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(This online guide is very incomplete as of this time. It will only give you what you need to start, and much information is missing. For all WoW players out there, please contribute to this guide)

World of Warcraft, created by the video game company Blizzard Entertainment, is a wildly popular massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) which takes place in the mythical and expansive world of Azeroth. A MMORPG is a multiplayer computer role-playing game that enables thousands of players to play in an evolving virtual world at the same time over the Internet. MMORPGs are a specific type of massively multiplayer online game (MMOG).

This world is filled with two types of game play: player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP). In the PvE part of the game, players travel around the world completing thousands of quests with hundreds of interesting story lines, whereas, the PvP aspect of the game pits players against other players in order to gain prestige, power, and peer respect.

In game, players choose to create a unique character from eight unique races and nine powerful classes. Each race in the game has it's own interesting look, a look which is further customizable in the character creation screen. As well as look, each race has a series of racial traits and talents which help to give variability in character types. Further helping to individualize characters, each class is give a plethora of skills and abilities which are enhanced as the character gains levels through game play and exploration. With the added ability to freely create multiple characters in the game, change the abilities of an existing character by respecing their talents, World of Warcraft excels at keeping game content variable thus having long-term playability.

As an added benefit, Blizzard Entertainment has put much effort into creating a game that casual players and hardcore players enjoy alike. For casual players, a few quests can be completed in a matter of a couple hours in the evening, unlike other MMORPG's which require playing the game like a full-time job to feel that you've accomplished something. They also implemented a "rested xp" game mechanism and allows for 200% experience gained from destroying monsters which is activated if a player hasn't gained monster XP for a certain period of time, helping casual players to level at a respectable pace. For hardcore players, who have time and desire to put man hours in, there are item rewards for competing in PvP game play which often requires five or more hours daily, as well, completing instanced dungeons which take hours to complete often yield desirable items.

Getting Started

This section will cover the most basic aspects of World of Warcraft.

Account Creation

The first step in playing World of Warcraft is creating an account. With a new game, players are given a free trial period to evaluate the game, after that they are required to have an active credit card account or pre-paid game cards in order to continue playing. Account creation is varied and may change if Blizzard Entertainment chooses so. At the time of this writing, you are required to have a valid, purchased copy of the game for account creation. Blizzards' Official website will be linked for accurate and up-to-date account creation guide.

World of Warcraft Account Creation

After you've setup your account, you will likely have to update the game. There are two ways to do this. First, and easiest is to let the client built into the game (blizzard downloader) update it for you. The second is to manually download the updates and apply them yourself. The second method is useful if you are behind a firewall that is tricky and not letting the blizzard downloader work, if you have a slow internet connection you can download the patches off of a faster computer burning it to CD and installing as such, or if you have multiple computers that you want to update it may be faster to manually apply the patch instead of downloading it each time.

Characters

The eight playable races in World of Warcraft are split into two factions, Horde and Alliance. These two factions are at war and the majority of PvP game experience centers around conflict between the two factions. As well, factions cannot communicate with each other so if you want to play with friends, it is wise to choose the same faction. The Alliance consists of Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, and Night Elves; while the Horde is made up of Orcs, Trolls, Taurens, and the Undead.

Each race has specialized talents and a limited number of classes available for them to use. For example, a Gnome can only choose between the classes of warrior, mage, warlock, and rogue; and has racial abilities such as increased engineering skills, and intelligence whereas a Night Elf can be a warrior, druid, hunter, rogue or priest and has the ability to hide in shadows, and increased nature damage resistance. To further complicate the issue, each faction also has one unique class. The alliance have Paladins and the Horde have Shamans.

Each class has special talents and spells which are purchased through in-game trainers after the character has reach a certain level in the game. Each character has three distinct talent trees which strengthen skill classes and give new skills. This aspect of the game allows for great customization between characters of the same class and race.

Below is a link to a detailed guide for creation your characters, and further below that are links to detailed explanations and histories of each race and class in Azeroth.

Character Creation Guide

Races

Classes

A Quick Introduction to the Classes

For a more detailed instruction for each of the classes, see the links below.

Basics

The basics section contains just enough information so you can get started playing the game.

Advanced Topics

There are more advanced topics that a person doesn't need to know to play the game, although they help out tremendously.

Zones

The zones section contains information about each specific zone in Azeroth. It will serve as a comprehensive guide to the completion of each quest in a particular zone.

Eastern Kingdom

Kalimdor

Towns and Cities

Orgrimar
Undercity
Thunder Bluff
Ironforge
Darnassus
Stormwind
Tarren Mill
Sepulcher
Crossroads
Camp Taraujo
Booty Bay
Grom'gol
Winterspring
Gadgetzan
Thorium Point
Kargath

Instances

An instance is a specialized type of difficult dungeon created to prevent problems of over-crowding and kill stealing. These dungeons are often more difficult than the regular PvE experience and require working together in a five-person party, some even requiring twenty or more person raids. When entering an instance, a new copy of the dungeon is created which is unique to the particular party or raid which has entered it thus no one else can enter the dungeon and kill a named boss without being explicitly invited to do so. This helps to stop players who would follow a group into a dungeon, wait for the them to clear the way to the boss, than fight the boss thus exploiting others clearing work. This also prevents over-crowding of a boss because any number of instances can be created and each has it's own copy of that particular boss.

Eastern Kingdoms

Kalimdor

Battlegrounds

Special Events

Periodically certain events happen in the game, most are calendar based but recently a one-off "world event" has been created.

Regular Events

Calendar Events

Lunar Festival