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About

World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that takes place in the fantasy world of Azeroth and follows the tale of the eternal battle between two factions, the Alliance, and the Horde. Since its release in November 2004, it has gathered way more than 10 million subscribers worldwide, making World of Warcraft the most-subscribed and greatest MMORPG of all-time.

In June 2021, for the first time in gaming history, its competitor Final Fantasy XIV surpassed World of Warcraft and breaking the 17-year streak as the greatest award-winning MMORPG of all-time with the most active player base.

History

World of Warcraft was released by American video game developer Blizzard Entertainment on November 23rd, 2004. It was preceded by several Warcraft real-time strategy games starting with Warcraft: Orcs & Humans released in 1994 and ending Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne expansion pack, which was released in 2003. The World of Warcraft storyline picks up 4 years after Warcraft III.^[1]

Expansions

As of November 2014, there have been eight expansions for World of Warcraft since its initial release:

The first expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, brought new areas to explore in the demonic region from the dark portal known as Outland, and included new professions, quests, raids, and dungeons. It introduced two new playable races: the Blood Elves for the Horde, and Draenei for the Alliance. Level cap increases to 70, and Jewelcrafting as a new profession. This expansion also made it possible for the new races to play faction classes, with Draenei Shaman for the Alliance, and Blood Elf Paladin for the Horde.

The second expansion, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King introduced the frozen continent of Northrend in the northernmost reaches of Azeroth. In this expansion, the Scourge, an undead army under the control of The Lich King, have increased their aggression and are launching an effort to take over Azeroth. As with the previous expansion, new professions, quests, raids, dungeons, and game mechanics were added with this release. Of note is the inclusion of a new Hero Class, the Death Knight, which requires that a player already have a character at level 55. Level cap also increases to 80.

The third expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm added new areas to Azeroth itself, and revamped many of the existing areas with new terrain and quests to reflect the emergence of Deathwing, a great dragon aspect who rested underneath Azeroth's surface until the start of this expansion. After awakening, he laid waste to much of the world, triggering the Cataclysm that is the expansion's namesake. In addition to the complete revamp of already existing regions, notable features include new raids, dungeons, quests, zones, level cap to 85, and the addition of two new races, the Worgen for the Alliance, and the Goblins for the Horde.

The fourth expansion, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria introduced the continent of Pandaria, the Monk playable class, a level cap to 90, and the first-ever neutral playable race for both factions, the Pandaren. The expansion was released on September 25th, 2012, selling 2.7 million copies in the first week.[22] While the game's subscriptions dropped to 9.1 million in early August 2012[23], the release of the expansion brought that count back up to 10 million.[24]

The fifth expansion, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, was released on November 13th, 2014. Garrosh Hellscream escaped after the events of Mists of Pandaria and found his way to travel in time to the past in Draenor to alter the timeline and to conquer Azeroth with all the combined clans as the Iron Horde. Warlord of Draenor takes place in the alternate timeline of the planet Draenor. Among the features introduced were updated player models, revamped skills, and level cap raised to 100.

The sixth expansion, World of Warcraft: Legion, was announced on August 6, 2015 at Gamescom 2015, and released on August 30, 2016. After the conclusion of Warlords of Draenor, Gul'dan (from the alternate timeline) found his way to Azeroth's current timeline to open the portal to summon the Burning Legion to invade Azeroth. Legion introduces you the new continent, the Broken Isles, and the long-awaited hero class, the Demon Hunter, along with the return of Illidan Stormrage. Other features include a level cap to 110, artifact weapons (depends on your class), transmog 2.0, order halls, and mythic plus raid difficulty for professional players.

The seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, was announced at BlizzCon 2017 on November 3, 2017, with the release date on August 13 & 14, 2018. Azeroth is still wounded from the sword plunged by the titan Sargeras after the end of Legion, bleeding out powerful lifeblood crystals known as Azerite. Meanwhile, the Horde's Warchief, Sylvanas Windrunner, burn down the Night Elves' capital city of Darnassus, causing the fourth war between Anduin Wrynn of the Alliance and Sylvanas Windrunner of the Horde to clash. Battle for Azeroth introduces the first ever playable allied races for both Alliance and Horde, and two new faction continents Kul Tiras (Alliance) and Zandalar (Horde). In addition, level cap is raised to 120, warfronts, the Heart of Azeroth artifact to restore Azeroth, island expeditions, and a chain storyline of Varok Saurfang.

The eight expansion, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, is announced at BlizzCon 2019 on November 1, 2019, and made available for preorder. Scheduled to release on 2020. After Sylvanas Windrunner betrays the Horde and impeached as Warchief, she sets to the Icecrown Citadel in Northerend to confront the current Lich King, Bolvar Fordragon. Taking his crown, she breaks it in two, causing a veil between realities and opening a portal to Azeroth's afterlife, the Shadowlands, to assist The Jailer's evil plans to rule. Shadowlands introduces the first ever level squish down to 50 while the level cap for the expansion is up to 60, and playable Death Knight hero class for allied races including the Pandaren. Other features include covenants, more customization options, and a roguelike endless dungeon.

Gameplay

To join the game, the player first selects a server that will determine the player base the user will be interacting with. It is often selected based on server population size, and geographic location (which can greatly effect latency). After a server is selected, a faction (Horde or Alliance), race, sex, and class must be chosen in the character creation screen.

After creating a character, the player begins in the starting zone for the chosen race at level one, spawning directly next to a quest giver that will introduce the character to the game. To progress in the game, experience must be gained through completing quests and killing enemies (known as “mobs”) in order to reach the next level and gain attribute points. Armor and weapons must be continuously upgraded in order to survive. As of May 2013, World of Warcraft accounts are free up to level 20, but the player must pay monthly subscription fee of $15 in order to continue on in the game with additional features such as free chat, private messaging, auction house use, and the ability to join guilds and parties. The maximum level a player can reach is 90.

Reception

From 2005 to 2006, World of Warcraft was the best-selling PC game.^[4] It has received Editor's Choice^[2] awards, Best Mac OS X Entertainment Product from Apple Design Awards^[3], and Best PC Game, Best Multiplayer Game, Best RPG, and Most Addictive Game from Spike TV.^[5]

Subscriber Loss

On May 8th, 2013, Activision reported a loss of 1.3 million subscribers, or equivalent to 14% of the userbase,^[31] between January and March of 2013, putting the total number of worldwide subscribers just above the 8 million mark. Since reaching its peak of 12 million subscribers in October 2010, World of Warcraft has seen a steady decline, dropping to just over 11 million players in August 2011, falling again to 10 million players in November 2011. In commenting on the report, Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick (shown below) explained that many of the unsubscribers were from Asian countries^[32], citing a more competitive MMO market with many free-to-play games. To combat this, Kotick asserted that the company would be releasing new content more consistently to keep players coming back.^[33]

Controversies

Maine Senatorial Race

In early October 2012, the Maine Republican party launched a smear campaign against the Democratic candidate for State Senator Colleen Lachowicz by attacking her through the comments she posted on liberal blog Daily Kos^[7], specifically those in regard to her World of Warcraft account. Five of these comments were chosen for a physical mailer sent to Maine residents, which argued that the candidate lives in a “fantasy world” where she makes “crude, vicious and violent statements.”

The mailer also provided a link to the website Colleen’s World^[8], which revealed further information on Lachowicz’s character, a level 85 Orc Assassination Rogue named Santiaga, paired with comments from 2005-2012. On October 4th, several internet culture and video game news sites picked up the story including the Daily Dot^[9], Kotaku^[10], The Mary Sue^[11] and the Huffington Post.^[12] A Reddit thread^[14] was also submitted to /r/Games, receiving 673 upvotes and 527 points overall. In response to the personal attacks, Lachowicz posted a statement on her website^[13], providing statistics on the population of Americans who play video games.

Over the next several days, the smear campaign was discussed on several news outlets and blogs including CNN (shown above), BBC News^[21], Joystiq^[15], Slate^[16], Salon^[17], Gawker^[18] and the New York Daily News^[19], among other sites. Meanwhile, an outside group of gamers began raising money through the political action committee ActBlue^[20] for organizations that support Lachowicz, as her campaign cannot solicit or receive donations, accruing nearly $6000 within five days. Despite the controversy, Lachowicz ended up winning the election.^[34]

Stormwind and Orgrimmar Death Hack

On October 7th, European users on the Ragnaros server reported every player, as well as several non-playable characters, in Orgrimmar had been killed.^[25] The same day, YouTuber JaddMMOwned uploaded a video (shown below) explaining a prior instance of the instant kill hack, claiming the exploit was only known by three users until just before the hacker used it on the 7th. In addition to Ragnaros, players were killed en masse in several other servers including Terren Mill, Draenor and Twisted Nether.^[26] The exploit was quickly fixed by Blizzard^[27], who claimed that it would not be repeatable. The Week^[28], BBC News^[29] and Forbes^[30] all reported on the hack.

[This video has been removed]

Warbringers: Sylvanas

On July 31st, 2018, the World of Warcraft YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "Warbringers: Sylvanas," in which the Horde Warchief Sylvanas Windrunner calls to burn down Teldrassil, a sacred World Tree belonging to the Night Elves (shown below).

The cinematic was met with criticism from some World of Warcraft players, many of whom argued Windrunner's character was being taken in a cliche direction, similar to what Blizzard did with the Horde leader Garrosh Hellscream. That day, Redditor Secret_Wizard explained the backlash in response to a post about the trailer submitted to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[39] Meanwhile, Redditor Ultiverse submitted a multi-pane comic mocking the cinematic to /r/wow,^[40] where it gained over 8,100 points (93% upvoted) and 560 comments within 12 hours (shown below).

Chains of Domination Criticism

On June 29th, 2021, World of Warcraft released patch 9.1 for Shadowlands titled Chains of Domination. The patch includes Sanctum of Domination, a ten boss raid instance that takes place in Torghast with some familiar raid bosses to encounter like the Remnant of Ner’zhul, Kel’Thuzad, and finally Sylvanas Windrunner as the final boss encounter. During the battle with Sylvanas Windrunner with 50% of her health down, a cinematic for the end of the Sanctum of Domination raid played with even more story twists from the controversial storyline of Sylvanas Windrunner. The YouTube clip of the cinematic was released on July 2nd, 2021, and was met with heavy criticism and over 10,000 downvotes comparing to over 4,000 upvotes in the past 24 hours, along with the criticism of the entire Chains of Domination content.

PC Gamer^[41] admitted their "worst fears are coming true" that Sylvanas Windrunner just sucks. A Kotaku^[42] article describes the disappointment and the criticism of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands while talking about the success of their competitor, Final Fantasy XIV.

World of Warcraft Exodus, Final Fantasy XIV Feud, and Asmongold's Departure

Following the release of Chains of Domination (Patch 9.1 for Shadowlands) and the Activision-Blizzard sexual harassment lawsuits, the growing discontent among many World of Warcraft players, including big streamers and content creators, began to cause an exodus of long-time players to Final Fantasy XIV. This shift to Final Fantasy XIV resulted in a schism between the two communities online, and a feud ensued. In early June 2021, Final Fantasy XIV also surpassed World of Warcraft for the first time ever in gaming history with total active players, breaking World of Warcraft's 17-year streak of greatest MMORPG of all time and becoming the most actively played MMORPG in the world.^[43]

On July 3rd, 2021, Twitch streamer Asmongold began playing Final Fantasy XIV following requests from his viewers and a growing dislike for the current state of World of Warcraft. During his transition to Final Fantasy XIV, some numerous Final Fantasy XIV players, mostly LGBTQ+ players, expressed a general discontent over him joining the game, stating that he had a toxic and hateful personality or following that some of whom later stream sniped him until those snipers are suspended.^[45] That day, Adam Holisky, a lead manager at Blizzard Entertainment, tweeted about Asmongold's decision to stream Final Fantasy XIV, calling him "an asshole." Asmongold responded to this the following day in a clip that was later uploaded to YouTube (seen below).

On July 8th, 2021, Redditor Scion-7-Dawn posted a meme referencing the exodus of World of Warcraft players to the /r/ffxiv^[44] subreddit, receiving over 17,200 upvotes and 2,000 comments in 12 days (shown below). On July 13th, Kotaku^[46] also reported on the exodus in an article titled "World of Warcraft Disappointment, Plus Twitch, Start Mass Exodus Into Final Fantasy XIV."

Over the next few days, several memes were shared to the /r/ffxiv^[47][48][49] subreddit about the influx of World of Warcraft players, each becoming among the top-upvoted posts on the sub. On July 14th, Redditor Redzy7 posted an alleged leak of internal communications from the Blizzard Entertainment staff that originated on 4chan to the /r/classicwow^[50] subreddit. The post detailed the growing displeasure among World of Warcraft players and decisions among higher-ups at the company that they felt negatively impacted the game in recent years, receiving over 2,600 upvotes and nearly 1,000 comments in six days.

Patch 9.1.5 Censorship

In the wake of the sexual harassment lawsuits and the exodus, the World of Warcraft devs started working on major changes for Shadowlands in Patch 9.1.5 on September 2021 to improve the game environment and tackling toxicity, only to be slammed by players after the patch leaks in Wowhead to reveal Patch 9.1.5 will be changed, desexualized, and removing references and innuendos.

One of these changes that sparked the backlash are the two portraits^[51] of women from classic World of Warcraft, one is to have her breasts covered up, and the other to be replaced with a bowl of fruit. Redditor tommos posted^[52] on r/wow on September 15th, 2021, mocking Blizzard Entertainment about respecting women by turning them into fruit. YouTuber Woo Ping Weapon Master made a animation parody of Blizzard Entertainment painting a woman like the portrait scene in Titanic, into a bowl of fruit (seen below).

References to Internet Culture

• Portal: In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, there is a quest titled "A Bone to Pick," in which the player is asked to kill King Gurboggle, and in an oyster next to his throne, you can see the Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube.

• All Your Base are Belong to Us: In Cataclysm, one of the new released Guild Perks in 4.0.1 is called "For Great Justice," which is a reference to the 'All your base are belong to us' opening sequence from Zero Wing. In Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/The Frozen Throne, "allyourbasearebelongtous" and "somebodysetupusthebomb" are both cheat codes for the game.

• 300: In Cataclysm, the quest Madnessω δ is a reference to the scene from the film when the negotiator is thrown into a bonfire.

• Pokemon: In World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, the achievements I Choose You, Runemaster Molgeim (10/25), I Choose You, Steelbreaker (10/25) and I Choose You, Stormcaller Brundir (10/25) may be a reference to the catchphrase "I choose X!" used in the Pokémon franchise.

• Need More Cowbell: In Wrath of the Lich King, the Ebon Hold (the Lich King's floating necropolis and starting area for Death Knight characters) lists various Death Knight trainees and their fates. The player's character is named on the last significant page with a note saying "Need more cowbell", a reference to a Christopher Walken sketch that the development team must have really, really liked.

• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: In Wrath of the Lich King, the achievement I Could Say That This Cache Was Rare (10/25) is a reference to the TV series' theme song.

• Cthulhu Mythos: In Wrath of the Lich King, the crazed dwarves in the Howling Fjord's Whispering Gulch speak of "that which must not be named". While it could be a reference to Harry Potter, it might also refer to The King in Yellow from the Lovecraftian worlds together with the various tomes of "Things Men was Not Meant to Know" found therein.

• Tunak Tunak Tun: In World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, the male Draenei's dance moves are taken from the video for the song "Tunak Tunak Tun" by Daler Mehndi which was a moderate internet phenomenon.

• Leeroy Jenkins: In Burning Crusade, the Classic Dungeons and Raids Achievement "Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy" is based from the player video of Leroy Jenkins charging into a room full of rookery whelps during a raid, while screaming his name through the microphone. The title received from this quest, killing 50 rookery whelps in 15 seconds, is his last name, Jenkins.

• O RLY?: In Burning Crusade, one of newly added Goblin Auctioneers in Booty Bay was named "O'Reely" in reference to the popular Internet catchphrase. There is also a white owl that flies around a hut near Steamwheedle Port in Tanaris named "O'Reilly". An Undead auctioneer by the name of "Yarly" has been added in the Undercity Auction House.

• Pirates vs. Ninjas: In Burning Crusade, eating a [Savory Deviate Delight] will cause your character to turn into either a Pirate or a Ninja. The effect is purely cosmetic. The effect will read as "Arrrrr" for pirates or "Flip Out" for ninjas, the latter is a reference to the phrase "The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people."

• Peanut Butter Jelly Time: In Burning Crusade, one of the Tauren Male's dance cycles is based on the famous 'Dancing Banana' that appears in the popular Internet Flash animation.

• Robin Williams: In Warlords of Draenor, a tribute NPC to the late Robin Williams was included. Beta builds of the game reviled that upon the clicking of a hidden lamp, a blue genie would appear and speak the lines "INFINITE COSMIC POWER, itty bitty living space." from his role as "Genie" in the Disney movie Aladdin.

Notable Events

Leeroy Jenkins

A video featuring a paladin named Leeroy Jenkins of the guild Pals for Life from the Laughing Skull Server became one of the first major World of Warcraft memes. In the video, a paladin foolishly runs into a nest of eggs which ends up killing his entire party in the Upper Black Rock Spire Rookery. More information can be found in the Leeroy Jenkins entry.

The Corrupted Blood Incident

A dungeon called "Zul'Gurub" introduced in patch 1.7 featured the end boss Hakkar that casted a hit point draining debuff spell that lasted only a few seconds, but was highly contagious. Eventually players found out that Hunter class pets were able to keep the debuff when dismissed immediately after becoming infected. When summoned in a city it would immediately infect anyone nearby including non-player characters(npcs).

On September 13th, 2005, Corrupted Blood infected the major cities of Orgrimmar and Ironforge due to their large player populations. Lower level players died within seconds, the ground was littered with skeletons in highly populated areas. It took a few patches and server restarts to clear out the Corrupted Blood Plague. Due to largely positive feedback about it however it was used as a model for the Zombie invasion event shortly before the Wrath of the Lich King expansion was released.

Red Shirt Guy

At Blizzcon 2010, a teenage boy wearing a red polo shirt was recorded asking a question that managed to stump lead Blizzard designers. The video was uploaded to YouTube and managed to reach the front page of Reddit. For more information, visit the Red Shirt Guy entry.

In Machinima

In the context of Machinima art, or the practice of using 3D graphics rendering engines found in videogames to create cinematic pictures, World of Warcraft also became used as a popular source material for Machinima production, most notably in the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft," which partially takes place in an alpha server of World of Warcraft. For more World of Warcraft-based Machinima, check out the video gallery.

"You think you do, but you don't."

This was a response made by J. Allen Brack at Blizzcon 2013 regarding the possibility of Legacy servers (servers for previous expansions as they were then). The statement sparked criticism with fans for it's condescending nature and implying that the customers don't know what they want. Below is a video juxtaposing the quote with the success and popularity of a private Legacy server known as "Nostalrius." To see the original video in full context click here. The question regarding Legacy servers is found at 30:05.

This remark has become the subject of satire and parody with the total number of subscribers being lower than they were in 2006 despite WoW Tokens offering a means to play without paying real money ^[36]. It has also been quoted more recently in response to Blizzard's decision to shut down Nostalrius, which had over 150,000 active players ^[37]. Currently, a petition on Change.org is pushing for Legacy servers that has garnered over 200,000 supporters to date (indicating there are fans who would play pre-expansion content) ^[38].

Search Interest

Search queries for "world of warcraft" peaked in February of 2005, the same month as its European release, and several months after its initial US release.

External References

blizzard world of warcraft wow mmorpg (title) gaming subculture blizzard entertainment warcraft mmorpg activision blizzard