World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (2004) (WoW) is an online role-playing game set in the fantasy world of Azeroth. You create a character who works with other players to explore, fight monsters and complete quests. It's a hugely popular game that makes lots of headlines, but beyond the commercial success is a game about long-lasting friendships and community.

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As you progress you gain talents and skills that further deepen the customisation of your character. You choose a couple of primary professions which enable you to craft items. You can also form guilds with other people, enabling players to chat with each other and exchange items.

Once you have got to grips with the basics of the game, the main interest is the completion of quests that offer experience points, items, and in-game money. These include killing creatures, gathering resources, finding lost objects, visiting locations or delivering items. They are often strung together in a series that must be completed in order. The difficulty of some quests leads to the organisation of groups to tackle more challenging content. The group will need characters of different roles and skills to succeed.

World of Warcraft is set four years after the events of the previous game in the series, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Since it launched, World of Warcraft has had eight major expansion packs: *The Burning Crusade (2007)

• Wrath of the Lich King (2008)
• Cataclysm (2010)
• Mists of Pandaria (2012)
• Warlords of Draenor (2014)
• Legion (2016)
• Battle for Azeroth (2018)
• Shadowlands (2020)

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Our examiner, Jo Robertson, first checked World of Warcraft 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Ellen Robertson and updated 8 weeks ago.