• This game requires a monthly fee, and an internet connection to play
• Create and customize your own hero from the unique races and classes of the Warcraft universe
• Explore an expansive world with miles of forests, deserts, snow-blown mountains, and other exotic lands
• Visit huge cities and delve through dozens of vast dungeons
• Adventure together with thousands of other players in an enormous, persistent game world

• Hacking World of Warcraft (ExtremeTech)
• World of Warcraft Master Guide, Second Edition (World of Warcraft)
• *OP WoW Alliance Players Guide (World of Warcraft the Roleplaying Game)
• World of Warcraft Atlas, Second Edition (World of Warcraft)
• World of Warcraft Series 3 Draenei Mage Action Figure

World Of Warcraft lets players experience the lands of Azeroth from a newer, in-depth perspective. They'll discover new lands and take on epic quests and challenges in massive online multiplayer action. Adventure together with thousands of other players simultaneously A monthly subsription fee is required to play online
World of Warcraft didn't invent the online role-playing genre, but it certainly benefits from the missteps of other titles that have come before. A mind-boggling array of improvements in graphics, gameplay, networking, and interface--really every category--makes this game the crown prince of the genre, a great starting place for newbies, and a challenge to any other MMORPG currently in the works.

The game's beautifully rendered locations are filled with small details, such as flying birds and flowing water.

A History of Conflict
WoW takes place just four years after the real-time strategy Warcraft series, which chronicles a 25 year struggle between the Alliance (humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves) and the Horde (orcs, tauren, trolls, and undead). Even though there's tons of accumulated story to the series, new players should not be daunted. The background is there for you to explore, but you don't have to tread a lot of Azeroth history to get into the action.

The makers boast 2,000 existing quests with more being added, many of them noncombat in nature.

The game looks magnificent. There's plenty of detail and variety to the landscapes and interiors, and the artwork has a refreshingly playful style. There's not a lot of variety in the character creation process, but with all the skills and proficiencies to combine in the game, WoW focuses its customization not on the appearance of your character but rather on the character of your character. The game lets you adopt any two trade skills, regardless of character race or class, and combine those skills in useful ways. If you choose skinning and leatherworking, for example, you can fashion bags from the carcasses of monsters you defeat, which will allow you to carry even more inventory items.

Expanded Commerce
You can sell the items you make, find, and loot through a variety of outlets. Like any role-playing game, WoW has merchants who will buy your cast-off items for fixed prices, but you can also sell to other players at your own price through in-game chat or by leaving it with one of the auction houses located across the map. This virtual free market is a game within the game, like Monopoly somehow inserted into the middle of Chess. Heck, you can even send items C.O.D. to other players via the game's mail system.

The game's Quest Log keeps track of up to 20 quests at a time.

In other online role-playing games, starting players have to invest dozens of hours whacking at small prey and doing other odd jobs one at a time to gradually "level up" to more interesting challenges. WoW lets players accept a variety of quests--up to 20 at a time without penalty for abandoning any of them before they're complete. The makers boast 2,000 existing quests with more being added, many of them noncombat in nature. Where some games only grant experience through battle, WoW grants experience for exploring and fulfilling quests too.

A Level Playing Field
There's also a built-in handicap for casual players where your character enters a rest state when you log off from the game. The longer you're logged off (up to a week), the bigger the experience bonus you'll get when you return to battle. An enemy tagging feature--the player who lands the first attack on an enemy claims the loot for himself or his party--prevents onlookers from swooping in and pilfering items from a monster that you brought down. That resolves a common complaint of other titles.

Icons and pop-ups help put complex controls easily within reach.

Most games severely penalize players when they die in-game, usually by shaving experience points, funds, or both. In WoW, death just relocates your ghost to the nearest graveyard, and the only penalty is the time it takes you to get back to resurrect your character's corpse.

All of this makes for a very complicated game, but the well-designed interface puts all the game's elements into icons either visible framing the action or within a simple keystroke. The enemy's artificial intelligence is quite strong too: Monsters will join nearby fights to aid their comrades, switch targets strategically midbattle, and ambush players. The map system fills in details on places you've visited, so you always know where you are and where you've been.

Overall, World of Warcraft is a game that's easy to learn, challenging to master, beautiful to watch, and tons of fun to play. --Porter B. Hall
For the first time, players can experience the lands of WarCraft's Azeroth from a new, in-depth perspective. As heroes, they explore familiar battlefields, discover new lands, and take on epic quests and challenges in Blizzard's massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Blizzard has taken care to make the game accessible and fun both for hard-core 60-hour-a-week players and for more casual adventurers.

Customer Rating:
Summary: great game
Comment: Bottom line this is a great game. for those other posts that say it is broken with no end in sight....yes there are other people out there that agree with you, but they are haters as well...they are the normal mmo surfers. they will play lord of the rings online, everquest, tabularasa, age of conan and warhammer online and never truly be anygood at there charecter...now the common argument is "well i have # of 70's" well the reason for that is they got into a good guild that took them under there wing thinking they where gonna be a legitament addition then they just up and quit after they leeched other peoples help. they complain that there is no customer service because they dont respond to messages and the game is getting to easy...for one every post i have put in has been responded to within the hour and the game is getting "easy" because they are listening to people. the majority of people like to actually quest not run around in circles for 3 hours trying to find the guy they got the quest from thats why they light up, its not making the game easier...its making it more user freindly thats all, bottom line people dont listen to the haters out there...judge for yourself get the plain jane origanal and buy a prepaid card and see...

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Broken...and no end in sight
Comment: I saw other posted similair reviews to what I'm about to post.

If you're looking at getting into this game, avoid it for now. There are several other mmorpgs coming out that I'm considering picking up now. When I first started playing this game two years ago it was fun, challenging, and custormer service was good. As of November 2008, the realms are down daily, the patches have made the game easier and easier (Quest objects sparkle from across the map, instead of actually having to LOOK for them), classes are unbalanced (they constantly nerf and buff classes with each patch), and customer service is horrible...not providing real answers to thier customers.

Overall, Blizzard has finally come to understand that so many people play this game and will continue to play. Despite being treated like crap by Blizzard, we all keep playing because of the social networks we've created. I have several people who I just enjoy gaming with. Blizzard now knows this...and understand it can get away with shotty customer service and extremely long down times.

So if you're looking for a good MMORPG....this is no longer the game for you. Two years ago, it rocked...and I would be 5 stars across the board. Now? Avoid it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb
Comment: I've been playing video games since 1987 & WoW is my favorite. It seems like the game will never end. It's also fun playing online & making friends in the game.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: WOW is right!
Comment: This is such a spectacular game! I can play it for hours and hours on end without getting tired. I impress all of the guys I met in Chatrooms with my awesome WOW skills! I usually play from 3 PM (when I wake up) until 6 AM (when I go to sleep) without being disrupted... until my mom tells me to come out of the basement and take a shower. But anyway, this is an awesome game that helps me score with the dudes and makes me look cool!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Suposedly great, but buyer beware!
Comment: Everyone says that WoW is great fun, has great graphics, and so on. There are a few things, however, you should know before you buy this game.
*This game requires a very High-end computer, equipped with a PC-DVD rom drive.
*To keep playing WoW for any time beyond one month, you must pay a monthly subscription fee of [...]. This may not seem like so much, but for one game, it's not worth it really.

Apart from that, I think it's a very fun game from what I know, and I wish I could play it. If you are willing, and can pay [...] monthly; and have a PC-DVD rom drive, then go ahead, buy this and Burning Crusade, and enjoy!

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