Games - Instance

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	Games - Instance

Instances, also known as instance dungeons or simply "dungeons", are special areas in World of Warcraft. All instances are accessible by a swirling portal, sometimes blocked by a locked door (and thus requiring a key).

Instances were first proposed by Richard Garriott in the late 1990s as a way to solve a set of related problems which had become obvious in Ultima Online. The problem is simple to state: everyone wants to be "The Hero" and slay "The Monster", rescue "The Princess" and obtain "The Magic Sword". When there are 2,000 and more players all playing the same game, clearly not everyone can be the hero. The problem of everyone wanting to kill the same monster and gain the best treasure was terribly obvious in the game EverQuest. The creation of instances largely solves this set of problems. There are few examples of boss camping and kill stealing in World of Warcraft - because a copy of the dungeon (instance) is always created on demand for you or your party.

List of instances

Battlegrounds

Battlegrounds are a new type of instance dungeon introduced in version 1.5. The purpose of Battlegrounds are to provide players with an area to engage in PvP combat. Like a standard instance, the dungeon is spawned on demand for the players inside, however there are some differences:

A minimum number of people on each side are required to play.
Upon reaching the victory condition, players are ejected to the entrance (or if they joined from a Battlemasters
they will be ported to that Battlemaster) and the dungeon is garbage collected and the statistics are stored. The victors are rewarded with faction or a token that may be exchanged for such.
If the number of players dips below a certain threshold, a warning will sound and in several minutes the battle will be over if no new players join.
Depending on the time of day, server population, and general willingness to play, the wait to join a Battleground can be from few minutes to a few hours.
In Warsong and Arathi, players are grouped by levels: 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, and 60. Alterac Valley is restricted to players level 51-60.

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