World of Warcraft Retrospective

A look at everything that makes Worldf of Warcraft tick. And how it's taking over the world.

Written by - Max VelDink

MMORPG. One of the newest genres to grace the industry, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games are a daring and imaginative realm of games that deal with everything from science fiction to old-school fantasy. The possibilities presented by a living, breathing community is limitless, social networking-wise, and the ability to expand and polish a game long after launch is groundbreaking.

However, with this vast plane of games, comes many knock-offs and store shelves are polluted with atrocious wannabes. Every internet game company that is around most likely has attempted a MMO, but most are unsuccessful, key reasons being a lack of features and poor development process. In a sea of horrible games, there has to be a boat to float on top and dominate it’s genre, and it’s a good thing that Blizzard stepped up to that cause.

WoW is already a game with half a decade of experience under its belt.

Released in 2004, World of Warcraft brought everything from the popular Warcraft RTS series and revolutionized a fairly new game genre. Bringing with it eight playable races from the Warcraft property, complete with nine varying classes that ranged from the magic-wielding Mage to the sword-toting Warrior. Each class was usually based around three main overarching groups, the DPS (damage per second), Healers (self-explanatory) and of course the tank (holding the monsters attention while the DPS went to town). If you had all three in a party, add two more, and you were set for even the hardest quest monster. However, unlike previous games in the same vein, WoW’s talent system allowed a healer to be more than capable DPS and a tanking class to heal if necessary. It all depended on which talent tree (speccing) you wished to follow, each level from 10 granting you a point to spend.

Along with it’s robust combat and grouping mechanics, the game brought with it a full-blown economy. Items of varying rareness would drop from bosses or random monsters. If they were Bind on Equip, a player could then decide to sell them on the Auction House, a place where players sold other players things, bids and buyouts being the main way. All of the Auction Houses in each of a faction’s capital city were linked, so no matter where you put it in, someone else could easily see your auction and decide to place a bid or just buy it on the spot.

Speaking of capital cities, the races each had their own, with the exclusion of trolls and gnomes. Each one was unique and had every vendor/trainer/other that a player could want. They proved to be hubs of players selling, recruiting for a guild, or even looking for a dungeon run. Each faction had a main capital city, Orgrimmar for the Horde and Stormwind City for the Alliance. Connected by flight points were many other lands that were an experience in themselves, whisking a player away to marvelous lands, each one more strange and interesting then the last. The overall game possessed a graphical style that was unique.

A level cap of 60 was packaged with the game, giving a player 59 levels of exploration and questing needing to be traveled. The quests were monotonous at the least, go here, kill this, etc., but a few had lasting impressions that many gamers remember to this day. Quest lines were fun, and the lore expanded to the Warcraft universe was substantial. However, the dungeons along the way were fun, well designed and full of lore. Many players can remember their first, either Deadmines or Ragefire Chasm, and loved every minute of many of the frustrating boss battles.

While leveling towards sixty was fun, many people had one goal in mine, to hit the end game content. Mounting and forty-man raids were just two of the pleasures of being that oh-so-desirable level 60. Mounting was an achievement in it’s own, as you had to be level forty to even get your normal mount. At 60 you could fork over your life savings to buy an epic mount, but the 100% movement speed increase was a blessing to travel around in the end.

The content delivered by Blizzard was incredible, but the real gem of the game was the social aspect. Playing with friends, partying up for a tough quest, running instanced dungeons, and many more activities kept players busy and meeting new people from across the globe. Guilds formed of players were there to have a group of players you associated with. Of course, there was also the oh-so-loved PvP environment. Battlegrounds, areas that were set for a group of 10 players and up, were there for the Horde and the Alliance to battle it out, while open world PvP was a fun past time for many level 60s. Battling an Non-Playable Character is one thing, but taking on another human had something special many desired.

While WoW took the world at storm, Blizzard was constantly cranking out patches to fix bugs and add more to an already massive game. Fans loved it and it was an instant hit. After a period of two years passed, more and more players were hitting that level 60 mark, and a crowd began to grow, waiting on something big. Not a new patch, but a full-blown expansion. Luckily, in January of 2007, they received just that.

Arriving on store shelves, and to thousands of lines of anxious gamers, on January 16, 2007, The Burning Crusade was out there for all to enjoy. This expansion, long awaited and hyped to the extreme, was just the thing fans of the series needed to keep themselves enthralled. Introduced in the expansion were two new races, a whole new continent, a new profession, and many more features.

Players at the level cap of 60 could now venture into Outlands, the floating island in a different dimension then Azeroth. Millions traveled through the Dark Portal into Hellfire Peninsula, then journeying to other unique and new locations, such as Zangarmarsh and Shadowmoon Valley. With a raised level cap to 70, there were ten more levels of experience to gain. Luckily, each area had many more quests to experience the lore brought was exceptional.

Also added into the Warcraft universe were flying mounts. For an outrageous amount of money, and hitting level 70, players could train normal and then epic riding skill. Normal would grant you the ability to fly anywhere in Outlands at 60% movement speed, while epic would give you an astonishing 280% movement speed. Going anywhere and getting there quickly was incredibly useful and became one of the many goals players were now trying to achieve.

For the Player vs Environment oriented person, the expansion shipped with many new dungeons and raids for level 60-80 players, each one bringing new designs and concepts to the table. The new tiers of gears to be collected were a blessing to higher levels who were afraid to go mono-e-mono with another player. That’s not to say, however, that the Player vs Player oriented people were left out. The Eye of the Storm battleground was a whole new way for instanced PvP. Each of the new zones had it’s own unique World PvP objective, along with a buff for your faction controlling the objectives. This new approach to Open World PvP kept many players busy late into the night.

Beware though, it's a highly addictive game that has the potential to utterly dominate your social life.

Arguably one of the most substantial additions to the game were the introductions of the Horde-aligned, mana-abusing Blood Elves and the Alliance-sided Draenei. Each class brought with it a new starting area and another beautiful capital city. For the first time, the Horde was able to have a Paladin class and the Alliance could play the nature-wielding Shaman. This was considered unfair to some, but the overall balance it brought to the game was much needed.

The initial expansion was great, but many content patches later down the road really made the Burning Crusade a successful expansion. In these patches were the inclusions of new ten-man and up raids for guilds to tackle, including the Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau. Many bug fixes, arena seasons, and class balancing also followed, giving the game a more balanced and fine-tuned feel. Launching just before the next expansion, an achievement system was introduced, giving yet another hook into the game, achievers going for anything and everything listed on the 730 initial achievements.

A successful expansion was under Blizzard’s belt, but as time passed, they knew that one wouldn’t keep the masses happy. Deciding it was time to advance the World of Warcraft to its present state, Blizzard announced the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

The icy shores of Northrend beckoned gamers towards them November of 2008. Blizzard had created yet another masterpiece of an expansion. This one, however, would be one of the largest ever seen by an MMO. Included with the package was a new continent, a new hero class, yet another profession, and the level cap raised to 80.

Northrend is arguably the most visual stunning environment Blizzard has ever made. The subtle ties to Norse architecture and frigid tundras give it a sense that not many other zones can match. As with the last patch, this one brings many new quests, and a very special addition. Another capital city has been placed, floating above Northrend Dalaran calls the heartiest of adventurer to come and take a rest inside its walls. In-game cutscenes have arrived, the first one being the Wrathgate. It is the reward for a long series of quests, and it’s well worth it. Whenever someone goes into Northrend, this will have to be marked off on their to-do list.

With another ten levels to grind up, more dungeons were added to accommodate the grind with gear and unique experiences. Another tier set from the ten-man raid Naxxramas is up for those who think they are up for it and many dungeons bring unique ways of puzzle-solving not seen anywhere else.

12 Million members and growing.

PvP is yet again at the top of Blizzard’s list, though a little less then in the last expansion. Not that many open world PvP objectives this time around, but yet another battleground. The main World PvP offered is Wintergrasp, which is surprisingly fun. When your faction controls it, you gain an experience boost and a dungeon to be explored. A new arena season and the same old battlegrounds still keep this aspect of the game fresh and fun.
Since the game’s release in 2004, a new class hasn’t been introduced until the Death Knight. Considered a hero class, players need a character level 55 or higher on the realm they would like their Death Knight, and then their whisked away to Eastern Plaguelands, where many memorable quests await. The class brings something new to the game that hasn’t been there before, and their addition keeps the appeal of the game broad to all play styles.

The world is seemingly endless. It takes hours to horse (let alone walk) the entire terrain.

An game that has been around for over three years, gone through three expansions, and still has a growing player base that numbers in the double-digit millions. World of Warcraft is no joking matter, but how do all the expansions stack up against each other?

Many consider the original game the most bang for you buck you could ever had. Enough content for two whole continents, over thirty dungeons and raids, player-vs-player that is still going strong today and a complex player economy keeps World of Warcraft one of the best selling games of all times. It was a phenomenon when it came out and still is. It is in a class all of it’s own.

How are the two expansions compared, though? With enough content in each to be it’s own game, and the fact they both sold at the top of the charts within their first months of release, it would almost seem impossible to give them a comparison. The Burning Crusade has arguably introduced a few more concepts then the most recent ones. However, Wrath of the Lich King grabbed many more players and pulled them back into the MMO experience.

The upper-edge belongs to The Burning Crusade. This is only do to the fact that the Burning Crusade has had many more opportunites to advance its content and fix its flaws. Being new, the Wrath of the Lich King has every reason to be the same, if not better, then it’s predecessor, but has yet to get there yet. As stated above, the games really can’t be compared as they each brought unique things and furthered the experience of WoW.

With a legacy and a spot in the video game hall of fame, World of Warcraft, and it’s expansions, are one of the most played games of all time. Sales figures are astonishing, and the player base is tremendous. Many more exciting new features await this game, Blizzards really good at promising this. As with most games of this nature, it will come to end, but here’s to hoping for many more years of community-filled games and much more content!