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World of Warcraft
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"WoW" redirects here. For other uses, see Wow.
World of Warcraft

Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s) Vivendi Universal
Designer(s) Rob Pardo
Jeff Kaplan
Tom Chilton
Version US: 2.3.3, 2008-01-22
EU: 2.3.3, 2008-01-23
KR: 2.3.3, 2008-01-23
TW: 2.3.3, 2008-01-24
CN: 2.3.2, 2008-01-15
Platform(s) Mac OS X, Windows
Released US, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Mexico (November 23, 2004)
South Korea (January 18, 2005)[1]
EU (February 11, 2005)[2]
China (June 6, 2005)
Singapore (July 21, 2005)
China, Hong Kong Macau (November 8, 2005)
South Africa (August 1, 2006)
Genre(s) Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s) Multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: T (Teen)
PEGI: 12+
OFLC: E
USK: 12
Media CD (4) or (5 for the game of the year edition), DVD (1), Download
System requirements Windows

* Windows 2000, Windows Vista or Windows XP
* Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon 800 MHz
* 512 MB or more of RAM
* 32 MB 3D video card with Hardware T&L or better
* 6.0 GB free HD space
* 4× CD-ROM drive
* 56 kbit/s or faster Internet connection

Macintosh

* Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer
* 933 MHz or higher G4, or G5, or Intel processor
* 512 MB RAM or higher
* ATI or NVIDIA video card with 32 MB Video RAM or more
* 6.0 GB free HD space
* 4× CD-ROM drive
* 56 kbit/s or faster Internet connection[3]

Input method(s) Keyboard, mouse

World of Warcraft (commonly known as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It is Blizzard Entertainment's fourth game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994.[4] World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001.[5] The game was released on November 23, 2004, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. It is currently the world's largest MMORPG in terms of monthly subscribers.[6][7][8]

The first official expansion pack of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. During the 2007 Blizzcon event, Blizzard announced a second expansion pack called Wrath of the Lich King on August 3, 2007.[9] The release date of Wrath of the Lich King has not yet been announced.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Gameplay
o 1.1 Characters
+ 1.1.1 Classes
+ 1.1.2 Professions
+ 1.1.3 Items and equipment
+ 1.1.4 Mounts
+ 1.1.5 PvP rankings
+ 1.1.6 Reputation
o 1.2 Realms
o 1.3 Voice chat
* 2 Setting
o 2.1 Geography
o 2.2 Instances
o 2.3 Major in-game events
o 2.4 Corrupted Blood plague incident
* 3 Development
* 4 Version history
* 5 Pricing
* 6 Virtual community
o 6.1 Modifications
* 7 Reception
* 8 Controversy and criticism
o 8.1 Game addiction
o 8.2 Spam problems
* 9 Impact on popular culture
o 9.1 Film adaptation
* 10 See also
* 11 References
* 12 External links

Gameplay

Unlike previous games in the Warcraft series, World of Warcraft is a MMORPG, not a real-time strategy game. As with other MMORPGs, people control a character avatar within a persistent game world, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, performing quests, building skills, and interacting with NPCs as well as other players. The game rewards success with money, items, experience and reputation, which in turn allow players to improve their skill and power. Players can level up their characters from level one to level 60, level 70 if they have The Burning Crusade expansion (released on January 16, 2007), or level 80 if they have the yet to be released Wrath of the Lich King expansion.[9] In addition, players may opt to take part in battles against other players of an enemy faction, in PvP battlegrounds or in normal world zones subject to the rules in place on the particular server. Duels can also be fought between members of the same or opposing factions, although these do not provide tangible rewards. Many players also choose to join guilds in order to conduct raids against enemy territories and instances.

Characters

There are two types of characters in the game: Player Characters (PCs, or simply "characters") and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). A Player Character is an avatar in the world of Azeroth that is controlled by a player. The color of a PC's name tag can be blue, green, yellow or red depending on faction and Player vs. Player (PvP) status. Non-Player Characters are controlled by the game software and can only interact with PCs through scripted events or artificial intelligence (AI).

There are three types of NPCs. Friendly NPCs, whose names are displayed in green, cannot attack friendly characters and vice versa. Hostile NPCs, whose names are in red, are either of the opposing faction or are mobs (enemies controlled by AI) and will freely attack any PC with whom they are hostile. Neutral NPCs, whose names are displayed in yellow, are neutral and will only attack if provoked. Some NPC interaction is affected by the reputation a PC has with them.

NPCs in major and minor cities can buy and sell merchandise, train class and profession skills, give quests and provide a large number of services that are needed in the game. While some will merely offer advice or further the story, others, such as city guards, patrol around set paths to keep cities defended against attacking PCs or hostile NPCs that may attempt to invade.

When creating a character in World of Warcraft, the player can choose from ten different races in two factions: Alliance and Horde. Race determines the character's appearance, starting location, and initial skill set, called "racial traits".

* The Alliance currently consists of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Draenei.
* The Horde currently consists of Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls and Blood Elves.

Draenei [10] and Blood Elf characters were introduced in The Burning Crusade, and require that expansion in order to be created.

In addition to the ten playable races there are many NPC races including (but not limited to) Goblins, Ogres, Murlocs, and Naga.

Classes

The game has nine character classes that a player can choose from, though not all classes are available for each race. Each class has a set of unique abilities and talents. Abilities are general skills and spells available to the entire class, while talents allow players to specialize their character and further refine their role. Each class has a set of three talent trees. Depending on class, players may choose to build their character's talent trees for damage-dealing (also called damage-per-second, DPS), healing, tanking, or a mix of these.[11] Some classes, known as "hybrid classes," are able to perform different roles depending on a group's needs.[12]

The nine available classes in World of Warcraft are:

* Druid: Hybrid class. A nature-oriented class capable of fulfilling the role of damage-dealer, tank, or healer. The druid can shape-shift into many forms to increase its combat or movement abilities, such as a bear (for tanking), a "moonkin" (for ranged magical damage), and a seal (for water travel).
* Hunter: Damage class. A combination of a marksman/archer and animal specialist, the hunter specializes in ranged damage dealt by means of a bow, crossbow, or gun with the help of an animal pet. The hunter also employs a series of traps for damaging or disabling enemies.
* Mage: Damage class. The wizard-esque damage-dealer of World of Warcraft, the mage employs spells of the "arcane", fire, and frost elements. Mages can also conjure food and water to replenish group members, and teleport themselves and others to most major cities.
* Paladin: Hybrid class. A heavily-armored holy warrior. Like druids, paladins can specialize to fulfill each of the three major roles in World of Warcraft. (See also: Paladin (character class).)
* Priest: Healer/damage class. A lightly-armored class that can protect and heal allies (with "Holy" spells) or bring harm to enemies (with "Shadow" spells).
* Rogue: Damage class. A shadowy assassin that can "stealth" to avoid being seen by enemies (providing near-invisibility). The rogue deals damage by dual-wielding small melee weapons, and also provides traditional thief skills like lockpicking, picking pockets, and poison use.
* Shaman: Hybrid class. Unlike other hybrid classes (paladins and druids), the totem-wielding shaman's tanking abilities are quite limited. However, they can specialize to become effective healers, or damage dealers using either melee weapons or spells.
* Warlock: Damage class. Essentially a sinister combination of the mage and the hunter, the warlock deals magical damage like a mage but also has demonic "pets" (called minions) like hunters. Depending on their specialization, the warlock's damaging spells can come chiefly in the form of "damage over time" spells that, after being placed on an enemy, slowly deal their damage, or in the form of direct damage spells that deal damage all at once, as those of a mage or shaman do.
* Warrior: Tank/damage class. A heavily-armored class, the warrior is a general melee fighter who can use any non-magical weapon in the game and who can specialize to be either a damage dealer or a tank.

The Paladin class was previously only available to the Alliance, and the Shaman only available to the Horde. Now, with the release of The Burning Crusade, the Draenei (Alliance) are able to be shamans and the Blood Elves (Horde) are able to be paladins, removing the previous faction exclusivity. In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, a tenth class known as the Death Knight will be added, which will also be the game's first Hero class. [9]

Professions

During the course of playing the game, players may choose to develop side skills for their character(s). These non-combat skills are called professions. Professions are divided into two categories, primary and secondary.

Primary Professions are skills related to the creation and enhancement of weapons and armor, and can be subdivided into gathering and crafting professions. The gathering professions in WoW are Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning. Crafting professions include Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Alchemy, Engineering, Enchanting, Jewelcrafting (added in The Burning Crusade expansion), and Inscription (to be added in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion[9]). Crafting professions also have specialization categories that when trained, allow for more diverse items to be created, depending on the character's direction in the game. There is also the Enchanting profession, which allows a character to enchant weapons and armor, and also disenchant magical items in his or her possession. A character is limited to two primary professions.

Secondary Professions are skills that serve to enhance the player's experience. The secondary professions are First Aid, Cooking and Fishing. Characters can learn all three secondary professions. The Rogue class has two unique secondary professions: Poisons and Lock Picking.

Items and equipment

Player characters can acquire various items in the game. Items can vary from resources such as herbs or raw ores to items to be retrieved for quests. Player characters can also equip different weapons and armor, either to customize their character or to improve abilities (such as better attacks or defense skills). Item rarity is classified by the color of the item name: grey means "poor" (otherwise known as "vendor trash"), white means "common", green means "uncommon", blue means "rare", purple means "epic" and orange means "legendary". [13]

Mounts

A mount refers to an item or spell that, upon activation, summons a mount. Once summoned it shows the character riding atop the mount until the spell/item is dispelled or cancelled. Characters of certain levels and skill ability can acquire these mounts in order to increase their movement speed on land. Mounts can also be acquired via reputation with certain factions, completion of quests, through special items produced via professions, or as very rare loot drops obtained by defeating bosses in instances. In the expansion pack The Burning Crusade, the ability to purchase or acquire flying mounts became available in the expansion areas.

PvP rankings

Upon defeating another player of the opposite faction in player versus player (PvP) combat the victor earns "Honor Points" which may be spent as currency to purchase various rewards like armor, weapons and mounts. Some rewards require marks of honor from various Battlegrounds as well (a loss in a battleground awards the losing team 1 mark, while a victory awards the winning team 3).

A recently added PvP activity, "Arenas" offer gladiator-like combat in a World of Warcraft setting. The Arenas[14] have a separate system from the Battlegrounds. Instead of honor, the Arenas give "Arena Points" which can be spent to purchase items just like Honor Points. Only level 70 players can participate in rated arena matches. Lower level players can always participate in arenas but no arena points are awarded.

There are also "Arena seasons" where, at the end of each season, the best Arena teams in each category (2v2, 3v3 and 5v5) are rewarded with titles[15] - from highest to lowest these ranks are Gladiator, Duelist, Rival and Challenger.

With the release of version 2.0, a change was made to the honor system making it easier to obtain certain powerful items. This change was met with mixed reactions. Some criticized the change, claiming that the huge dedication in time and effort that players put forth under the old system had now been cheapened. Others, however, welcomed the change, since they felt the massive amount of time required under the old system was excessive and unhealthy, and was unreasonable for most people with jobs and other responsibilities.

As of March 2007, Blizzard added "The Armory"[16] to their web site. The Armory allows everyone to view any WoW character's statistics, reputation, skills, talents, arena teams and guild information. Only characters of level 10 or greater are displayed in the Armory. It also allows the ability to look up even more detailed information about any guild from any server in addition to any item in the game.

Reputation

The reputation system is complex and can have direct impact on character advancement. In World of Warcraft, there are many groups of NPCs known as "factions". The two primary factions are the Alliance and the Horde, and each one features a large number of sub-factions primarily based on race and geographic location. Characters' reputation with a faction can be increased or decreased by killing certain mobs, completing quests, or handing in items to certain NPCs. Higher reputation can grant many benefits to characters including reduced prices from vendors, the ability to purchase unique items including specialized mounts, and expanded access to certain areas of the game.

However, characters cannot gain reputation with opposing factions, so a Horde character cannot gain reputation with any Alliance-only faction and vice versa. There are also diametrically opposed factions in which gaining reputation with one will result in loss of reputation with another.

Realms

World of Warcraft uses server clusters (known as 'realms') to allow players to choose their preferred gameplay type and to allow the game to support as many subscribers as it does. There are four types of realms: Normal (also known as PvE or player versus environment), PvP (player versus player), RP (a roleplaying Normal/PvE server) and RP-PvP (roleplaying PvP server). The latter two enforce a set of roleplaying rules - players can be penalized for not roleplaying.[17]

Users may have up to ten characters per realm and up to a maximum of fifty characters per account.[18] Characters can be moved between realms in the same region (e.g., from one European server to another, but not from a European server to an American one) for a fee.

Blizzard posts announcements on the login screen of World of Warcraft and on the official forums about realm status or other technical issues. The status for each realm can also be viewed on their main website.

* Normal

On the Normal (also know as PvE, Player versus Environment) realms throughout most of the world players cannot attack or be attacked by each other, except by actively enabling the character's PvP flag, attacking a PvP-flagged character, entering a "PvP Territory" (such as a Battleground) or an enemy faction Capital City, or casting a positive spell on a friendly PvP-flagged character. The PvP flag will be removed after 5 minutes from the last PvP action. If the PvP flag was enabled using the command the player will need to turn it off using the same command and then avoid PvP combat for 5 minutes.

* PVP (Player versus Player)

On a PvP realm, players are flagged for PvP by default. This flag is only disabled when a character is in a friendly faction city or a zone dedicated to newly created characters. All other zones are considered "contested territory" where players are automatically flagged for PvP upon entering. Most players will not need to enter a contested zone until roughly level 20.

On PvP servers, a player is limited to creating characters on one faction. This is in contrast to PvE servers, where a player may create characters from both factions.

The PvP servers also feature a more "hands-off" approach to server policies, facilitating the state of open war in these servers. Thus, The in-game GMs will deal with PvP related offenses differently than on the PvE realms, and some player actions are allowed to occur. These actions include, but are not limited to, corpse camping, ganking, and other PvP related sections of Blizzard's harassment policy.

* RP (Roleplaying)

The roleplaying servers use the same ruleset as PvE realms, with the exception that players must act and behave in character, and must follow "naming rules" when they name their character. On these realms, players act and speak as their characters would, and anything said out of character is usually preceded by "OOC:" or presented in ((double parentheses)). It is also against the rules to be off-topic in all public channels, such as General and Trade.[19] However, out of character chat is not uncommon on RP servers, though usually not in such a blatant manner as on non-RP servers.

* RP-PvP (Roleplaying Player versus Player)

The roleplaying PvP realms are an extension to the role-playing realms that use the PvP ruleset instead of the Normal (PvE) ruleset. Blizzard did not initially have this server type when the game was launched; it was added later.[20]

* Public Test Realm

A Public Test Realm, also called a Test Server, is used to test features in development for the next patch. Players can copy a character to the Test Realm or can sometimes copy a premade character. Players on test realms may encounter character wipes, item wipes, or frequent downtime to make changes or apply patches.

Voice chat

As of Patch 2.2.0, Blizzard has introduced an in-game voice chat feature. The program is designed to replace text chat more efficiently and provide voice chat to more players. Channels are set for various things such as groups, instances, raids, battlegrounds and general zones. Players may also join, create and moderate their own channels.[21] Players may enable the program through their sound options, which means that no third-party programs are needed. Although processor usage and game latency are reduced (as compared to using a third party application) the sound quality is noticeably lower as well, however other players are still easily understood.[citation needed] The program features "push-to-talk" and "voice activated" modes to conform to the players' preference.

Setting

Geography
World of Warcraft Cosmic Map (Including 'Outland')
World of Warcraft Cosmic Map (Including 'Outland')

The current virtual world consists of two planets, Azeroth and Draenor (a.k.a Outland). Azeroth consists of two main continents, the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Located to the northwest of Kalimdor are the Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles, and Teldrassil.

Kalimdor contains the starting areas for the Orc, Troll, and Tauren races of the Horde. The Night Elves and Draenei of the Alliance both begin in areas off the coast of Kalimdor (Teldrassil and Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles respectively), but move to the mainland fairly early. The Eastern Kingdoms contain the beginning areas for the Undead and Blood Elves of the Horde, as well as the Humans, Dwarves and Gnomes of the Alliance.

Draenor, added with the release of The Burning Crusade, is only accessible to those who have purchased and activated the expansion pack. It is reached through the Dark Portal in the south of the Eastern Kingdoms or through in-game teleportation. Draenor was the original home of the Orcs and was also inhabited by the Draenei for over 200 years.

The Wrath of the Lich King expansion will add the continent of Northrend in the northern region of Azeroth and will be available exclusively to those players who purchase and activate that expansion pack.[9]

Instances

Instances, also known as instance dungeons or simply "dungeons", are areas where multiple copies of the same area can exist concurrently.[22] This means that multiple groups can both be doing the same activities in the same location, yet not interfere with one another.

"Instance" can also refer to a particular copy of such an area. Other areas, such as battlegrounds, are also instances, enabling multiple groups of players to participate at the same time.

Major in-game events

In an effort to further players' enjoyment and create common goals for large groups to accomplish, game developers began to add World Events into the game. The first world events were outdoor raid bosses that could be challenged without entering an instance. These bosses were the blue dragon Azuregos of Azshara and the Burning Legion demon Lord Kazzak in the Blasted Lands. These were followed by four green dragons corrupted by the "Emerald Nightmare." In addition, certain areas of Azeroth experience an "elemental invasion" where waves of elemental-class monsters will run rampant for a time or until they are destroyed.

Blizzard has also implemented holiday content that could be considered a world event. Valentine's Day, Easter, Independence Day, Oktoberfest, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, as well as New Year's and its lunar counterpart all have their Warcraft-themed counterparts. During these week-long events players partake in holiday-themed quests usually involving humorous references to real-world pop culture surrounding the holiday. For example, one of the Winter's Veil (Christmas) quests involves fighting a creature known as the Greench (a parody of the Grinch) and rescuing a kidnapped reindeer named Metzen (styled after lead designer, Chris Metzen). Some world events are designed to repeat themselves on a regular basis such as the Darkmoon Faire. Others have been a one-time event that marked a large change in the in-game world like the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, the Scourge Invasion, and the opening of the Dark Portal which signaled the beginning of The Burning Crusade expansion, along with other less notable events.[23]

Corrupted Blood plague incident

The Corrupted Blood plague incident was one of the first events to affect entire servers. Patch 1.7 saw the opening of Zul'Gurub, the game's first 20-player raid dungeon where players faced off against an ancient tribe of jungle trolls under the sway of the ancient Blood God, Hakkar the Soulflayer. Upon engaging Hakkar, players were stricken by a debuff (a spell that negatively affects a player) called "Corrupted Blood" which would periodically sap their life. The disease would also be passed on to other players who were simply standing close to an infected person. Originally this malady was confined within the Zul'Gurub instance but made its way into the outside world by way of hunter or warlock pets that contracted the disease.

Within hours Corrupted Blood had infected entire cities such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar because of their high player concentrations. Low-level players were killed in seconds by the high-damage disease. Eventually Blizzard fixed the issue so that the plague could not exist outside of Zul'Gurub.

The corrupted blood plague so closely resembled the outbreak of real-world epidemics that scientists are currently looking at ways MMORPGs or other massively-distributed systems can model human behavior during outbreaks. The reaction of players to the plague closely resembled previously hard-to-model aspects of human behavior that may allow researchers to more accurately predict how diseases and outbreaks spread amongst a population [24].

Development

World of Warcraft was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001. [25] Development of the game took about 4 years with extensive testing done to make sure everything was ready for launch. The 3-D graphics in WoW uses elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in Warcraft III. [25] The game was designed to be an open environment where players were allowed to do what they please alongside optional quests that players can complete to advance further in the game. In addition, the quests were made to help guide players along a path that would spread players out across different zones to try to avoid what developers called 'player collision'. [26] The game interface was also designed to be easy to use allowing players to customize areas to their likings and also allows for add-ons and other modifications. [27]

Version history

World of Warcraft runs natively on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Boxed copies of the game use a hybrid CD to install the game, eliminating the need for separate Mac and Windows retail products. The game allows all users to play together, regardless of their operating system. Although there is no official version for any other platform, support for World of Warcraft is present in Windows API implementations Wine and Cedega, allowing the game to be played under Linux[28] and FreeBSD.

As of Patch 1.9.3 the game added native support for the newer Intel-powered Macs, making World of Warcraft a Universal application (as defined by Apple). As a result of this, the minimum supported Mac OS X version has been changed to 10.3.9; World of Warcraft version 1.9.3 and later will not launch on older versions of Mac OS X.[29]

Due to the fact that new content is constantly being added to the game official system requirements often change. As of version 1.12.0 the requirements for Windows have increased from requiring 256 MB to 512 MB of RAM and official Windows 98 technical support has been dropped even though the game continued to run fine [30] until version 2.2.3. After version 2.2.3, the official patches to version 2.3.0 failed on Operating Systems earlier than Windows XP, except Windows 2000. By knowledgeably using an old update executable with new patch data, Windows 98 and Windows ME users could update from 2.2.3 using one of the released patches. Once successfully upgraded, the new version of the game then worked with Windows ME, although version 2.3.0 did not work with Windows 98 Second Edition unless applying updates to the operating system, including an unofficial third party's operating system modifications. [31]

Pricing
The current login screen, as of the release of the Burning Crusade
The current login screen, as of the release of the Burning Crusade

World of Warcraft is priced differently in different regions of the world. Usually, the pricing model is similar to that of MMORPGs previously released in the market.

In the United States and Canada, Blizzard distributes World of Warcraft via retail software packages that originally had a suggested retail price of US$50 at the time of release, but have since dropped to around $20. The software package includes 30 days of gameplay (worth $15) for no additional cost. In order to continue playing after the initial 30 days, additional play time must be purchased using a credit card or prepaid game card. The minimum gameplay duration that a player can purchase is 30 days using a credit card, or 60 using a prepaid game card. A player also has the option of purchasing three or six months of gameplay at once for a slight (6% to 15%) discount. A player pays about US$0.50 for one day of gameplay.[32]

In South Korea, there is no software package or CD key requirement to activate the account. In order to play the game, however, players need to purchase time credits online via credit card or the ARS billing system. The minimum gameplay duration that a player can purchase via credit card is five hours. A player may also purchase game time by thirty hours or by increments of one week. A player also has the option of purchasing game time by one, three, or six months of gameplay at once for a slight discount.[33] As of December 17, 2006, 30 days of gameplay costs ₩19,800 (US$21.46).

In China, because a large number of the players do not own the computer they use to play games (e.g. Internet cafes), the CD keys can be purchased independently of the software package. The CD key, which is required to activate an account, is sold for ¥30 (US$3.75) each. The software packages vary in price depending on the items they contain. In order to play the game, the player would need to purchase prepaid game cards in denominations of ¥30 each that can be played for 66 hours and 40 minutes.[34] This equates to exactly ¥0.45 (US$0.06) for one hour of gameplay. A monthly fee model is not available to players of this region.

In Australia, the United States, and many European countries, video game stores commonly stock the trial version of World of Warcraft in DVD form priced at A$2 or €2 including VAT, which include the game and 14 days of gameplay, after which the player would have to upgrade to a retail account by supplying a valid credit card, or purchasing a game card as well as a retail copy of the game.
Suggested Retail Price Monthly Fee Paid Character Transfer Fee
Europe €19.99[35] €11-€13[35] €19.99[36]
United Kingdom £14.99[35] £7.70-£9[35] £14.99[36]
North America
Oceania US$20[37] $13-$15[38] $25[39]

Virtual community

In addition to playing the game itself and conversing on discussion forums provided by Blizzard, World of Warcraft players often participate in the World of Warcraft virtual community in creative ways, including fan artwork[40] and comic strip style storytelling.[41] Blizzard furthers this community by offering in-game and out-of-game prizes, as well as highlighting community events and occurrences. Blizzard has also provided incentives for introducing new members to World of Warcraft. In late October 2005 each subscribed player received a 10-day free pass[42] which they suggested be employed as seasonal gifts that could either be used by the current player or given to a friend. These passes would generate a free month's usage if the guest player purchased a full account.

There are various memes, including "Face Melting,"[43] a reference to a very long thread on the priest forums on the World of Warcraft website that consisted of players saying, "You will melt faces as a Shadow Priest in PvP" in different ways. This is because the icon for Mind Flay, a powerful skill used heavily by Shadow Priests, looks like a melting face. Another popular phenomenon in the community are machinima videos such as the one[44] starring a player named Leeroy Jenkins, showing him and his guild in a funny encounter. Leeroy's popularity inspired more videos and tributes in other games, and he was even part of a clue on the November 16, 2005 episode of the TV game show College Jeopardy!.[45] These memes gain notoriety through postings on the World of Warcraft Forums.[46]

As of August 2005, the Dark Iron server has been home to the guilds of web-comic creators Scott Kurtz (PvP) and Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (Penny Arcade). Kurtz created Panda Attack and Djörk on the Horde side, while Holkins and Krahulik initiated a series of guilds that is now known as the Penny Arcade Alliance. This event is referred to as the Comic Guild Wars, and has created healthy competition between the authors, to the extent of dedicating some of their strips to the subject. Tim Buckley of Ctrl+Alt+Del and the creators of Holy Bibble have also joined in on making guilds for Dark Iron players.

Modifications
A heavily modified World of Warcraft user interface
A heavily modified World of Warcraft user interface

World of Warcraft includes significant support for modifications to the user interface (UI) of a game, colloquially known as "mods" and "addons". At a simple level it allows full control over the content of toolbars and hot keys, as well as macros to automate sets of operations and the ability to script much more elaborate tools. The range of modifications that are available can be anything from ways to automatically advertise trade skills, to adding extra rows of button bars for spells, skills and more. There are also various humorous mods, including one that reproduces the infamous Leeroy Jenkins sound.[47]

As of the 2.0 release of World of Warcraft, certain modifications and "Addons" no longer function the way they were intended by the addon designer, as the way that an addon interacts with the game has been changed. This has forced all addons pre-2.0 to have to be rewritten. This is such a drastic change to the addons that all players must now download new copies of the addon that they were using. More information on this topic is available in this forum post.

Addons are created using one or both Lua and XML, and images used for modifications are created using the .TGA (Targa) and .BLP image formats. Blizzard has also released a User Interface Customization tool to support and encourage UI modders.[48] However, Blizzard is unable to endorse or provide support for third party interfaces due to issues that may be caused by them.

Some third-party programs that operate in a stand-alone mode, or independent of World of Warcraft, may be considered exploits, especially if they automate operation beyond that made available using the built-in macro functionality, or pass information in or out of the game. Use of these is against the Terms of Service agreed to when playing the game, and as such, may lead to possible suspension or closure of accounts. Blizzard has stated on the official forums that any modification that uses the Lua programming language will not be considered an exploit, though Blizzard reserves the right to change information available via the Lua language if the modification changes the nature of encounters in the game.[49]

Reception

Although its initial release was hampered by overpopulated servers,[50] the game became a financial success.[51][52] The game has been consistently ranked as one of the best by review sites and has won numerous awards, including GameSpot's Game of the Year Award for 2004 and IGNs Editor's Choice Award.[53][54][55]

World of Warcraft was the best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006.[56] By January 11, 2007, there were more than 2 million subscribers in North America, 1.5 million subscribers in Europe, and 3.5 million subscribers in China.[57] By July 24, 2007, the worldwide userbase for World of Warcraft was 9 million players worldwide.[58] By November 14, 2007, World of Warcraft's subscriber base was more than 9.3 million.[59] As of January 22, 2008, World of Warcraft has surpassed 10 million subscribers worldwide, with more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and about 5.5 million in Asia.[60]

Controversy and criticism

Main article: Criticism of World of Warcraft

WoW is often criticized for a number of reasons.

Game addiction

Stories of game addiction are a common source of criticism. In June 2005 it was reported that a child had died due to neglect by her World of Warcraft-addicted parents in Korea.[61] In August of that year, the government of the People's Republic of China proposed new rules to curb what they perceived to be social and financial costs brought on by the popularity of games such as World of Warcraft. The measure would enforce a time limit on China's estimated total of 20 million gamers.[62] The Chinese government and The9, the licensee for World of Warcraft in China, have likewise imposed a modification on Chinese versions of the game which places flesh on bare-boned skeletons and transforms dead character corpses into tidy graves. These changes were imposed by the Chinese government in an attempt to "promote a healthy and harmonious online game environment" in World of Warcraft.[63]

Dr. Maressa Orzack, a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, was interviewed August 8, 2006, stating that of the 6 million subscribers "I'd say that 40 percent of the players are addicted."[64] The 40% figure was not derived from a scientific study overseen by Dr. Orzack, but rather came from "a forum that Nick Yee runs". She added in an August 2006 interview that "even if the percentage is 5 to 10 percent which is standard for most addictive behaviors, it is a huge number of people who are out of control."[65] Also, according to Dr. John Grohol, a colleague of Orzack's, "Dr. Orzack is not claiming that up to 40 percent of World of Warcraft gamers are addicted based upon any actual evidence or surveys of players. This is just her opinion, based upon her own experience and observation of the problem."[66]

Spam problems

After Blizzard started offering free trial gameplay accounts, players started receiving increasing numbers of spam sent by bots in the virtual mailboxes of their characters, advertising virtual gold, honor, and experience selling services.[67] One study shows that this problem is particularly prevalent on the European realms.[68] In patch 2.1, Blizzard responded to this by adding additional anti-spam mechanics including whisper throttling, and the report spam function. However, this may be countered by creating more accounts and characters.

Impact on popular culture

WoW has become increasingly referenced in popular culture as a result of the game's popularity. One example is the Emmy Award winning South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft." [69] In the Louisville World Series of Video Games competition, World of Warcraft was a featured game.[70] WoW itself also contains references to pop culture within the game.[71] The game has even made the jump into advertising for unrelated products, such as Toyota trucks.[72] In late 2007, a series of television commercials for the game began airing featuring pop culture celebrities such as Mr. T, William Shatner, and Verne Troyer discussing the virtues of the character classes they play in the game.

WoW has inspired a board game produced by Fantasy Flight Games, as well as a trading card game produced by Upper Deck Entertainment.

In November 2007, DC Comics published the first issue of the ongoing World of Warcraft comic under their Wildstorm imprint.[73]

[Fluffyumpkins]

Does it really take an expert to explain this?

[chocobojoe]

World of Warcraft
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"WoW" redirects here. For other uses, see Wow.
World of Warcraft

Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s) Vivendi Universal
Designer(s) Rob Pardo
Jeff Kaplan
Tom Chilton
Version US: 2.3.3, 2008-01-22
EU: 2.3.3, 2008-01-23
KR: 2.3.3, 2008-01-23
TW: 2.3.3, 2008-01-24
CN: 2.3.2, 2008-01-15
Platform(s) Mac OS X, Windows
Released US, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Mexico (November 23, 2004)
South Korea (January 18, 2005)[1]
EU (February 11, 2005)[2]
China (June 6, 2005)
Singapore (July 21, 2005)
China, Hong Kong Macau (November 8, 2005)
South Africa (August 1, 2006)
Genre(s) Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s) Multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: T (Teen)
PEGI: 12+
OFLC: E
USK: 12
Media CD (4) or (5 for the game of the year edition), DVD (1), Download
System requirements Windows

* Windows 2000, Windows Vista or Windows XP
* Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon 800 MHz
* 512 MB or more of RAM
* 32 MB 3D video card with Hardware T&L or better
* 6.0 GB free HD space
* 4× CD-ROM drive
* 56 kbit/s or faster Internet connection

Macintosh

* Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer
* 933 MHz or higher G4, or G5, or Intel processor
* 512 MB RAM or higher
* ATI or NVIDIA video card with 32 MB Video RAM or more
* 6.0 GB free HD space
* 4× CD-ROM drive
* 56 kbit/s or faster Internet connection[3]

Input method(s) Keyboard, mouse

World of Warcraft (commonly known as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It is Blizzard Entertainment's fourth game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994.[4] World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001.[5] The game was released on November 23, 2004, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. It is currently the world's largest MMORPG in terms of monthly subscribers.[6][7][8]

The first official expansion pack of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. During the 2007 Blizzcon event, Blizzard announced a second expansion pack called Wrath of the Lich King on August 3, 2007.[9] The release date of Wrath of the Lich King has not yet been announced.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Gameplay
o 1.1 Characters
+ 1.1.1 Classes
+ 1.1.2 Professions
+ 1.1.3 Items and equipment
+ 1.1.4 Mounts
+ 1.1.5 PvP rankings
+ 1.1.6 Reputation
o 1.2 Realms
o 1.3 Voice chat
* 2 Setting
o 2.1 Geography
o 2.2 Instances
o 2.3 Major in-game events
o 2.4 Corrupted Blood plague incident
* 3 Development
* 4 Version history
* 5 Pricing
* 6 Virtual community
o 6.1 Modifications
* 7 Reception
* 8 Controversy and criticism
o 8.1 Game addiction
o 8.2 Spam problems
* 9 Impact on popular culture
o 9.1 Film adaptation
* 10 See also
* 11 References
* 12 External links

Gameplay

Unlike previous games in the Warcraft series, World of Warcraft is a MMORPG, not a real-time strategy game. As with other MMORPGs, people control a character avatar within a persistent game world, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, performing quests, building skills, and interacting with NPCs as well as other players. The game rewards success with money, items, experience and reputation, which in turn allow players to improve their skill and power. Players can level up their characters from level one to level 60, level 70 if they have The Burning Crusade expansion (released on January 16, 2007), or level 80 if they have the yet to be released Wrath of the Lich King expansion.[9] In addition, players may opt to take part in battles against other players of an enemy faction, in PvP battlegrounds or in normal world zones subject to the rules in place on the particular server. Duels can also be fought between members of the same or opposing factions, although these do not provide tangible rewards. Many players also choose to join guilds in order to conduct raids against enemy territories and instances.

Characters

There are two types of characters in the game: Player Characters (PCs, or simply "characters") and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). A Player Character is an avatar in the world of Azeroth that is controlled by a player. The color of a PC's name tag can be blue, green, yellow or red depending on faction and Player vs. Player (PvP) status. Non-Player Characters are controlled by the game software and can only interact with PCs through scripted events or artificial intelligence (AI).

There are three types of NPCs. Friendly NPCs, whose names are displayed in green, cannot attack friendly characters and vice versa. Hostile NPCs, whose names are in red, are either of the opposing faction or are mobs (enemies controlled by AI) and will freely attack any PC with whom they are hostile. Neutral NPCs, whose names are displayed in yellow, are neutral and will only attack if provoked. Some NPC interaction is affected by the reputation a PC has with them.

NPCs in major and minor cities can buy and sell merchandise, train class and profession skills, give quests and provide a large number of services that are needed in the game. While some will merely offer advice or further the story, others, such as city guards, patrol around set paths to keep cities defended against attacking PCs or hostile NPCs that may attempt to invade.

When creating a character in World of Warcraft, the player can choose from ten different races in two factions: Alliance and Horde. Race determines the character's appearance, starting location, and initial skill set, called "racial traits".

* The Alliance currently consists of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Draenei.
* The Horde currently consists of Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls and Blood Elves.

Draenei [10] and Blood Elf characters were introduced in The Burning Crusade, and require that expansion in order to be created.

In addition to the ten playable races there are many NPC races including (but not limited to) Goblins, Ogres, Murlocs, and Naga.

Classes

The game has nine character classes that a player can choose from, though not all classes are available for each race. Each class has a set of unique abilities and talents. Abilities are general skills and spells available to the entire class, while talents allow players to specialize their character and further refine their role. Each class has a set of three talent trees. Depending on class, players may choose to build their character's talent trees for damage-dealing (also called damage-per-second, DPS), healing, tanking, or a mix of these.[11] Some classes, known as "hybrid classes," are able to perform different roles depending on a group's needs.[12]

The nine available classes in World of Warcraft are:

* Druid: Hybrid class. A nature-oriented class capable of fulfilling the role of damage-dealer, tank, or healer. The druid can shape-shift into many forms to increase its combat or movement abilities, such as a bear (for tanking), a "moonkin" (for ranged magical damage), and a seal (for water travel).
* Hunter: Damage class. A combination of a marksman/archer and animal specialist, the hunter specializes in ranged damage dealt by means of a bow, crossbow, or gun with the help of an animal pet. The hunter also employs a series of traps for damaging or disabling enemies.
* Mage: Damage class. The wizard-esque damage-dealer of World of Warcraft, the mage employs spells of the "arcane", fire, and frost elements. Mages can also conjure food and water to replenish group members, and teleport themselves and others to most major cities.
* Paladin: Hybrid class. A heavily-armored holy warrior. Like druids, paladins can specialize to fulfill each of the three major roles in World of Warcraft. (See also: Paladin (character class).)
* Priest: Healer/damage class. A lightly-armored class that can protect and heal allies (with "Holy" spells) or bring harm to enemies (with "Shadow" spells).
* Rogue: Damage class. A shadowy assassin that can "stealth" to avoid being seen by enemies (providing near-invisibility). The rogue deals damage by dual-wielding small melee weapons, and also provides traditional thief skills like lockpicking, picking pockets, and poison use.
* Shaman: Hybrid class. Unlike other hybrid classes (paladins and druids), the totem-wielding shaman's tanking abilities are quite limited. However, they can specialize to become effective healers, or damage dealers using either melee weapons or spells.
* Warlock: Damage class. Essentially a sinister combination of the mage and the hunter, the warlock deals magical damage like a mage but also has demonic "pets" (called minions) like hunters. Depending on their specialization, the warlock's damaging spells can come chiefly in the form of "damage over time" spells that, after being placed on an enemy, slowly deal their damage, or in the form of direct damage spells that deal damage all at once, as those of a mage or shaman do.
* Warrior: Tank/damage class. A heavily-armored class, the warrior is a general melee fighter who can use any non-magical weapon in the game and who can specialize to be either a damage dealer or a tank.

The Paladin class was previously only available to the Alliance, and the Shaman only available to the Horde. Now, with the release of The Burning Crusade, the Draenei (Alliance) are able to be shamans and the Blood Elves (Horde) are able to be paladins, removing the previous faction exclusivity. In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, a tenth class known as the Death Knight will be added, which will also be the game's first Hero class. [9]

Professions

During the course of playing the game, players may choose to develop side skills for their character(s). These non-combat skills are called professions. Professions are divided into two categories, primary and secondary.

Primary Professions are skills related to the creation and enhancement of weapons and armor, and can be subdivided into gathering and crafting professions. The gathering professions in WoW are Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning. Crafting professions include Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Alchemy, Engineering, Enchanting, Jewelcrafting (added in The Burning Crusade expansion), and Inscription (to be added in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion[9]). Crafting professions also have specialization categories that when trained, allow for more diverse items to be created, depending on the character's direction in the game. There is also the Enchanting profession, which allows a character to enchant weapons and armor, and also disenchant magical items in his or her possession. A character is limited to two primary professions.

Secondary Professions are skills that serve to enhance the player's experience. The secondary professions are First Aid, Cooking and Fishing. Characters can learn all three secondary professions. The Rogue class has two unique secondary professions: Poisons and Lock Picking.

Items and equipment

Player characters can acquire various items in the game. Items can vary from resources such as herbs or raw ores to items to be retrieved for quests. Player characters can also equip different weapons and armor, either to customize their character or to improve abilities (such as better attacks or defense skills). Item rarity is classified by the color of the item name: grey means "poor" (otherwise known as "vendor trash"), white means "common", green means "uncommon", blue means "rare", purple means "epic" and orange means "legendary". [13]

Mounts

A mount refers to an item or spell that, upon activation, summons a mount. Once summoned it shows the character riding atop the mount until the spell/item is dispelled or cancelled. Characters of certain levels and skill ability can acquire these mounts in order to increase their movement speed on land. Mounts can also be acquired via reputation with certain factions, completion of quests, through special items produced via professions, or as very rare loot drops obtained by defeating bosses in instances. In the expansion pack The Burning Crusade, the ability to purchase or acquire flying mounts became available in the expansion areas.

PvP rankings

Upon defeating another player of the opposite faction in player versus player (PvP) combat the victor earns "Honor Points" which may be spent as currency to purchase various rewards like armor, weapons and mounts. Some rewards require marks of honor from various Battlegrounds as well (a loss in a battleground awards the losing team 1 mark, while a victory awards the winning team 3).

A recently added PvP activity, "Arenas" offer gladiator-like combat in a World of Warcraft setting. The Arenas[14] have a separate system from the Battlegrounds. Instead of honor, the Arenas give "Arena Points" which can be spent to purchase items just like Honor Points. Only level 70 players can participate in rated arena matches. Lower level players can always participate in arenas but no arena points are awarded.

There are also "Arena seasons" where, at the end of each season, the best Arena teams in each category (2v2, 3v3 and 5v5) are rewarded with titles[15] - from highest to lowest these ranks are Gladiator, Duelist, Rival and Challenger.

With the release of version 2.0, a change was made to the honor system making it easier to obtain certain powerful items. This change was met with mixed reactions. Some criticized the change, claiming that the huge dedication in time and effort that players put forth under the old system had now been cheapened. Others, however, welcomed the change, since they felt the massive amount of time required under the old system was excessive and unhealthy, and was unreasonable for most people with jobs and other responsibilities.

As of March 2007, Blizzard added "The Armory"[16] to their web site. The Armory allows everyone to view any WoW character's statistics, reputation, skills, talents, arena teams and guild information. Only characters of level 10 or greater are displayed in the Armory. It also allows the ability to look up even more detailed information about any guild from any server in addition to any item in the game.

Reputation

The reputation system is complex and can have direct impact on character advancement. In World of Warcraft, there are many groups of NPCs known as "factions". The two primary factions are the Alliance and the Horde, and each one features a large number of sub-factions primarily based on race and geographic location. Characters' reputation with a faction can be increased or decreased by killing certain mobs, completing quests, or handing in items to certain NPCs. Higher reputation can grant many benefits to characters including reduced prices from vendors, the ability to purchase unique items including specialized mounts, and expanded access to certain areas of the game.

However, characters cannot gain reputation with opposing factions, so a Horde character cannot gain reputation with any Alliance-only faction and vice versa. There are also diametrically opposed factions in which gaining reputation with one will result in loss of reputation with another.

Realms

World of Warcraft uses server clusters (known as 'realms') to allow players to choose their preferred gameplay type and to allow the game to support as many subscribers as it does. There are four types of realms: Normal (also known as PvE or player versus environment), PvP (player versus player), RP (a roleplaying Normal/PvE server) and RP-PvP (roleplaying PvP server). The latter two enforce a set of roleplaying rules - players can be penalized for not roleplaying.[17]

Users may have up to ten characters per realm and up to a maximum of fifty characters per account.[18] Characters can be moved between realms in the same region (e.g., from one European server to another, but not from a European server to an American one) for a fee.

Blizzard posts announcements on the login screen of World of Warcraft and on the official forums about realm status or other technical issues. The status for each realm can also be viewed on their main website.

* Normal

On the Normal (also know as PvE, Player versus Environment) realms throughout most of the world players cannot attack or be attacked by each other, except by actively enabling the character's PvP flag, attacking a PvP-flagged character, entering a "PvP Territory" (such as a Battleground) or an enemy faction Capital City, or casting a positive spell on a friendly PvP-flagged character. The PvP flag will be removed after 5 minutes from the last PvP action. If the PvP flag was enabled using the command the player will need to turn it off using the same command and then avoid PvP combat for 5 minutes.

* PVP (Player versus Player)

On a PvP realm, players are flagged for PvP by default. This flag is only disabled when a character is in a friendly faction city or a zone dedicated to newly created characters. All other zones are considered "contested territory" where players are automatically flagged for PvP upon entering. Most players will not need to enter a contested zone until roughly level 20.

On PvP servers, a player is limited to creating characters on one faction. This is in contrast to PvE servers, where a player may create characters from both factions.

The PvP servers also feature a more "hands-off" approach to server policies, facilitating the state of open war in these servers. Thus, The in-game GMs will deal with PvP related offenses differently than on the PvE realms, and some player actions are allowed to occur. These actions include, but are not limited to, corpse camping, ganking, and other PvP related sections of Blizzard's harassment policy.

* RP (Roleplaying)

The roleplaying servers use the same ruleset as PvE realms, with the exception that players must act and behave in character, and must follow "naming rules" when they name their character. On these realms, players act and speak as their characters would, and anything said out of character is usually preceded by "OOC:" or presented in ((double parentheses)). It is also against the rules to be off-topic in all public channels, such as General and Trade.[19] However, out of character chat is not uncommon on RP servers, though usually not in such a blatant manner as on non-RP servers.

* RP-PvP (Roleplaying Player versus Player)

The roleplaying PvP realms are an extension to the role-playing realms that use the PvP ruleset instead of the Normal (PvE) ruleset. Blizzard did not initially have this server type when the game was launched; it was added later.[20]

* Public Test Realm

A Public Test Realm, also called a Test Server, is used to test features in development for the next patch. Players can copy a character to the Test Realm or can sometimes copy a premade character. Players on test realms may encounter character wipes, item wipes, or frequent downtime to make changes or apply patches.

Voice chat

As of Patch 2.2.0, Blizzard has introduced an in-game voice chat feature. The program is designed to replace text chat more efficiently and provide voice chat to more players. Channels are set for various things such as groups, instances, raids, battlegrounds and general zones. Players may also join, create and moderate their own channels.[21] Players may enable the program through their sound options, which means that no third-party programs are needed. Although processor usage and game latency are reduced (as compared to using a third party application) the sound quality is noticeably lower as well, however other players are still easily understood.[citation needed] The program features "push-to-talk" and "voice activated" modes to conform to the players' preference.

Setting

Geography
World of Warcraft Cosmic Map (Including 'Outland')
World of Warcraft Cosmic Map (Including 'Outland')

The current virtual world consists of two planets, Azeroth and Draenor (a.k.a Outland). Azeroth consists of two main continents, the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Located to the northwest of Kalimdor are the Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles, and Teldrassil.

Kalimdor contains the starting areas for the Orc, Troll, and Tauren races of the Horde. The Night Elves and Draenei of the Alliance both begin in areas off the coast of Kalimdor (Teldrassil and Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles respectively), but move to the mainland fairly early. The Eastern Kingdoms contain the beginning areas for the Undead and Blood Elves of the Horde, as well as the Humans, Dwarves and Gnomes of the Alliance.

Draenor, added with the release of The Burning Crusade, is only accessible to those who have purchased and activated the expansion pack. It is reached through the Dark Portal in the south of the Eastern Kingdoms or through in-game teleportation. Draenor was the original home of the Orcs and was also inhabited by the Draenei for over 200 years.

The Wrath of the Lich King expansion will add the continent of Northrend in the northern region of Azeroth and will be available exclusively to those players who purchase and activate that expansion pack.[9]

Instances

Instances, also known as instance dungeons or simply "dungeons", are areas where multiple copies of the same area can exist concurrently.[22] This means that multiple groups can both be doing the same activities in the same location, yet not interfere with one another.

"Instance" can also refer to a particular copy of such an area. Other areas, such as battlegrounds, are also instances, enabling multiple groups of players to participate at the same time.

Major in-game events

In an effort to further players' enjoyment and create common goals for large groups to accomplish, game developers began to add World Events into the game. The first world events were outdoor raid bosses that could be challenged without entering an instance. These bosses were the blue dragon Azuregos of Azshara and the Burning Legion demon Lord Kazzak in the Blasted Lands. These were followed by four green dragons corrupted by the "Emerald Nightmare." In addition, certain areas of Azeroth experience an "elemental invasion" where waves of elemental-class monsters will run rampant for a time or until they are destroyed.

Blizzard has also implemented holiday content that could be considered a world event. Valentine's Day, Easter, Independence Day, Oktoberfest, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, as well as New Year's and its lunar counterpart all have their Warcraft-themed counterparts. During these week-long events players partake in holiday-themed quests usually involving humorous references to real-world pop culture surrounding the holiday. For example, one of the Winter's Veil (Christmas) quests involves fighting a creature known as the Greench (a parody of the Grinch) and rescuing a kidnapped reindeer named Metzen (styled after lead designer, Chris Metzen). Some world events are designed to repeat themselves on a regular basis such as the Darkmoon Faire. Others have been a one-time event that marked a large change in the in-game world like the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, the Scourge Invasion, and the opening of the Dark Portal which signaled the beginning of The Burning Crusade expansion, along with other less notable events.[23]

Corrupted Blood plague incident

The Corrupted Blood plague incident was one of the first events to affect entire servers. Patch 1.7 saw the opening of Zul'Gurub, the game's first 20-player raid dungeon where players faced off against an ancient tribe of jungle trolls under the sway of the ancient Blood God, Hakkar the Soulflayer. Upon engaging Hakkar, players were stricken by a debuff (a spell that negatively affects a player) called "Corrupted Blood" which would periodically sap their life. The disease would also be passed on to other players who were simply standing close to an infected person. Originally this malady was confined within the Zul'Gurub instance but made its way into the outside world by way of hunter or warlock pets that contracted the disease.

Within hours Corrupted Blood had infected entire cities such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar because of their high player concentrations. Low-level players were killed in seconds by the high-damage disease. Eventually Blizzard fixed the issue so that the plague could not exist outside of Zul'Gurub.

The corrupted blood plague so closely resembled the outbreak of real-world epidemics that scientists are currently looking at ways MMORPGs or other massively-distributed systems can model human behavior during outbreaks. The reaction of players to the plague closely resembled previously hard-to-model aspects of human behavior that may allow researchers to more accurately predict how diseases and outbreaks spread amongst a population [24].

Development

World of Warcraft was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001. [25] Development of the game took about 4 years with extensive testing done to make sure everything was ready for launch. The 3-D graphics in WoW uses elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in Warcraft III. [25] The game was designed to be an open environment where players were allowed to do what they please alongside optional quests that players can complete to advance further in the game. In addition, the quests were made to help guide players along a path that would spread players out across different zones to try to avoid what developers called 'player collision'. [26] The game interface was also designed to be easy to use allowing players to customize areas to their likings and also allows for add-ons and other modifications. [27]

Version history

World of Warcraft runs natively on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Boxed copies of the game use a hybrid CD to install the game, eliminating the need for separate Mac and Windows retail products. The game allows all users to play together, regardless of their operating system. Although there is no official version for any other platform, support for World of Warcraft is present in Windows API implementations Wine and Cedega, allowing the game to be played under Linux[28] and FreeBSD.

As of Patch 1.9.3 the game added native support for the newer Intel-powered Macs, making World of Warcraft a Universal application (as defined by Apple). As a result of this, the minimum supported Mac OS X version has been changed to 10.3.9; World of Warcraft version 1.9.3 and later will not launch on older versions of Mac OS X.[29]

Due to the fact that new content is constantly being added to the game official system requirements often change. As of version 1.12.0 the requirements for Windows have increased from requiring 256 MB to 512 MB of RAM and official Windows 98 technical support has been dropped even though the game continued to run fine [30] until version 2.2.3. After version 2.2.3, the official patches to version 2.3.0 failed on Operating Systems earlier than Windows XP, except Windows 2000. By knowledgeably using an old update executable with new patch data, Windows 98 and Windows ME users could update from 2.2.3 using one of the released patches. Once successfully upgraded, the new version of the game then worked with Windows ME, although version 2.3.0 did not work with Windows 98 Second Edition unless applying updates to the operating system, including an unofficial third party's operating system modifications. [31]

Pricing
The current login screen, as of the release of the Burning Crusade
The current login screen, as of the release of the Burning Crusade

World of Warcraft is priced differently in different regions of the world. Usually, the pricing model is similar to that of MMORPGs previously released in the market.

In the United States and Canada, Blizzard distributes World of Warcraft via retail software packages that originally had a suggested retail price of US$50 at the time of release, but have since dropped to around $20. The software package includes 30 days of gameplay (worth $15) for no additional cost. In order to continue playing after the initial 30 days, additional play time must be purchased using a credit card or prepaid game card. The minimum gameplay duration that a player can purchase is 30 days using a credit card, or 60 using a prepaid game card. A player also has the option of purchasing three or six months of gameplay at once for a slight (6% to 15%) discount. A player pays about US$0.50 for one day of gameplay.[32]

In South Korea, there is no software package or CD key requirement to activate the account. In order to play the game, however, players need to purchase time credits online via credit card or the ARS billing system. The minimum gameplay duration that a player can purchase via credit card is five hours. A player may also purchase game time by thirty hours or by increments of one week. A player also has the option of purchasing game time by one, three, or six months of gameplay at once for a slight discount.[33] As of December 17, 2006, 30 days of gameplay costs ₩19,800 (US$21.46).

In China, because a large number of the players do not own the computer they use to play games (e.g. Internet cafes), the CD keys can be purchased independently of the software package. The CD key, which is required to activate an account, is sold for ¥30 (US$3.75) each. The software packages vary in price depending on the items they contain. In order to play the game, the player would need to purchase prepaid game cards in denominations of ¥30 each that can be played for 66 hours and 40 minutes.[34] This equates to exactly ¥0.45 (US$0.06) for one hour of gameplay. A monthly fee model is not available to players of this region.

In Australia, the United States, and many European countries, video game stores commonly stock the trial version of World of Warcraft in DVD form priced at A$2 or €2 including VAT, which include the game and 14 days of gameplay, after which the player would have to upgrade to a retail account by supplying a valid credit card, or purchasing a game card as well as a retail copy of the game.
Suggested Retail Price Monthly Fee Paid Character Transfer Fee
Europe €19.99[35] €11-€13[35] €19.99[36]
United Kingdom £14.99[35] £7.70-£9[35] £14.99[36]
North America
Oceania US$20[37] $13-$15[38] $25[39]

Virtual community

In addition to playing the game itself and conversing on discussion forums provided by Blizzard, World of Warcraft players often participate in the World of Warcraft virtual community in creative ways, including fan artwork[40] and comic strip style storytelling.[41] Blizzard furthers this community by offering in-game and out-of-game prizes, as well as highlighting community events and occurrences. Blizzard has also provided incentives for introducing new members to World of Warcraft. In late October 2005 each subscribed player received a 10-day free pass[42] which they suggested be employed as seasonal gifts that could either be used by the current player or given to a friend. These passes would generate a free month's usage if the guest player purchased a full account.

There are various memes, including "Face Melting,"[43] a reference to a very long thread on the priest forums on the World of Warcraft website that consisted of players saying, "You will melt faces as a Shadow Priest in PvP" in different ways. This is because the icon for Mind Flay, a powerful skill used heavily by Shadow Priests, looks like a melting face. Another popular phenomenon in the community are machinima videos such as the one[44] starring a player named Leeroy Jenkins, showing him and his guild in a funny encounter. Leeroy's popularity inspired more videos and tributes in other games, and he was even part of a clue on the November 16, 2005 episode of the TV game show College Jeopardy!.[45] These memes gain notoriety through postings on the World of Warcraft Forums.[46]

As of August 2005, the Dark Iron server has been home to the guilds of web-comic creators Scott Kurtz (PvP) and Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (Penny Arcade). Kurtz created Panda Attack and Djörk on the Horde side, while Holkins and Krahulik initiated a series of guilds that is now known as the Penny Arcade Alliance. This event is referred to as the Comic Guild Wars, and has created healthy competition between the authors, to the extent of dedicating some of their strips to the subject. Tim Buckley of Ctrl+Alt+Del and the creators of Holy Bibble have also joined in on making guilds for Dark Iron players.

Modifications
A heavily modified World of Warcraft user interface
A heavily modified World of Warcraft user interface

World of Warcraft includes significant support for modifications to the user interface (UI) of a game, colloquially known as "mods" and "addons". At a simple level it allows full control over the content of toolbars and hot keys, as well as macros to automate sets of operations and the ability to script much more elaborate tools. The range of modifications that are available can be anything from ways to automatically advertise trade skills, to adding extra rows of button bars for spells, skills and more. There are also various humorous mods, including one that reproduces the infamous Leeroy Jenkins sound.[47]

As of the 2.0 release of World of Warcraft, certain modifications and "Addons" no longer function the way they were intended by the addon designer, as the way that an addon interacts with the game has been changed. This has forced all addons pre-2.0 to have to be rewritten. This is such a drastic change to the addons that all players must now download new copies of the addon that they were using. More information on this topic is available in this forum post.

Addons are created using one or both Lua and XML, and images used for modifications are created using the .TGA (Targa) and .BLP image formats. Blizzard has also released a User Interface Customization tool to support and encourage UI modders.[48] However, Blizzard is unable to endorse or provide support for third party interfaces due to issues that may be caused by them.

Some third-party programs that operate in a stand-alone mode, or independent of World of Warcraft, may be considered exploits, especially if they automate operation beyond that made available using the built-in macro functionality, or pass information in or out of the game. Use of these is against the Terms of Service agreed to when playing the game, and as such, may lead to possible suspension or closure of accounts. Blizzard has stated on the official forums that any modification that uses the Lua programming language will not be considered an exploit, though Blizzard reserves the right to change information available via the Lua language if the modification changes the nature of encounters in the game.[49]

Reception

Although its initial release was hampered by overpopulated servers,[50] the game became a financial success.[51][52] The game has been consistently ranked as one of the best by review sites and has won numerous awards, including GameSpot's Game of the Year Award for 2004 and IGNs Editor's Choice Award.[53][54][55]

World of Warcraft was the best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006.[56] By January 11, 2007, there were more than 2 million subscribers in North America, 1.5 million subscribers in Europe, and 3.5 million subscribers in China.[57] By July 24, 2007, the worldwide userbase for World of Warcraft was 9 million players worldwide.[58] By November 14, 2007, World of Warcraft's subscriber base was more than 9.3 million.[59] As of January 22, 2008, World of Warcraft has surpassed 10 million subscribers worldwide, with more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and about 5.5 million in Asia.[60]

Controversy and criticism

Main article: Criticism of World of Warcraft

WoW is often criticized for a number of reasons.

Game addiction

Stories of game addiction are a common source of criticism. In June 2005 it was reported that a child had died due to neglect by her World of Warcraft-addicted parents in Korea.[61] In August of that year, the government of the People's Republic of China proposed new rules to curb what they perceived to be social and financial costs brought on by the popularity of games such as World of Warcraft. The measure would enforce a time limit on China's estimated total of 20 million gamers.[62] The Chinese government and The9, the licensee for World of Warcraft in China, have likewise imposed a modification on Chinese versions of the game which places flesh on bare-boned skeletons and transforms dead character corpses into tidy graves. These changes were imposed by the Chinese government in an attempt to "promote a healthy and harmonious online game environment" in World of Warcraft.[63]

Dr. Maressa Orzack, a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, was interviewed August 8, 2006, stating that of the 6 million subscribers "I'd say that 40 percent of the players are addicted."[64] The 40% figure was not derived from a scientific study overseen by Dr. Orzack, but rather came from "a forum that Nick Yee runs". She added in an August 2006 interview that "even if the percentage is 5 to 10 percent which is standard for most addictive behaviors, it is a huge number of people who are out of control."[65] Also, according to Dr. John Grohol, a colleague of Orzack's, "Dr. Orzack is not claiming that up to 40 percent of World of Warcraft gamers are addicted based upon any actual evidence or surveys of players. This is just her opinion, based upon her own experience and observation of the problem."[66]

Spam problems

After Blizzard started offering free trial gameplay accounts, players started receiving increasing numbers of spam sent by bots in the virtual mailboxes of their characters, advertising virtual gold, honor, and experience selling services.[67] One study shows that this problem is particularly prevalent on the European realms.[68] In patch 2.1, Blizzard responded to this by adding additional anti-spam mechanics including whisper throttling, and the report spam function. However, this may be countered by creating more accounts and characters.

Impact on popular culture

WoW has become increasingly referenced in popular culture as a result of the game's popularity. One example is the Emmy Award winning South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft." [69] In the Louisville World Series of Video Games competition, World of Warcraft was a featured game.[70] WoW itself also contains references to pop culture within the game.[71] The game has even made the jump into advertising for unrelated products, such as Toyota trucks.[72] In late 2007, a series of television commercials for the game began airing featuring pop culture celebrities such as Mr. T, William Shatner, and Verne Troyer discussing the virtues of the character classes they play in the game.

WoW has inspired a board game produced by Fantasy Flight Games, as well as a trading card game produced by Upper Deck Entertainment.

In November 2007, DC Comics published the first issue of the ongoing World of Warcraft comic under their Wildstorm imprint.[73]

Wikipedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Wikipedian" redirects here. For more information about the Wikipedia community, see Wikipedia:Wikipedians.
For Wikipedia's non-encyclopedic visitor introduction, see Wikipedia:About.Wikipedia

Screenshot of Wikipedia's multilingual portal
URL http://www.wikipedia.org
Slogan The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit
Alexa rank #9[1]
Commercial? No
Type of site Online encyclopedia
Registration Optional
Available language(s) 236 active editions (253 in total)[2]
Owner Wikimedia Foundation
Created by Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger[3]
Launched 15 January 2001
Current status perpetual work-in-progress


Wikipedia (IPA: /ˌwɪkɨˈpiːdiə/, /ˌwiːkiˈpiːdiə/, /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdiə/ or /ˌwiːkiˈpeɪdiə/) (Audio (U.S.) (help·info)) is a free,[4] multilingual, open content encyclopedia project operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its name is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia. Launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, it is the largest, fastest growing and most popular general reference work currently available on the Internet.[5][6]

As of December 2007, Wikipedia had approximately 9 ¼ million articles in 253 languages, comprising a combined total of over 1.74 billion words for all Wikipedias. The English Wikipedia edition passed the 2,000,000 article mark on September 9, 2007, and as of January 30, 2008 it had over 2,200,000 articles consisting of over 957,000,000 words.[2] Wikipedia's articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and the vast majority of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet. Having steadily risen in popularity since its inception,[1] it currently ranks among the top ten most-visited websites worldwide.[7]

Critics have questioned Wikipedia's reliability and accuracy, citing its open nature.[8] The criticism is centered on its susceptibility to vandalism, such as the insertion of profanities or random letters into articles, and the addition of spurious or unverified information;[9] uneven quality, systemic bias and inconsistencies;[10] and for favoring consensus over credentials in its editorial process.[11] Scholarly work suggests that vandalism is generally short-lived.[12][13]

In addition to being an encyclopedic reference, Wikipedia has received major media attention as an online source of breaking news as it is constantly updated.[14][15] When Time Magazine recognized "You" as their Person of the Year 2006, praising the accelerating success of on-line collaboration and interaction by millions of users around the world, Wikipedia was the first particular "Web 2.0" service mentioned, followed by YouTube and MySpace.[16]Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Content and internal structure
3 Software and hardware
4 Language editions
5 Reliability and bias
6 Criticism
7 Cultural significance
8 Related projects
9 See also
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links


History
Main article: History of Wikipedia

Wikipedia originally developed from another encyclopedia project, Nupedia.

Wikipedia began as a complementary project for Nupedia, a free online English-language encyclopedia project whose articles were written by experts and reviewed by a formal process. Nupedia was founded on March 9, 2000, under the ownership of Bomis, Inc, a web portal company. Its principal figures were Jimmy Wales, Bomis CEO, and Larry Sanger, editor-in-chief for Nupedia and later Wikipedia. Nupedia was licensed initially under its own Nupedia Open Content License, switching to the GNU Free Documentation License before Wikipedia's founding at the urging of Richard Stallman.[17]

On January 10, 2001, Larry Sanger proposed on the Nupedia mailing list to create a wiki as a "feeder" project for Nupedia.[18] Wikipedia was formally launched on January 15, 2001, as a single English-language edition at http://www.wikipedia.com,[19] and announced by Sanger on the Nupedia mailing list.[20] Wikipedia's policy of "neutral point-of-view"[21] was codified in its initial months, and was similar to Nupedia's earlier "nonbiased" policy. Otherwise, there were relatively few rules initially and Wikipedia operated independently of Nupedia.[22] Wikipedia gained early contributors from Nupedia, Slashdot postings, and search engine indexing. It grew to approximately 20,000 articles, and 18 language editions, by the end of 2001. By late 2002 it had reached 26 language editions, 46 by the end of 2003, and 161 by the closing stages 2004.[23] Nupedia and Wikipedia coexisted until the former's servers went down permanently in 2003, and its text was incorporated into Wikipedia.

Jimmy Wales

Larry Sanger

Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales are the founders of Wikipedia.[3][24] While Wales is credited with defining the goal of making a publicly editable encyclopedia,[22] Sanger is usually credited with the counter-intuitive strategy of using a wiki to reach that goal.[25]

Citing fears of commercial advertising and lack of control in a perceived English-centric Wikipedia, users of the Spanish Wikipedia forked from Wikipedia to create the Enciclopedia Libre in February 2002. Later that year, Wales announced that Wikipedia would not display advertisements, and its website was moved to wikipedia.org. Various other projects have since forked from Wikipedia for editorial reasons. Wikinfo does not require neutral point of view and allows original research. New Wikipedia-inspired projects — such as Citizendium, Scholarpedia, Amapedia and Google's Knol — have been started to address perceived limitations of Wikipedia, such as its policies on peer review, original research and commercial advertising.

Graph of the article count for the English Wikipedia, from January 10, 2001, to September 9, 2007 (the date of the two-millionth article).

As of December 2007, English Wikipedia had over 2 million articles, making it the largest encyclopedia ever assembled, eclipsing even the Yongle Encyclopedia (1407), which had held the record for nearly 600 years.[26]

The Wikimedia Foundation was created from Wikipedia and Nupedia on June 20, 2003.[27] It applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office to trademark Wikipedia® on September 17, 2004. The mark was granted registration status on January 10, 2006. Trademark protection was accorded by Japan on December 16, 2004, and in the European Union on January 20, 2005. Technically a service mark, the scope of the mark is for: "Provision of information in the field of general encyclopedic knowledge via the Internet". There are plans to license the usage of the Wikipedia trademark for some products, such as books or DVDs.[28] In October 2007 the foundation announced that it plans to move its headquarters from St. Petersburg, Florida, to San Francisco, California, in February 2008.[29]

The Wikimedia Foundation's 4th Quarter 2005 costs were $321,000 USD, with hardware making up almost 60% of the budget.[30] The Wikimedia Foundation currently relies primarily on private donations, and holds regular fundraisers;[31] the January 2007 fundraiser raised just over $1 million.[32]

Content and internal structure

Almost every article in Wikipedia may be edited anonymously or with a user account and changes are made available immediately, while only registered users may create a new article. All text in Wikipedia is covered by GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), a copyleft license permitting the redistribution, creation of derivative works, and commercial use of content while authors retain copyright of their work. Wikipedia has been working on the switch to Creative Commons licenses because the GFDL, initially designed for software manuals, is not suitable for online reference works and because the two licenses are currently incompatible.[33] Some language editions, such as the English Wikipedia, include non-free image files under fair use doctrine.

Wikimania, an annual conference for users of Wikipedia and other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Unlike peer-reviewed encyclopedias such as Encyclopædia Britannica, Wikipedia relies on the efforts of its community members, called Wikipedians,[34] to remove vandalism or identify problems such as violation of neutrality[35] and factual errors in its articles.[36] Since June 2006 vandalism-repair bots have also been in use.[13] Wikipedia's content policies[37] and sub-projects set up by contributors seek to address problems of accuracy.[38]

The community has a power structure.[39] While they are welcomed by the community,[40] authors new to Wikipedia are encouraged to read policies to help them learn the ways of Wikipedia.[41] Editors in good standing in the community can run for one of many of levels of volunteer stewardship, that begins with "administrator"[42] and goes up with "steward" and "bureaucrat".[43] Administrators, the largest group of privileged users (1,442 Wikipedians for the English edition on December 23, 2007), have the ability to delete pages, lock articles from being changed in case of vandalism or editorial disputes, and deter users from editing.

The "History" page attached to each article makes its complete editing history easily accessible.[41] Much of the coordination of the editing of Wikipedia takes place on the "Talk" pages associated with each individual article.[44]

Software and hardware

The operation of Wikipedia depends on MediaWiki, a custom-made, free and open source wiki software platform written in PHP and built upon the MySQL database. The software incorporates programming features such as a macro language, variables, a transclusion system for templates, and URL redirection. MediaWiki is licensed under the GNU General Public License and used by all Wikimedia projects, as well as many other wiki projects. Originally, Wikipedia ran on UseModWiki written in Perl by Clifford Adams (Phase I), which initially required CamelCase for article hyperlinks; the present double bracket style was incorporated later. Starting in January 2002 (Phase II), Wikipedia began running on a PHP wiki engine with a MySQL database; this software was custom-made for Wikipedia by Magnus Manske. The Phase II software was repeatedly modified to accommodate the exponentially increasing demand. In July 2002 (Phase III), Wikipedia shifted to the third-generation software, MediaWiki, originally written by Lee Daniel Crocker.

Overview of system architecture, May 2006. See server layout diagrams on Meta-Wiki.

Wikipedia runs on dedicated clusters of Linux servers in Florida and in two other locations.[45] Wikipedia employed a single server until 2004, when the server setup was expanded into a distributed multitier architecture. In January 2005, the project ran on 39 dedicated servers located in Florida. This configuration included a single master database server running MySQL, multiple slave database servers, 21 web servers running the Apache HTTP Server, and seven Squid cache servers. By September 2005, its server cluster had grown to around 100 servers: main servers in Tampa, Florida and the rest in Amsterdam and Seoul.

Wikipedia receives between 10,000 and 35,000 page requests per second, depending on time of day.[46] Page requests are first passed to a front-end layer of Squid caching servers. Requests that cannot be served from the Squid cache are sent to load-balancing servers running the Linux Virtual Server software, which in turn pass the request to one of the Apache web servers for page rendering from the database. The web servers deliver pages as requested, performing page rendering for all the language editions of Wikipedia. To increase speed further, rendered pages for anonymous users are cached in a distributed memory cache until invalidated, allowing page rendering to be skipped entirely for most common page accesses. Two larger clusters in the Netherlands and Korea now handle much of Wikipedia's traffic load.

Language editions
See also: List of Wikipedias This section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources, or discuss the issue on the talk page.
This article has been tagged since October 2007.


Contributors for English Wikipedia by country as of September 2006[47]

There are currently 253 language editions of Wikipedia; of these, 15 have over 100,000 articles and 145 have over 1,000 articles.[2] According to Alexa, the English subdomain (en.wikipedia.org) receives approximately 55% of Wikipedia's cumulative traffic, with the remaining split among the other languages (Spanish: 17%, Japanese 4%, German: 4%, Polish: 3%, French: 3%, Portuguese: 2%).[1] As of December 2007, the five largest language editions are (in order of article count) English, German, French, Polish and Japanese Wikipedias.[48]

Since Wikipedia is web-based and therefore worldwide, contributors of a same language edition may use different dialects or may come from different countries (as is the case for the English edition). These differences may lead to some conflicts over spelling differences, (e.g. color vs. colour)[49] or points of view.[50] Though the various language editions are held to global policies such as "neutral point of view," they diverge on some points of policy and practice, most notably on whether images that are not licensed freely may be used under a claim of fair use.[51][52][53]

Percentage of all Wikipedia articles in English (red) and top ten largest language editions (blue). As of November 2007, less than 25% of Wikipedia articles are in English.

Jimmy Wales has described Wikipedia as "an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language".[54] Though each language edition functions more or less independently, some efforts are made to supervise them all. They are coordinated in part by Meta-Wiki, the Wikimedia Foundation's wiki devoted to maintaining all of its projects (Wikipedia and others). For instance, Meta-Wiki provides important statistics on all language editions of Wikipedia and maintain a list of articles every Wikipedia should have. The list concerns basic content by subject: biography, history, geography, society, culture, science, technology, foodstuffs, and mathematics. As for the rest, it is not rare for articles strongly related to a particular language not to have counterparts in another edition. For example, articles about small towns in the United States might only be available in English.

Translated articles represent only a small portion of articles in most editions.[55]. This is in part because the Wikipedia community opted to disallow automated translation of articles.[56] Articles available in more than one language may offer "InterWiki" links, which link to the counterpart articles in other editions. Images and other non-verbal media are shared among the various language editions through the Wikimedia Commons repository, a project operated by the Wikimedia foundation.

Several language versions have published a selection of wikipedia articles on a DVD version. An English version[57] developed by Linterweb contains "1964 + articles".[58][59] The Polish version contains nearly 240000 articles.[60] There are also a few German versions.[61]

Reliability and bias
Main article: Reliability of Wikipedia

Wikipedia does not require that its contributors give their legal names or provide other information to establish their identity. A 2007 study by researchers from Dartmouth College found that anonymous and infrequent contributors to Wikipedia are as reliable a source of knowledge as those contributors who register with the site.[62] Although some contributors are authorities in their field, Wikipedia requires that even their contributions be supported by published and verifiable sources.

Wikipedia tries to address the problem of systemic bias, and to deal with zealous editors who seek to influence the presentation of an article in a biased way, by insisting on a neutral point of view.[63] The English-language Wikipedia has introduced an assessment scale against which the quality of articles is judged;[64] other editions have also adopted this. Roughly 1500 articles have passed a rigorous set of criteria to reach the highest rank, "featured article" status; such articles are intended to provide thorough, well-written coverage of their topic, supported by many references to peer-reviewed publications.[65]

In a 2003 study of Wikipedia as a community, economics Ph.D. student Andrea Ciffolilli argued that the low transaction costs of participating in wiki software create a catalyst for collaborative development, and that a "creative construction" approach encourages participation.[66]

In February 2007, an article in The Harvard Crimson newspaper reported that some of the professors at Harvard University do include Wikipedia in their syllabus, but that there is a split in their perception of using Wikipedia.[67] In June 2007, former president of the American Library Association Michael Gorman condemned Wikipedia, along with Google,[68] stating that academics who endorse the use of Wikipedia are “the intellectual equivalent of a dietician who recommends a steady diet of Big Macs with everything.” He also said that “a generation of intellectual sluggards incapable of moving beyond the Internet” was being produced at universities. He complains that the web-based sources are discouraging students from learning from the more rare texts which are either found only on paper or are on subscription-only web sites. In the same article Jenny Fry (a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute) commented on the academics who cite Wikipedia that: “You cannot say children are intellectually lazy because they are using the Internet when academics are using search engines in their research,” she said. “The difference is that they have more experience of being critical about what is retrieved and whether it is authoritative. Children need to be told how to use the Internet in a critical and appropriate way.”[68]

Speaking at a conference in Pennsylvania, Wales said he receives about ten e-mails weekly from students saying they got failing grades on papers because they cited Wikipedia. According to the Sunday Times of London, Wales told the students they got what they deserved. "For God's sake, you’re in college; don't cite the encyclopedia," he said.[69]

Criticism
Main article: Criticism of Wikipedia

Wikipedia has been accused of exhibiting systemic bias and inconsistency;[8] critics argue that Wikipedia's open nature and a lack of proper sources for much of the information makes it unreliable.[70] Some commentators suggest that Wikipedia is generally reliable, but that the reliability of any given article is not always clear.[11] The project's preference for consensus over credentials has been labeled "anti-elitism".[10] Editors of traditional reference works such as the Encyclopædia Britannica have questioned the project's utility and status as an encyclopedia.[71] Many university lecturers discourage students from citing any encyclopedia in academic work, preferring primary sources;[72] some specifically prohibit Wikipedia citations.[73] Co-founder Jimmy Wales stresses that encyclopedias of any type are not usually appropriate as primary sources, and should not be relied upon as authoritative.[74] Technology writer Bill Thompson commented that the debate was possibly "symptomatic of much learning about information which is happening in society today."[75]

In order to improve reliability, some editors have called for "stable versions" of articles, or articles that have been reviewed by the community and locked from further editing – but the community has been unable to form a consensus in favor of such changes, partly because they would require a major software overhaul.[76][77] However a similar system is being tested on the German Wikipedia, and there is an expectation that some form of that system will make its way onto the English version at some future time.[78] Software created by Luca de Alfaro and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz is now being tested that will assign "trust ratings" to individual Wikipedia contributors, with the intention that eventually only edits made by those who have established themselves as "trusted editors" will be made immediately visible.[79]

John Seigenthaler Sr. has described Wikipedia as "a flawed and irresponsible research tool."[80]

Concerns have also been raised regarding the lack of accountability that results from users' anonymity,[81] and that it is vulnerable to vandalism and similar problems. In one particularly well-publicized incident, false information was introduced into the biography of John Seigenthaler, Sr. and remained undetected for four months.[80] Some critics claim that Wikipedia's open structure makes it an easy target for Internet trolls, advertisers, and those with an agenda to push.[82][41] The addition of political spin to articles by organizations including the U.S. House of Representatives and special interest groups[9] has been noted,[83] and organizations such as Microsoft have offered financial incentives to work on certain articles.[84] These issues have been parodied, notably by Stephen Colbert in The Colbert Report.[85]

Wikipedia's community has been described as "cult-like,"[86] although not always with entirely negative connotations,[87] and criticized for failing to accommodate inexperienced users.[88] While praising many aspects of Wikipedia, historian Roy Rosenzweig notes: "Overall, writing is the Achilles’ heel of Wikipedia. Committees rarely write well, and Wikipedia entries often have a choppy quality that results from the stringing together of sentences or paragraphs written by different people."[89]

In August 2007, a new website developed by computer science graduate student Virgil Griffith named WikiScanner made its public debut. WikiScanner traces the source of millions of changes made to Wikipedia by editors who are not logged in, and it revealed some interesting and controversial edits in its first few days of use. Many of these edits came from corporations or sovereign government agencies about articles related to them, their personnel or their work, and were attempts to remove criticism.[90]

Wales called WikiScanner "a very clever idea," and said that he was considering some changes to Wikipedia to help visitors better understand what information is recorded about them. "When someone clicks on ‘edit,’ it would be interesting if we could say, ‘Hi, thank you for editing. We see you’re logged in from The New York Times. Keep in mind that we know that, and it’s public information,’" he said. "That might make them stop and think."[90]

Cultural significance

An xkcd strip entitled "Wikipedian Protester."

In addition to logistic growth in the number of its articles,[91] Wikipedia has steadily gained status as a general reference website since its inception in 2001.[92] As of December 2007, according to Alexa and comScore, Wikipedia was among the ten most visited websites world-wide.[7][93] Of the top ten, Wikipedia is the only non-profit website. In April 2007 the Pew Internet and American Life project found that one third of US Internet users consulted Wikipedia.[94] The growth of Wikipedia has been fueled by its dominant positions in Google search results; as of February 2007, 50% of search engine traffic to Wikipedia came from Google.[95] In October 2006, the site was estimated to have a hypothetical market value of $580 million if it ran ads.[96]

Wikipedia's content has also been used in academic studies, books, conferences, and court cases.[97][98] The Parliament of Canada's website refers to Wikipedia's article on same-sex marriage in the "related links" section of its "further reading" list for the Civil Marriage Act.[99] The encyclopedia's assertions are increasingly used as a source by organizations such as the U.S. Federal Courts and the World Intellectual Property Organization[100] — though mainly

[Riot]

what
From Wiktionary
Jump to: navigation, search
Wikipedia has an article on:
What

Contents
[hide]

* 1 English
o 1.1 Pronunciation
o 1.2 Homophones
o 1.3 Etymology
o 1.4 Pronoun
+ 1.4.1 Translations
o 1.5 Adverb
+ 1.5.1 Synonyms
+ 1.5.2 Translations
o 1.6 Conjunction
+ 1.6.1 Translations
o 1.7 Interjection
+ 1.7.1 Translations
o 1.8 Determiner
+ 1.8.1 Translations

[edit] English
Rank of this word in the English language, from analyzing texts from Project Gutenberg.
up your any #59: what do has could

[edit] Pronunciation
IPA SAMPA AHD
UK /wɒt/, /ʍɒt/ /wQt/, /WQt/ wŏt, hwŏt
US /wʰʌt/, /ʍʌt/ /wVt/, /WVt/ wŭt, hwŭt
AusE /wɔt/ /wOt/ wŏt

* Audio (US)help, file
* Rhymes: -ɒt

[edit] Homophones

* Watt (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
* watt (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
* wot (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

[edit] Etymology

Middle English < Old English hwæt < Proto-Germanic < Proto-Indo-European base *kwos, *kwod (which also gave us ‘who’).

[edit] Pronoun

what

1. (interrogative) which thing, event, circumstance, etc.: used interrogatively in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.

What is your address?
You told them what?
[Brit. colloq.]It's rather late, what?

2. (relative, nonstandard) that; which
* 1902, J. M. Barrie, The Admirable Crichton

That’s her; that’s the thing what has stole his heart from me.

[edit] Translations
interrogative pronoun[show]

* Albanian: ç' (sq)
* Arabic: ماذا (ar) (māðā)

Egyptian: إيه (ʔee)
Palestinian: إيش (ʔeeš)
Syrian: شو (šū)

* Armenian: ի՞նչ (inč‘)
* Balinese: apa
* Basque: zer
* Bengali: কি (ki)
* Bikol: ano
* Bulgarian: какво (kakvo)
* Butuanon: ngan
* Catalan: què
* Cebuano: unsa
* Chinese:

Cantonese: 乜嘢 (mātyẹ́, mīyẹ́), 咩 (mẹ́)
Mandarin: 什麼, 什么 (shénme), 啥 (shá), 何 (hé)

* Croatian: šta (hr), što (hr)
* Czech: co (cs)
* Danish: hvad (da)
* Dutch: wat (nl)
* Esperanto: kio (eo)
* Estonian: mis (et), mida (et)
* Finnish: mikä (fi), mitä (fi)
* French: quoi (fr)
* Gamilaraay: minya
* German: was (de)
* Greek: τι (ti)
* Hawaiian: aha
* Hebrew: מה (ma)
* Hiligaynon: ano
* Hindi: क्या (kyā)



* Hungarian: mi (hu)
* Ibanag: anni
* Icelandic: hvað (is)
* Ido: quo
* Ilocano: ania
* Indonesian: apa (id)
* Irish: cad (ga)
* Italian: che cosa (it), cosa (it)
* Japanese: 何 (なに, náni [when used alone]; なん nan [when used with another word])
* Kapampangan: nanu
* Korean: 무엇 (mueot)
* Kurdish: چی (ku)
* Latin: quod (la)
* Maori: aha (mi)
* Norwegian: hva (no)
* Pangasinan: anto
* Persian: چِه (če), چی (či)
* Polish: co (pl)
* Portuguese: o que (pt)
* Romanian: ce (ro)
* Russian: что (što)
* Scottish Gaelic: dè
* Slovak: čo (sk)
* Slovene: kaj (sl)
* Spanish: qué (es), cuál (es)
* Swedish: vad (sv)
* Tagalog: ano
* Tausug: unu
* Telugu: ఏమిటి (aemiTi)
* Turkish: ne (tr)
* Urdu: كيا (kyā)
* Waray-Waray: ano
* Welsh: beth

relative pronoun[show]

* Dutch: dat (nl), wat (nl)
* German: der (de) m., die (de) f., das (de) n.
* Hungarian: mi, ami, mit accusative, amit accusative



* Russian: который (kotóryj), что (što)
* Swedish: som (sv)

[edit] Adverb

what

1. in some manner or degree; in part; partly; usually followed by with.

What with singing and joking, the time passed quickly.

2. Such; this is; that is.

What a pity.
What a beautiful day!

3. [Obs.] why?

[edit] Synonyms

* such

[edit] Translations
in some manner[show]

such[show]

* French: quel (fr) m.



* Japanese: 何と (nanto)
* Hebrew: איזה (he) (éize) m.
* Russian: какой/какая/какое (kakój/kakája/kakóje) m/f/n, что за (što za)
* Slovene: kako (sl)
* Swedish: vad, så (uncountable), en sådan/ett sådant/sådana (countable)

why[show]

See translations at why.


The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

* Cantonese: 咁 (gam), 真係/真系 (jān hai), 的確係/的确系 (dīkkok hai), 真正係/真正系 (jānjing hai)
* Czech: co za, jaký
* Estonian: kui, milline, selline
* German: was für, wie, so
* Hungarian: micsoda, milyen
* Indonesian: apa
* Italian: che



* Polish: co
* Portuguese: que
* Scots: whit
* Spanish: qué

[edit] Conjunction

what

1. that which; those which; the thing that

He knows what he wants.

[edit] Translations

* Armenian: ինչ (inč‘)
* Bulgarian: какво (kakvo)
* Czech: co (cs)
* Dutch: wat (nl)
* Esperanto: ke (eo), kiu (eo)
* Estonian: mida (et)
* Finnish: mikä (fi)
* French: ce que, ce qui
* German: was (de)
* Hungarian: mi, mit accusative
* Italian: ciò che, quello che, cosa



* Japanese: (no relative pronouns)
* Norwegian: hva (no)
* Polish: to co
* Portuguese: o que (pt)
* Romanian: care (ro)
* Russian: что (što); то, что (to, što)
* Scots: what
* Slovene: kaj (sl)
* Spanish: lo que
* Swedish: vad (sv)
* Tagalog: ano

[edit] Interjection

what!

1. an expression of surprise or disbelief.

What! That’s amazing.

2. [mostly British colloquialism]: is that not true?

It’s a nice day, what? (sometimes repeated, e.g.: What-what?)

3. [mostly British colloquialism]: greeting (archaic).

What ho, Frobisher!

[edit] Translations

* Bulgarian: какво! (kakvo)
* Czech: co!
* Dutch: wat!
* Estonian: mida?, mis?, misasja?, kuidas?
* Finnish: mitä! (1)
* French: quoi !, comment !
* German: was!
* Hebrew: מה? (ma)
* Hungarian: mi? (1)
* Indonesian: apa (id)



* Japanese: 何 (なに, náni)
* Polish: co!
* Portuguese o quê?
* Russian: как! (kak); что ли? (što li)
* Slovak: čo (sk)
* Spanish: ¡qué! ¿no?
* Swedish: va! (sv)

[edit] Determiner

what

1. which; which kind of.

What shirt are you going to wear?
What time is it?
What kind of car is that?

2. how much; how great (used in an exclamation)

What talent he has!
What a talent!

[edit] Translations
which[show]

* Czech: jaký (cs)
* Estonian: mis (et)
* Finnish: mikä (fi)
* French: quel (fr) m.
* German: welche(r,s)
* Hungarian: milyen (hu), melyik (hu)
* Italian: che (it)



* Latin: qui (la) m., quae (la) f., quod (la) n.
* Polish: który (pl) m., która (pl) f., które (pl) n.
* Russian: который/которая/которое (kotóryj/kotóraja/kotóroje) m/f/n, какой/какая/какое (kakój/kakája/kakóje) m/f/n
* Spanish: qué (es), cuál (es)
* Swedish: vilken/vilket/vilka, (which of, which kind of), vad för (which kind of)

how much[show]

* Finnish: mikä (fi), millainen (fi)
* French: quel (fr) m.
* Hungarian: milyen (hu), micsoda (hu), mekkora (hu)



* Polish: jaki (pl) m., jaka (pl) f., jakie (pl) n.
* Russian: какой/какая/какое (kakój/kakája/kakóje) m/f/n
* Spanish: menudo (es)
* Swedish: vilken/vilket/vilka, en sådan/ett sådant/sådana

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

* Czech: jaký
* Dutch: welk
* Esperanto: kiu
* Estonian: milline
* German: welche(r,s)
* Hindi: (kyun)



* Norwegian: hvilken
* Oriya: (kana)
* Portuguese: qual, que
* Romanian: ce
* Slovak: čo
* Telugu: ఏ (ae)

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