blizzard are in my opinion, one of the best 4 games developers in the world, with the starcraft, diablo and warcraft series, they have proven themselves to know how to make fundamentally excellent and enjoyable games, which is exactly what an MMORPG needs to beworld of warcraft is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) set in the history-rich world of azeroth, you pick a team - there are two teams at "war" - the horde and the alliance, though that's not to say this is strictly a player vs player game though, there are non-pvp servers where the war atmosphere is maintained through other methods, the horde are comprised of orcs, undead, tuaren and trolls, while the alliance are humans, night elves, dwarves and gnomes.
along with choosing a team & race, you must choose a class, there are a number of classes such as:
Paladin: a holy knight, capable of taking damage well, who can also heal competently and has other support spells
Rogue: a sneaky chap who strikes from the shadows, causing incredible amounts of melee damage
Warrior: the warrior is typically the chap responsible for taking damage in fights, they have the most health and the best armour, along with skills designed around them taking damage and holding "hate" so the enemy sticks on the warrior instead of attacking weaker classes, although, quite uniquely in wow you can design your character around being an offensive warrior, or berserker, who can do melee damage which almost rivals that of a rogue
Hunter: the hunter is a ranged attacker (guns or bows) who commands the respect of animals, he can "charm" an animal to his side and it becomes his permanent pet, he is capable of reasonable damage with many utility spells
Mage: a powerful class designed around doing a lot of damage over a short period of time (direct damage spells)
Warlock: the warlock is a class designed around doing a lot of damage over a long period of time, on long encounters (raid bosses etc) their damage is unsurpassed, they also command demons pets which they may summon to their aid (including a warrior type pet and a rogue type pet, and more), warlocks also have many useful utility spells
Shaman: the shaman is described as a hybrid class, they are competent healers, able to take damage reasonably well when needed, and able to cause damage reasonably well, sort of a combination of a mage, warrior and priest, yet the sum of their parts is no more powerful than any one of their component classes, they also have powerful utility spells and "buffs"
Priest: the priest is the generic healer, he has powerful healing spells, resurrection spells and buffs (statistic improvements), or you can specialise in offensive damage as a priest
Druid: the druid is a difficult class to describe, in their natural state, they command nature magics, able to heal well and cause damage well, they also have what is described as the best buff in the game, yet their strength (and weakness) is their versatility, they are able to shapeshift into various forms, such as a cat (which gives them limited rogue abilities) a bear (which gives them limited warrior abilities) and more, their versatility means they can fill almost any role needed in a group, but since they do not do anything as well as the "parent" class, they are considered to be the "silver medal" of the game at this point
after you have decided on your class, you must venture out into the wide world, filled with hundreds, and probably even thousands of other players (depending on your server), here you adventure, quest, fight, gain experience, level up, and gain new abilities and spells. As you adventure you will learn more about the world, its history, and perhaps make friends along the way
although most MMOs are designed around group play (and wow is not especially different here), all classes are able to "solo" (fight alone) to a reasonable degree, group play is beneficial, but no longer will you have to sit for 40 minutes just to get in a group, like you did in, say, everquest. Also unlike everquest, the game isn't designed around the "grind" (tedious constant killing of enemies to gain experience), the game is more quest-based and the concept of "downtime" (having to rest to regain strength after fights) barely exists. Wow is a game of fun, not a game of work (unlike everquest & probably eq2). Players can also band togther to form guilds, guilds will bring a strong sense of community to the game
at high levels (60, and beyond as expansions are made), the game will cater for "raids", raids are events where guilds fight very powerful AI creatures which may take 40+ people to kill, but the loot (items) they drop will be incredibly powerful, unlike Everquest and other MMOs, wow will mostly have "instanced raids", this is where carbon copies of the zone are "spawned" specifically for your guild or group, meaning there will be no competition for items, quests and zones, meaning also that any guild will be able to get into raiding
the game also has a number of "battlegrounds", where players can fight other players (remember, this is *war*craft), and possibly parttake in sieges on enemy cities and strongholds
along with all this, the game will have a rich tradeskill based economy, where players can gather components then produce items from them, then sell or use them
along with the "player vs environment" servers, there are also full on player vs player servers, where players can enjoy the full atmosphere of the war, with an honour system where people are rewared with honour for killing players near/above their level, and lose honour for killing players who are significantly lower than they are in level (with appropriate rewards/pubishments for having high/low honour) the game will stay fun and hopefully put off the "griefers" who just want to pvp to make other people's lives miserable
the game has so many little touches of brilliance, it's hard to sum them all up.. you can fly around the world by griffin, ride by beast or walk on foot, every class is unique and enjoyable, and develops well over the 60 levels
ultimately, world of warcraft is looking like being as close to perfect as you can get from an MMO, unfortunately the US release has been forced by the publishers so the game is probably going to launch unfinished, but with a february 05-ish release looking likely for UK, the game should be finely polished by then
blizzard are one of the best four games developers in the world in my opinion, and although they've made many mistakes (this is their first mmo afterall, and it's not even finished yet), it is looking like being another wonderful game, and a benchmark in MMO history
