Difference between revisions of "World of Warcraft"
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{{Availability/row| Retail | | Battle.net, Online | Expansions are available on DVDs. | | Windows, OS X }} | {{Availability/row| Retail | | Battle.net, Online | Expansions are available on DVDs. | | Windows, OS X }} | ||
− | {{Availability/row| Battle.net | world-of-warcraft-free-trial | Battle.net, Online | First 20 levels are free-to-play, with other restrictions also in place; see [https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/start | + | {{Availability/row| Battle.net | world-of-warcraft-free-trial | Battle.net, Online | First 20 levels are free-to-play, with other restrictions also in place; see [https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/start starting page] for details. [https://shop.battle.net/product/world-of-warcraft-subscription Subscription] includes all available expansions except for the latest one, which needs to be bought separately. | | Windows, OS X }} |
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{{ii}} All versions require {{DRM|Battle.net|offline=no}}. | {{ii}} All versions require {{DRM|Battle.net|offline=no}}. |
Revision as of 09:59, 28 August 2024
Developers | |
---|---|
Blizzard Entertainment | |
Release dates | |
Windows | November 23, 2004 |
macOS (OS X) | November 23, 2004 |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 93 |
IGDB | 86 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | Expansion pack, Subscription |
Microtransactions | Boost, Cosmetic, Currency |
Modes | Multiplayer |
Pacing | Persistent, Real-time |
Perspectives | Third-person |
Controls | Direct control |
Genres | MMORPG |
Art styles | Cartoon |
Themes | Fantasy |
Series | Warcraft |
Warcraft | |
---|---|
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans | 1994 |
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness | 1995 |
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans | Cancelled |
Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition | 1999 |
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | 2002 |
World of Warcraft | 2004 |
Hearthstone | 2014 |
Warcraft III: Reforged | 2020 |
Warnings
- This game requires a constant internet connection for all game modes.
World of Warcraft is a third-person MMORPG made by Blizzard Entertainment. The game is set in the Warcraft series of games, and is the first game released in the series not to be a RTS game.
The game was released November 23, 2004 in North America. In the week of launch, Realm (server) capacity could not meet player demand resulting in queues and latency.[1] Over the years, Blizzard opened new servers to meet demand[2] as player numbers reached 12 million in October 2010. However, a declining player population resulted in a Connected Realms feature which results in virtual server merges on September 10, 2013.[3]
The engine has seen several changes, most notably the original 32-bit client ran DirectX 9/11 which was deprecated in favour of a 64-bit client that ran only DirectX 11/12 on July 1, 2018 with the Battle for Azeroth patch, which also dropped support for 'exclusive fullscreen' mode.[4][5][6]
World of Warcraft has had several expansion packs which added new content. World of Warcraft Classic, a new game mode based on 'vanilla' or pre-The Burning Crusade content was released August 26, 2019.
AddOns are the primary method of modding the game, which extends the game's interface providing communication tools, maps, statistics, minigames, etc. AddOns can be found on websites such as WoW Interface and CurseForge and often need updating every time the game is patched. The game also has a history of extensive communities based in 'private' or emulated servers, which are against Blizzard's Terms of Service, a famous example of which was a server called Nostalrius which was shut down on April 10, 2016.
General information
- Blizzard Watch "WoW" Category - A news site dedicated to all Blizzard Entertainment news.
- Warcraft Wiki - A huge wiki for everything World of Warcraft related. Also handles anything Warcraft universe related.
- Wowhead - An expansive database on anything that can be found or used in-game. Has a clean interface.
- Statista - A ranking on the distribution of characters across EU and U.S. realms. Other statistics on World of Warcraft accessible.
- CurseForge and WoWInterface are both great addon sources.
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | Expansions are available on DVDs. | |||
Battle.net | First 20 levels are free-to-play, with other restrictions also in place; see starting page for details. Subscription includes all available expansions except for the latest one, which needs to be bought separately. |
- All versions require Battle.net DRM and a constant internet connection for all game modes.
- The playable characters from all expansions are available (except for the latest expansion), even if the player has not bought any expansion packs.
Monetization
Type | Notes |
---|---|
Subscription | To play beyond Starter Edition limitations, a subscription is required as a real money purchase in 1, 3 and 6 month increments. The subscription includes access to World of Warcraft and WoW Classic. Subscription time can be earned in-game via the WoW Token. |
DLC and expansion packs
Name | Notes | |
---|---|---|
The Burning Crusade | Available for free. Included with all full versions of the game. | |
Wrath of the Lich King | Available for free. Included with all full versions of the game. | |
Cataclysm | Available for free. Included with all full versions of the game. | |
Mists of Pandaria | Available for free. Included with all full versions of the game. | |
Warlords of Draenor | Available for free. Included with all full versions of the game. | |
Legion | Available for free. Included with all full versions of the game. | |
Battle for Azeroth | Available for free. Included with all full versions of the game. | |
Shadowlands | Available for free. Included with all full versions of the game. | |
Dragonflight | Available for free. Included with all full versions of the game. | |
The War Within | Can be bought from the Battle.net store. | |
Midnight | Coming soon. | |
The Last Titan | Coming soon. |
Microtransactions
Type | Notes |
---|---|
Boost | Level boosts, e.g. Level 50 Character Boost.[7] |
Cosmetic | Cosmetics like mounts and pets are real money purchases.[8] |
Currency | WoW Token was introduced March 5, 2015, and is a real money purchase which can be traded in-game or redeemed for added subscription time or Blizzard Balance which is credit for the Blizzard Store.[9] |
Free-to-grind | Because WoW Tokens can be redeemed for Blizzard Balance it makes it technically possible to achieve all microtransactions through grinding in-game Gold. |
Infinite spend | The shop updates frequently with new unlocks and cosmetics, and the existence of WoW Tokens means that there is no practical limit to how much can be spent on the game in addition to subscription costs. |
Unlock | Unlocks include race change, character transfer, faction change, name change, guild services, etc.[10] |
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | <path-to-game>\_retail_\WTF\Config.wtf[Note 1] |
macOS (OS X) | <path-to-game>\WTF\Config.wtf |
- Progress and stats are saved automatically by Battle.net
Video
Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | |||
Multi-monitor | |||
Ultra-widescreen | |||
4K Ultra HD | |||
Field of view (FOV) | |||
Windowed | |||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | |||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | |||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | FXAA, CMAA, MSAA and SSAA. | ||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | |||
60 FPS and 120+ FPS | Frame rate is capped at 200 FPS.[11] | ||
High dynamic range display (HDR) | See the glossary page for potential alternatives. | ||
Ray tracing (RT) | Ray traced shadows added with Shadowlands expansion.[12] | ||
Color blind mode | Set in Accessibility settings.[13] See Color blind mode for further options. [Incorrect implementation, Applies filter to simulate colorblindness] |
Color blind mode
Enable color blind mode[14] |
---|
|
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | ||
Mouse acceleration | ||
Mouse sensitivity | Can be changed using the Mouse section of the Interface menu. | |
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Controller | ||
Controller support | Enable with /console GamePadEnable 1 limited UI support without addons |
|
Full controller support | As of 9.0.1 native controller support for retail however with lack of proper controller UI. Classic still requires third party software. ConsolePort provides UI for both versions of the game and third party software to add support to classic. | |
Controller remapping | ||
Controller sensitivity | Uses Mouse Look Speed settings in Camera options menu | |
Controller Y-axis inversion | Uses Invert Mouse option in Camera options menu |
Controller types |
---|
XInput-compatible controllers | ||
---|---|---|
Xbox button prompts | Addons such as ConsolePort provide correct button prompts | |
Impulse Trigger vibration |
PlayStation controllers | Addons such as ConsolePort provide correct button prompts | |
---|---|---|
PlayStation button prompts | ||
Light bar support | ||
Adaptive trigger support | ||
DualSense haptic feedback support | ||
Connection modes |
Generic/other controllers |
---|
Additional information | ||
---|---|---|
Controller hotplugging | ||
Haptic feedback | ||
Digital movement supported | ||
Simultaneous controller+KB/M |
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | Master, sound, music, ambience, dialog. A selected number of optional sounds can also be fully disabled |
|
Surround sound | 5.1 and 7.1[15] | |
Subtitles | ||
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | ||
EAX support | EAX 3.[16] XP compatibility mode is also required from Vista onwards (besides DirectSound3D restoration).[17]
|
|
Royalty free audio |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | EnUS, enGB, enCN, enTW available. | |||
Simplified Chinese | ||||
Traditional Chinese | ||||
Czech | Fan - AI, Classic | |||
Polish | Fan - [1] | |||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Italian | ||||
Korean | ||||
Brazilian Portuguese | ||||
Russian | ||||
Spanish | ||||
Latin American Spanish |
Network
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
LAN play | |||
Online play |
Connection types
Type | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Matchmaking | ||
Peer-to-peer | ||
Dedicated | ||
Self-hosting | ||
Direct IP |
Ports
Protocol | Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
---|---|
TCP | 80, 3724, 1119 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
VR support
3D modes | State | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
vorpX | G3D Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list. |
Devices | |||
---|---|---|---|
3RD Space Gaming Vest |
Issues fixed
Windowed mode (OS X)
OS X - Windowed mode[citation needed] |
---|
|
FPS performance issues (OS X)
OS X - FPS performance issues[citation needed] |
---|
|
Sound issue (OS X)
OS X - Sound issue[citation needed] |
---|
|
Mature Filter Options Not Saving
Force a save to the server side[citation needed] |
---|
|
World of Warcraft unable to run after using Xbox app
Turn off your Game DVR on Xbox app[citation needed] |
---|
|
Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
Direct3D | 11, 12 | Previously contained Direct3D 9 and 10 modes until January 2018. Direct3D 12 is available for both Windows 7 and 10, but only on cards supporting Tier 3 resource binding.[19] |
Software renderer | Run the game with the -allowSoftwareRenderer command line parameter. |
|
Metal support |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | ARM | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Windows | Only the 64-bit client is supported as of patch 8.0.1 for both classic and retail. One Shadowlands test realm for native ARM was reported to exist as of May 2021.[18]32-bit support was dropped in January 2018 with patch 8.0.1. | |||
macOS (OS X) | PowerPC support was dropped in October 2010 with patch 4.0.1. 32-bit support was dropped in January 2018 with patch 8.0.1. ARM support was added in November 2020. |
Command line arguments
Command[20] | Description |
---|---|
-help (or -h) | Displays the help message window |
-version (or -v) | Displays the build number |
-windowed | Runs the game in windowed mode |
-fullscreen | Runs the game in borderless windowed mode |
-console | Enables the in-game console (called by default by ~) |
-d3d11 | Forces Gx to use the DirectX 11 API (as of version 4.0.1) |
-d3d11legacy | Forces Gx to use the legacy DirectX 11 API (as of version 8.1.5) |
-d3d12 | Forces Gx to use the DirectX 12 API (as of version 8.1.5) |
-config [filename] | Overrides the default configuration file with a specified one |
-[width]x[height] | Sets custom resolution (obsolete) |
-metal | Runs the game using Metal |
-opengl (or -ogl41) | Runs the game using OpenGL (4.1) (obsolete) |
-allowSoftwareRenderer | Runs the game using a software renderer |
-nosound | Disables game audio |
Addons
- World of Warcraft's UI is developed via Lua scripting, and XML data.
- AddOns are essentially mods, files to add to the installation folder that can improve interaction with the game.
- AddOns are generally self-contained User Interface (UI) modification components. However, some AddOns can be dependent on other AddOns to work, and some AddOns are actually collections of other AddOns. Some are built on libraries such as Sea or Ace. There is no size restriction on AddOns; some can grow to be quite massive.
Blizzard's AddOn Policy
- With the release of Patch 3.1, Blizzard Entertainment introduced a new UI AddOn development policy.[21]
- According to the policy, "failure to abide by them [these rules] may result in measures up to and including taking formal legal action."[21]
AddOn Policy[citation needed] |
---|
|
Creating an AddOn
Creating an AddOn[citation needed] |
---|
## Interface: <API_LatestInterface> ## Title: My Add On ## Version: 1.0.0 ## Notes: A short description of my AddOn ## Author: Your name or memorable descriptor (e.g. LuckyLuke)
|
Troubleshooting an AddOn
"Interface action failed" error[citation needed] |
---|
|
System requirements
- The system requirements listed below were taken in August 2024 right after the release of The War Within expansion.
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 7 SP1 | 10 |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Core Haswell 4th generation 3.0 GHz AMD Ryzen Zen 3.0 GHz |
Intel Core Coffee Lake 8th generation 3.5 GHz AMD Ryzen Zen 2 3.5 GHz |
System memory (RAM) | 8 GB | 16 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 128 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 900 series AMD GCN 4th generation Intel Iris Xe Graphics 3 GB of VRAM DirectX 12 compatible Shader model 5.0 support |
Nvidia GeForce RTX AMD RDNA 2 Intel Arc 7 Graphics 8 GB of VRAM |
Other | Minimum resolution of 1280x720. Broadband Internet connection SSD recommended. |
- The original system requirements were as follows: 98/2000/ME/XP, Intel Pentium 3 800 MHz or AMD Duron 800 MHz, 256 MB RAM, a 32 MB 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting, such as an NVIDIA Geforce FX 5700 class card or above, a DirectX compatible sound card, and 4 GB hard drive space. The manual stated that you will have to install DirectX 9.0c to properly run World of Warcraft.
- 98 and ME support were dropped with the 2.2.3 patch in October 2007, 2000 support was dropped with the 4.0.1 patch in 2010, and XP support was dropped shortly before the 8.0.1 patch at the start of 2018, along with Windows Vista.[22]
- 32-bit support was retired in 2018.
macOS (OS X) | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 11 | 13 |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Core Skylake 6th generation 2.9 GHz Apple M1 |
Intel Core Coffee Lake 9th generation 3.6 GHz Apple M1 Max |
System memory (RAM) | 8 GB | 16 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 128 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | AMD GCN 4th generation Apple M1 3 GB of VRAM | AMD RDNA Apple M1 Max 8 GB of VRAM |
Other | Minimum resolution of 1280x720. Broadband Internet connection SSD recommended. |
- The original system requirements were as follows: Mac OS X 10.3.5, 933 MHz G4/G5, 512 MB RAM, an ATI or NVIDIA graphics processor with 32MB VRAM, and 4GB hard drive space
- PowerPC Mac support was dropped with patch 4.0.1.
Notes
- ↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%
,%PROGRAMDATA%
, or%WINDIR%
might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
on Windows Vista and later (more details).
References
- ↑ Remembering the Launch of World of Warcraft - last accessed on 2020-05-19
- "It’s fun remembering the times in the past when we, as World of Warcraft, had to battle against server queues, errors, and latency during the original launch of WoW."
- ↑ Timeline of the creation of US realms - last accessed on 2024-02-21
- ↑ Patch 5.4.0 -- Wowpedia - last accessed on 2024-02-21
- ↑ Support Ending for World of Warcraft 32-Bit Client This Summer - last accessed on 2024-02-21
- ↑ World of Warcraft now supports DirectX 12 -- OC3D News - last accessed on 2020-05-19
- ↑ Worried about removal of exclusive fullscreen mode in BFA? Check here - last accessed on 2024-02-21
- ↑ Shadowlands-Level Character Boost - World of Warcraft - last accessed on 2021-01-2
- ↑ Cosmetic Armor Pieces—Now Available on Blizzard Store - last accessed on 2020-04-18
- ↑ World of Warcraft's WoW Token allows trading gold for game time - last accessed on 2024-02-21
- "Called the WoW Token, the in-game item works similarly to EVE Online's PLEX or Wildstar's CREDD. It needs to be bought for real money via the World of Warcraft in-game Shop, though the exact pricing is yet to be announced. The buyer can then sell the WoW Token via the in-game Auction House's Token Exchange for in-game currency at a market price set by Blizzard, which will circumvent players trying to exploit the system."
- ↑ World of Warcraft - Blizzard Shop - last accessed on 2024-02-21
- ↑ Wowpedia - last accessed on 2024-02-21
- ↑ World of Warcraft - Engineer’s Workshop: Enabling Ray-Traced Shadows in Shadowlands - last accessed on 2024-02-21
- ↑ New Colorblind Support in Patch 6.1 - World of Warcraft - last accessed on 2024-02-21
- ↑ Color Blind Mode - Battle.net Support - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ 5.1 surround sound not working in 64-bit - World of Warcraft forums (retrieved)
- ↑ SoundBlaster.com - World of Warcraft® - last accessed on 21 February 2024
- ↑ Creative EAX Help - World of Warcraft forums (retrieved)
- ↑ You can now play World of Warcraft on your Windows 10 on ARM device - last accessed on 2021-07-14
- ↑ Can't Enable DirectX 12 in WOW - World of Warcraft Forums - last accessed on 2024-02-21
- ↑ List of Command-Line Switches - Wowpedia - Your wiki guide to the World of Warcraft - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/1642
- ↑ Ending Support for Windows XP and Vista - World of Warcraft Forums - last accessed on May 2023