WOW Explained

In January 16^th & 17^th, 2007 The Burning Crusade was released as the first expansion to wow.  A number of things will be added to the game through this expansion.  Visit The Burning Crusade to learn more about this update. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is the upcoming second expansion.  It will be released sometime in 2008.

WOW takes place in the world of Azeroth.  When you first start a new game you most create a character. You choose from ten playable races:

• Dwarves
• Gnomes
• Humans
• Night Elves
• Orcs
• Tauren
• Trolls
• Undead
• Draenei
• Blood Elves

and a class to match your race from the following:

• Druids, available to: Night Elves, Tauren
• Hunters, available to: Night Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Tauren, Trolls
• Mages, available to: Humans, Gnomes, Undead, Trolls
• Paladins, available to: Humans, Dwarves
• Priests, available to: Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves, Undead, Trolls
• Rogues, available to: Gnomes, Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves, Orcs, Undead, Trolls
• Shaman, available to: Orcs, Tauren, Trolls
• Warlocks, available to: Gnomes, Humans, Orcs, Undead
• Warriors, available to: All Races

You can join the Horde or the Alliance, and your choice here determines much of what you can and cannot accomplish in the world.

You can only group and talk to players in your own faction. You also can only view and befriend players in your faction when using the in-game social commands. The intent is to make you feel like a member of one enormous team, while at the same time setting up the other faction as an enemy or, at best, a rival. Thus, if you wish to play with your friends, you will want to all join the same faction. Other content, such as the zones you can visit and the quests you can accomplish, are also organized by faction. Some quests can only be completed by Horde players and others can only be completed by Alliance players. Some zones offer cities and interactive NPCs for one faction, but are completely hostile to the other.

The Horde side includes the orc, tauren, troll, and undead races, while the Alliance side includes dwarves, gnomes, humans, and night elves. All classes are equally well-represented on both sides, with the exception of the shaman and paladin classes. Shaman can only be played by Horde players, and Paladins are exclusive to the Alliance side.

After you have set up your character you will then be taken to your race's starting area. All the races except trolls and gnomes begin in a unique location. Those two races have to share starting locales with the orcs and dwarves, respectively. After watching a brief in-game cutscene introducing your race, you are set loose upon the world.

WOW presents many different monsters to challenge you in battle. These creatures roam the countryside and populate vast dungeons and aboveground locations. There are wandering beasts, such as wolves, spiders, scorpions (called scorpids in this world), six-legged crocodiles called crocolisks, crabs, vultures, hyenas, big cats, bears, and more. More sinister enemies also block your travels. Humanoid foes of every kind, such as pirates, bandits, cultists, and soldiers from the opposing faction, join more unnatural monsters like undead, oozes, gryphons, and elementals, in providing conflict and danger on your journeys.

You'll also see some familiar monstrous creatures, such as ogres, gnolls, centaurs, satyrs, murlocs, wildkin, and others, that are inspired by the hostile creeps of Warcraft III. And you'll encounter more spectacular enemies like demons, infernals, dragonspawn, and mighty dragons stalking the dungeons and high-level areas of the world.

WOW is an online game with thousands of players, so naturally the game is built to facilitate extensive in-game socializing. You can search for players easily by key words, looking for those in your same zone or with certain names. You can also add players to a friends list, so you can keep track of nice and helpful players for grouping or just talking.

Grouping is simple as well. Many quests are designed to be accomplished with other players, and you'll therefore want to seek out the help of other characters. Groups can have up to five players, who should be around the same level so that all players in the group can fight acceptable challenges and earn good experience. The game also has "raid groups," which allow up to 40 players to adventure together against uncommonly powerful foes and quests.

There are two types of servers for WOW, normal and player-versus player.
On normal servers, you can enter into player-versus-player combat by storming enemy capitals, entering special PvP zones called battlegrounds, or by attacking the guards in enemy cities. In all cases, you have a choice to engage in PvP combat or not.

On PvP servers, there are many zones that are flagged as contested territory. In these zones, players from opposing factions can attack each other freely. Thus, you could be fighting monsters by yourself, only to be killed by a stealthed enemy rogue. PvP servers also enable PvP combat through Battlegrounds, attacking enemy guards, and entering enemy capitals.

The rewards for PvP play are excellent, however. Blizzard wants to encourage players to participate in PvP, since the Horde-Alliance conflict is central to the Warcraft universe. As you kill enemy guards and enemy players, you will accumulate honor points, which translate into a military rank. As you progress through the ranks, you will gain certain benefits, such as special equipment, weapons, and mounts. Because rank is competitive, you will have to continue to engage in PvP play to maintain or increase your rank, since other players could advance past you if they accomplish more in the battle against the opposing faction. Keep in mind though, that you will only gain points for killing players near your level. Blizzard will not reward players who attack lower-level characters.

The best way to learn more about WOW is to just start playing.