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WoW Introduction

April 4th, 2007 by Shenron

World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW ) is a MMORPG ( Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game ) which has been developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth game of the Warcraft series, excluding the cancelled Warcraft Adventures : Lord of the clans and the expansion packs. World of Warcraft is the MMORPG which you can play by subscription and it lacks an offline mode. World of Warcraft’s release celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.

The Warcraft series of games are set in the fantasy setting introduced by Warcraft: Orcs and Humans in 1994 and is called Warcraft Universe. World of Warcraft itself takes place within the world of Azeroth which is four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard Entertainment’s previous release, Warcraft III : The Frozen Throne.

It would be interesting to note that the initial release of the game was hampered by server stability and performance issue. But the game now has become extremely popular and a financial success. It is now the world’s leading MMORPG based on subscription.
On March 7 , 2007, Blizzard Entertainment announced that the players subscribing for World of Warcraft have now reached a new milestone, with more than eight and a half million players through the world. There are more than two million players in North America, three and a half million players in China and two million players in North America. The game has won numerous recognitions and awards. It was given the Gamespot’s Game of the Year Award for 2004. The first official World of Warcraft expansion pack was released on 16th January 2007 and was called The Burning Crusade.

There have been some of the fangames released too. The World of Warcraft Board Game published by Fantasy Flight Games and a World of Warcraft Trading Card Game published by Upper Deck Entertainment are one of the popular ones.

Contradicting previous games in the Warcraft series the World of Warcraft game is not a real time strategy one, but is a MMORPG. As with most of the MMORPGs like EverQuest, Ragnarok, Gunz, Knights Online, etc. , in World of Warcraft too , players control a character avatar within a persistent and a virtual gameworld. The players through their avatars fight monsters, explore the landscape and perform quests on behalf of computer controlled characters ( also referred to as NPCs – Non Playing Characters ).

The majority of the quests in the World of Warcraft game, which can be taken during the early and middle stages of the gameplay, can be completed without the help of other players easily, especially when the player is of higher level that what the quests suggests. Other portions of the game, such as dungeons, which are also referred to as instances, are designed to require other players to work together for success. Dungeons are designed for parties (also called groups ) ranging from two to five players , up to a maximum limit of forty players for significantly more difficult raids ( Raids is a term originating from the EverQuest gameplay ). The dungeons and encounters of the highest level, which are most complex, are designed so that the raiding takes months of playtime and numerous attempts before they succeed.

In particular, the game areas designed specifically for sixty level and above characters are generally much more raid dependent and are time consuming than the relatively more casual experience of advancing one;s character from levels one to seventy ( seventy is the new level cap , since the January 16th release of World of Warcraft : The Burning Crusade ). The majority of World of Warcraft’s endgame content (which means the content designed specifically for level sixty and higher characters) requires raiding , with raids making up the bulk of the game’s development since release, closely followed by the Player versus Player aspect.

The game rewards success through items, money and experience, which in turn allows the player to improve his avatar’s skill and power. In addition to this , players have the option to take part in battles against other players, including both duels and fight against player characters allied with an enemy faction.

With the latest release of the expansion pack, Blizzard Entertainment has attempted to create endgame content more accessible to casual players by reducing the amount of required preparation to do these. The original ( level sixty ) endgame dungeons involved gather rather large amount of supplies before the dungeon attempt, such as doing long ‘attunement’ quests, which is a requirement for almost all of the raiding guilds in the game. The attunement quest enables the player to easily enter a particular raid dungeon, and for some of the dungeons, players cannot enter without completing the quest. Blizzard Entertainment claims to have made these quests shorter in the expansion, but since not many of the people have reached the endgame level, this is still unproven.

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What is MMORPG?

April 3rd, 2007 by Shenron

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) is a genre of online Role Playing Games (RPGs). In MMORPGs large numbers of players interact in a virtual world.

Like in other RPGs, the characters here are also fictitious (commonly taken from a fantasy) and are chosen by players. Players personalize the character and take control of their character’s actions. There is a persistent world, usually hosted by the game’s publisher, which continues to develop and exist even when a player is not playing the game.

Most of the MMORPGs despite having evolved to a great extent share basic characteristics. Most of the MMORPGs are based on time-honored Dungeons and Dragons game-play which includes loot, monsters and quests. There is usually the capability to develop the character after it reaches a particular level. Gaining experience points, which are usually achieved by killing monsters and participating in different contests held within the game help achieve the level. Many a times there are Game Moderators or Game masters (abbreviated to GM) who supervise the virtual world and makes sure that the game runs smoothly.

MMORPGs are extremely popular throughout the world and it is estimated that the number of people playing MMORPGs is above fifteen million as of 2006. This industry is soon taking over the gaming section with revenues exceeding one billion USD.

MMORPGs generally take into account large communities of players and social network and most of them have support for creating of Guilds or Clans, which are in-game organizations of players. The virtual world that the player enters is a persistent one where a client-server model is employed, in which the virtual game database runs continuously on a server, and players connect to the game via the client software. For most of the MMORPGs, players either have to purchase the client software for a one-time fee or pay for a monthly subscription which allows them to play. Most of the popular MMORPGs require players to do both. Since the “Massively Multiplayer” games are online round the clock and use considerable resources of a good server also being expensive to maintain and function, thus, they require a constant revenue source which can either be in the form of monthly subscriptions or advertisements.

Games that have the characteristics of ‘massively multiplayer’ functionally, but do not have role-playing elements, are called MMOGs ( Massively Multiplayer Online Games).

Most of the MMORPGs have a common characteristic that a player can single handedly fight monsters without a group during the initial stages of the game. Eventually they have to find and join parties or groups (guilds or clans) to get experience points due to the fact that the monsters in the later stages are too difficult to kill alone. Some of the MMORPGs like World of Warcraft break this culture and allows the player to solo to the highest attainable level which makes the game accessible to casual players or those who do not prefer to play for long periods of time.

MMORPGs thus give every person a space of its own, and that is a reason as to why these games are so popular nowadays.

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What are Role Playing Games? (RPG’s)

April 2nd, 2007 by Shenron

Role Playing Games or RPGs are generally those games, which involve long, intricate plots with an emphasis on character development and are usually slow and strategic. RPGs work according to a set pattern of rules that cannot be broken or modified by the players. The pattern may differ from game to game. The main emphasis in an RPG is given on the development of a character.

A character is fictious and is collaboratively created or is taken from a story. Each player’s character has a number of characteristics, often including strength, intelligence, charisma, speed, and various paranormal traits. These are ranked, often on a numeric scale, so that a player can gauge the character’s capabilities. For example, a character’s strength rating could be used to determine the likelihood that the character can lift a certain weight. The development of a character depends on the various choices the player makes during the course of the game, which then shapes the direction and the ultimate outcome of the game.

Role Playing Games are generally appealing to those who are imaginative and prefer playing for long sessions. It is that genre of gaming which combines interaction with story telling. RPGs rarely have any winners or losers. Its nature differs it from other genres and creates a class of its own. RPGs are broadly classified into three types namely, LARP, online and freeform.

The set of rules of a role-playing game is known as its game system whereas the rules are called game mechanics. A participation of Game Master (GM) is required in almost all the role playing games. It is the GM who portrays most of its inhabitants and acts as a rules arbitrator and moderator for the players. A GM governs and alters the settings of a game session.

Role Playing Games by their nature promotes mass participation of people. People are often emotionally associated with their character because it is their character that portrays them in the game. Players have complete control over their character actions in this virtual world of RPG, which is not possible in real life. Thus players tend to devote more time into gaming just because it gives them the unbound pleasure of total control while maintaining their integrity in the virtual world. RPGs thus try to give the imaginative human brain to give space to act and live itself out in a virtual world.

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