17. ^ Tor Thorsen (2004-05-21). Online auctions coming to World of Warcraft. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2008-05-07.
  18. ^ a b Quests. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  19. ^ Death. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  20. ^ Items. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  21. ^ Reputations. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
  22. ^ Instancing. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2008-05-07.
  23. ^ a b Andrew Park (2006-08-12). World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Updated Impressions - PvP Details, Raid Details, and High-Level Zones. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2008-05-07.
  24. ^ Andrew Park (2004-11-23). World of Warcraft Updated Preview - Final Details, Player vs. Player, Future Updates. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2008-05-07.

[edit] External links

note - these should all end up as references, so purge when done. For now, just a scratchpad of urls between editing sessions.


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