World of Warcraft

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For the classic server option dedicated to emulate the original experience, see World of Warcraft: Classic.
World of Warcraft
WoWlogo.png
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
 After release: Team 2
Publisher(s) Blizzard Entertainment[1]
Designer(s) Rob Pardo
Jeff Kaplan
Tom Chilton
Composer(s) Jason Hayes
Tracy W. Bush
Derek Duke
Glenn Stafford
Platforms Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, (Linux via Wine or Cedega)
Release
  • NA: November 23, 2004[3]
  • KO: January 18, 2005[2]
  • EU: February 11, 2005[4]
  • CN: June 6, 2005[5]
  • SG: July 21, 2005[6]
  • TW: November 8, 2005[7]
Latest release
Genre(s) Massively multiplayer online role-playing
Mode(s) Multiplayer
Expansion packs chronology

World of Warcraft
(2004) 		The Burning Crusade
(2007)

World of Warcraft, often abbreviated as WoW (or, when referring to the original game, vanilla, classic, or pre-BC), is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise, three years after its announcement on September 2, 2001.[8] It is the fourth released game set in the Warcraft universe, and takes place four years after the events of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.[9]

Selected World of Warcraft articles


Plot

Four years after the Battle of Mount Hyjal, tensions between the Alliance and the Horde begin to arise once again.[10] Intent on settling the arid region of Durotar, Thrall's new Horde expanded its ranks, inviting the undead Forsaken to join orcs, tauren, and trolls. Meanwhile, dwarves, gnomes and the ancient night elves pledged their loyalties to a reinvigorated Alliance, guided by the human kingdom of Stormwind. After Stormwind's king Varian Wrynn mysteriously disappeared, Highlord Bolvar Fordragon served as Regent, but his service was marred by the manipulations and mind control of the black dragon Onyxia, who ruled in disguise as a human noblewoman. As heroes investigated Onyxia's manipulations, ancient foes surfaced in lands throughout the world to menace Horde and Alliance alike.[11]

Updates

World of Warcraft box cover
An original box cover for World of Warcraft

There have been ten expansions to World of Warcraft:

Additionally, World of Warcraft: Classic, released on 26/27 August 2019,[21] provides a way to experience the game as it was before any expansions, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic released on 1/2 June 2021, provides a way to experience the game as it was during its first expansion and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic released on 26/27 September 2022, provides a way to experience the game as it was during its second expansion but introducing new features like the Titan Rune Dungeons.

Over time, the game's expansions have been integrated into the base game. With the release of patch 8.0.1 released on 17 July 2018, a player will only need to purchase game time to start playing the game without the need to purchase World of Warcraft itself.[22] With the release of patch 10.0.0 released on 25 October 2022, all World of Warcraft accounts with game time automatically have access to all of the content and features of all the expansions up to Shadowlands at no additional cost.

Further story development and worldbuilding are also made throughout its franchising, via online media, novels, comics, manga, RPG books, Trading Card Game, and board games.

Account levels

Main article: Account § Account levels
  • World of Warcraft: Free Trial - Try World of Warcraft for free - level to 20.
  • Veteran Edition - Accounts that had a subscription at one point that are currently inactive. It allows these accounts to use the same benefits and limitations as a free trial account.
  • Active Game time (monthly payment). Also get access to the Classic versions of WoW.
  • Latest expansion release (one-time purchase) - also requires active game time to play.

Features

Player Customization

Gameplay System

General System
  • A casual-friendly character progression system.
  • In-game trading, mail service, auction system, text and voice chat.
  • Two server types: Normal and RP.
    • (two server types PvP, and RPPvP were removed with Battle for Azeroth)
PvE and PvP Systems
Events
Lore
  • Continues and expands the lore from the Warcraft universe.
  • Streamlined questlines and NPC-voiced storytelling.
User Interface and Customer Support
  • Customize AddOn and Interface with some game commands support.
  • Client seamlessly supports both Mac and Windows operating systems. Linux users can play via Wine, however this is not supported and can be buggy at times.

Availability

  • North America (English-US - US & Canada).
    • Oceania (English-US - Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand).
    • Latin America (Spanish).
    • Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese, 2011).
  • Europe (English-UK, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese-Brazilian, Italian).
  • South Korea.
  • China (Simplified and Traditional Chinese; including Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau).

Subscriber numbers

World of Warcraft Subscribers Chart.

World of Warcraft's subscriber numbers have fluctuated tremendously over the years. The game reached 5 million subscribers just one year after launch.[23]

With a peak of 12 million monthly subscribers in October 2010,[24] World of Warcraft remains among the most popular MMORPGs[13][25] and holds the Guinness World Record for the world's most popular subscription-based MMORPG.[26][27][28][29] Though World of Warcraft had dropped to 7.4 million subscribers as of the release of patch 6.0.2,[30] when the Warlords of Draenor expansion released a few weeks later it briefly jumped all the way back up to 10 million[31] before settling back down to 7.1 million.[32] In the final report in October 2015, there were 5.5 million subscribers.[33]

In January 2014 it was announced that more than 100 million accounts and 500 million characters had been created over the game's lifetime, with players in 244 different countries.[34][35]

In November 2015, Blizzard announced that they would no longer give regular updates of subscriber numbers, as they felt there were better performance metrics they could use.[36] For a graphical representation of subscriber numbers up to November 2015, click here.

Date Subscribers
December 2004 400 thousand
March 2005 1.5 million
June 2005 3.25 million
September 2005 4.25 million
December 2005 5.6 million
March 2006 6.4 million
June 2006 6.6 million
September 2006 7 million
January 2007 8 million
March 2007 8.5 million
June 2007 8.8 million
December 2007 9.75 million
February 2008 10.2 million
October 2008 11 million
December 2008 11.5 million
March 2009 11.5 million
December 2009 11.5 million
October 2010 12 million
March 2011 11.4 million
June 2011 11.1 million
September 2011 10.3 million
December 2011 10.2 million
July 2012 9.1 million
September 2012 10 million
December 2012 9.6 million
March 2013 8.3 million
June 2013 7.7 million
September 2013 7.6 million
December 2013 7.8 million
March 2014 7.6 million
July 2014 6.8 million
October 2014 7.4 million
November 2014 10 million
December 2014 10 million
March 2015 7.1 million
July 2015 5.6 million
November 2015 5.5 million

Estimates have been made since the end of official reporting. In March 2024, it was estimated that the game had 7.5 million subscribers; a combined total that included both Dragonflight and Classic, after a low of 4.5 million subscribers with Battle for Azeroth.[37]

As of Q2 2021, World of Warcraft is among the three largest franchises of Activision Blizzard, alongside Call of Duty and Candy Crush.[38]

Development

See also: World of Warcraft evolution guide

Early conception

The idea of Blizzard creating an MMO game had been around for years by the late 90s/early 2000s. In 1997, Ultima Online was released, becoming one of the genre's most popular games. Allen Adham became obsessed with Ultima Online and declared after his first all-night that Blizzard would create its own similar game one day. Some within Blizzard felt that Ultima Online was antiquated, but the genre was shaken up again in 1999 with the release of EverQuest, which utilized a 3D engine. Blizzard staff members became hooked on the game, calling it "EverCrack," and they often talked about making their own MMORPG. Furthermore, Blizzard already had a pre-existing high fantasy universe they could use for such a game via Warcraft.[39]

At the same time, Blizzard was working on two games (not including Blizzard North); Team 1 was working on what would become Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, while Team 2 was working on Nomad. Nomad suffered from a lack of direction, and one of its developers, Kevin Beardslee, was one of the Blizzard staff members who had become obsessed with EverQuest. However, he hated many aspects of the game and began cataloguing said dislikes into a design document, which would eventually transform into a game pitch. The obsession with EverQuest, coupled with the rocky development of Nomad, led members at Blizzard to ask why they were working on Nomad and not their own EverQuest.[39] Bill Petras had also wanted to do something other than Nomad. Both designers envisioned a game like EverQuest, but more accessible.[40]

Team 2's leaders met to discuss the proposition. They quickly agreed to scrap Nomad in favor of an MMO.[41]

Pre-release

Early development

Original World of Warcraft logo
First and original logo

Nomad was scrapped and development on World of Warcraft began two days later[40] in late 1999.[42] Allen Adham was made lead designer, and like Beardslee and Petras, he thought that sanding off EverQuest's edges could make a more accessible MMO. Whereas Nomad had suffered a lack of direction, the intent for what would become World of Warcraft was clear—make a better EverQuest.[41]

The original development team consisted of around fifty individuals.[43] Inspiration was taken from other MMOs such as Ultima Online and EverQuest, using the lore and characters of Warcraft as the basis for the setting. It would be a risky venture, as the company had grown used to games passing the 1 million sales mark, whereas EverQuest had peaked at the 500,000 subscriber mark. While a subscription fee would help recoup costs, there was unease as to whether the game's reception would be as positive as Blizzard's previous games,[44] and it was thought that the game would only appeal to pre-existing Warcraft fans.[43] Furthermore, few members of Blizzard had experience in developing MMOs, and while they enjoyed playing them, there were fears that the game would be overshadowed by Star Wars Galaxies and EverQuest 2.[45]

During the development of both games, Warcraft III had higher priority over World of Warcraft; the latter's story changed several times due to decisions made by Team 1. According to David Ray, there was a sense in Team 2 that the rest of Blizzard felt that they were going to fail, that the MMO was nothing but Adham's "pet project." Even their name, "Team 2," was reflective of their place in Blizzard's hierarchy.[46]

Blizzard kept the existence of the game secret, even from new employees.[47] The initial development was loose and unstructured due to Team 2's small size. While the team would collaborate via whiteboard, members would go off and build levels as they saw fit.[48]

In regards to EverQuest, one of the game's biggest problems in Blizzard's eyes was its loose, open-ended structure. Some areas of the game were perpetually empty while others, the ones that dropped the best loot, were always crammed full of players waiting for monsters to appear. The game’s quests offered a bit more guidance, but they were opaque; to trigger one, players had to talk to one of the game’s computer-controlled characters and figure out the correct phrase to input. In contrast, World of Warcraft would be more guided. Beginner areas were implemented such as Elwynn Forest and the Valley of Trials. NPCs would be clearly marked with yellow exclamation marks, which would give players basic tasks such as clearing out kobolds, before moving on to more intricate quests. Players would still be free to roam, but there would be a clear progression sequence. Additionally, EverQuest operated in such a way that journeying through the world alone could be extremely hazardous. In World of Warcraft, it was intended that players be able to navigate Azeroth by themselves more easily; the idea that each player character would be akin to a superhero.[49]

The game's 3D engine presented a challenge. While Warcraft III utilized 3D graphics as well, the game still featured limited verticality. World of Warcraft would let players jump and explore landscapes larger than anything Blizzard had previously created. By the early 2000s, 3D technology was progressing so rapidly that the designers had to decide on cutoffs rather than constantly upgrading the game to take advantage of the tech available to them.[50]

There was initial pushback in Blizzard as to the Alliance/Horde faction divide, as some feared that some players wouldn't like it because they couldn't play with friends (if they chose different factions).[51]

The game originally had a true to life day-night cycle, which dictated when events and spawns would happen. This idea was scrapped so that players wouldn't have to disrupt their real lives to do these time-specific activities.[52]

The game's quest designers were given almost complete autonomy in their work, with only loose story guidance from lore developed by Chris Metzen.[53]

Beginning in 2001, Team 2 began staying late two nights a week on a regular basis to avoid crunch.[54]

Later development

Development of World of Warcraft was first announced in September 2001[55] at the ECTS tradeshow. There was little fanfare in the original announcement.[43] When the game was first announced, members of the press often asked Blizzard about the matter of other MMOs, seeing them as "the RTS company."[45] The reception was overall positive however; few were shocked that Blizzard was making an MMO due to how lucrative the business model was.[46]

By 2002, the game's visual design was being worked on.[56] It was decided that the game would use bright, vibrant colors; rendering with style, rather than trying to copy reality.[57] Development of World of Warcraft led to the solidification of the "Warcraft style" (of artwork), according to Samwise Didier,[58] though the first shift towards said style occurred in-between Warcraft I and II.[59] While the game uses 3D models for its characters, the environments generally relied on a hand-drawn look. Environmental storytelling was utilized, as the developers wanted people to be able to understand the story rather than rely on a manual.[60]

Team 2 hoped to have the game ready by the 2003 holiday season, but it became clear that it was impossible. Early hopes of using art assets and models from Warcraft III hadn’t panned out, and the amount of content in the game was ballooning, while every new MMORPG announcement built up the pressure. The team was particularly scared of the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies and EverQuest 2. By this point, the game had become contentious within Blizzard, with one camp believing that World of Warcraft would be "the next big thing," the other believing that the game would fail, draw Vivendi's ire, and cost Blizzard its autonomy. The game's expenses had come under scrutiny due to Team 2's ballooning size and the cost of external servers.[61] Adham and Mike Morhaime defended the game, but a financial model drawn up by Paul Sams was inconclusive. Up to this point, every Blizzard game's sails had spiked at release then declined. Across the pond, Blizzard's parent company Vivendi was drowning in debt, and there was talk from other studios about buying Blizzard. Vivendi ended up selling its assets outside its games development branches. Two Vivendi MMOs were canceled (one Marvel, one based on Lord of the Rings), but development was allowed to continue on World of Warcraft. It had been decided that Vivendi having three MMOs was redundant, but now, World of Warcraft had become one of Vivendi's largest bets.[54]

The game had a significant "crunch period" of development.[62] Team 2 had hoped to avoid this, but by 2003, it was clear that their previous late-night strategy had failed. Warcraft III had been released, and World of Warcraft had its own deadlines to meet.[63]

Adham left Blizzard in 2004 due to burnout. His position as lead designer was taken by Rob Pardo. This didn't affect the game's development much, as by this point, most of the game's key features had been finalized, and Pardo had already been working on the game from behind the scenes.[64]

Towards the end of development, Team 2 brought in new developers, as some zones such as the Barrens felt too empty.[65] A public beta was held in March 2004, followed by closed tests throughout the rest of the year.[53]

Post-release

Second World of Warcraft logo
Second logo

The game released in late 2004. Morhaime had hoped to reach 500,000 subscribers within the first year of release, while Frank Pearce placed the number at 1 million.[66] Surpassing expectations, the game reached 5 million subscribers by the end of 2005. Blizzard had to develop tech and customer support on the fly in order to keep up with the demand.[44] Not only was it well received by the critics,[67] but it also became the best selling PC Game of 2005 and 2006.[68] It was recognized at the 2005 Spike TV Video Game Awards where it won Best PC Game, Best Multiplayer Game, Best RPG, and Most Addictive Game.[69]

In 2007, Blizzard predicted that the game would last for five more years, which spurred them to develop Titan as their successive MMO.[70]

As of 2014, Blizzard's intended development pattern is to keep content at a relatively steady pace—still producing expansions, but with shorter gaps between content implementation.[71] The game has been likened to a sandbox with content being added over time.[72] Expansions are planned out in advance, with narrative threads in one expansion leading to events in the next.[73]

On October 30, 2014, lead designer Ion Hazzikostas stated that World of Warcraft would still be around at its 20th anniversary, in 2024.[74]

As of June 2016, the World of Warcraft team comprises around 235 people.[75]

System requirements

The system requirements for the game evolved a lot from its original version. Details of this evolution, and the current requirements, can be checked on this article.

Creatures

World of Warcraft is inhabited by a large number of creatures. The following creatures were added in Vanilla World of Warcraft before the release of expansions:

Humanoids
Giants
Beasts
Dragonkin
Demons
Undead
Mechanical
Elemental
Aberration

And many creatures are added in each World of Warcraft expansion:

Trivia

Videos

Load video
Video Link

Notes

The gameplay video displayed is the first, released on November 23, 2004. Other videos were also made before the European release.

See also

References

 
  1. ^ The Activision/Blizzard Merger: Five Key Points. Industry News (2007-12-03). Archived from the original on 2008-12-21. Retrieved on 2018-03-05.
  2. ^ Blizzard Entertainment Announces World of Warcraft Korean Release Date - January 18, 2005. Blizzard Entertainment (2005-01-17). Archived from the original on 2005-02-06.
  3. ^ Blizzard Entertainment Announces World of Warcraft "Street Date" - November 23, 2004. Blizzard Entertainment (2004-11-04). Archived from the original on 2004-11-10.
  4. ^ Blizzard Entertainment Announces World of Warcraft European Street Date – 11 February, 2005. Blizzard Entertainment (2005-02-11). Archived from the original on 2005-02-07.
  5. ^ World of Warcraft Launches in China. Blizzard Entertainment (2005-06-06). Archived from the original on 2005-06-10.
  6. ^ World of Warcraft to Launch in Singapore. Blizzard Entertainment (2005-07-21). Archived from the original on 2006-01-16.
  7. ^ World of Warcraft Launches In Region of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Blizzard Entertainment (2005-11-08). Archived from the original on 2005-12-11.
  8. ^ Blizzard Entertainment announces World of Warcraft. Games Fusion (2003-09-05). Archived from the original on 2007-11-03. Retrieved on 2018-03-06.
  9. ^ Fiction Timeline. Blizzard Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2010-12-04. Retrieved on 2018-03-06.
  10. ^ WoW official trailer
  11. ^ Story of Warcraft: chapter 8
  12. ^ World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade shatters day-1 sales record. Blizzard Entertainment (2007-01-23). Archived from the original on 2007-01-26. Retrieved on 2018-03-05.
  13. ^ a b World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Shatters Day-1 Sales Record. Blizzard Entertainment (2008-01-23). Archived from the original on 2008-02-26. Retrieved on 2018-03-06.
  14. ^ World of Warcraftft®: Cataclysm™ In Stores Starting December 7. Blizzard Entertainment (2010-10-04). Retrieved on 2010-10-04.
  15. ^ Mists of Pandaria Launches September 25, 2012 – Pre-Sales NOW OPEN. Blizzard Entertainment (2012-07-25). Archived from the original on 2018-03-05. Retrieved on 2018-03-15.
  16. ^ Warlords of Draenor Launches 11/13—Watch the Cinematic & Lords of War: Part One Now!. Blizzard Entertainment (2014-08-14). Retrieved on 2018-03-05.
  17. ^ Andy Chalk 2016-04-19. World of Warcraft: Legion will arrive in August. PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2016-04-20. Retrieved on 2018-03-06.
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  19. ^ Shadowlands: Story Trailer
  20. ^ World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Now Live!
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  24. ^ WORLD OF WARCRAFT® SUBSCRIBER BASE REACHES 12 MILLION WORLDWIDE.
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  27. ^ [Craig]. Guinness World Records 2009, 241. “Most popular MMORPG game(sic) In terms of the number of online subscribers, World of Warcraft is the most popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), with 10 million subscribers as of January 2008.” 
  28. ^ Becky Williams 2009-08-24. Video: Backstage at BlizzCon 2009:Thousands of World of Warcraft fans descend on southern California for Blizzard's epic gaming convention. The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2009-09-01. Retrieved on 2018-03-06.
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  30. ^ WoW Up to 7.4 Million Subscribers. Retrieved on 2014-10-14.
  31. ^ WORLD OF WARCRAFT® SURPASSES 10 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS AS WARLORDS OF DRAENOR™ LAUNCH BEGINS. Retrieved on 2014-11-19.
  32. ^ WoW Down to 7.1 Million Subscribers. Retrieved on 2015-05-06.
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