Ep 33: World of Warcraft Tutorial

Topic: World of Warcraft

 

This week, we start the process of learning about one of my favorite games of the last decade, and Mom gets to come and journey with me on it.  We’re learning about World of Warcraft, and while we can’t talk about everything, we’ll certainly give you a good idea of what it’s all about!

 

Tutorial

 

MMORPG – Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game

Developed and Created by Blizzard Entertainment, now Activision Blizzard Interactive.

Based on previous MMOs, like Runescape, Ultima Online, Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, and many other game.

Personal Favorite were Phantasy Star Online and Ragnarok Online

Blizzard knows how to distill the core, fun elements of a game, rebuild it in their own image and what is fun about it, and then paint a rich narrative over the entire game to bring it to life.

Blizzard is well known for their Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo franchises.

A good studio that puts out quality games.

 

History

Beginning development in 1999-2000 around the same time as development on Warcraft 3.

Elements from Warcraft 3 helped shape the story, character, world, and races of the upcoming World of Warcraft.

Announced in 2001, released in late fall of 2004.  Immediate success based of studio’s previous work and franchise of Warcraft a few years earlier.

The game was a worldwide success, and quickly became the most popular and largest game in history. 

Additional expansion are released every two years to provide new mechanics, character classes and/or races, new locations to visit, and new stories/lore.

 

Vanilla/Classic (2004)

Initial incarnation of the game. 

Story takes place on Azeroth, a fictional, fantasy world with two major factions trying to bide for control over the world:

The Alliance(Humans, Dwarfs, Gnomes, & Night Elves)

The Horde (Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, &Undead(Forsaken))

Each control major areas of two continents and war against each other in an eternal struggle. 

Original story focused on a Dragon lord trying to come to power.

Blood gods of the Trolls seeking to corrupt the world.

Ancient bugs awakening from their slumber.

And the Undead returning to finish the job.

 

Classic versions of the original game were recently released in August of 2019 to allow players to play the original version of the game.

 

 

The Burning Crusade (2006)

Set in the world of Outland, the former home of Orcs.

Alliance recruits the Dranaei.

Horde recruits the Blood Elves.

Story has us fighting against the Burning Legion, the universal evil bad guys set on destroying all life.

Eventually to fight a big bad named Illidan

Introduction of Flying in game

 

 

Wrath of the Lich King (2008)

Set on the continent of Northrend

Introduced a new player class (Death Knights) for all races

Story follows forcing trying to subdue the big bad Lich King from Warcraft 3

Marked what many feel is the high point of the game.

12 Million Subscribers high.

 

 

Cataclysm (2010)

Revamped the 1-60 game world, drastically altering the landscape of the game to allow flying and new game effects.

Alliance recruits the Worgen.

Horde recruit a faction of Goblins

Some class/race combinations rebalanced for more options.

Story follows heroes trying to stop the dragon ‘Deathwing’ from destroying the world.  He’s the one that caused the world to sunder, otherwise known in game as ‘The Cataclysm’.

New world also introduced a more dynamic story that would begin to play out over multiple expansions and lead in to the next one over time.

 

Mists of Pandaria (2012)

Set in the land of Pandaria, a place hidden in mist until the Cataclysm revealed it.

Alliance and Horde recruit Panderians,

New class known as the monk introduced.

Story follows the Alliance and Horde bring war to a new place that hadn’t seen it and causing a mess. Eventually capped off with the Leader of the Horde trying to start a genocide of his own faction and his eventual downturn.

 

Warlords of Draenor (2014)

Returned to Outland before it became Outland, and even went back in time.

Introduction of Garrisons as a major feature.

Story followed form warchief going back in time to before the orcs were corrupted, and trying to build the Horde he always wish it would be.  We would stop the new horde from advancing in to our world and taking it over.

Game quickly begins to slow down, with the game being less than well received and considered lackluster.  Entire raid content/patch was dropped.

 

Legion (2016)

Set in the Broken Isle, a lost location where the Burning Legion has returned thanks to Gul’dan from last expansion being sent to our world.

Introduced the Demon Hunters to the game.

Revamp of all Classes and specs to create dynamic, individual game play, and Order Halls.

Story follows us trying to stop the burning Legion of returning and putting an end to their campaign once and for all.

Many people happy about this expansion and considered a new high point.

 

Battle for Azeroth (2018)

Current expansion.

Set on islands of Kul Tiras and Zandalar, forgotten lands in wow lore.

We recruit new allied races to assist:

Alliance gets Light Forged Dranaei, Void Elves, Dark Iron Dwarfs, Mechagon Gnomes, and Kul Tirans

Horde get High Mountain Tauren, Nightborne, Mag’har Orcs, Vulpera, and Zandalari Trolls.

Story initially starts as a continuation of the Horde vs Alliance, but quickly find the new WarchiefSylvanas trying to kill everyone for a secret agenda.

Continued on success of Legion in story and gameplay.

 

Shadowlands (2020)

New expansion set in the land of the dead. 

Revamp of Order Halls and revamp of character abilities.

Changing leveling process back to 60 cap level, making each expansion the 10-50 experience.

Story revolves around Sylvanas opening up a portal/hole to the shadowlands, but for unknown reasons.

Planned for 3rd quarter of 2020.

 

 

Classes: 

Warriors – Heavy Plate soldiers, good at all weapons, great at tanking.

Paladins – Holy Warriors, can do close combat, plus tanking, and Healing.

Death Knights – Unholy knights, good at tanking, but channeling unholy skills to do damage

Shamans – Nature warriors that call upon the raw elements to attack and heal.

Hunters – Similar to rangers, good with all long range combat

Rogues – Typical thief, can hide in stealth and strike enemies with ease.

Druids – Shape-shifter that rely on nature magic to transform in to either healers,  tanks, melee or ranged damage

Monks – Barehanded warriors who are drunk tanks, quick melee fighters, or mystical healers.

Demon Hunters – Similar to Illidan, these are warriors infused with demonic energy that can also be tanks

Mage – Typical wizard channeling the fire, ice, or arcane magic

Warlocks – Dark wizards that use fel and shadow to summon demons to do their bidding.

Priests – Holy wizards that excel at healing, but have an unholy damage.

 

 

Things to do in game:

Leveling/Alts – Common is to level your character until max level, or start a new character and level up all over again

Dungeons – 5 man groups tackling various smaller issues, usually relating/theming to current events/expansion

Raids – 10-25 man groups tackling bigger dungeons, almost always related to the current events/story

Player Vs Player – various areas, themed objectives, and open world fights between the Horde and Alliance. 

Pet Battles – Introduced in Cataclysm, think Pokemon with your in game pets

Dailies – series of objectives that can be completed daily for various rewards

Transmog – Hunting Gear or looks from various sources/objectives

Role Playing – Popular amongst roleplay servers, allowing character to act out stories with their characters.