The milieu of the Warcraft universe started with the original game of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and this gaming genre continues to be the primary focus for Blizzard Entertainment. While the initial game had very basic lore and a very minimal storyline, over the years, this has been vastly expanded on and revised with the addition of expansions, books, graphic novels and now the expanding online universe of World of Warcraft.
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Warcraft: Orcs & Humans introduced the basic conflict between the orcs and humans, as well as the characters of Medivh, Llane, Garona, and Lothar.
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness released and moved past the beginnings of the Kingdom of Azeroth (later known as Stormwind in WoW) to include the realms of Khaz Modan and Lordaeron. Not only were the two new areas introduced but this new game also saw the appearance of dwarves, high elves, trolls, goblins and the Burning Legion, as well as many new characters to the blossoming game world.
Warcraft III and The Frozen Throne' expanded the world further with the introduction of Kalimdor and Northrend, as well as a highly detailed and lore rich backstory about the creation of Azeroth. In addition, Blizzard brought out the races of the Night Elves and Tauren and showed th gaming community the depredations of the Scourge.
With the release of World of Warcraft, Blizzard has continued to expand on their virtual world by allowing the players to experience virtually all the lore and content in their games as no more than one of the many players in a persistent world with its own relationships, economy and struggles. There are currently two expansions for the MMO available to the public - The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King.
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade was the first expansion for the hit game from Blizzard, World of Warcraft. It was originally announced in October 2005 and released to the public starting in January 2007. It hit stores in North America, Europe, and Australia on Januray 16th, 2007. Korea followed with a release there on February 2nd, 2007. Then came the debut in both Taiwan and Hong Kong on April 3rd, 2007, followed at last by mainland China on September 6th. Its main features included the first increase of the level cap, allowing players to attain level 70, the introduction of two new races (the blood elves and the draenei) and the addition of a whole new zone, that being Outland. This new expansion included a dearth of new zones such as Terokkar forest, the new city of Shattrath, dungeons and raid encounters (such as Gruul's lair), and a whole new bestiary.
Wrath of the Lich King required! |
The Lich King, Arthas, has set in motion events that could lead to the extinction of all life on Azeroth. With the armies of the undead and the necromantic power of the plague threatening to sweep across the land, only the mightiest heroes can oppose the Lich King's will and end his reign of terror for all time.
The World of Warcraft, showing the newly discovered land of Northrend |
Wrath of the Lich King, or WotLK, is the second expansion for World of Warcraft.
From the official site:
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