y Michael Arthas
World of Warcraft (also referred as WoW) developed by Blizzard Entertaiment is the world’s most famous massive multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG). It is the newest series in the Warcraft universe after Blizzard gain success with the previous 3 Warcraft series and its additional game patches. After the success of Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne, on September 2, 2001, Blizzard
Entertaiment announced the development of World of Warcraft. By November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft was released to public. The released was also to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft has been extremely popular ever since it has been released to the public. The success it gains in the MMORPG world is beyond what anyone, even themselves, could imagine. It is currently held
the Guinnes World Record for the most-subscribed MMORPG in the world with more than 11.5 million subscribers. More than 2 millions subscribers from Europe, 2.5 millions subscribers from North America, 5.5 millions subscribers from Asia, and the rest, around 1 million subscribers, scattered around the globe. World of Warcraft leads the market in MMORPG. Around 62% of the MMORPG’s market is own by WoW. World of Warcraft has become the mainstream leader and it successfully widened the audience for online gaming, especially MMORPG.
Majority of people who plays MMORPG usually a teenager or at least male person with the age around 20. But that was before World of Warcraft. As I say earlier, World of Warcraft has successfully widened the gaming audience. Not only teenagers or male person around 20 years old, now all sorts of age groups and individuals play World of Warcraft. WoW, in particular has been success to attract much younger gamers to play the game.
World of Warcraft has appealed to people who are not normally into gaming. It is very common for someone who at first did not want to play the game but then got influenced by their surroundings, such as roommate, teammate, friends, brother, sister, spouse, etc.
You can also find people playing and addicted to WoW was at first has very little experience in video game, especially multi-player online gaming.
Most online gamers consist of male person. But after World of Warcraft launched to public, female person has also shown their interest to play the online game. It is estimated that 30% of the world online game’s player are female. Their partner usually accompany them when they are playing the game. Often, World of Warcraft is the key title in introducing female person to play MMORPG.
World of Warcraft has successfully made online game as a social experience. Often people play this online game together in groups. Well, apparently it is more fun to play online games in groups rather than to play it alone as individual. Parents and their children play together. Brother’s and sister’s too. And don’t forget couples. Almost 25% of people playing online games in group are involved romantically. Playing in groups can certainly tighten your relationship with others.
World of Warcraft is so popular in the world of MMORPG. One of the reason is the free trial offered by WoW’s developer, Blizzard Entertainment. Before the official launching,
Blizzard offers online gamer to download the beta version of the game for free. Online gamers who have known Warcraft previous series respond to the free offer. Blizzard was hoping to get some input from gamer about their first impression of the game and also about what to improve before the official launch. Since gamers love the beta version, it is most likely for them
to buy the game and pay the monthly subscription fee after WoW launch to the public.
The other reason why World of Warcraft gets very popular, although the main concept is similar to other MMORPG in the market, is the new approaches in the game. WoW has successfully reduce pauses between game. In example is the character’s death. If you play other MMORPG, player will suf
