World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a very popular and successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMPORPG) produced by the team at Blizzard Entertainment. With more than 11.5 million monthly subscribers and 62 percent of the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) market, WoW has become an increasingly huge commercial and cultural force over the course of the early 21st century.

World of Warcraft is the fourth release in the Warcraft universe, a series which began with Warcraft: Orcs and Humans in 1994, and has recently seen the development of three WoW expansion sets. The game was widely praised by both critics and fans upon release, many of whom had been waiting in anticipation since the earlier incarnations in the series. The WoW community is active in a number of ways, and there are a number of online forums and third party websites that are dedicated to the game.

WoW takes place in a specially designed universe that is represented through 3D animation, making for a visually interesting and realistic setting for players to explore. WoW has a similar gameplay to most other MMPORPGs, where players control a third party character avatar which can also be played in first person mode. Players explore the surrounding landscapes of the game environment, fighting monsters, completing quests, and interacting with other characters who are also in the game. There are two opposing factions of characters: Alliance and Horde, as well as a number of different species and character classes that people can play.

World of Warcraft has become such a huge online success that it is now having a powerful impact on wider global culture, where it is even affecting real world commercial activity. The real money trading of WoW gold, along with the trading of desirable character accounts and powerleveling, is helping individual players to enhance their WoW experience while also helping the game to merge more readily with real world culture and commerce.