Enter the World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is a massive multiplayer online role playing game which has been around for over 10 years and is extremely popular. It is based on the Warcraft line of games which date back to the old building and exploring games of the 1990’s and the table top games which evolved from it. In World of Warcraft, the player takes on the persona of a character which they control on its own adventure through the world of Azeroth. The character levels up – gaining skills, spells, and access to new areas, quests, etc. Even at the maximum level there are still plenty of tasks for the player to complete to make their character the best it can be.

Leveling is the first goal a player must face in World of Warcraft. Getting a character to maximum level can take weeks to months…unless one wants to buy a level boost from Blizzard (the game’s maker). The player levels their character by completing quests, killing creatures, and participating in battlegrounds. Battlegrounds are an area where players compete against each other in teams, killing one another while fighting towards some objective. As one gets to higher levels – it takes more experience and a longer time to level.

The second goal set in front of a player is getting good equipment. There are a few ways to go about this in Azeroth. The easiest is to buy decent equipment off the auction house, where players can buy and sell with one another. This requires gold however, which is usually hard for low level newcomers to World of Warcraft to obtain. Participating in dungeons is a second way to get good equipment. Dungeons are specific areas which a group of players can ‘sign up’ to enter and fight their way through, usually completing some quest assignments along the way. Quests are assignments to gather certain items or kill certain creatures. Dungeons bosses (hard to kill creatures) can also drop good equipment when they die, which players may have a chance to get if they participate in the kill. Whether you buy, quest for, or kill for your equipment – the better it is, the easier your life will be in the World of Warcraft.

I previously mentioned battlegrounds and these are a great – and sometimes helpful – break from the tedious task of leveling. There are games such as capture the flag, base capture, and mixtures of both in World of Warcraft. Winning these games will give players points which can be used to buy special equipment which can be worn when fighting against other players. The more of this equipment you have, the better you will be at fighting. Some World of Warcraft players love what is called Player Versus Player, or PvP. This means killing other players is your fun. Some World or Warcraft servers allow free for all PvP where anyone can kill anyone else. Some areas may be protected by guards but nothing is promised.

World of Warcraft is a phenomena, one of the longest running and most popular games ever. I’ve played it for over 10 years and still love it even though I’m in retirement now. If you’ve never played it and are a gamer – its worth checking out. Enter into the World of Warcraft and you’ll never want to leave.