World of Warcraft/Gameplay

World of Warcraft, created by the video game company Blizzard Entertainment, is a wildly popular massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) which takes place in the mythical and expansive world of Azeroth. This world is filled with two types of game play: player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP). In the PvE part of the game, players travel around the world completing thousands of quests with hundreds of interesting story lines, whereas, the PvP aspect of the game pits players against other players in order to gain prestige, power, and peer respect.

In game, players choose to create a unique character from eight unique races and nine powerful classes. Each race in the game has it's own interesting look, a look which is further customizable in the character creation screen. As well as look, each race has a series of racial traits and talents which help to give variablity in character types. Further helping to individualize characters, each class is give a plethora of skills and abilities which are enhanced as the character gains levels through game play and exploration. With the added ability to freely create multiple characters in the game, change the abilities of an existing character by respecing their talents, World of Warcraft excels at keeping game content variable thus having long-term playability.

As an added benefit, Blizzard Entertainment has put much effort into creating a game that casual players and hardcore players enjoy alike. For casual players, a few quests can be completed in a matter of a couple hours in the evening, unlike other MMORPG's which require playing the game like a full-time job to feel that you've accomplished something. They also implemented a "rested xp" game mechanism and allows for 200% experiance gained from destroying monsters which is activated if a player hasn't gained monster XP for a certain period of time, helping casual players to level at a respectable pace. For hardcore players, who have time and desire to put man hours in, there are item rewards for competing in PvP game play which often requires five or more hours daily, as well, completing instanced dungeons which take hours to complete often yeild desirable items.

=Getting Started=

Characters
The eight playable races in World of Warcraft are split into two factions, Horde and Alliance. These two factions are at war and the majority of PvP game experiance centers around conflict between the two factions. As well, factions cannot communicate with each other so if you want to play with friends, it is wise to choose the same faction. The Alliance consists of Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, and Night Elves; while the Horde is made up of Orcs, Trolls, Taurens, and the Undead.

Each race has specialized talents and a limited number of classes available for them to use. For example, a Gnome can only choose between the classes of warrior, mage, warlock, and rogue; and has racial abilities such as increased engineering skills, and intelligence whereas a Night Elf can be a warrior, druid, hunter, rogue or priest and has the ability to hide in shadows, and increased nature damage resistance. To further complicate the issue, each faction also has one unique class. The alliance have Paladins and the Horde have Shamans.

Each class has special talents and spells which are purchased through in-game trainers after the character has reach a certain level in the game. Each character has three distinct talent trees which strengthen skill classes and give new skills. This aspect of the game allows for great customization between characters of the same class and race.

Races

 * Dwarves
 * Gnomes
 * Humans
 * Night Elves
 * Orcs
 * Trolls
 * Tauren
 * Undead

Classes

 * Druid
 * Hunter
 * Mage
 * Paladin
 * Priest
 * Rogue
 * Shaman
 * Warlock
 * Warrior

=Zones=

Eastern Kingdom

 * Elwynn Forest
 * Dun Morogh
 * Tiristfal Glades
 * Loch Modan
 * Silverpine Forest
 * Westfall
 * Redridge Mountains
 * Duskwood
 * Hillsbrad Foothills
 * Wetlands
 * Alterac Mountains
 * Arathi Highlands
 * Stranglethorn Vale
 * Badlands
 * Swamp of Sorrows
 * The Hinterlands
 * Searing Gorge
 * The Blasted Lands
 * Burning Steppes
 * Western Plaguelands
 * Eastern Plaguelands
 * Deadwind Pass

Kalimdor

 * Durotar
 * Mulgore
 * Darkshore
 * The Barrens
 * Stonetalon Mountains
 * Ashenvale Forest
 * Thousand Needles
 * Desolace
 * Dustwallow Marsh
 * Feralas
 * Tanaris Desert
 * Azshara
 * Felwood
 * Un'Goro Crater
 * Silithus
 * Winterspring

Towns and Cities

 * Orgrimar
 * Undercity
 * Thunder Bluff
 * Ironforge
 * Darnassus
 * Stormwind

=Instances= An instance is a specialized type of difficult dugeon created to prevent problems of over-crowding and kill stealing. These dungeons are often more difficult than the regular PvE experiance and require working together in a five-person party, some even requiring twenty or more person raids. When entering an instance, a new copy of the dungeon is created which is unique to the paticular party or raid which has entered it thus no one else can enter the dungeon and kill a named boss without being explicitly invited to do so. This helps to stop players who would follow a group into a dungeon, wait for the them to clear the way to the boss, than fight the boss thus stealing other peoples clearing work. This also prevents over-crowding of a boss because any number of instances can be created and each has it's own copy of that paticular boss.

Eastern Kingdoms

 * Blackrock Depths
 * Blackrock Spire
 * Blackwing Lair
 * Deadmines
 * Gnomeregan
 * Molten Core
 * The Scarlet Monastery
 * Scholomance
 * Shadowfang Keep
 * The Stockades
 * Stratholme
 * The Sunken Temple (Temple of Atal'Hakkar)
 * Uldaman
 * Zul'Gurub

Kalimdor

 * Blackfathom Deeps
 * Dire Maul
 * Maraudon
 * Onyxia's Lair
 * Ragefire Chasm
 * Razorfen Downs
 * Razorfen Kraul
 * Wailing Caverns
 * Zul'Farrak
 * Zul'Gurub

Battlegrounds

 * Alterac Valley
 * Arathi Basin
 * Warsong Gulch