Gameplay of World of Warcraft - Setting

Setting

In a change from the previous Warcraft games produced by Blizzard, World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) where thousands of players can interact with each other. Despite this change, the game draws many similarities with its predecessors. These include using the same setting of the world of Azeroth as well as following a similar art direction. In common with many MMORPGs, World of Warcraft requires players to pay for a subscription, usually either by credit-card or by buying a card from a retailer to redeem for a pre-determined amount of subscription time.

World of Warcraft takes place in a 3D-representation of the Warcraft universe that players can interact with through their characters. The game features three continents on the world of Azeroth. A second world, known as Outland, was later added in the expansion World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. The second expansion, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, added a third continent, Northrend, to Azeroth. In this game world, players use their characters to explore locations, defeat creatures and complete quests. By doing this, characters gain experience points. After a set amount of experience points have been gained, a character gains a level, opening up the option of learning new skills or abilities, exploring new areas and attempting new quests. As a player explores new locations, a number of transport shortcuts become available. Players can discover 'flight masters' in newly discovered locations and then use those NPCs in order to fly to previously discovered locations in other parts of the world. Players can also use facilities such as boats and zeppelins in order to move from one of the continents on Azeroth to the other. Players can communicate with each other using text based chat, separated into different channels for ease of use. When a player instructs their character to yell or say something, a chat bubble appears above their head containing the spoken words in a similar way to a comic book image.

A number of facilities are available to characters when in towns and cities. In each major city characters can access a bank in order to deposit items, such as treasure or crafted items. Each bank is unique to that character, with players able to purchase additional storage space. An addition in the Burning Crusade expansion was the concept of guild banks, allowing members of the same guild to contribute items, resources and in-game currency to a central pool. In the major cities of Azeroth, 'Auction Houses' also exist as a way for characters to sell items to others in a similar way to online auction sites such as eBay. Finally, in almost every town and in every major city are mailboxes. A mailbox can be used to collect items won at auction and also to send messages, items and even in-game money to other characters. A unique feature of this is the ability to send items requiring "cash on delivery", where the receiving character has to pay to accept the item.

Although the game world remains reasonably similar from day to day, changes have been made over time. Seasonal events that reflect on real world events such as Oktoberfest (as Brewfest), Halloween (as Hallow's End), Christmas (as Winter Veil), Children's Week, Easter (as Noblegarden) and Midsummer run for a period of a day or two up to several weeks. More regular events such as a fishing tournament have also been set up for players to take part in. Other changes include adding weather effects such as rain, snow and dust storms to areas, or redeveloping areas of the game in order to add new quests or to continue a particular storyline in the game. This can also include adding new dungeons to locations for the players to explore.