World of Warcraft Review
No game has done more to make MMORPG a household word in North America than World of Warcraft (WoW). Since its launch in Nov. 2004, the game has been breaking records and receiving stellar reviews. I think we can safely say that the world of persistent worlds will never be the same. Without repeating too much of what I've already said in previous articles on the game, here's a look at the current state of WoW.

Just Another MMORPG?
It's worth considering what has made WoW such an incredible success when at its core, it follows a formula many of us are all too familiar with. Killing NPC mobs and completing rather mundane quests to gain experience levels so that you can kill tougher mobs is really nothing new. Nor is throwing in some player versus player (PvP) combat at the end to give higher level characters something else to do. Perhaps the most exceptional thing about WoW is the pace at which this progress is made.

Most MMORPGs force players into a significant amount of "downtime." Downtime can involve everything from sitting to regenerate your power bars after a fight, to having to run back to your corpse after you die. It's time when your character isn't directly engaged in gaining either experience or cash. You are generally required to take one of these short breaks after every few monsters you kill.

By comparison, WoW has reduced the amount of time you spend doing nothing but watching your health and mana supply recover to an absolute minimum. Food and water, which, as usual, speed up the recovery process but can't be consumed in combat, are abundant in WoW, and they act very quickly.

Combined with magical means of regeneration and a relatively light death penality, the result is gameplay that has almost no downtime whatsoever, apart from the odd mana recharge.
Graphics
Visually, WoW is quite stunning, even though this is due more to artistry than it is to fancy technology. Anyone who has seen a screenshot of it can see that the emphasis is not on realism, but rather on creating a detailed world with the unique personality of the strategy series. Things do have a somewhat blocky appearance, but this has allowed Blizzard to use extremely smooth animation and keep hardware requirements relatively low.

The interface has improved over the last few months, giving players more shortcut bars and a few other options they can customize. It's intuitive and easy enough that you will adjust quickly whether you've been playing MMORPGs for years or WoW is your first one.

Your Character
Choosing a race and class are the most important decisions that need to be made when creating a character. Your race determines whether you belong to the Alliance or the Horde, which are Azeroth's two warring factions.

Unlike RPGs that base your progress on which skills you use, WoW uses the familiar class-based level system. The abilities and equipment you will be able to use are decided largely by what class you chose to play. While you gain a little flexibility when you start receiving skill points at level 10, it's a long way from the freedom you have in skill-based games like Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, and Saga of Ryzom.

There are ways to customize your character's appearance, but they are sparse compared to those of other MMORPGs. Combined with classes that restrict what gear you can use, and a large number of players, it's not uncommon to run into characters that are almost identical to your own.

Quests
Quests are remarkably well-implemented in WoW. While the majority are of the routine "collect this" and "deliver that" variety, others are actually quite complex. In some cases, for example, you will be required to protect a certain NPC as it travels to another location. Hunting mobs is a viable way to gain experience, but completing quests at the same time is the quickest way to advance your character.

Quest givers are clearly marked with an exclamation mark over their heads, and there are also various indicators to let you know who you have talk to when the quest is complete. The quest log is very convenient, and you can pursue as many as 20 quests at the same time. For the most part, WoW is solo friendly, and, unlike most MMORPGs, it's possible to reach the highest levels of the game without being forced to group with other players.

As well as standard quests, there are also quests that are connected to instanced zones which you can play through without interference from outside your group. The game truly shines when you are tackling instanced quests, as they are imaginatively designed and require a great deal of cooperation with the rest of your party. The downside is that finding an appropriate group can be time consuming, and then it can take several hours to get the job done. If key members of the group have to leave part way through, it's unlikely that the remaining members will be able to complete the quest.

Getting Around
Transportation has not been neglected in Azeroth. There are ships, zeppelins, recall stones, teleport spells, flying creatures, mounts, and even an underground train. You need to visit points on the flight paths before you can use them, but the running you are required to do is never excessive. Flying between cities on a continent actually takes you on a fully rendered trip through the world, rather than simply bringing up a loading screen, which is a nice touch even though these become good opportunities for a bathroom break after seeing them enough times.

Crafting and Trading
As well as combat skills, characters in WoW can have a number of trade skills, which include things like cooking, mining, alchemy, and blacksmithing. Crafting with these skills is nothing particularly new; you bring up a crafting window and click a few buttons.

Your trade skills are limited by the level of your character, so progressing through the game solely as crafter is not really viable, even if you're willing to purchase all the necessary materials at the auction.

Several major cities have Auction Houses, which are integrated with the game's email system.

You must be at the Auction House to put items up for bid and place bids, but the rest is handled very cleverly by Azeroth mail. Your goods or money can be retrieved at any of the mailboxes scattered thoughout the world.
PvP?
Given that the Alliance vs. Horde conflict is central to WoW, the player vs. player combat is somewhat disappointing. On regular servers PvP is entirely optional, and your PvP flag is triggered only by attacking an enemy NPC or by using a /pvp command. Once your PvP flag is up, you can be attacked by any member of the opposing faction. Your PvP flag will remain up until you go about 5 minutes without engaging the enemy.

On PvP servers, the world is divided into friendly, contested, and enemy areas. In friendly zones, your PvP flag does not come up unless you attack the enemy faction. This means that they can't attack you unless you attack them first. In enemy territory, you will be flagged for PvP, but again, they will have to attack you before you can attack them. In contested areas, all players are flagged for PvP, so both factions must be on their guard. PvP Battlegrounds, when implemented, will be available on both types of servers.

Given that there are no level restrictions on who may attack whom, the PvP server system may seem an adequate compromise at first glance, but unfortunately, it has some serious flaws. Foremost among these is that there is really nothing to fight over. It would be much better if, for example, you could change the status of certain zones from contested to friendly, or from enemy to contested, by achieving a set of objectives. As it stands, territorial control in WoW is essentially static, and corpses can't be looted. Raids occur regularly, but regardless of the outcome, nothing vaguely significant is gained or lost.

Another problem is that death is handled the same way on both server types. When someone gets killed they simply respawn as a ghost at the nearest graveyard, at which point they can try to recover their corpse, or be revived on the spot. The only difference between these options is that the latter results in a greater equipment damage penalty.

The consequence of this in PvP situations is that casualities of the battle are often back in the fight mere seconds after dying, once again attacking characters they just killed.

Getting revived in the graveyard can mean that you enter the world right next to a member of the opposing faction. Under these circumstances PvP is not just pointless, it's downright absurd, and it makes playing on PvP server rather unappealing.
Battlegrounds, which are to be instanced, may help, but the persistent portion of the world would still benefit tremendously from a territorial control system, an honor system, or at least some way to claim a graveyard. Frankly, the PvP in the game right now feels like a complete afterthought.

The Bottom Line
Although WoW is fairly typical for a MMORPG, there are several things about it that make it more compelling than most games of this kind. Azeroth is dripping with character, detail, and polish which truly instills a desire to explore it in the player. The quest system and instanced dungeons tie it all together beautifully, providing players with everything from an introduction to the game to high-level raid content. Finally, the reduction of downtime increases the fun factor considerably. Even if you don't find yourself hooked on WoW for years, there are few RPG fans who won't get many months of enjoyment out of this game.