www.worldofwarcraft.com

Great interaction with people around the world, a release from your own stresses.

This is an overall wonderful game to play with so many different aspects and things to learn that you never get bored. I recommend it to people of all ages!

I am a 29 year old married woman, no kids and I love this game. Even if you haven't touched a video, console or pc game in your life (my limited gaming experience) you will find no trouble getting into World of Warcraft (wow). You can go get a copy of the game right now and install it into your pc and begin playing and leveling a character with ease. If you don't understand something ask another player in the game. If you don't know how to ask another player in the game read the handy manual that comes with the game. I have level 3 charcaters to their maximum level which is 70 right now but hurry and get your copy of the game because soon the maximum level will be 80 and you want to be at the same level as the other players.

Best game I ever played...and I play a lot. Engages both your mind and your senses at a level you can control. Graphics are aesthetically pleasing and manipulate well...no wonder to me there are more than 10,000,000 users worldwide...and I'm a 52 year young enthusiast... Well recommend WoW

WOW, as it is more commonly known is arguably the most successful MMORPG ever created! It has the highest number of players subscribed, and it delivers the goods day in day out.

The setting is a sprawling fantasy world, where two distinct factions battle it out; the Alliance (Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves and Gnomes) and The Horde (Undead, Orcs, Trolls and Tauren). When you create a character you can choose their gender, race (certain race-specific traits differentiate all races) as well as class. There are a number of classes (Warriors, Mages, Shamen, Paladins amongst others), all with distinctive skills.

Once you have created a character and selected the realm (server) of your choice, you start on an epic journey, which can be quite rewarding and immersive. You quickly master the control interface, and human interaction is plentiful from early on. Most quests can be more easily completed if you join parties of other players.

The graphics and sound are very solid, and even though they have a distinctively cartoonish feel, they do not subtract from the enjoyment of the game; if anything they add to it. I will never forget the first time I rode a gryphon from one area to another (you can ride some beasts like a taxi service to transport you over large distances). It was spectacular!

A special mention has to be made of the in-game economy. Every server develops its own mini-economy, based upon the players' trade skills, natural resources exploited by players and items and loot that players put up for sale. The hub of activities in all the major cities of the game tends to be the Auction House, where a player can find vital items, ingredients and other paraphernalia necessary for quests, or simply powering up your avatar. The whole system is well conceived, and shrewd businessmen can make a good in-game profit. However, unscrupulous gold farmers and on-line gold sellers threaten to destabilise World of Warcraft as any other MMORPG out there.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone that enjoys fantasy RPG's or MMORPG's. It is a quality product, and it has an established fan base; however, be prepared to spend a lot of time behind your screen. It will eat up your life!

The best thing WOW offers for me, is the ability to freely roam anywhere in the game world, with minimal loading times, in a very stable (graphically and technically) setting. Just imagine: You find yourself outside the Dwarven capital of Ironforge. You can just mount your horse, and take a long trek through several territories, forests, deserts, snow-capped mountains, encountering evil beasts along the way, picking up quests, or just exploring for the sheer fun of it! The game world is truly massive, and if you combine the early game questing with the end game guild runs on special high powered dungeons (called instances), you have a very long-term playability life. The PvP (player vs player) element is another thing that might keep you hooked. There is a ranking system that rewards player vs player combat. So, if you are good at ambushing and slaughtering enemy faction players (rather than just killing NPC monsters), you will get some tasty rewards in terms of armour and weapons, as well as more respect from your fellow players.

WOW is definitely the best MMORPG out there, so if you can afford to waste some time, and on-line sword and sorcery is your thing, don't lose another minute. Go play it!

World of Warcraft is one of the most popular MMORPG's on the market at the current time.

Once you have purchased the game and loaded it up for the first time you choose a server (called a Realm) to play on. Some of them have higher populations than others - the highest being plagued with 'lag', which can make gameplay awkward. The lowest lacking some of the interaction element. I recommend you go on the web and search for the Realms by population and choose a Medium population one to play on if there is one available.

There are a few types of server:

RP - role playing - where you stay 'in character' as you play

PVE - 'player versus environment' where other users can't attack your character - only the AI monsters

PVP - 'player versus player' where outside of your factions territory, other players can (and will) attack and kill your character

When you log in you choose a faction - Alliance (goodies) or Horde (baddies). Each Faction has 4 playable races. Alliance get Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes - Horde get Undead, Tauren, Orcs and Trolls. This is one of the downsides of the game - with such limited choice of characters to play, everyone looks the same. The expansion pack for this game coming out in January 2007 will add a further race to each side, but it is still quite limited.

There are 9 playable classes - warrior, mage, warlock, shaman, paladin, rogue, priest, druid, mage. You can also have 2 professions - which can involve creating things, like leather working or armour crafting.

It costs about £8 a month to play (less if you get a longer subscription).

Although, as I have mentioned, there is an expansion pack out quite soon - but the game does get repetitive. Equipment drops randomly in this game, and it can take quite some time doing the same bits of the game over and over to get an item you want for your character. As a consequence there have been problems with 'gold farmers' on nearly every server as far as I can tell, from reading the server and from personal experience on my own server.

It is also very addictive - not necessarily in a good way either. If you take a break of any length of time from this game, you find that you get 'left behind' by people you play with regularly in terms of the quality of your equipment.

The graphics are bright and the gameplay is smooth. The NPC quests are relatively varied and there is a nice mix of outdoor quests to do on the large maps, and dungeons to explore with bosses to kill.

I have quit playing and cancelled my subscription now, as the game has a tendency to 'eat your life', and I had seen some parts of the game so much I began to get bored. I will never forget how beautiful and large the game felt the first time I logged in and began to explore though.

World of Warcraft has to be the best online role playing game since the launch of EQ 1 so many years ago.

Get out there and check it out. For the little amount you pay on subscriptions it is more than worth it.