by David Furritus

Created on: October 24, 2009

I'm not an addict! I can quit anytime!

Yeah, right.

World of Warcraft is currently the number one massively multiplayer roleplaying game (MMORPG) in the world and it has no signs of slowing. The game's humble beginning come from one of the first published real time strategy (RTS) games pitting the forces of the Orcish Horde against the Human Alliance. The gameplay was simple and enjoyable and allowed players to actually compete over a phone line or null-modem cable. This was the beginning of the multiplayer aspect of the game.

The game's publisher Blizzard Entertainment would create a highly successful sequel: Warcraft II that would add even more multiplayer aspects to the game. The creation of another Blizzard franchise, Diablo would introduce players to the concept of playing just one character that would compete with the game world (as well as other players sometimes). The concept of multiplayer RPGs was introduced hard and fast for many players everywhere.

The MMORPG boom of the late 90s and early 00s brought millions of players into many seemingly addictive games like Origin Systems' Ultima Online, Microsoft's Acheron's Call, and Sony's Everquest. However, all of these games had things that bothered many players. Blizzard sat back, analyzed these games and started to develop a game that would appeal to as many players as possible.

Built on the plot of the amazingly successful Warcraft III, World of Warcraft (or WoW as it is often called) set up an impressive world where players could choose from the franchise's two major factions (Horde and Alliance), eight playable races, and potentially nine different character classes (although, certain classes were only available to certain races). This left an incredible number of combinations for players to try out in order to help them build a character (or toon as they were often referred to) that suited them. Everything from axe-wielding warrior, demon-summoning warlocks, to nature-controlling druids were available.

To make things more interesting, the players had their choice of servers to pick from. If a player wanted the option of going toe-to-toe with other players, they could play on a Player versus Player (PvP) server where they would not only have to deal with the environment challenging them, but also other players. If a player chose not to deal with opposing players, they could play on a Player versus Environment (PvE) server, where PvP combat was only allowed between consenting players in certain

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