World of Warcraft: Difference between revisions

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The third expansion, ''Cataclysm'', was released in December 2010. It returns players to a redesigned Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms (devastated after the titular Cataclysm), raised the level cap to 85, and revisits a great deal of old and unfinished content while continuing the story lines of Azshara, Deathwing, and the Guardians of Tirisfal. The expansion also saw upsets in the leadership of several player races and a resurgence in the Alliance/Horde conflict storyline throughout Azeroth. New possible races are the bestial Worgen of Gilneas for the Alliance, and the cunning Goblins of Kezan for the Horde. A patch released shortly before the expansion also added a large number of new race/class combinations, explained in the lore as races attempting new things in order to survive the Cataclysm.

The fourth expansion, ''Mists of Pandaria'', is scheduled for release in 2012. It features the Pandaren race as a playable race for both the Alliance and Horde, a new class in the form of the Monk, and has a larger [[~~Pv P~~]] focus than Cataclysm. The level cap will also be upped to 90. Its current form also has major changes to the talent trees and is the first expansion not to feature a real [[Big Bad]], instead focusing on the Alliance and Horde conflict, though at the end of the expansion they will see a common enemy in {{spoiler|[[Face Heel Turn|Garrosh Hellscream.]] }}

The fourth expansion, ''Mists of Pandaria'', is scheduled for release in 2012. It features the Pandaren race as a playable race for both the Alliance and Horde, a new class in the form of the Monk, and has a larger [[PvP]] focus than Cataclysm. The level cap will also be upped to 90. Its current form also has major changes to the talent trees and is the first expansion not to feature a real [[Big Bad]], instead focusing on the Alliance and Horde conflict, though at the end of the expansion they will see a common enemy in {{spoiler|[[Face Heel Turn|Garrosh Hellscream.]] }}

Well-known for its depth of interaction, WoW has also spawned a collectible card game, a pen-and-paper RPG, comic books, and many other merchandising peripherals. The game is currently the largest MMO in the world by a huge margin, currently having around 10 million players and at one point nearly 60% of the total market share, and a film is in the works. <ref>For reference, the largest US MMORPG before this was ''[[Ever Quest (Video Game)|Ever Quest]]'' at half a million during its height; the largest worldwide was ''[[Lineage]]'' at 2-3 million -- although Asian MMORPG numbers such as ''Lineage'' can be considered inflated, as they have a different pricing structure in Asian markets that revolve around cybercafes. Note that ''World of Warcraft'' is played in the same cybercafes on the same terms.</ref>