World of Warcraft

Were you looking for the new package simply called World of Warcraft (the World of Warcraft Battle Chest replacement)?

   
World of Warcraft

	
		
		
	
	
The official game packaging.
Developer(s)
Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Vivendi Universal
Release date(s)
NA - 23 November 2004
EU - 11 February 2005
Version
 Patch 1.1.0 - Patch 1.12.2
Expansions
 The Burning Crusade
 Wrath of the Lich King 
 Cataclysm 
 Mists of Pandaria 
 Warlords of Draenor
Platforms
Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, (Linux via Wine or Cedega)
Genre(s)
MMORPG

World of Warcraft, often referred to as WoW, is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) set in the Warcraft universe. It is developed by Blizzard Entertainment and contains 5 expansion packs: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, and World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. The initial release is now sometimes known as "vanilla WoW" or "classic WoW". A 6th expansion was announced at gamescom 2015: World of Warcraft: Legion (NYR).

As of 2010, World of Warcraft had more than 12 million monthly subscribers,^{[citation needed]} and still holds the Guinness World Record for the world's largest and most popular MMORPG since 2009. It also continues its further story development throughout its franchising, other than online media, such as Warcraft novels, comics, manga, RPG books, TCG, and board games.

Features

Note the following have pre-expansion details separated from expansion details:

• Uses and expands the storyline from the Warcraft series of games.
• Customizable characters:
  • 2 factions: Horde and Alliance.
  • 8 initial races: Human, Dwarf, Gnome, Night Elf, Orc, Troll, Undead, Tauren; added Blood Elf / Draenei, Goblin / Worgen, and Pandaren.
  • 9 initial classes: Mage, Warlock, Priest, Rogue, Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Warrior, Paladin; added Death Knight (Hero Class), Monk, and Demon Hunter.
  • 9 initial professions, enabling resource gathering and item crafting; added Jewelcrafting and Inscription.
    • 4 initial secondary professions: Cooking, Fishing, First Aid, Riding; added Archaeology.
    • 2 initial class-based professions (Rogue): Lockpicking, Poisons (removed with patch 3.0.2); added Runeforging. (Death Knights only)
  • The Talents and Glyphs system allows further customization of the character's skills and stats.

Gameplay system

General system

• A casual-friendly character progression system up to a point.
  • Quests occur frequently, and being offline (resting) increases your experience points gain.
• Text chat and built-in Voice chat.
• In-game trading, mail service and auction system.
• Four server types: Normal (PvE), RP, PvP, and RPPvP.

PvE systems

• Thousands of quests.
• Dozens of instanced dungeons and raids, ranging from Blackfathom Deeps to Zul'Aman with dozens more added in content patches and expansions.
• Bonus Objective areas in Draenor.

PvP systems

• A PvP Honor system, 3 initial Battlegrounds; added 1 , 2, and 2, and 3
  • Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin, Warsong Gulch; added Eye of the Storm, Strand of the Ancients / Isle of Conquest, Battle for Gilneas / Twin Peaks, Deepwind Gorge / Silvershard Mines / Temple of Kotmogu.
• Arena PvP system for 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 intense, small area combat ( and beyond).

Housing

Added in Warlords of Draenor.

• Garrison personal player area that other players can visit.

Events

• A variety of World Events including:
  • Darkmoon Faire, Children's Week, Scourge Invasion, Midsummer Fire Festival, Hallow's End, and Feast of Winter Veil.

User interface and customer support

• Customize AddOn and Interface with some game commands support.
• Client seamlessly supports both Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems. Linux users can play via Wine (MS Windows emulation), however this is not supported and can be buggy at times.

Availability

This section concerns content that is out-of-date. Reason: New languages like Italian, Br-Portugues, and Portuguese need to be added.

• Oceania (English - Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand)
• North America (English - US & Canada)
• Europe (English-UK, French, German, Spanish, Russian)
• South Korea
• China (Simplified and Traditional Chinese; including Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau)
• Latin America (Spanish, English?)

Vanilla realms circa 2016

On April 25, 2016, Nethaera put a blue post up that discussed how the issue of a retro or vanilla realms within the company (not speaking to emulated or private servers directly) has been debated written by J. Allen Brack. The summary version of the response was this: 1) private servers need to be shut down to protect intellectual property rights, 2) maintaining a set of vanila-style servers is more technically difficult than people outside the company think (no specifics), and 3) the closest thing Blizzard might offer would be a "pristine realm" version of the game with all progression and XP acceleration elements as well as group finder turned off plus no access to cross realm zones.

Media

Images

Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help expand it by clicking  Edit to the right of the section title.

Original darker World of Warcraft logo

Newer brighter World of Warcraft logo

Videos

Official

Official trailer

Other

World Of Warcraft Full Movie Cinematic ALL Cinematic VIDEO GAME Trailers in One Game Movie 2016

From BeastGaming

Escape From Mount Stupid - World of Warcraft

An overview of World of Warcraft through late Cataclysm.

Why We Became Addicted to World of Warcraft

From IGN

Trivia

• The original WoW is sometimes referred to as "vanilla World of Warcraft," "pre Burning Crusade (Pre BC)," or "classic World of Warcraft".

See also

• Loading screen
• A listing of World of Warcraft-related sites.
• Timeline (World of Warcraft) for a timeline of game milestones since its announcement.
• World of Warcraft: Legion (NYR)
• World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
• World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
• World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
• World of Warcraft Battle Chest (now obsolete)
• World of Warcraft package (base World of Warcraft that now includes expansions thru Mists of Pandaria)
• World of Warcraft Mac OS X Icons

External links

WoW Official Game Site (US) Official Battle.net World of Warcraft US website

WoW Official Game Site (EU) Official Battle.net World of Warcraft EU website (en)

WoW Official Game Site (US) The Story of Warcraft > World of Warcraft

WoW Official Game Site (EU) The Story of Warcraft > World of Warcraft

System requirements

Battle.net Support (US) World of Warcraft System Requirements Article ID: 300493; Updated: Feb 2016

Battle.net Support (EU) World of Warcraft System Requirements Article ID: 300493; Updated: Feb 2016

Buy

Battle.net Shop (US) World of Warcraft® Digital Download — USD 19.99 (includes expansions thru Cataclysm

Battle.net Shop (US) World of Warcraft® Digital Download — € 14.99 (includes expansions thru Cataclysm

Amazon.com World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment (Price: $19.99)

2013 version  Amazon.co.uk World of Warcraft (PC DVD) by by Blizzard (Price: £9.99)

Amazon.de World of Warcraft von Blizzard Entertainment (Preis: EUR 14,99)

Amazon.fr World of Warcraft 5.0 de Blizzard (Prix: EUR 14,69 Livraison gratuite dès 15 euros d'achats. Détails Économisez : EUR 0,30 [2%])

News

[1] What your World of Warcraft character says about you Joe Parlock 2016-05-21 14:00:00

Inverse.com Knock-off theme parks, restaurants, and entire movies are China's way of saying it loves 'Warcraft.' Eric Francisco May 11, 2016

SeekingAlpha.com World Of Warcraft: Legion - Reinvigorating Activision's Most Critical Franchise Jimmy Lamz Jan. 22, 2016 11:28 AM ET

2015 News

The Motley Fool What Does the Decline of "World of Warcraft" Mean for Activision Blizzard? Keith Noonan Dec 22, 2015 at 10:18AM

GameSpot Blizzard Will No Longer Report World of Warcraft Subscriber Numbers by Eddie Makuch on November 3, 2015

MMO-Champion WoW Down to 5.5 Million Subscribers, Warcraft Movie Trailer at Blizzcon by chaud 2015-11-03 04:04 AM

USGamer.net The 15 Best Games Since 2000, Number 3: World of Warcraft By Jaz Rignall 08/06/2015

Wowhead News Q2 2015 Results: WoW Down to 5.6 Million Subscribers by perculia 2015/08/04 2:57 PM

MMO-Champion WoW Down to 5.6 Million Subscribers by chaud 2015-08-04 08:11 PM

BlizzardWatch World of Warcraft inducted to Video Game Hall of Fame by Anna Bell on June 5, 2015 at 5:00pm

BusinessInsider.com How playing World of Warcraft every day for a year led Robert Hohman to found a $1 billion startup Julie Bort May 10, 2015, 9:56 AM

Kotaku Why World of Warcraft Lost So Many Subscribers Gergo Vas 5/07/15 11:00am

Wowhead News WoW Down to 7.1 Million Subscribers in Q1 2015, New Blizzard Merchandise, State of PvP by perculia 2015/05/06 at 12:34 PM

MMO-Champion WoW Down to 7.1 Million Subscribers by chaud 2015-05-06 08:18 PM

2014 News

TechInAsia.com Burgers of Azeroth: China gets World of Warcraft-themed McDonalds restaurants C.C. Custer 6:00 PM on Sep 23, 2014

gamesindustry.biz The Old Republic earned $165 million last year - report By Matthew Handrahan Fri 18 Jul 2014 9:01am GMT / 5:01am EDT / 2:01am PDT

TenTonHammer.com Super Data Research Releases 2013 Revenues By Patsy Anderson - July 18, 2014

IGN.com World of Warcraft Subscriber Numbers Rise to 7.8 Million by Luke Karmali, February 7, 2014

WoW Insider World of Warcraft up to 7.8 million subscribers by Anne Stickney Feb 6th 2014 4:36PM

VentureBeat.com World of Warcraft adds 200,000 subscribers after months of losses Jeffrey Grubb, February 6, 2014 2:30 PM

Wowhead News Activision Earnings Report: WoW Up to 7.8 Million Subscribers by Perculia 2014/02/06 3:31 PM

MMO-Champion WoW Up to 7.8 Million Subscribers by chaud 2014-02-06 09:18 PM

2013 News

TheGuardian.com Xbox Live among game services targeted by US and UK spy agencies James Ball, Monday 9 December 2013 18.26 EST

       TheGuardian.com NSA files: games and virtual environments paper (PDF) Monday 9 December 2013 07.00 EST

ProPublica.org World of Spycraft: NSA and CIA Spied in Online Games by Justin Elliott, ProPublica, and Mark Mazzetti, The New York Times, Dec. 9, 2013, 6:59 a.m.

WoW Official Game Site (US) Happy Anniversary! World of Warcraft Celebrates 9 Years by Blizzard Entertainment, Nov 22, 2013 9:00 AM PST

WoW Official Game Site (EU) World of Warcraft’s 9th Anniversary! by Blizzard Entertainment, 19 Nov 2013 13:10 GMT

MMO-Champion WoW Down to 7.6 Million Subscribers by chaud 2013-11-06 09:18 PM

WoW Insider World of Warcraft's evolving engine by Adam Koebel Oct 21st 2013 6:00PM

WoW Insider Tom Chilton talks mistakes and successes in WoW design by Sarah Pine Aug 23rd 2013 3:00PM

WoW Insider Tom Chilton: "At some point it's possible that World of Warcraft could end up being free-to-play..." by Adam Holisky Aug 22nd 2013 11:30AM

The Motley Fool World of Warcraft’s Decline Cannot Hold This Company Back By Harsh Chauhan August 21, 2013

WoW Insider World of Warcraft down to 7.7M subscribers by Adam Holisky Jul 26th 2013 12:59AM

WoW Insider Readers' ideas for WoW improvements by Olivia Grace May 13th 2013 5:00PM

WoW Insider Things that were harder before by Matthew Rossi May 13th 2013 3:00PM

WoW Insider World of Warcraft loses 1.3M subscribers since February, down to 8.3M by Fox Van Allen May 8th 2013 5:00PM

Salon.com Lay off WoW, GOP! Their inaccurate attacks on "World of Warcraft" damage a great U.S. brand and chill essential scientific research By Daniel Greenberg Friday, Mar 8, 2013 11:06 AM PST

WoW Insider  by Anne Stickney Feb 7th 2013 4:39PM

2012 News

WoW Insider WoW Archivist: Vanilla WoW's most hidden quest line by Scott Andrews Aug 17th 2012 12:00PM

BlizzPlanet WoW Down 1.1 Million Subscribers, Blizzard has Best Quarter Ever Financially By Eldorian – August 3, 2012

MMO-Champion WoW Loses 1.1 Million Subscribers, Down to 9.1 Million by chaud 2012-08-02 08:39 PM

Wowhead News World of Warcraft Loses Another 1.1 Million Subscribers by Ashelia 2012/08/02 4:15 PM

WoW Insider World of Warcraft currently down to 9.1 million subscribers by Alex Ziebart Aug 2nd 2012 4:35PM

It's Dangerous to Go Alone 50 Shades of WoW by Perculia July 16, 2012

WoW Insider World of Warcraft subscriber numbers remain at 10.2 million by Adam Holisky May 9th 2012 5:00PM

MMO-Champion WoW Stable at 10.2 Million Subscribers by chaud 2012-05-09 08:36 PM

WoW Insider 5 awesome ways World of Warcraft has improved since day one by Anne Stickney May 2nd 2012 12:00PM

Huffington Post Why Warcraft is Peaceful by Rollo Ross 17/04/2012 00:00

HelloGiggles World Of Warcraft: It’s A Secret To Everybody… Else by Michele Morrow 04.13.2012

GameSpot.com The Uncertain Future of World of Warcraft by Eddie Makuch April 12, 2012 11:30AM PDT

WoW Insider This Too Shall Pass: Balance and imbalance in World of Warcraft by Matthew Rossi Apr 9th 2012 8:00PM

Blizzard Entertainment (EU) BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT® ANNOUNCES ITALIAN-LANGUAGE VERSION OF WORLD OF WARCRAFT® by Blizzard Entertainment, 24 February 2012

       WoW Official Game Site (EU) Italian Version of World of Warcraft is Coming to Europe by Blizzard Entertainment 24 Feb 2012 09:38 UTC

       WoW Official Game Site (US) Italian Version of World of Warcraft is Coming to Europe by Blizzard Entertainment Feb 24, 2012 8:00 AM PST

WoW Insider World of Warcraft subscriber numbers dip 100,000 to 10.2 million by Adam Holisky Feb 9th 2012 4:33PM

Wowhead News WoW Loses 100k More Subscribers, Subscriber Decline Finally Slows by Ashelia 2012/02/09 3:31 PM

2011 News

WoW Official Game Site (EU) Aggra is Waiting For You: Are You Prepared? by Blizzard Entertainment, 23 Dec 2011 13:00 UTC

1up.com World of Warcraft Subscriptions Continue to Fall By Chris Pereira, 11/09/2011

PCWorld.com World of Warcraft Loses 2 Million Subscribers in a Year By Matt Peckham Nov 9, 2011 7:30 AM

WoW Official Game Site (EU) World of Warcraft is Now Available in Portuguese (Brazilian) by Blizzard Entertainment, 30 Nov 2011 08:00 UTC

WoW Official Game Site (US) World of Warcraft’s Seventh Anniversary! by Blizzard Entertainment Nov 18, 2011 10:49 AM PST

WoW Official Game Site (EU) World of Warcraft’s Seventh Anniversary! by Blizzard Entertainment 18 Nov 2011 19:00 UTC

WoW Official Game Site (EU) Brazilian Portuguese Version of World of Warcraft is Coming to Europe by Blizzard Entertainment, 27 Sep 2011 09:25 UTC

WoW Official Game Site (US) World of Warcraft Coming to Brazil by Blizzard Entertainment, Jul 21, 2011 6:55 PM PDT

Blizzard (US) BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT’S WORLD OF WARCRAFT® COMING TO BRAZIL IN 2011 by Blizzard Entertainment, July 21, 2011

2010 News

Official General forum (EU) Poll: (Locked) Six Years of WoW In Europe - What Do You Remember?  Vaneras, 11/02/2011 17:52

WoW Official Game Site (US) World of Warcraft’s 6th Anniversary! by Blizzard Entertainment, Nov 16, 2010 7:00 PM PST

PCGamer.com Fan made map brings World of Warcraft to Civilization V by Tom Senior 04:07pm November 4 2010

Old news

Web.Archive.org Sci Fi Weekly article "Warcraft Conquers The World" article archive SEP. 11, 2006 (archived 25-Apr-2009)

GameSpot.com ECTS 2001: World of Warcraft announced By Sam Parker September 2, 2001 10:32AM PDT

Other

Facebook World of Warcraft in Facebook search

Groups.Yahoo.com World of Warcraft in the Yahoo groups directory

Related info

PerezHilton.com Justin Bieber Reveals His World Of Warcraft Love By Running A Chair Into A Wall! Check It Out HERE! 10/09/2013 8:03 AM ET

WoW Insider Warcraft as a whole: story balance between RTS and MMO by Matthew Rossi Oct 7th 2013 6:00PM

Metro.co.uk Why I quit World Of Warcraft – Reader’s Feature Sunday 6 Oct 2013 1:00 am

WoW Insider World of Warcraft's peculiar time dilation by Matthew Rossi Oct 2nd 2013 2:00PM

Wikipedia World of Warcraft

WoW Insider WoW Archivist: Recapping classic World of Warcraft by Alex Ziebart Sep 27th 2011 1:00PM

wow leveling guide WoW Guide: Recapping classic World of Warcraft

WineHQ.com The Official WineHQ website with info about World of Warcraft with Wine.

MMO-Champion General Discussion forum Some things you didn't know about WoW... by Palidan 2010-06-17 03:41 PM

WoW Insider Robert's not-so-original WoW miscellany by Allison Robert Jan 24th 2012 6:00PM

WoW Bash Top 100 (images from World of Warcraft) by Furism