Gameplay of World of Warcraft

Main articles: World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

The game of World of Warcraft or WoW is set in a fictional world known as Azeroth and later extending to a further world called Outland. On November 9, Northrend was added, the frigid cap of Azeroth. In it, players design a character to play based on a number of starting options, such as the race of character and its type or class. Gameplay primarily consists of completing quests and dungeon runs, and other in-game activities, in order to obtain rewards which will allow one to improve one's character and equipment in order to be able to complete the more difficult quests and dungeon runs. Players can also participate in player versus player combat, either in large groups or small team matches.

Over time, a number of additional features and improvements have been added to the game world, such as additional locations to explore. Seasonal and periodical events have also been added, such as Halloween, Midsummer and regular fishing competitions. Players can also modify their in-game experience through the use of third-party modifications.

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. Players are able to transfer their established characters between realms in the same territory (North America, Europe, etc) for a fee. A player may create up to ten characters per realm, with a maximum number of fifty characters per account.

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. Further options to customise the appearance, such as hairstyles, skin tones, etc are also available.

Depending on the faction and race chosen, a player then has ten character classes to choose from. The mechanics of each class vary, with some tending towards melee combat while others are more suited to attacking from range. Other classes have the ability to heal themselves and other characters, while a few are hybrids - able to perform multiple roles. Currently available classes are Druids, Hunters, Mages, Paladins, Priests, Rogues, Shamans, Warlocks, Warriors, and Death Knights. 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 are also able to customize their character through the use of talents, which are further abilities related to their character class.

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. 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 central pool of resources known as a guild bank.

Setting

World of Warcraft Cosmic Map, showing Azeroth (bottom right corner) and Outland (top left corner).

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 its predecessors. These include using the same setting of the world of Azeroth as well as following a similar art direction. 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.

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. The second expansion called World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King added a third continent, called Northrend, to Azeroth. In this game world, players use their characters to explore locations, defeat creatures and complete quests. 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. 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. Players can communicate with each other using text based chat, separated into different channels for ease of use. When a player instructs their character to yell or say something, a chat bubble appears above their head containing the spoken words in a similar way to a comic book image.

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. 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. Finally, in almost every town and in every major city are mailboxes. A 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.

Although the game world remains reasonably similar from day to day, changes have been made over time. Seasonal events that reflect on real world events such as Halloween, Christmas, Children's Week, Easter and Midsummer run for a period of a day or two up to several weeks. More regular events such as a fishing tournament have also been set up for players to take part in. Other changes include adding weather effects such as rain, snow and dust storms to areas, or redeveloping areas of the game in order to add new quests or to continue a particular storyline in the game. This can also include adding new dungeons to locations for the players to explore.

Questing

A large amount of World of Warcraft revolves around questing. These tasks or missions are usually available from non-player characters (NPCs). These are indicated by having yellow exclamation marks (!) above their heads, while yellow question marks (?) represent quests ready to hand back and complete. 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. 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, although Blizzard has had the foresight to automatically resurrect characters in some such cases. 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 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.

In one of the updates following the release of the Burning Crusade expansion, the rate at which characters gain experience from killing monsters was increased, along with reducing the amount of experience required to gain further skills and abilities. This was seen as an attempt to encourage newcomers to the game, as they would be able to play alongside more advanced characters much earlier than before.

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. 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. This feature is also available in Wrath of the Lich King for players who have reached the new level cap. A "looking for group" option allows players to passively find other players interested in doing the same instance.

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. 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. As well as dungeon-based raid challenges, several creatures exist in the normal game environment that are designed for raids to attack.

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. 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. This was changed following the release of the Burning Crusade expansion so that equipment became available to all, with honour points being used to exchange for pieces of equipment.

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 number 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.

In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, a new player vs player zone was introduced called Wintergrasp. For player vs environment realms, this zone differs in that players of the opposing faction are able to attack each other merely by entering the zone which flags them automatically for player vs player combat.

Miscellaneous features

Comparison of a default World of Warcraft user interface (Top) to a heavily modified one.(Bottom)

A number of features have been added to World of Warcraft, either prior to the original release or in one of the following content updates. From early in the game's development, Blizzard has allowed players to customize their game interface through the use of modifications, also known as mods or add-ons. These mods can help the player by automating simple tasks, grouping similar spells or abilities together and enhancing the way information about the game environment is presented to the player. Mods are developed using the Lua and XML scripting languages, while images and models use the Targa and BLP image formats. Blizzard provides support to allow players to generate their own mods through the User Interface Customization Tool, although it does not provide support for any third-party mods. Some programs that operate alongside World of Warcraft, typically to automate repetitive tasks and allow the game to be played without input from the player, are against the game's Terms of Use. Use of these is considered an exploit and may lead to suspension or closure of a player's account.

The ability for players to communicate with each other using voice chat was added some time after the release of the Burning Crusade expansion. Using this, players could chat to other players they were grouped with or set up their own custom channels to talk on. This was a significant development as it no longer required players to use third-party applications in order to communicate by voice with others.