How to play World of Warcraft

As with other MMORPGs, players control a character avatar within a game world, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, completing quests and interacting with NPCs or other players. In common with many other MMORPGs, World of Warcraft requires the player to pay for a subscription, either by buying game cards for a pre-selected amount of playing time, or by using a credit or debit card to pay on a regular basis.[12]

To enter the game, the player must select a realm (or server). Each realm acts as an individual copy of the game world, and falls into one of four rule-set categories. Realms are either Player versus player (PvP) where open combat among players is more common, or Player versus environment (PvE) where the focus is more focused on defeating monsters and completing quests. Roleplay variants of each are also available. On a PvP or RP-PvP server a player may create characters belonging to only one faction, either Horde or Alliance, but not both. Realms are also categorized by language, with in-game support in the language available.[13] Players can move established characters between realms for a fee.[14] Then the player may either select one of their previously made characters or create a new one.

To create a new character, in keeping with the storyline in the previous games in the Warcraft series, players must choose between the opposing factions of Alliance or Horde. Characters from the opposing factions can perform rudimentary communication and trade, but only members of the same faction can speak, email, group, and share guilds. The player selects the new character's race (species), such as Orcs or Trolls for the Horde or Humans or Dwarves for the Alliance.[15] Players must also select the class for the character, with choices such as mages, warriors and priests available.[16] Some classes are limited to particular races.
As characters become more developed, they gain talents, requiring the player to further define the abilities of that character.[17] Professions such as tailoring, blacksmithing, mining, cooking and first aid can also be learned by characters.[18] Characters may also form or join guilds, allowing characters in the same guild unified communications, a shared guild name, and possibly identity, guild bank and dues.

Much World of Warcraft play involves questing. These quests, also called tasks or missions, are usually available from non-player characters (NPCs).[19] Quests usually reward the player with experience points, items, and/or in-game money. It is also through quests that much of the game's story is told, both through the quest text and through scripted NPC actions.[20] Quests are linked by a common theme, with the next quest triggered by the completion of the previous, forming a quest chain. Quests commonly involve killing a number of creatures, gathering a certain number of resources, finding a difficult to locate object, speaking to various NPCs, visiting specific locations, interacting with objects in the world, or delivering an item from one place to another.

While a character can be played on its own, players can also group up with others in order to tackle more challenging content. In this way, character classes are used in specific roles within a group.[21] [19] World of Warcraft uses a "rested bonus" system, increasing the rate that a character can gain experience points after the player has spent time away from the game.[17] When a character dies, it become a ghost at a nearby graveyard.[22] Characters can be resurrected by other characters that have the ability, or can self-resurrect by moving from the graveyard to the place where they died. If this location is unreachable, they can use a special NPC known as a spirit healer to resurrect at the graveyard.[23] When a character dies the items being carried degrade, requiring in-game money and a specialist NPC to repair them. Items that degrade heavily can become unusable until they are repaired.[24]

World of Warcraft contains a variety of mechanisms for player versus player (PvP) play. Some realms allow player versus player combat almost anywhere in the game world. In these environments, members of opposing factions can attack each other at almost any time or location. Player versus environment (PvE) servers, by contrast, allows a player to choose whether or not to engage in combat against other players. On both server types, there are special areas of the world where free-for-all combat is permitted.[25] Battlegrounds, for example, are similar to dungeons: only a set number of characters can enter a single battleground, but additional copies of the battleground can be made to accommodate additional players.[26] Each battleground has a set objective, such as capturing a flag or defeating an opposing general, that must be completed in order to win the battleground. Competing in battlegrounds rewards the character with tokens and honor points that can be used to buy armour and weapons.

We look past Wrath of the Lich King and come up with a wish list of what we'd love to see next.
by IGN PC Team

October 29, 2008 - With World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King set to launch next month, it's not too early to start thinking about the next possible expansion to World of Warcraft. And, let's face it, with 11 million subscribers and counting, it'd be shocking if there wasn't one. Combine that with the fact that there are pretty much no secrets or features left to reveal in Wrath of the Lich King at this point, and it's time to break out the wish list for what's to come next. So without further ado, here's our Top 10 things that we'd love to see in the next World of Warcraft expansion.

Better Default UI

It used to be that World of Warcraft was the standard for MMO user interfaces, but other games have surpassed it over the past four years. Consider Warhammer Online's elegant Tome of Knowledge as well as the handy map system that highlights the borders of each and every quest in the game. An interface revamp or overhaul could be a very good thing.
More World PVP

Who doesn't like huge battles? We'd like to see more meaningful incorporation of world PVP along the lines of the epic realm-versus-realm conflict found in Warhammer Online. Lake Wintergrasp in Wrath of the Lich King is a first step toward this, as it's a zone dedicated to PVP. However, we'd like to see these elements integrated more with the game, perhaps in the persistent worlds themselves.
New Starting Areas

Yes, the expansions provide plenty of elder game content for those who are level 70 and higher, but it'd be nice if we got a new starting area for newcomers that covered the 1-60 range. It would encourage even veteran players to start over to check out the new content, while giving newcomers another reason to buy the expansion right away.
More Scripted Stuff

There are moments in Wrath of the Lich King where you stumble upon an honest-to-god invasion; you see ships full of NPCs come ashore, and you get drawn into the fight. It's pretty glorious, and a far cry from the standard MMO situation where enemies just stand around and wait for you to kill them. Tabula Rasa was a game where the missions were set amidst giant battles with all sorts of crazy things going on, like alien dropships appearing out of nowhere. It'd be nice if WoW got a little imaginative and had comparable events more often.
A Graphical Upgrade

World of Warcraft is over four years old at this point, and while its art design has let it aged gracefully, it has aged nevertheless. Wrath of the Lich King introduces some incremental improvements, such as a nice shadow system, but it'd be nice if Blizzard could give us a bigger graphical bump next time. The game could certainly use higher-res textures as well as better effects.
Better Support for Mods

Along the lines of an interface overhaul is better support for third-party mods. There are tons of them out there that improve the game in many ways, but to discover and install them requires you to work at it. The web browser Firefox has a great add-on tool that helps you install and maintain third-party plug-ins and skins. It makes it easy to find new add-ins and experiment with them; if you don't like them, it also makes it incredibly easy to remove them.
More Classes

Wrath of the Lich King introduces the first hero class to World of Warcraft, which is great, but we'd like to see more classes introduced more quickly. Waiting two years for a new character class is a bit long, and at this rate it'll take a decade to build up a decent stock of new classes. Couldn't this process be sped along?
Pirates!

Ever since the early rumors about the South Seas expansion prior to the announcement of The Burning Crusade, we've wanted the ability to take to the seas and engage in keelhauling and talking like a pirate. This could provide a great way to deliver some booty, as well as explore whole new continents or islands.
Public Quests

Yes, this is taken from Warhammer Online, but we love public quests. And if Blizzard does anything well, it's to execute better on other people's ideas. Remember, the good ones borrow, but the great ones steal. Public quests are great because they let you engage in some epic battles with impromptu groups of strangers without having to travel to another instance. You're just traveling along the path when you come across a huge battle. Jump in, have fun, and get great rewards. Do it, Blizzard.
Pandaren Brewmasters

Okay, what's cooler than anthropomorphisized pandas? Nothing , and that is why we really want Pandarens as a new playable race. Look at them, aren't they incredibly cuddly and cute? And the brewmasters are the coolest of the Pandarens; these wandering warriors would let you relive all those memories of Kung Fu, the television series.