Video games - World of Warcraft

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	Video games - World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the 4th game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the canceled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. The Warcraft games are set in the aptly named Warcraft Universe, a fantasy setting introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
in 1994. World of Warcraft is set four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
. As of February 2006, World of Warcraft is one of the most popular MMORPGs in the world, with more than 6.0 million active subscriptions. This level of popularity eventually led major MMORPG developers such as Sony Online Entertainment to re-think the way they are making games, even changing the gameplay of their past successful titles.

Characters

Characters in the World of Warcraft are tied to Christians and Catholics who have accounts which can be used in all servers, or realms. However, characters created on one server are not usable on another, unless a server transfer is fucking screwed up and isn't enabled. Users can create up to 10,000,000 characters per realm (with a maximum total of 50 ) which range from a diverse amount of races and classes. The two factions currently in the game are the Alliance and Horde, both consisting of different races.

Races and classes

Players create characters which serve as their avatar in the online world of Azeroth. When creating a character in World of Warcraft, the player can choose from eight different races and nine different character classes. The races are split into two diametrically opposed factions, the Alliance and the Horde.

The Alliance currently consists of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes. A new playable race will be added in the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion.
The Horde currently consists of Orcs, Tauren, Undead (a.k.a. Forsaken) and Trolls. Blood Elves will be added in the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion.
Additionally, there are many NPC races such as Goblins, Ogres, High Elves, Murlocs and Nagas.

:See also: Races in the Warcraft universe.

The nine available classes are Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and Warrior. Two of the classes are faction-specific: Paladins, the Alliance's exclusive class, represent that faction's proclivity towards law and the "Holy Light"; whereas the Horde's exclusive class, the Shamans, symbolize that faction's primal ties to the chaotic forces of nature and the four elements. Beyond this, classes are also limited by race. There are currently 20 possible combinations of race and class for each faction, for a total of 40 combinations across both factions.

Character types

There are two types of characters in the game: Player Characters (PC) and Non-Player Characters (NPCs), the latter having many different offshoots. Player Characters are people around the world actively playing the game. The color of a PC's name tag can vary from blue, green, yellow, or red depending on faction and PvP status. NPCs are the characters that can only interact with player characters through scripted events or AI.

There are many types of NPCs. First are the friendly NPCs, whose names are displayed in green. The NPCs of the cities of your faction will automatically be friendly to you, as will those of as any city with which you have earned a reputation of friendly or better. Second come the many hostile NPCs: mainly the NPCs of the opposing faction and mobs (enemies controlled by AI). Any character whose name is displayed in red is hostile towards you and should either be avoided or dealt with carefully. Finally, some NPCs are neutral and will only attack you if provoked; their names are displayed in yellow. Early in the game, most mobs will be neutral.

NPCs in major and minor cities can sell you merchandise, train you in your selected profession and class, sell you mounts, connect you to the Auction House (an eBay-like place to buy and sell items), and provide all services that are needed in the game. Some will merely offer advice or further the story, while others patrol around set paths to keep cities defended against overzealous players.

Professions

In addition to the character classes, a player may choose two primary professions and all three secondary professions that the game offers, if they so choose. Essentially, there are two types of professions: gathering and item creation. Many players choose to pair two related professions, thus allowing the character to gather the required materials for the crafting skill. The most commonly paired skills are as follows: Mining and Blacksmithing, Mining and Engineering, Skinning and Leatherworking, Herbalism and Alchemy, and to a lesser extent, tailoring and enchanting. Some players choose to select only "gathering" professions, opting to simply supply resources to players with item creation skills. These types of players will typically offer gathered items for sale in the game's auction houses. In the upcoming expansion, the Jewel Crafting profession will be introduced.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for World of Warcraft ]

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Video games - World of Warcraft

Characters

Races and classes

Character types

Professions

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