A role-playing game (RPG; often roleplaying game) is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters and collaboratively create or follow stories. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, players can improvise freely; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the games.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (commonly known as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It is Blizzard Entertainment's fourth game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. It is currently the world's largest MMORPG in terms of monthly subscribers.

The first official expansion pack of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. Blizzard announced a second expansion pack called Wrath of the Lich King on August 3, 2007. The release date of Wrath of the Lich King has not yet been announced.

WoW has become increasingly referenced in popular culture as a result of the game's popularity. Notable examples include the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" and the Louisville World Series of Video Games competition in which World of Warcraft was a featured game. WoW itself also contains references to pop culture within the game. The popularity of the game has also led to a board game and a collectible card game based on WoW.

Gameplay

Unlike previous games in the Warcraft series, World of Warcraft is not a real-time strategy game, but a MMORPG. As with other MMORPGs, players control a character avatar within a persistent game world, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, and interacting with NPCs as well as other players. The game rewards success with money, items, and experience, which in turn allow players to improve their skill and power. Players can level their characters from level one up to level 60, level 70 if they have The Burning Crusade expansion (released on January 16, 2007), or level 80 if they have the yet to be released Wrath of the Lich King expansion. In addition, players may opt to take part in battles against other players of an enemy faction, in PvP battlegrounds or in normal world zones subject to the rules in place on the particular server. Duels can also be fought between members of the same or opposing factions, although these do not provide tangible rewards. Many players also choose to join guilds in order to conduct raids against enemy territory and instances.

Characters

Races Main article: Races in the Warcraft universe

Players create characters which serve as their avatars in the online world of Azeroth. When creating a character in World of Warcraft, the player can choose from eight different races (two more are introduced in the expansion). The races are split into two diametrically opposed factions, the Alliance and the Horde. The Alliance currently consists of Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Draenei. (Draenei characters require The Burning Crusade expansion in order to be created.) The Horde currently consists of Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls and Blood Elves. (Blood Elf characters require The Burning Crusade expansion in order to be created.)

In addition to the ten playable races there are many NPC races including (but not limited to) Goblins, Ogres, Murlocs, and Naga.

Classes

The game has nine character classes that a player can choose from. Some class restrictions are imposed based on race, so not all classes are available for each race. Each class has a set of unique abilities and talents. Abilities are general skills and spells available to the entire class, while talents allow players to specialize their character and further refine their role. Each class has a set of three talent trees from which a player may choose. Players may choose to build their talent trees for damage-dealing (also called damage-per-second, DPS), healing, tanking, or even a mix of these, called a "hybrid class". Some classes are able to perform different roles depending on the group's needs.

The nine available classes in World of Warcraft are: Druid: A nature-oriented hybrid class capable of fulfilling the role of a damage dealer, a tank, or a healer. The druid can shapeshift into many animal/nature forms: a bear (for tanking), a panther/lion-like cat (for melee damage), an Owlbear/Moonkin (for ranged magical damage), and a "Tree of Life" (for healing). Hunter: A combination of a marksman/archer and animal specialist, the hunter specializes in ranged damage dealt by means of a bow, crossbow, or gun with the help of an animal pet. The hunter also employs a series of traps for damaging or disabling enemies. Mage: The wizard-esque damage dealer of World of Warcraft, the mage employs spells of the "arcane," fire, and frost elements. The mage can also notably conjure food and water to replenish group members. Paladin: A heavily-armored holy warrior that serves as a melee-oriented hybrid. Like the druid, paladins can specialize to fulfill each of the three major roles in World of Warcraft. (See also: Paladin (character class).) Priest: A lightly-armored class that typically either represents the forces of "good" (as a "Holy Priest") or evil (as a "Shadow Priest"), becoming a healer or damage dealer through each type of "faith" respectively. Rogue: The rogue is World of Warcraft's shadowy, assassin class that can "stealth" to avoid being seen by enemies (providing near-invisibility). The rogue deals damage by dual-wielding daggers, swords, or "maces" (blunt melee weaponstypically in the form of war hammers). Shaman: The totem-wielding shaman is World of Warcraft's third hybrid class. Unlike the paladin or the druid, the shaman's tanking abilities are quite limited, but can deal a good amount of damage (either in melee combat or as a spell-caster) and has some healing ability. Warlock: The warlock is, in essence, a sinister combination of the mage and the hunter in that warlocks deal magical damage like a mage but also have demonic "pets" (called minions) like hunters. Though a spell-caster like the mage, the warlock's damaging spells come chiefly in the form of so-called "damage over time" spells that, after being placed on an enemy, slowly deal their damage, rather than hitting the opponent all at once as a mage's do. Warrior: World of Warcraft's other heavily armored class, the warrior is a general melee fighter who can use any non-magical weapon in the game and who can specialize to be either a damage dealer or a tank.

The Paladin class was previously only available to the Alliance, and the Shaman only available to the Horde. Now, with the release of The Burning Crusade, the Draenei (Alliance) are able to be Shamans and the Blood Elves (Horde) are able to be Paladins, removing the previous faction exclusivity. In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, a tenth class known as the Death Knight will be added, which will also be the game's first Hero class.

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Character types

There are two types of characters in the game: Player Characters (PC) and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). A Player Character is a player's avatar in the world of Azeroth. The color of a PC's name tag can be blue, green, yellow or red depending on faction and Player vs. Player (PvP) status. Non-Player Characters are AI-controlled characters that can only interact with PCs through scripted events or artificial intelligence (AI).

There are three types of NPCs. Friendly NPCs, whose names are displayed in green, cannot attack friendly characters and vice versa. Hostile NPCs, whose names are in red, are either of the opposing faction or are mobs (enemies controlled by AI) and will freely attack any PC with whom they are hostile. Neutral NPCs, whose names are displayed in yellow, are neutral and will only attack if provoked. Some NPC interaction is affected by the reputation a PC has with them.

NPCs in major and minor cities can buy and sell merchandise, train class and profession skills, give quests and provide a large number of services that are needed in the game. While some will merely offer advice or further the story, others, such as city guards, patrol around set paths to keep cities defended against attacking PCs or hostile NPCs that may attempt to invade.

Professions

During the course of playing the game, players may choose to develop side skills for their character(s). These non-combat skills are called professions. Professions are divided into two categories, primary and secondary.

Primary professions are skills related to the creation and enhancement of weapons and armor, and can be subdivided into gathering and crafting professions. The gathering professions in WoW are Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning. Crafting professions include Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Alchemy, Engineering, Enchanting, Jewelcrafting (added in The Burning Crusade expansion), and Inscription (to be added in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion). Crafting professions also have specialization categories that when trained, allow for more diverse items to be created, depending on the character's direction in the game. There is also the Enchanting profession, which allows a character to enchant weapons and armor, and also disenchant magical items in his or her possession. A character is limited to two primary professions.

Secondary professions are skills that serve to enhance the player's experience. The secondary professions are First Aid, Cooking and Fishing. Characters can learn all three Secondary professions. The Rogue class has two unique secondary professions: Poisons and Lock Picking.

Items and equipment

Player characters can acquire various items in the game. Items can vary from resources such as herbs or raw ores to items to be retrieved for quests. Player characters can also equip different weapons and armor, either to customize their character or improve abilities such as better attacks or defense skills. Item rarity is classified by the color of the item name: grey means "poor" (otherwise known as "vendor trash"), white means "common", green means "uncommon", blue means "rare", purple means "epic" and orange means "legendary".

Mounts

A mount refers to an item that, upon activation, depicts the character as riding a mount, as opposed to the normal movement of walking/running. Characters of certain levels and skill ability can acquire these mounts in order to increase their movement speed on land. Mounts can also be acquired via reputation with certain factions, completion of quests, or through special items produced in related material or as very rare loot drops obtained by defeating bosses in instances. In the expansion pack The Burning Crusade, the ability to purchase or acquire flying mounts became available in the expansion areas.

PvP rankings

Upon defeating another player of the opposite faction in a PvP combat the victor earns "Honor Points" which may be spent as currency to purchase various rewards like armor, weapons and mounts. Some rewards require marks of honor from various Battlegrounds as well (a loss in a battleground awards the losing team 1 mark, while a victory awards the winning team 3). A recently added PvP activity, "Arenas" offer gladiator-like combat in a World of Warcraft setting. The Arenas have a separate system from the Battlegrounds. Instead of honor, the Arenas give "Arena Points" which can be spent to purchase items just like Honor Points. There are also "Arena seasons" where, at the end of each season, the best Arena teams in each category(2v2, 3v3 and 5v5) are awarded unique Epic or Legendary quality items. Only level 70 players can participate in rated arena matches. Lower level players can always participate in arenas but no arena points are awarded.

Players can also be rewarded with titles in the Arenas if they belong to one of the top teams at the end of an Arena season. These ranks are (from highest to lowest) Gladiator, Duelist, Rival and Challenger.

With the release of version 2.0, a change was made to the honor system making it easier to obtain certain powerful items. This change was met with mixed reactions. Some criticized the change, claiming that the huge dedication in time and effort that players put forth under the old system had now been cheapened. Others, however, welcomed the change, since they felt the massive amount of time required under the old system was excessive and unhealthy, and was unreasonable for most people with jobs and other responsibilities.

As of March 2007, Blizzard added "The Armory" to their web site. The Armory allows everyone to view any WoW player's character sheet, reputation, skills, talents, arena teams and guild information. Only players of level 10 or greater are displayed in the Armory. It also allows the ability to look up even more detailed information about any guild from any server in addition to any item in the game.

Reputation

The reputation system is complex and can have direct impact on character advancement. In World of Warcraft, there are many groups of NPCs known as "factions" (two of the most notable being the Alliance and the Horde). Characters' reputation with a faction can be increased or decreased by killing certain mobs or handing in items to certain NPCs. Higher reputation can grant many benefits to characters including reduced prices from vendors, the ability to purchase unique items including specialized mounts, and expanded access to certain areas of the game.

However, characters cannot gain reputation with opposing factions, so a Horde character cannot gain reputation with any Alliance-only faction and vice versa. There are also diametrically opposed factions in which gaining reputation with one will result in loss of reputation with another.

World

Geography

The current virtual world consists of two planets; Azeroth and Draenor (a.k.a Outland). Azeroth consists of two main continents, the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor; Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles, are located northwest of Kalimdor; and Teldrassil, which is also located to the northwest of Kalimdor.

Kalimdor contains the starting areas for the Horde races of the Orcs, Trolls, and Tauren. The Alliance Night Elves and Draenei both begin in areas off the coast of Kalimdor (Teldrassil and Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles respectively), but move to the mainland fairly early. The Eastern Kingdoms contain the beginning areas for the Horde races of the Undead and Blood Elves as well as the Alliance races of the Humans, Dwarves, and Gnomes.

Draenor, added with the release of The Burning Crusade, is only accessible to those who have purchased and activated the expansion pack. It is reached through the Dark Portal in the south of the Eastern Kingdoms or through in-game teleportation. Draenor was the original home of the Orcs and was also inhabited by the Draenei for over 200 years.

The Wrath of the Lich King expansion will add the continent of Northrend in the northern region of Azeroth and will be available exclusively to those players who purchase and activate that expansion pack.

Instances

Instances, also known as instance dungeons or simply "dungeons", are areas where multiple copies of the same area can exist concurrently. This means that multiple groups can both be doing the same activities in the same location, yet not interfere with one another.

"Instance" can also refer to a particular copy of such an area. Other areas, such as battlegrounds, are also instances, enabling multiple groups of players to participate at the same time.

Major in-game events

For a time, it was argued that dynamic world-changing events were in extremely short supply in WoW. There was an overall feeling that the ongoing "wars" from which the game takes its name were external and out of touch from the player base. The only cross-faction interaction took place during server-crashing city raids and skirmishes in certain "hot spots" around the world such as the popular "Southshore Tug of War" in which Alliance and Horde forces would fight back and forth over the stretch of land between Southshore and Tarren Mill.[citations needed]

The first world events were added in the form of outdoor raid bosses that could be accessed without entering an instance. These bosses were the blue dragon Azuregos of Azshara and the Burning Legion demon Lord Kazzak in the Blasted Lands. These were followed by four green dragons corrupted by the "Emerald Nightmare." In addition, certain areas of Azeroth experience an "elemental invasion" where waves of elemental-class monsters will run rampant for a time or until they are destroyed.

Blizzard has also implemented holiday content that could be considered a world event. Valentine's Day, Easter, Independence Day, Oktoberfest, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, as well as New Year's and its lunar counterpart all have their Warcraft-themed counterparts. During these week-long events players partake in holiday-themed quests usually involving humorous references to real-world pop culture surrounding the holiday. For example, one of the Winter's Veil (Christmas) quests involves fighting a creature known as the Greench and rescuing a kidnapped reindeer named Metzen (styled after lead designer, Chris Metzen). Other major world events include the Darkmoon Faire, the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, the Scourge Invasion, and the opening of the Dark Portal which signaled the beginning of The Burning Crusade expansion, along with other less notable events.

Voice chat

As of Patch 2.2.0, Blizzard has introduced an in-game voice chat feature. The program is designed to replace text chat more efficiently and provide voice chat to more players. Channels are set for various things such as groups, instances, raids, battlegrounds and general zones. Players may also join, create and moderate their own channels. Players may enable the program through their sound options, which means that no third-party programs are needed, reducing computer usage and game latency. The program features "push-to-talk" and "voice activated" features to the players' preference. Upon the release of patch 2.2.0, the feature was only enabled among certain servers, with a planned and gradual roll out, for load testing, to the rest of the servers.

Realms

World of Warcraft uses server clusters (known as 'realms') to allow players to choose their preferred gameplay type and to allow the game to support as many subscribers as it does. Users may have up to ten characters per realm and up to a maximum of fifty characters per account. There are four types of realms: Normal (also known as PvE or player versus environment), PvP (player versus player), RP (a roleplaying Normal/PvE server) and RP-PvP (roleplaying PvP server). The latter two enforce a set of roleplaying rules - players can be penalized for not roleplaying.

Characters can be moved between realms in the same region (e.g., from one European server to another, but not from a European server to an American one) for a fee. As of this time, one may move a character from a Player Versus Player (PvP) realm to another PvP realm, or a Player Versus Environment (PvE) realm, but one may not move a character from a PvE realm to a PvP realm.

Blizzard posts announcements on the login screen of World of Warcraft and on the official forums about realm status or issues. The status for each realm can also be viewed on their main website. Player versus Environment (PvE)

On the PvE (also known as Normal) realms throughout most of the world the PvP flag may only be enabled by actively turning it on, attacking a PvP-flagged player or NPC, entering a "PvP Territory" (such as a Battleground), entering an "Enemy Territory" (an enemy faction Capital City) or casting a positive spell on a friendly PvP-flagged player or NPC. The PvP flag will be removed after 5 minutes from the last PvP action. If the PvP flag was enabled using the command the player will need to turn it off using the same command and then avoid PvP combat for 5 minutes. Player versus Player (PvP)

On a PvP realm, players are flagged for PvP by default. This flag is only disabled when a character is in a friendly faction city or a zone dedicated to newly created characters. All other zones are considered "contested territory" - players are automatically flagged for PvP upon entering a contested zone. Most players will not need to enter a contested zone until roughly level 20.

On PvP servers, a player is limited to creating characters on one faction. This is in contrast to PvE servers, where a player may create both Horde and Alliance characters.

The PvP servers also feature a more "hands-off" approach to server policies, facilitating the state of open war in these servers. Thus, The in-game GMs will deal with PvP related offenses differently than on the PvE realms, and some player actions are allowed to occur. These actions include, but are not limited to, corpse camping, ganking, and other PvP related sections of Blizzard's harassment policy. Roleplaying (RP)

The roleplaying servers use the same ruleset as PvE realms, with the exception that players must act and behave in character, and must follow "naming rules" when they name their character. This means that if players go onto one of these realms, those players act as their characters and anything that is not said in character is then out of character and usually in ((double parentheses)), or preceded by "OOC:". It is also against the rules to be off-topic in all public channels, such as General and Trade. However, out of character chat is not uncommon on RP servers, though usually not in such a blatant manner as on non-RP servers. Role-playing Player versus Player (RPPvP)

The role-playing PvP realms are an extension to the role-playing realms in that they use the PvP ruleset instead of the Normal (PvE) ruleset. Blizzard did not initially have this server type when the game was launched; it was added later, largely due to player request. Public Test Realm

The public test realm is a separate realm for testing new content patches when needed. Players must register each character individually into the test realm, which creates an "instance" of the character in the test realm. The player must download the test realm client to play in this realm. Changes made in the test realm do not affect the original character but a "copy" of the character.

Version history

World of Warcraft runs natively on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Boxed copies of the game use a hybrid CD to install the game, eliminating the need for separate Mac and Windows retail products. The game allows all users to play together, regardless of their operating system.

Although there is no official version for any other platform, support for World of Warcraft is present in Windows API implementations Wine and Cedega, allowing the game to be played under Linux and FreeBSD.

As of Patch 1.9.3 the game added native support for the newer Intel-powered Macs, making World of Warcraft a Universal application (as defined by Apple). As a result of this, the minimum supported Mac OS X version has been changed to 10.3.9; World of Warcraft version 1.9.3 and later will not launch on older versions of Mac OS X.

Due to the fact that new content is constantly being added to the game official system requirements often change. As of version 1.12.0 the requirements for Windows have increased from requiring 256 MB to 512 MB of RAM and official Windows 98 technical support has been dropped even though the game should still run fine.

Pricing

World of Warcraft is priced differently in different regions of the world. Usually, the pricing model is similar to that of MMORPGs previously released in the market.

In the United States and Canada, Blizzard distributes World of Warcraft via retail software packages that originally had a suggested retail price of US$50 at the time of release, but have since dropped to around $20. The software package includes 30 days of gameplay (worth $15) for no additional cost. After 30 days in order to continue playing additional play time must be purchased using a credit card or prepaid game card. The minimum gameplay duration that a player can purchase is 30 days using a credit card, 60 using a prepaid game card. A player also has the option of purchasing three or six months of gameplay at once for a slight (6% to 15%) discount. A player pays about US$0.50 for one day of gameplay.

In South Korea, there is no software package or CD key requirement to activate the account. In order to play the game, however, players need to purchase time credits online via credit card or the ARS billing system. The minimum gameplay duration that a player can purchase via credit card is five hours. A player may also purchase game time by thirty hours or by increments of one week. A player also has the option of purchasing game time by one, three or six months of gameplay at once for a slight discount. As of December 17, 2006, 30 days of gameplay costs ?19,800 (US$21.46).

In China, because a large number of the players do not own the computer they use to play games (e.g. Internet cafes), the CD keys can be purchased independently of the software package. The CD key, which is required to activate an account, is sold for ?30 (US$3.75) each. The software packages vary in price depending on the items they contain. In order to play the game, the player would need to purchase prepaid game cards in denominations of ?30 each that can be played for 66 hours and 40 minutes. This equates to exactly ?0.45 (US$0.06) for one hour of gameplay. A monthly fee model is not available to players of this region.

In Australia, the United States and many European countries video game stores commonly stock the trial version of World of Warcraft in DVD form priced at A$2 or 2 including VAT, which include the game and 14 days of gameplay, after which the player would have to upgrade to a retail account by supplying a valid credit card, or purchasing a game card as well as a retail copy of the game.

Virtual community

In addition to playing the game itself and conversing on discussion forums provided by Blizzard, World of Warcraft players often participate in the World of Warcraft virtual community in creative ways, including fan artwork and comic strip style storytelling. Blizzard furthers this community by offering in-game and out-of-game prizes, as well as highlighting community events and occurrences. Blizzard has also provided incentives for introducing new members to World of Warcraft. In late October 2005 each subscribed player received a 10-day free pass which they suggested be employed as seasonal gifts that could either be used by the current player or given to a friend. These passes would generate a free month's usage if the guest player purchased a full account.

There are various memes, including "Face Melting," a reference to a very long thread on the priest forums on the World of Warcraft website that consisted of players saying, "You will melt faces as a Shadow Priest in PvP" in different ways. This is because the icon for Mind Flay, a powerful skill used heavily by Shadow Priests, looks like a melting face. Another popular phenomenon in the community are machinima videos such as the one starring a player named Leeroy Jenkins, showing him and his guild in a funny encounter. Leeroy's popularity inspired more videos and tributes in other games, and he was even part of a clue on the November 16, 2005 episode of the TV game show College Jeopardy!. These memes gain notoriety through postings on the World of Warcraft Forums.

As of August 2005, the Dark Iron server has been home to the guilds of web-comic creators Scott Kurtz (PvP) and Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (Penny Arcade). Kurtz created Panda Attack and Dj?rk on the Horde side, while Holkins and Krahulik initiated a series of guilds that is now known as the Penny Arcade Alliance. This event is referred to as the Comic Guild Wars, and has created healthy competition between the authors, to the extent of dedicating some of their strips to the subject. Tim Buckley of Ctrl+Alt+Del and the creators of Holy Bibble have also joined in on making guilds for Dark Iron players.

Modifications

World of Warcraft includes significant support for modifications to the user interface (UI) of a game, colloquially known as "mods" and "addons". At a simple level it allows full control over the content of toolbars and hot keys, as well as macros to automate sets of operations and the ability to script much more elaborate tools. The range of modifications that are available can be anything from ways to automatically advertise trade skills, to adding extra rows of button bars for spells, skills and more. There are also various humorous mods, including one that reproduces the infamous Leeroy Jenkins sound.

As of the 2.0 release of World of Warcraft, certain modifications and "Addons" no longer function the way they were intended by the addon designer, as the way that an addon interacts with the game has been changed. This has forced all addons pre-2.0 to have to be rewritten. This is such a drastic change to the addons that all players must now download new copies of the addon that they were using. More information on this topic is available in this forum post.

Addons are created using one or both Lua and XML, and images used for modifications are created using the .TGA (Targa) and .BLP image formats. Blizzard has also released a User Interface Customization tool to support and encourage UI modders. However, Blizzard is unable to endorse or provide support for third party interfaces due to issues that may be caused by them.

Some third-party programs that operate in a stand-alone mode, or independent of World of Warcraft, may be considered exploits, especially if they automate operation beyond that made available using the built-in macro functionality, or pass information in or out of the game. Use of these is against the Terms of Service agreed to when playing the game, and as such, may lead to possible suspension or closure of accounts. Blizzard has stated on the official forums that any modification that uses the Lua programming language will not be considered an exploit, though Blizzard reserves the right to change information available via the Lua language if the modification changes the nature of encounters in the game.

Corrupted Blood plague incident Main article: Corrupted Blood

The Corrupted Blood Plague incident was one of the first events to affect entire servers. Patch 1.7 saw the opening of Zul'Gurub, the game's first 20-player raid dungeon where players faced off against an ancient tribe of jungle trolls under the sway of the ancient Blood God, Hakkar the Soulflayer. Upon engaging Hakkar, players were stricken by a debuff (a spell that negatively affects a player) called "Corrupted Blood" which would periodically sap their life. The disease would also be passed on to other players who were simply standing in close proximity to an infected person. Originally this malady was confined within the Zul'Gurub instance but made its way into the outside world by way of hunter or warlock pets that contracted the disease.

Within hours Corrupted Blood had infected entire cities such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar because of their high player concentrations. Low-level players were killed in seconds by the high-damage disease. Eventually Blizzard fixed the issue so that the plague could not exist outside of Zul'Gurub.

The corrupted blood plague so closely resembled the outbreak of real-world epidemics that scientists are currently looking at ways MMORPGs or other massively-distributed systems can model human behavior during outbreaks. The reaction of players to the plague closely resembled previously hard-to-model aspects of human behavior that may allow researchers to more accurately predict how diseases and outbreaks spread amongst a population .

Reception

Although its initial release was hampered by overpopulated servers, the game became a financial success. On July 24, 2007, Blizzard announced that the user base for World of Warcraft had reached a new milestone, with 9 million players worldwide. There are more than 2 million players in North America, 1.5 million players in Europe and 3.5 million players in China as of January, 2007 and as of August, 2007; the game has over 8 million subscribers worldwide. The game has been consistently ranked as one of the best by review sites and has won numerous awards, including GameSpot's Game of the Year Award for 2004 and IGNs Editor's Choice Award.

Controversy and criticism Main article: Criticism of World of Warcraft

Although widely popular with 9 million players, World of Warcraft has received a fair amount of criticism. Stories of game addiction are a common source of criticism. In June 2005 it was reported that a child had died due to neglect by her World of Warcraft-addicted parents in Korea. In August of that year, the government of the People's Republic of China proposed new rules to curb what they perceived to be social and financial costs brought on by the popularity of games such as World of Warcraft. The measure would enforce a time limit on China's estimated total of 20 million gamers. The Chinese government and The9, the licensee for World of Warcraft in China, have likewise imposed a modification on Chinese versions of the game which places flesh on bare-boned skeletons and transforms dead character corpses into tidy graves. These changes were done as a result of the Chinese government seeing it highly due to attempt to "promote a healthy and harmonious online game environment" in World of Warcraft.

Dr. Maressa Orzack, a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, was interviewed August 8, 2006, stating that of the 6 million subscribers "I'd say that 40 percent of the players are addicted." The 40% figure was not derived from a scientific study overseen by Dr. Orzack, but rather came from "a forum that Nick Yee runs". She added in an August 2006 interview that "even if the percentage is 5 to 10 percent which is standard for most addictive behaviors, it is a huge number of people who are out of control." Also, according to Dr. John Grohol, a colleague of Orzack's, "Dr. Orzack is not claiming that up to 40 percent of World of Warcraft gamers are addicted based upon any actual evidence or surveys of players. This is just her opinion, based upon her own experience and observation of the problem."

After Blizzard started offering free trial gameplay accounts, players started receiving increasing numbers of spam sent by bots in the virtual mailboxes of their characters, advertising virtual gold, honor, and experience selling services. One study shows that this problem is particularly prevalent on the European realms. In patch 2.1, Blizzard responded to this by adding additional anti-spam mechanics including whisper throttling, and the report spam function.

A Beijing-based software company has filed a lawsuit against the creator of the "World of Warcraft" and the game's local operator for allegedly using its Chinese character fonts illegally.

A gentleman appeared on the Tyra Banks show, where his wife complained the WoW destroyed their lives. Tyra then shredded the disc. at no time during the segment did Tyra or the supposed experts mention the possibility of a obsessive compulsive disorder, instead WoW was blamed and the shredding of the WoW disk apparently was suppose to cure the individual. Ms. Banks was criticized afterwards for sensationalism, and attempting to practice counseling without a license.

Film adaptation

In May 2006, production company Legendary Pictures acquired film rights to adapt Warcraft for the big screen with the game's publisher, Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard had originally considered hiring a scribe for the film adaptation before teaming up with Legendary Pictures. The companies plan to create a film that would not follow one specific Warcraft games' storyline, but would still take place in the fantasy universe. According to Blizzard's Chief Operating Officer Paul Sams, the film's budget would be over $100 million.

In June 2007, Legendary Pictures chairman Thomas Tull said that the studio was working closely with Blizzard's designers and writers to adapt World of Warcraft. Tull explained the desire to have a good story for the film adaptation, "I think some of the stuff that makes a game translate well... if there's a lore, if there's a road and story and a world that's been created, and characters that are interesting in a way that's more than just point and shoot." World of Warcraft's lead designer Rob Pardo expressed interest in being able to adapt the intellectual property of World of Warcraft to the appropriate medium of the film. He also added that the designers were collaborating with Legendary Pictures on story and script development.

In August 2007, at BlizzCon, it was unveiled that the film will aim for a projected 2009 release. It was also revealed that the movie will take place from an Alliance perspective and will be geared towards a PG-13 audience, with a storyline set one year before the beginning of the World of Warcraft. As of this time no director or cast are yet associated. Thomas Tull stated that, "Its not so much a quest movie. Its more of a war movie."

Lineage

Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne (Korean:??? 2) is a fantasy massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for the PC, and a prequel set 150 years before Lineage. It has become very popular since its October 1, 2003 launch in South Korea, reporting 610,918 unique users during the month of March 2007. Lineage II requires a $15 USD monthly fee to play for the United States/European regional server. The game is Windows Vista compatible, but requires some changes to do so. Lineage II - South-East Asia (L2-SEA) 30-day subscription is US$ 7.00 (PhP 350.00; S$ 20.00; MYR 36.00) which is the rate of online games in the South-East Asia region. L2-SEA will be published by AsianMedia for the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, and the Open Beta Test (OBT) started on August 1, 2007. L2-SEA's timezone and time format is the new ASEAN Common Time or ACT which is UTC+0800H.

Players create a character as their avatar in the game's medieval-style virtual world. Humans, Elves and Dark Elves start off in the Kingdom of Aden while Dwarves and Orcs start off in the Kingdom of Elmore (Elmore was an entirely different continent until recent versions of the game that have since joined Elmore to Aden). Players can choose from either fighter or mystic professions at the start, except for Dwarves which are only able to select the fighter profession. This choice acts as an archetype for later profession options. Each race has its own set of classes, even if humans, elves and darkelves have a lot of classes which are very similar to their counterparts in the other two races.

Players have a variety of things they can do for fun in the game. They play alone or as part of a group to fight monsters and complete quests for new skills, experience points, and items. Player versus player (PvP) is a significant portion of the game. The game provides many social, political, and economic aspects which are developed through the community and by the actions, in-game, of single players. Lineage II features siege warfare like the original. To make sure PvP stays under control, the design includes a Karma system that provides negative consequences for killing other players when they are not fighting back.

Lineage II features greatly improved third-person 3D graphics over its predecessor. The game uses the Unreal 2.0 Engine developed by Epic Games.

Saga

Sagas are the set of story plots of Lineage II. The first time they introduced this is with the introduction of Saga 2: The Chaotic Throne which will start with the "Interlude". The first Saga was entitled "The Chaotic Chronicle"

Chronicles

Chronicles are large-scale updates to Lineage II done every half a year. They are free expansions to the game that every subscriber must download in the form of a patch. As the "Chronicles" advance, a new story develops. There are major game alterations in each new Chronicle, and the game balance has greatly changed in every case so far. Each chronicle also adds a great deal of new content to the game, including new skills, quests, areas and items; some chronicles also increased the level cap.

Saga 1: The Chaotic Chronicle

Prelude (Chronicle 0)

Lineage II went live in North America on April 27, 2004. All open beta players were required to purchase a copy of Lineage II to obtain a CD key to activate their previously used account. The purchase included the payment for the first month of gameplay. Prelude was the first time a monthly fee of $15 was charged.

There was no change in game mechanics between open beta and prelude.

Chronicle 1 : Harbingers of War

Released June 29, 2004 Chronicle 1: Harbingers of War added stirring castle sieges, new fierce monsters, items and quests, and a significantly expanded 3D world. Among the many new quests available to players is the Dragons Cave quest, which results in a showdown with the massive Earth Dragon, Antharas. Many of the new quests are designed to challenge higher level players, in particular. Also featured in Chronicle 1 are dozens of new weapons and skills for players to obtain. Clan housing was added, where clans can bid on clan halls through an auction system. Additionally, player and creature movement speeds were increased and new PvP arenas were added.

Chronicle 2 : Age of Splendor

In Chronicle 1, when a clan successfully won a castle siege, there was not much gained from it other than reputation and pride. After Chronicle 2 was released December 8, 2004, a manor system was added. New parts of the map were added as well, such as the water city of Heine, Devastated Castle, Tower of Insolence, the castle of Innadril, the Aden Coliseum, Alligator Island, Field of Whispers, Field of Silence, and others.

Chronicle 3 : Rise of Darkness

With Chronicle 3 released May 2005, came a new twist to the L2 universe called the Seven Signs. The idea behind this twist is to pit two factions (Dusk & Dawn) against one another in a competition for Seals. This competition is voluntary but not joining may hinder progress later in the game (when one is a high level player). Seals are items dropped by mobs that, when turned in, will give players Ancient Adena. Ancient Adena is another level of the Economy in L2 and allows players to purchase items they would not normally have access to.

The addition of the Seven Signs competition also brought a large number of dungeons across Aden called Catacombs and Necropolises, that only participants in the competition can access. For one week, players compete for and turn in as many seals as they can. When dusk wins, the sky turns dark red and the moon gets a giant red eye; When dawn wins, the sky turns blue and a giant eye appears, too. Winners are given exclusive access to the Catacombs/Necropolis and the losing side will be locked out for one week. During this period, players can also exchange their seals for Ancient Adena. There is also a part called the Festival for parties of 6 or more. The party enters a room and kills monsters (also called mobs) until a time limit is up. This part of the Seven Signs also contributes to scoring in the Seals competition.

Other notable changes are: castle owners now have access to a fire-breathing Wyvern (Dragon) that they can fly around Aden (it should also be noted that they are very expensive to spawn and keep alive while in use); A Grade armor/weapons were added; and a subclass system was introduced that allows players to add another class to their character after level 75.

Chronicle 4: Scions of Destiny

Scions of Destiny was released on February 8, 2006. It featured expanded content in the form of new territories, enemies, summons, equipment, and a system designed to reward diligent, high level players that are victorious in a tournament in which they contend with other players in single combat. This expansion was released by NCsoft's North American counterpart on their Public Test Server on the 8th of January, 2006.

Chronicle 5: Oath of Blood

The Chronicle 5 expansion was released September 6, 2006. Clans received a makeover and the player level cap was raised to 80. New siegeable castles were added to the towns of Rune and Schuttgart. The Demonic Sword Zariche was introduced.

Clan reputation can now be earned through Clan Academy, Clan Warfare, Clan Hall Battles and Clan Quests. Clan Reputation can be used to increase the rank of the clan to unlock clan skills and items. Clans of rank 5 and higher can create academies for the purpose of training and developing clan members. Members that complete their second class transfers through the academy receive commemorative items and increases the clan's reputation. Clan members of level 5 and higher can obtain a clan title. Clans can now have a maximum of 140 players, compared to the previous 40 players; accordingly, alliances can now only have 3 clans, instead of the previous limit of 12.

Roughly 50 skills were added for levels 55+ and the functions of certain skills were refined.

An extensive new crafting system was also introduced based on Life Crystals farmed from raid bosses, which can be traded to NPCs for items.

Saga 2: The Chaotic Throne

Interlude (Throne 0)

The name of the next Lineage II Saga was made public on October 12, 2006. Named "Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne", and the first release is entitled "Interlude", setting a new course for the Lineage II legacy. Interlude went live on Korean servers in December 2006, while on the US & EU regions, Interlude went live on April 11, 2007.

Lineage II South-East Asia started with the Interlude patch on August 1, 2007, skipping the 3-year long Saga 1: The Chaotic Chronicle.

Features : Roughly 60 skills will be added, 51 of those are for levels 76+ and 9 for levels 55+. The function of certain skills will be refined.

Interlude consists of many new features, other things include masks, weapon augmentations, additional hunting zones, a new demonic weapon for PvP, and a lot more. Interlude features the 'lost island' (or new island for the players) named "Primeval Isle" where, according to Lore, the Giants used to live. You can reach there by taking a ship, by swimming from the north of the dark elf village, or jumping off Rune castle town's harbor and swimming there.

1st Throne: The Kamael

1st Throne will include a new race, "The Kamael". Official art depicts them having a single wing and have elven characteristics, but whereas the elves use light magic, the Kamael will use dark magic. The 1st Throne will also introduce the Fortresses and Nation Wars; not much is known about the Fortresses, but the Nation Wars is a feature that will allow not only an inter-server siege and competitions but also a regional siege and competition. This expansion will also add two more countries or land masses in the western and north eastern regions. It has also been rumored that pets will receive CP and that they "grow", similar to the Hatchlings/Striders.

Characters

Characters act as a players avatar within the game. Players are afforded up to 7 characters per server. As characters kill non-player character (NPC) monsters, they accumulate experience and skill points (SP). As experience points accumulate, the character's "level" increases, meaning various attributes of the character are augmented. In Chronicle 5, the level cap has been set at 80. Players purchase and then upgrade their characters skills using SP. A character may only be deleted if not a member of a guild, or clan. The process of deletion usually takes six to seven days.

Races

There are currently five races in the World of Lineage II. Human, Light Elf, Dark Elf, Orc, Dwarf, and a new race will be added on the 1st Throne: The Kamael bringing it to six races.

Classes

There are currently a large amount of classes(31) for each race respectively. Each race and subsequent class has a set amount of Stat Points already assigned to their class.

Subclasses

Upon completing the appropriate quests after reaching level 75, a player may add subclass to their character. This subclass starts at level 40. Limitations are put in place on what subclass one can choose. Dark Elves and Elves may not choose a class from their opposing race. Overlord and Warsmith cannot be chosen by any class. In addition a player may not choose a class that matches their main class (a Dark Avenger may not become a Paladin, likewise a Treasure Hunter may not become a Plains Walker). Once a subclass has reached level 75, you may choose another. A character may hold a total of three subclasses in addition to their main class.

Players are able to switch between their main and subclasses through the appropriate NPC. Once the class has been changed, the characters attributes switch to those of chosen class. However inventory, quests, recommendations, PvP and PK scores carry over.

Heroes

Heroes are Noblesse characters who have competed in and won the Grand Olympiad. There is a limit of 31 Heroes at any time. Only the character's main class will receive the title. Heroes receive special weapons and abilities; in addition, they may speak globally to their entire server. They also receive a glowing aura so that they stand out against other characters.

Pets

In Lineage II, a player can obtain a monster that becomes their pet through the completion of quests. Unlike other summons or magic, as long as certain conditions are met, a pet will not be bound by time limitations, nor will it be dismissed by force. These pets can also hold items in their inventories while they are called, including weapons and armor that can be equipped by the pet.

Pets fall into two categories:

Pet earned xp: Wolf, Hatchling, Strider, and Wyvern. Player earned xp: Baby Buffalo, Baby Cougar, Baby Kookaburra, and Sin Eater

Geography

Currently, Lineage II is broken into two countries, Aden and Elmore.

Aden lies south of the Border Outposts and its capital castle is Aden Castle. Elmore lies to the north of the Outposts and encompasses Goddard, Rune and Shuttgart. Its capital castle is Rune Castle.

Aden currently taxes the following castles: Gludio, Dion, Giran, Oren, and Heine.

Rune currently taxes the following castles: Goddard, Schuttgart.

Aden's geography ranges from deserts to tropical forests. Elmore is more rugged having mostly mountainous regions along with a frozen winter wastelands.

Along with Interlude update, the newest territory is added into Elmore's Realm. Primeval Isle is a tropical island home to fierce Dinosaur mobs.

NCsoft Publisher Partnerships

NCsoft & AsianMedia

Lineage II - South-East Asia or simply L2-SEA is NCsoft's first "Publishing License" grant for their flagship game to a completely independent company. NCsoft granted a distribution license to AsianMedia for ArenaNet's Guild Wars for the Philippines. AsianMedia has been licensed to distribute, publish, and operate Lineage II. NCsoft's licensing grant initially limits AsianMedia licensing to three countries namely, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia.

NCsoft & NCtrue

In July of 2005, NCsoft (Korea) and True (True Corporation Public Company Ltd., formerly Telecom Asia) established NCtrue as a joint-venture. The companies publicly reported the funding for the venture was capitalized at $4 million USD, and that NCsoft would hold a 49% stake in the venture, and True 51% respectively.

NCsoft president, Kim Jack, stated that Thailand, would serve as the gate to Southeast Asia market and that the venture would be instrumental in laying the framework to penetrate the Southeast Asian market in the future. Moreover, the intention of the venture was to take NCsoft one step closer to constructing a global network for online gaming services like Lineage 2.

Currently NCsoft has joint venture offices in Japan, Taiwan, and China.

Private servers

In 2004, the official Lineage II server software was leaked and a significant number of private servers appeared. Modification of the official game client allowed players to connect to non-official (private) servers. However, some private servers that run emulated server code require only modification of the hosts file in the player's operating system, leaving the client unchanged.

There are currently three completely independent open source server emulators. All of which have been released under the GPL license and allow the client to connect with only a host file change. L2J, the first emulator created for Lineage II, is written in Java, and is the most mature server emulator available. L2Adena is written in C++ and is currently under development. L2castell is a complete rewrite of a Java server emulator started by L2J developers who disagreed with certain design aspects of the server.

Some private servers have populations reaching into the thousands. Playing on private servers is free, although many are supported by donations from players.

After the initial Prelude and Chronicle 1 file leaks, the official software was modified by the use of Assembly Language, Hexadecimal Editing and DLL hooks to support the clients and features of later Chronicles. These modified versions of the Chronicle 1 software were called "Hybrid".

Currently, it is common for private servers to be found hosting Interlude. The game play is commonly altered by boosting the experience rates, the monetary drop rate, and the item drop rate, making higher-quality gear easier to obtain. Many servers also feature unique "twists" which keep them apart from the rest.

In 2006, the Lineage II Chronicle 4 Public Test Server files were leaked and sold to private server owners. Figures as high as $15,000 US were being asked, but it's not confirmed if anyone paid for this, as the files were later leaked from the sellers and made publicly available. The C4 applications require a 64-bit microprocessor architecture to run.

NCsoft has taken some actions against private servers. One such server has been shut down by the FBI while its owner has been arrested for copyright violation.

As of 2007, the community created server files for Chronicle 5 have reached a useful level of accuracy. Private servers based on these files are getting more and more popular in the private server community.

The GameSites200 Lineage II Section, Hopzone and Games Top 100 are the main places of competition, where each server competes for user votes to rank itself among the top servers. Currently these sites contain very inaccurate vote results, as there is an ongoing epidemic of "proxy voting" (cheating).

Ncsoft has aproved for linege2 private servers as long as the owners of the ip hosting get no pyment of playing or donations if so Ncsoft will make an atempt to shut that server down.

NCsoft Involvement

On November 16, 2006, the private server L2Extreme was shut down by the FBI. L2Extreme has recently resurfaced in the private gaming community. During the time L2Extreme was shut down, countless rumors surfaced pertaining as to reasons that might have lead to the shut down of L2Extreme.

On November 20, 2006, NCsoft issued an official press release on their involvement with the FBI raid, verifying its validity. Additionally, the news was posted on the official Lineage II website, and a report was also posted on the FBI website in February 2007.

On November 21, 2006, NCsoft began sending out cease and desist warnings to many private servers or their hosts.

Gamegaurd

Game Gaurd is a program that prevents cheating in games such as bots, it also prevents viruses and people that try to hack during the game if the gamegaurd detects any of this activity it will close down your l2 client to protect your computer from any damage.

Botting

Like many MMORPGs, Lineage II has been the target of botting, in which an external program is used to simulate the actions of a player. Such activity is prohibited and is a bannable offense, though seemingly rarely enforced. Nevertheless, players continue this practice, since the player is able to leave his/her computer and the bot will continue doing what it has been programmed to do. Some of the most well-known bots are L2Walker and Superman (formerly known as L2Wind). There is a conspiracy theory, based on fine coding, numerous features and versatility of those programs (surpassing the official game client by far), that developers of Wind and Walker were/are in league with NCsoft itself.

Apart from easing some of the more mundane aspects of gameplay, botting can also be used as a way to generate Adena (Lineage II currency) which is then sold for real world cash. This phenomenon, Economy Interaction, is quite controversial and is common in most of today's large MMORPGs.

It should be noted that Game Guard, the "anti-cheat" system used by Lineage II, allows a player to run the game with the aforementioned bot programs running in the background; the player does not need any form of "anti-cheat" bypass to bot in this game. On the other hand, some other tools are blocked by Game Guard, like the "GameCam" program which is not a cheating tool but a program used to produce videos from in-game footage. The majority of private Lineage II servers make it impossible to start the game when a bot program is detected on the player's computer.

Controversy

Current As of Interlude, NCsoft has released two weapons called "The Demonic Sword Zariche" and "The Blood Sword Akamanah". These swords are very powerful, but are also temporary: they disappear once their "health" runs out. The swords are found as random drops from slain enemies. The developers have said that they are willing to see if these swords will help stop botting because of the strength that they possess, but players use the sword mainly for powerleveling.

EVE Online

EVE Online is a player-driven persistent-world massively multiplayer online game set in a science fiction space setting in which players pilot a wide array of customizable ships. It is developed by the Icelandic company CCP Games; it was published from May to December 2003 by Simon & Schuster Interactive, after which CCP purchased the rights back and began to self-publish via a digital distribution scheme.

Background

The fictional background story for EVE Online explains that long ago, humankind, having used up most of the Earth's resources, had started colonizing the rest of the Milky Way to sustain itself. Eventually, humans had expanded to most of the galaxy, resources became contested and war broke out. However, one day, a stable natural wormhole was discovered. Because it was known that the wormhole would collapse, construction began on the EVE Gate, an artificial wormhole generator that would link the galaxies after the natural one closed, Unfortunately, after several years the wormhole collapsed completely destroying itself and the star system of New Eden including the EVE Gate, wherein most of the government of the new galaxy had been based. With the wormhole closed, and the Gate destroyed, the colonists were completely cut off from their previous homes and much needed supplies. Only five known colonies would ever return to any kind of prominence again, eventually rebuilding society together. These make up the five major empires in EVE: the Amarr Empire, the Gallente Federation, the Minmatar Republic, the Caldari State and the Jove Empire. Players may choose from four of these races (Amarr, Gallente, Caldari, Minmatar) when creating a new character. The fifth race (Jove) are not currently playable, though CCP have said they intend to use the race within the EVE storyline.

Races

The Amarr, a group descendant from a splinter group of the United Catholic Church called the Conformists, were the first of the playable races to rediscover interstellar and faster-than-light travel. Armed with this new technology, they set about expanding their empire, enslaving several races in the process, focusing heavily on the primitive Minmatar race who had only just invented space flight for themselves. The Amarr Empire found its expansionist vigor through the Reclaiming, a crusade to bring their own ideals to the galaxy. This was swiftly ended after their confrontations with the Gallente and, most notably, the Jove. After the destruction of an Imperial Navy task force in conflict with a single Jovian mothership, the Minmatar rebelled against their masters and broke off to form their own faction in the EVE universe. The Minmatar are the downtrodden of the galaxy, holding the least number of star systems while much of their populace are still enslaved in the Amarr Empire or refugee members of the Gallente Federation.

The Gallente and the Caldari homeworlds were situated in the same star system. The Gallente homeworld was originally settled by French colonists from Tau Ceti, while the planet that would later become Caldari Prime was purchased by a mega-corporation, which began to terraform it. However, the process was incomplete at the time of the gate collapse, and Caldari Prime remained environmentally inhospitable for millennia, delaying the rise of advanced society. The Gallente, with a more hospitable homeworld, restored a working civilization some hundred years before the Caldari, building the first democratic republic of the new era. However, the Caldari were able to reverse-engineer the terraforming equipment, giving their technology a substantial boost.

The Jovians (currently a non-playable race) were, like the other races, a human colony. After the collapse of the gate and the crumbling of interstellar trade and travel-ways, the Jovians were able to revive their civilization almost immediately, losing very little time and very little information thanks to the relative shortness of their "Dark Age". For years they expanded outward and explored their sector of space as the other races still huddled, overcrowded in their isolated home systems. Eventually, the Jovians turned to wide-spread genetic engineering in order to mold themselves into a people more suited to deep space life and long range interstellar exploration. Through their history there have been two previous Jove empires, located in different sectors of space than their current holdings. The Jove abandoned their last empire in the Curse region (now populated by the pirate faction, the "Angels") after their genetic experimentation resulted in the deadly "Jovian Disease", a condition that causes a depression so deep the inflicted lose all will to live. Little is known about the Jovians, except for the fact that they posses extremely advanced technology (The Jove being the ones that gave the Caldari P.O.D. technology) and are very secretive (having severed all stargate connections to their space).

Gameplay

EVE Online runs on a large supercomputing cluster known as "Tranquility", claimed to be the most powerful supercomputer in the gaming industry. Several smaller clusters are used for public and in-house testing including the public test servers "Singularity" and "Multiplicity". The servers require a daily downtime for maintenance and updates. Tranquility's downtime is scheduled between 11:00 and 12:00 GMT.

Universe

The play field in EVE Online consists of several thousand star systems which all are visitable by the player. Each solar system is connected to other systems by one or more jump gates, and in this way neighboring systems are organized into constellations and constellations are again organized into regions. In total there are 64 regions. The central regions make up most of the so-called high-security space with some low-security systems in between. Surrounding these are regions with no security, or 0.0 (zero-zero). (See section Security index system for more information). In some solar systems the player might be alone. In others more than 600 players might gather e.g. for a fleet battle or to use a trading hub. All systems contain different types of celestial objects making them more or less suitable for different kinds of operations. In a solar system the player usually finds stations, asteroid fields and moons to interact with. Planets themselves are currently not explorable; however, players can use moons to anchor their corporation's structures for production and research or for moon mining. Asteroid fields can be mined for minerals. Other objects that can be found in systems are jump gates to other systems, complexes or static dungeons for exploration. Sometimes even a historical site where a player's "Titan"-class ship was destroyed and the wreck now floats in space silently.

Advancement

EVE Online is different from MMOGs such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars and EverQuest II because the player characters do not gain experience points through actions or by completing tasks. Instead, the player learns skills by training a specific skill over time, a passive process that occurs in real world time so that the learning process will continue even if the player is not logged in. As a result, new players are generally unable to gain more skillpoints than existing players who continue to train but this is reduced somewhat by a diminishing returns policy for training higher skill levels. Each skill has 5 steps, or levels and the time required to train a skill to a particular level is determined by the player's attributes and how many skill points a certain skill requires, determined by a skills rank. The skill training system is connected with five attributes: Intelligence, Perception, Charisma, Willpower and Memory. Each skill has a primary and secondary attribute, thus the higher these attributes, the faster skills that use them are trained. There are also skills and implants that can increase attributes.

All players start with a small number of core skills (depending on choices made during the character creation process) and need to buy skill books in order to acquire new skills. Each skill has a different multiplier, or "rank", that determines how long each subsequent level takes to train. For example, the basic skills, with low ranks, may take the player 10 minutes to train to the first level, while high-ranking skills like Capital Ships take months to train to the highest level. Each skill may have pre-requisites - a requirement that other skills must be trained to a specific level before it can be trained.

Training time

Training within the game occurs in real time whether the user is logged in or not. The time it takes to train a skill varies depending upon an attribute known as its "rank." Low-rank skills trained to a low level may represent a few minutes of training whereas high levels of high-rank skills may represent several months of training.

Since training time is directly related to a character's attributes, a player can lower the training time of skills by training "Learning" skills, as well as by using Implants to boost attributes.

Due to the sheer number of skills available to characters, it is not realistic for a character to acquire perfect skills with all ships and weapons systems. As each skill level takes five times longer than the previous (a geometric progression) while the bonus it provides almost always scales linearly, a new player has the option to either acquire acceptable skills in many fields, or perfect skills in a relative few.

Economy

There is a single currency unit in EVE Online, the Inter Stellar Kredit (ISK), which takes its name from the Icelandic kr?na, whose ISO code is ISK. Players can barter between themselves for items, or may use the extensive in-game market system for ISK-based transactions. A large proportion of the in-game economy is player driven; NPC merchants supply some basic blueprints, items and trade goods.

Players, through the use of blueprints and in-game skills, can gain the ability to build items ranging from basic ammunition to cutting-edge capital ship hulls, and manufacture them for personal use or for sale. Pricing and availability of goods varies from region to region within the EVE universe. These aspects contribute to an economic environment influenced by factors like scarcity of resources, specialization of labor and supply/demand dynamics. The economy is closely tied with the (also player driven) political aspect of the game. Player corporations (the EVE equivalent of guilds) rise and fall as they struggle for market dominance as well as territorial control.

From a technical point of view, the economy in EVE is known as an open economy, that is there is no fixed amount of money or materials in the universe. CCP did attempt to implement a closed economy (that is an economy where there is a fixed amount of currency and therefore materials) early on in the game's existence; however, it proved too difficult to balance the effects of new players entering the game with the capabilities of older players able to earn more ISK or obtain more materials. The current Open economy is automatically balanced by introducing extra materials in underpopulated areas to encourage an even spread of players.

On 27 June 2007 CCP announced that an economist had been employed to assist in the development of the economic side of the game. Dr. Gu?mundsson has stated that he will be responsible for compiling quarterly economic reports for the community and providing ongoing analysis of the economic facets of EVE, along with coordinating research with other interested parties.

In the most recent release, Revelations II, the "Loyalty Points" (LP) store was introduced, where one can use non-transferable "LP's" in combination with other assets (items or ISK) to purchase standard items at a reduced ISK price or to acquire otherwise unattainable items.

EVE's EULA forbids the exchange of ISK for real currency; however there is a secure in-game system for trading "Game Time Codes" (GTC) in exchange for in game currency. In a similar way selling and buying characters for in game currency is allowed.

Combat

Combat in EVE is a mixture of both tactical intelligence and spontaneous decision-making using a Point-and-click interface. While every race has certain tendencies for different battle tactics, a character's combat capabilities are determined by skill levels, the ship being piloted and various hardware modules fitted into it.

EVE's combat system allows ships of all sizes to be useful in combat. Large ships such as battleships are typically outfitted with heavy weapons allowing them to battle other ships of their size. Such weapons however do not have the accuracy to effectively damage smaller, faster ships like frigates. While a large ship can equip smaller weapons designed for attacking smaller targets, this leaves them at a disadvantage versus other large ships. Drones can also be used against smaller ships, in a support role such as providing extra shield for a gang mate or in a utility role such as electronic warfare. Small ships such as frigates may be unable to do significant damage to larger ships on their own, but can greatly affect the outcome of small group battles by employing tactics such as disrupting the engines of enemies (reducing mobility or chance to escape) and jamming enemy sensors or by attacking a larger ship as a pack.

The open player versus player combat system, and the fact that ships frequently "drop" some of their cargo and equipment when destroyed, provides incentive for player piracy. There are various piracy tactics, most commonly they roam space in small gangs looking for targets. In turn, pirates risk being branded criminals by CONCORD and thus becoming open targets to all other players, as well as being unable to access high security systems. Players may even place a bounty on another player's head, providing work for bounty hunters.

At the strategic level, the rich resources available in low security space reward large co-operative groups. Usually formed when several player-owned-and-operated corporations (similar to guilds, in other MMORPGs) band together, these "alliances" can vary widely in size and strength. The network of jumpgates, which allows travel between star systems, includes a multitude of choke points, which careful alliances can garrison to restrict access to claimed 0.0 systems. Moreover, corporations and alliances have the ability to manufacture Player-Operated Starbases (POS) that mine resources from moons in a system. Each POS requires substantial logistical support to remain in operation, but once an alliance mounts and maintains such facilities at the majority of moons in a system, it achieves the status of sovereignty and remains so until an enemy destroys enough POSs and replaces them with its own.

Security index system

EVE features an open PvP system where combat between players can occur anywhere within the EVE Universe. To balance this "free aggression", EVE has implemented a "security index system". Every solar system in the EVE universe has a public security status which ranges from 0.0 to 1.0. The lowest end of the scale is lawless space, and rules are set and enforced by player run alliances. The highest end of the scale affords protection from sentry guns and CONCORD, the NPC 'police'.

Players committing illegal actions within "empire" systems (security status between 0.1 and 1.0) lose personal security standings with CONCORD. Loss of Security status varies depending on the crime. Showing aggression will only result in a minor loss of standings, while the act of killing a ship that has not defended itself will result in a further drop in standings, and the largest loss of standings occurs with the intentional destruction of a player's 'pod'. As a player loses security status, their ability to enter certain levels of secured space becomes more and more limited.

While breaking the law in high-security systems (that is, those with a security of 0.5 to 1.0) means almost certain death for the offender, this does not guarantee the absolute safety of the victim: a well-planned suicide attack can still successfully destroy a ship before CONCORD and sentry guns can neutralize the aggressor.

In lawless space (0.0), CONCORD has no influence and the dynamics for player interactions change. Corporations band together into alliances in order to defend a region of space to which they claim. These alliances often fight wars for contested systems and send gangs to raid each other. Although lawless space is dangerous and difficult to defend the rewards are much higher. Asteroids contain far more valuable ore and NPC pirates in lawless space carry far higher bounties.

Warfare

While attacking another player in high security space will result in a loss of security standing and the risk of the attacker losing his ship to CONCORD there is a way to conduct warfare in high security space. A corporation or alliance can declare war on another corporation/alliance (at the cost of a weekly fee), thus allowing for combat in all regions of space without the fear of standing loss or the intervention of security services. However, if the target of a corporate war elects to make the war mutual, there are no fees involved for either party. A small corporation may convince a larger one to leave off its war by refusing to surrender or make the war mutual, as the war fees for a unilateral aggressor increase both with each week the war drags on and with the number of wars in which both aggressor and defender are involved; if the war is not mutual, the aggressor is required to pay all war-related fees to CONCORD.

Death

In the event that a player's ship is destroyed, a wreck is left behind. Any cargo hold contents, ship modules, drones and ammunition that were not destroyed in the explosion can be recovered by any player, and additional components of the structure of the ship can be retrieved by a player with the correct "salvaging" modules and skills. These components can be used to build ship enhancement modules known as 'rigs'. To (partially or fully) mitigate the loss of an expensive vessel, ships can be insured against destruction. Insurance payouts are based strictly on material build costs; the market value of the ship is not taken into account. Some ships have a market value that is dozens, if not hundreds of times as much as the ship's build cost - as a result, a player who loses such a ship may lose a large investment, with no possibility of indemnification. Modules, installed upgrades and cargo cannot be insured; these items may have a market value much higher than the ship itself.

When a ship is destroyed, the player is ejected in their pod. This pod may be destroyed as well, if a player chooses to open fire on it. In this case, the player character will die and be revived as a clone at a pre-determined cloning facility. This player death is known as "pod killing" or "podding". Non-player characters will not attack a pod. Any implants installed on a player will be irrevocably lost when he or she is pod-killed. Implants cannot be insured.

Players may purchase an upgraded clone which is used in the event of pod death. The cost of a clone depends on how many skill points it can hold - the more skill points, the more expensive the clone becomes. When the player dies and is revived in his or her clone, if this clone holds a number of skill points lower than the number the player had at the time of death, then the player will lose a varying amount of skill points. In some cases, this represents more than a month's worth of training time. Therefore, players who value their skill points purchase upgraded clones sufficient to hold all their skill points. This is known as "keeping your clone up-to-date". Clones are single-use items; when a character dies and is resurrected via a clone, they are also awarded the basic, 900,000-point "Alpha" clone. Therefore, it is imperative that players purchase as soon as possible after death a replacement clone of a level appropriate to their character's skill points.

Expanding the cloning system further, Jump Clones were added in Red Moon Rising, and enhanced in Revelations to allow advanced players to mitigate risking their cybernetic implants by using the Infomorph Psychology skill to jump into a cloned body in another station, without requiring their existing body to die to achieve this. The original body (complete with its cybernetic implants) remains stored in the original station and may be returned to via another clone jump (after a 24-hour waiting period). This method offers a way for developed characters to use expensive implants for skill training or economic pursuits, while still having the option to engage in dangerous combat operations without the risk of losing them or by creating jump clones with different groups of implants that control other aspects of the game such as shield support, enhanced damage capabilities or better targeting abilities.

Cost

EVE currently costs 14,95 / $14.95 a month (however the first monthly payment is a one time fee of 19,95 / $19.95) (the European cost includes VAT). Like other MMOGs, the cost can be reduced by paying for larger subscription intervals. Players can pay via online payment services or by mail order. The mail order costs more than online payment, though the large subscription discount still applies.

Those who are playing EVE Online can send 14-day trials to their friends via the 'Buddy Program', available from the EVE Online website. A trial account is able to perform almost all of the same functions as a full account with the exception of training certain skills (such as industrial ships), using the contract system, and transferring ISK to other players. If the buddy upgrades their trial account to a paying account, the person who sent the invitation will be entered into a monthly raffle for various prizes. However, anyone can register a new trial account on the EVE Online website, so the Buddy Program is not the only way to get one.

It is also possible to pay for a subscription through the in game purchase of ETC (EVE time cards) using ISK (in game currency). This system was instituted by CCP and the transactions are protected by CCP staff. This allows more advanced players able to generate the needed ISK to pay for their characters without any real money. ETCs come in 30-50-90-100-180 day increments, and are treated just like normal subscriptions in every way.

Demographics

As of October 2006 the average age of an EVE Player was 27 of which 95% male, and 5% female. The average weekly playtime is 17 hours, or just under 2.5 hours per day.

Technical details

Major content patches

Gemini - May 6, 2003 Gemini was not actually a content patch, but is included here for the sake of completeness. When EVE Online: The Second Genesis was released, the base was codenamed Gemini, version 1.00.0000.

Castor - December 18, 2003 Castor was the first major content addition. It focused on refining current functions along with adding "Tech 2" elite components and ships. With its release, EVE players saw conquerable stations in 0.0 (deep space) security systems, the introduction of the agent mission running system, the introduction of research agents, and many other features released between the launch of Castor and its follower, Exodus.

Exodus - November 17, 2004 Exodus is considered by the developers to be the first major game expansion. The expansion added multi-level "deadspace" scenarios, new environments and ships, better handling of conflicts, additional market functionality, user interface improvements, and an updated in-game web browser. A formalized method for alliances between corporations and the ability to claim sovereignty of a solar system via new "player owned starbases" was also added. Prior to its official release, this expansion was codenamed "Shiva".

Exodus: Cold War - June 29, 2005

Cold War Edition contained an extensive new tutorial sequence and a storyline background introduction. Challenging "level 4" agent missions were added for experienced players, as well as "COSMOS" constellations where in-space agents began giving out story-driven missions and unique rewards. The freighter and dreadnaught capital ships, full-fledged player-owned "outposts", and improved NPC pirate factions brought deep space play to a new level. This expansion also added Unicode chat support, allowing communication in Asian, Cyrillic, and Greek languages.

Exodus: Red Moon Rising - December 16, 2005 Red Moon Rising was split off from the "Kali" expansion in order to maintain a more regular patch schedule. It included many performance optimizations and updates to combat, research, and manufacturing gameplay. The expansion continued the focus on attracting new international players as four new "bloodlines" were introduced with Asian features and a boost in starting skills. Unicode support was also expanded from the chat system to game-wide. A major focus of the expansion was revamping existing ships and adding many additional ship classes. Twenty-three new Tech 2 ships were added including Exhumers, Force Recon cruisers, Command ships, Interdictors, and most notably the capital ships Carrier, Mothership, and Titan. (See Spaceships of EVE Online for descriptions)

Bloodlines - March 2, 2006 Bloodlines is the codename for the small content patch that enabled players to create the new character "bloodline" with an Asian appearance. Achura, citizens of the Caldari State and expert scientists Jin-Mei, members of the Gallente Federation renowned for their legendary leadership traits Khanid of the Amarr Empire, the primary fighter-warriors of their culture Vherokior of the Minmatar Republic, the established manufacturers and engineers of the tribes.

Dragon This milestone patch brought together the code base from the Chinese server (Serenity) and the main server (Tranquility), but otherwise contained little added content and only minor bug fixes. With this patch, EVE could no longer be played on Windows 95 / 98 / ME or Windows 2000 Service Pack 1.

Revelations I - November 29, 2006 Revelations is the second major game expansion of EVE Online. Previously known by the codename "Kali", Revelations is slated to be released in three parts. Major features of this expansion include an exploration / scan probe system, a formalized contract system, the invention replacement for the Tech 2 research lottery, ship customization with "rigs", and temporary "combat boosters". Existing features expanded include a "new player experience" that grants new players a large head start in capabilities, an upgraded fleet system, eight new deepspace regions, a new map that zooms from ship to galaxy seamlessly, popular new battlecruisers and battleships, and many more. EVE Voice was integrated as part of Revelations content patch 1.4, it had initially been planned for release with Revelations II. EVE Voice is a Voice over IP tool integrated into the EVE Online client, the software is licensed by CCP from Vivox. Unfortunately, so far EVE voice has not been a success and is not used by a large proportion of players. This may be due to the fact that the EVE Voice service is not free, but costs $14.95 per year. A further major drawback of EVE voice is the fact that it is tied in to the game client, the consequence of this being that you lose your voice chat as soon as you get disconnected from the EVE server (if the game crashes, for example). This, combined with the fact that EVE voice can be replaced with free voice software such as TeamSpeak makes the use of EVE voice unnecessary.

Revelations II - June 19, 2007 Revelations II is the second of three expansions, designed to show the increased tensions between the empires within the game universe. Several new features were introduced; including a mechanism for overloading modules and area of effect bombs. A number of existing features have been extended including Level 5 agents, changes to sovereignty, starbases outposts, and balancing changes to the Amarr race. Revelations II also changed the way new players start the game, in addition to new optional tutorials the existing tutorial has been shortened and refined, and players now start in a private dungeon to allow new players to get used to the controls in a protective environment.

Revelations III - CCP aims to publish the final part of this expansion before the end of 2007, possibly in November. Planned features include an updated graphics engine and 4 new ship classes totalling 20 new ships including interdictor cruisers (Heavy Interdictors), electronic warfare frigates (Electronic Attack Ships), and battleships (Black Ops, Marauders) designed for covert operations and for mission running. Although "Factional Warfare", a major addition to game mechanics, had been planned for Revelations it has since been announced that it will now be included in a future patch.

Planned future developments

CCP have recently begun work on implementing a game feature that will allow players to "Step out" of their pods and interact with other player avatars in the communal setting of the interior of a station. CCP have not yet formally speculated on a release date for this feature. In March 2007, Ten Ton Hammer released in-development game footage of this feature, videotaped at GDC 2007 with the approval of CCP's CMO, Magnus Bergsson.

The ability to enter a planet's atmosphere (planetary flight) and to interact with the surface is also mentioned as one of the future development plans. In EVE Fanfest 2005, a working prototype was demonstrated in which a Caldari "Crow" interceptor could be seen flying around over a planet surface. However CCP stated that full-scale integration of such features to the game requires an enormous effort and is only planned for post-Revelations production phases.

EVE Online in China

Beginning in March 2006, CCP and its partner Optic Communications started working to bring EVE Online to the Chinese gaming audience. Closed alpha testing was held on a small cluster for some time, with about 3,000 players chosen from an initial pool of 50,000. The Chinese open beta test began on June 13, 2006, and proved to be very popular, gaining numbers comparable to EVE Online's main server cluster.

The code base between Serenity(China) and Tranquility(Iceland) is strictly in sync, so that software development is distributed to both server clusters, however the game worlds are not connected. EVE Online fully supports Unicode and has a back-end system to enable localization of each and every aspect of the game's content and UI.

Graphics engine and Windows Vista

On March 14, 2006, the EVE Online development team announced that they would be upgrading the graphics engine of EVE Online to a DirectX 10 / Windows Vista graphics platform. Revelations patch 1.4 had patch notes quoted as saying that the current EVE client should work in Vista "as well as it does in XP".

On September 10, 2007 CCP Games Announced that the new 'Trinity 2' graphics engine will be using DirectX 9.0.

Mac and Linux Support

On Linux, it is possible to play the game through the use of a Windows compatibility layer such as Cedega or Wine. CCP does not officially support EVE under this sort of configuration, but both Transgaming, the backer of Cedega, and CCP have suggested the companies cooperate to address functionality issues post-patch for Linux users.

CCP has stated they have working Mac and Linux clients on a thread in their forums. As of August 16, 2007, CCP is rounding up beta testers for the clients. As of October 7th both clients are currently in closed beta with open beta to come within the year.

Technical milestones

On 3 August 2007, EVE Online achieved a new record for the maximum number of simultaneous pilots online with 35,313 concurrent accounts logged on to the same server.

As of 3 August 2007, EVE Online has 190,000 active subscriptions and 40,000 active trial accounts.

During two weekends in July 2006, a live streaming video production called EveTV covered the events of the 2nd Caldari Alliance Tournament. The tournament pitted five-man teams from the top alliances against each other. EveTV provided live in-game footage of the battles along with expert commentary. Analysis of the teams and strategies, interviews with CCP staff and behind-the-scenes specials were also aired between battles. EveTV was produced and hosted primarily by DJs from EVE-Radio (a player-run streaming radio station) with resources provided by CCP. A total of 95 matches were scheduled, with the Band of Brothers alliance emerging the winner on the final day. Recordings of the event are now available via BitTorrent and on EVE Files. Additionally, a better quality DVD is available through the EVE Online Webstore.

The first two weekends in December 2006 saw the 3rd Alliance tournament. This was once again broadcast via live streaming video by EveTV The tournament saw 40 Alliances pitting five-man teams against each other. Once again, the Band of Brothers alliance emerged as the winner. Of particular note in this tournament, was the fielding of an Imperial Apocalypse by the Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate; one of only four that have been manufactured. The ship was destroyed in the semi-finals of the tournament.

The fourth Alliance tournament in September 2007 brought several exciting upsets, with Star Fraction defeating Band of Brothers in the semifinals, and a relatively unknown, Hun Reloaded, sweeping the finals to win.

Third-party applications and the EVE API Project

A large number of third-party applications have arisen to supplement a player's EVE Online experience. Some of these, such as automated applications designed to claim publicly-available contracts accidentally put up without an associated cost, will result in a ban if discovered, but many others are endorsed, tacitly or explicitly, by CCP. EVEMona .NET application that monitors and forecasts skill training timesis one example of an explicitly-authorized external application. In May, 2005, CCP announced the EVE API Project; third-party utilities such as EVEMon now interface with character data, market, and other data through an API.

Ingame items

Ships Main article: Spaceships of EVE Online

Ships in the EVE universe are organized into a variety of different classes, varying from minute frigates to titans thousands of times larger. Each of these types has its own advantages and disadvantages in the game. One should not simply assume that the bigger a ship is, the better. For instance, a frigate is incredibly small compared to a battleship, but many users outfit these smaller ships with equipment that impairs the abilities of the battleship. This leaves the battleship vulnerable to attack from other ships. However, some of the weapons available to the battleship could destroy that frigate in a few shots. The balance between ships is also maintained by the implementation of the signature radius. The smaller an object (ship or otherwise) is, the harder it is to target or damage, especially with the larger cruiser and battleship-sized weaponry.

The enormous scale of some of the newer vessels in the EVE universe can been seen in this ship scale comparison chart. Using the Caldari fleet as an example, the ten smallest vessels in the top right of the chart are Frigates, along with the Shuttle and Destroyer. Moving counter-clockwise around the Caldari fleet, the next four vessels are Cruisers, while the following is a Battlecruiser. Following the Battlecruiser are the two Battleships, then the Carrier, Mothership, Titan, Freighter, three Industrials, and finally the Dreadnought. The Eiffel Tower, for comparison, can be seen in the far bottom left hand corner. Another useful frame of reference for the scale of EVE online is to realise that the Minmatar "Rifter"-class frigate has approximately the same dimensions as a Boeing 747.

Weapons

Weapons in EVE are divided into four types: turrets, launchers, drones, smartbombs . Each type requires a different set of skills in order to use effectively, and have distinctive behaviors and tactical uses. Each of the four playable races favor a different subcategory of these weapon types; missile launchers (Caldari and Minmatar and Amarr), energy turrets (Amarr), hybrid turrets (Gallente and Caldari), projectile turrets (Minmatar)and drones (Gallente). Additionally, certain modules have an important effect on tactics used in combat including warp scramblers/disruptors (and their counter, warp stabilizers), webifiers, energy vampires and energy destabilizers.

Every weapon has its advantages and disadvantages. Missiles are available that do different types of damage, and many launchers can use more than one type of missile. Slower missiles, such as torpedoes, tend to do more damage to large targets. Drones follow the target, and shoot at it, causing different types of damage based on drone type. Smartbombs are area-of-effect weapons that deal damage to any target within a certain radius of the ship, available in three sizes to reflect powergrid/CPU use and net damage, and also different types that deal specific kinds of damage.

Electronic warfare is an important part of EVE; electronic countermeasures modules keep an opponent from achieving a target lock or interfere with weapon systems, and can be countered using various electronic counter-countermeasures modules.

Skills and implants can enhance the effectiveness of weapons by increasing the damage of the ammunition, the effective range, tracking speed or firing rate of the weapon, reducing the effect of the targets velocity, or reducing the weapon's power or CPU usage.

Quafe

Quafe is both the name of a popular drink in EVE and the name of the corporation which produces it. On October 22, 2004, CCP made a marketing first when they launched the virtual drink for sale in the real world. CCP sold the drink from their website for $1.50 (USD) for a single bottle, or $15.10 for a multi-pack, but sales of this drink have since ceased. The real-world Quafe soft drink had a lemon-lime taste.

Elite to EVE

According to the developers EVE Online evolved from a classic computer game called Elite combined with the multi player chat and player versus player aspects of Ultima Online. Elite had four single player aspects of missions, mining, trade routes and combat with random hostile NPC's all which are aspects of the first incarnations of EVE Online. One of the original developers of Elite, David Braben, believes EVE Online is a reimplementation of the 1980's game, not its true successor.

Criticism

CCP's approach to managing the in-game economy has come under fire for allowing in-game "criminal" activity. Piracy (in the ship-to-ship sense) is part of the game, as is protection racketeering and theft.

One example is the corporate heist perpetrated by the in-game assassin's guild Guiding Hand Social Club. The GHSC infiltrated a target corporation over the course of nearly a year before performing a virtual assassination on the target's CEO and stealing or destroying billions of credits' worth of property.

Events of this nature are debated both inside the game world and in the media.

Developer misconduct

Since the release of EVE Online there have been several allegations of developer as well as player-corporation misconduct, and in one instance the allegations ultimately turned out to be true. In response to public concerns, CCP has set up an Internal Affairs division headed up by Ari Eldon, better known in-game as Arkanon, whose responsibility is to monitor the activities of both privileged and player accounts operated by CCP Staff in-game. In early June 2007, CCP announced that the players will be given the opportunity to elect an oversight committee from the player base itself. The members of this committee would be flown to Iceland regularly to audit CCP's operations and report back to the community.

Ever Quest

EverQuest (or colloquially, EQ) is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on March 16, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost. It was developed by Verant Interactive (which had recently parted ways with 989 Studios) and published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). SOE currently runs and distributes EverQuest. EverQuest was, from 2000 until 2004, the most popular extant MMORPG. EverQuest earned many awards, including GameSpot's Game of the Year Award for 1999. The game's sequel, EverQuest II, was released in late 2004.

The game's business model is based on the sale of an initial software package that is installed on the player's computer which allows a player with an active membership to connect to the game content and other players on the game servers of SOE. Fees are charged to players to maintain an active membership. On numerous occasions, SOE has made available expansions, software which offers additional game content to those members who purchase the expansion software. Over time, some of the content from earlier expansions is incorporated into the initial EQ software package.

Gameplay

Many of the elements from EverQuest have been drawn from text-based MUD (multi-user dungeon) games, which in turn were inspired by traditional role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons.

In EverQuest, players create a character (also known as an avatar, or colloquially as char, charrie or toon) by selecting one of 14 "races" in the game, which range from elves, dwarves and ogres of fantasy, to humans, to cat-people (Vah Shir) and lizard-people (Iksar). Players also select their characters' adventuring occupation (such as a wizard, ranger, or clericcalled a classsee below for particulars).

Players use their character to explore the fantasy world of Norrath, fight monsters and enemies for treasure and experience points, and master trade skills. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, prestige, spells, and abilities through actions such as looting the remains of defeated enemies and doing quests (tasks and adventures given by non-player characters (NPCs) in which a reward is given upon success).

EverQuest also allows players to interact with other players through role-play, joining player guilds, and dueling other players (in restricted situationsEQ only allows Player versus Player (PVP) combat on the PvP-specific server).

The geography of the game universe consists of nearly 400 zones. Multiple instances of the world exist on various servers, each one hosting between one and three thousand simultaneous players online during peak times.

Classes

The fourteen classes of the original 1999 version of EverQuest were later expanded to include the Beastlord and Beserker classes with the Shadows of Luclin (2001) and Gates of Discord (2004) expansions, respectively.

The classes can be grouped into those that share similar characteristics that allow them to play certain types of roles within the game when grouped with others. One way of grouping classes is described below.

Tank classes

"Tank" classes are those that have high numbers of "health points" for their level and can wear heavy armor. They also have the ability to taunt enemies into focusing on them, rather than other party members who may be more susceptible to damage and death. Warrior: the prototypical tank class, able to avoid and mitigate more damage than any other class. Shadow Knight: a durable tank class; this Warrior/Necromancer hybrid has vampiric and damage-over-time spells. Shadow Knights also have the unique ability to Harm Touch (do direct damage) every two hours, the power of which increases in absolute terms but decreases relative to enemies' hit points as a player levels up. At higher levels, Shadow Knights are able to summon a weak pet, summon players' corpses who are in the same zone as them, and are able to feign death. The feign death ability allows the Shadow Knight to function as a "puller" for a group. Paladin: the "good" counterpart to the Shadow Knight, a Paladin is a hybrid Warrior-Cleric. They are able to Lay on Hands once every hour. At higher levels, paladins also receive some resurrection spells. Paladins are tough in melee, with some healing and protective spells. At higher levels, they have a "pacify" line of spells that allows them to function as a "puller" for a group.

Damage dealers

The following classes are able to produce large quantities of damage to the enemy in a short period of time. Within the game, these classes are often referred to as 'DPS' standing for Damage Per Second.

The melee damage dealers have a medium number of hit points per level, but cannot wear the heaviest armors and are less likely than a "tank" class to be able to survive direct attacks for a sustained period of time. Beastlord: The Beastlord is a unique class which combines some powers from the Monk and Shaman classes with a powerful pet. Beastlords can imbue their pets with powers, combat enemies with hand-to-hand skills or with weapons. They can also "de-buff" enemies with spells, and possess modest healing abilities. The wide range of skills allows Beastlords to be effective solo adventurers at many game levels. Berserker: A specialist form of the melee type, the Berserker is primarily a medium-armored, high-damage dealer who can hurl axes and other thrown objects. Monk: As masters of martial arts, Monks are the hand-to-hand fighting experts and are a powerful melee damage-dealer. Monks have the ability to feign death with a high degree of reliability and other skills that enable them to be a strong "pulling" class. Ranger: A versatile hybrid class combining some of a Warrior's ability with a Druid's spells, Rangers are able to deal large amounts of damage both from a ranged distance and in melee. Their most unique ability is to track unseen NPCs, for which they can be used as "pullers" in outdoor zones. Rangers also have the ability to "taunt" and in casual play can sometimes play the role of "tank". Rogue: With their backstab ability, Rogues are able to sustain the highest rate of damage of any of the classes, if they are in a party that can keep the opponent facing away from the Rogue. Rogues also have the ability to make poisons, pick pockets, and pick locks. Their abilities to sneak and hide allow them to walk past both a living and undead mobs without being seen. Rogues do not make effective solo class.

The "caster" classes have the lowest hit points per level and can only utilize the lightest of armors. Magician: Usually referred to as Mages, Magicians are similar to the Wizard class but with somewhat less power. They are able to summon strong elemental pets, pet armor and weapons, food, drink, and mod rods, which allow players to convert their health into mana. Magicians can also summon party members to different parts of a zone with the Call of the Hero spell, which can be helpful in raid zones. Necromancer: These masters of death are able to summon powerful undead pets and use a large variety of poison and disease-based damage-over-time spells. Necromancers are able to feign death, snare enemies, and summon players' corpses in zone. They have a combination of skills and abilities that allows them to function as an effective solo class. Wizard: The primary nuking class; these casters able to deal catastrophic damage to enemies over a very short time, particularly with their Manaburn skill. Wizards also have transportation spells that facilitate group travel to particular locations.

Crowd control / utility

These classes share the ability to restrain multiple enemies from attacking the party and also have the ability to increase party members' ability to regenerate mana at a faster rate. Enchanter: A "caster" class that has few hit points per level and can wear only the lightest forms of armor, Enchanters are "crowd control" experts and are the most able class at charming, stunning, and mesmerizing enemies. Enchanters also have a wide range of utility spells, including the Clarity (AKA "crack", C3) line of spells, which when cast on a player allows them to regenerate mana faster. in addition to being able to both increase players' rate of attack (with haste), and slowing that of enemies. Enchanters can cast illusions on themselves and others, which may have no real benefit other than having a new look, or it may confer real benefits like underwater breathing, flight, or a vampiric touch. Lastly, Enchanters possess the unique Rune line of spells, which acts as a protective buffer against all forms of damage until a fixed amount of damage is reached. Bard: a jack-of-all-trades class with fair melee ability, and the ability to play songs that benefit all nearby comrades, such as "crowd control" effects and mana regeneration. Bards possess a lesser version of many of the special abilities of other classes. They are known for their ability to increase the speed of their party faster than any mount or movement buff. Bards can weave the effects of up to four songs at once to confer the greatest advantage to their group. Bards themselves often do not receive the full benefit of their songs, but they can still be an effective solo class at many levels.

Healers

The "priest" classes have medium level of hit points per level and have access to healing and "buff" spells. Cleric: The most powerful healer in the game, and for the first few years of EverQuest, the only class capable of resurrection and the powerful spell Complete Heal. Clerics can wear the heavy "plate-mail" type armors. Druid: A priest class that can cast healing spells, teleport, snare (slow down) enemies, and cast moderately powerful nuking and damage-over-time spells. The range of abilities allows druids to play multiple roles in a group or to solo effectively. Druids may only wear "leather class" armors. Shaman: As a priest class, they have access to healing and many lines of "buff" spells. Shaman possess strong damage-over-time spells, and are able to slow an enemy's rate of attack. Shamans, or "Shammies" may cannibalize their health to restore mana and may wear "chain mail" levels of armor. Because of the range of Shaman's spells, they are sometimes considered a "utility" class.

Deities

There are several deities in EverQuest who each have a certain area of responsibility and play a role in the "backstory" of the game setting.

Zones For more details on this topic, see Zones of EverQuest.

The EverQuest universe is divided into nearly 400 zones. These zones represent a wide variety of geographical features, including plains, oceans, cities, deserts, and other planes of existence. One of the most popular zones in the game is the Plane of Knowledge, one of the few zones in which all races and classes can coexist harmoniously without interference. The Plane of Knowledge is also home to portals to many other zones, including portals to other planes and to the outskirts of nearly every starting city.

Social dynamics

Generally speaking, gameplay in EverQuest can be divided up into three spheres: adventuring (i.e. gaining experience and loot) and trading amongst other players, and social interaction with other players.

Adventuring can be done either alone (soloing), with a group (up to six players), or a raid (with as many as a zone could support, between 50200, although Raid window will only allow 72 official participants). At low levels, all classes have the capacity to solo, although the game has been designed to encourage group play; and at higher levels only certain classes can efficiently gain experience by this method. While some parts of EverQuest can be experienced without the help of other players, much of EQ has been designed to encourage group-oriented gaming. A single character, unless exceptionally well-prepared (either by means of twink equipment or with spell enhancements, referred to in-game as "buffs"), will be unable to complete many of the encounters in EverQuest.

A effective group (or "party") will often consist of a "tank", a "healer", one or more "damage dealers", someone to do "crowd control" and someone to bring the mobs to where the group is set up. The last role is called "pulling" and in indoor zones is frequently held by a Monk, Shadow Knight or Paladin, while outdoors ranger using the tracking ability is sometimes used. Other groupings can also be effective, such as a group of Wizards in an indoor zone or Duoing with the Shaman-Monk and Cleric-Warrior tandems being highly successful.

While most parts of the game can be completed with the standard grouping of up to six players, some of the most challenging (and rewarding, in terms of loot) encounters require players to coordinate efforts in a raid. Normally the number of players in a raid range from 36 to 72, limiting factors being the maximum number of people allowed in a "raid window" and the maximum number of people allowed in certain instanced zones in more recent expansions. The design of encounters in expansions have changed resulting in raid tactics that have become more and more involved. Some of the most complex "modern" raid events can take a very experienced guild dozens of attempts before they succeed. Less skilled guilds may take as many as a hundred tries to beat the same event, if they are able to accomplish it at all, due to the level of strategy and teamwork required to defeat modern EverQuest encounters.

While "groups" and "raids" are temporary gatherings of players, guilds are associations that last beyond a single play session. Guilds are initially formed via an application process to SOE. Guilds may have widely varying goals; in some instances they are little more than a loose configuration of friends who wish to be able to stay in touch more easily. At the other end of the spectrum are Guilds that concentrate on tackling challenging raid dungeons and boss monsters. Such "raid guilds" may require members to commit up to five to eight hours per day to the game, up to seven days a week. For gameplay, guild membership allows all members of the guild to communicate with all other members via a special communications channel; and a player's guild affiliation appears alongside his or her character when viewed in game.

Gameplay jargon

EverQuest carries an internal language and culture of its own, including a plethora of arcane abbreviations aiding communication between players. For example, SoW (which stands for "Spirit of Wolf", a popular spell which accelerates players' movement), and vernacular usages such as "crack" or "mind candy" which within the context of EQ refer to mana regeneration spells such as Clarity or KEI (an acronym for "Koadic's Endless Intellect"). While mostly consistent, there are also some differences in jargon between servers, and between the Asian, European and American gaming communities. For example, KEI is known on some servers as C3 (it is the third version of Clarity). In-game chatting can practically be a foreign language to anyone who has not played it extensively.

Players utilized the term nerf (a reference to Nerf-brand swords being harmless) to refer to a skill, spell, or piece of equipment that had its game-play utility reduced dramatically by the designers when insufficient play testing had been done before release. The term was backronymed to mean "New Enhancement Reduces Fun" or "Not Even Remotely Fair" or "Never Ending Reduction of Functionality".

A number of terms used in-game have been popularized by players of EverQuest and passed one to use in a variety of other MMORPGs. One is the habit of calling monsters MOBs or mobs which is a contraction of Mobile OBjects and stems from old text-based MUDs' use of the term rather than from the normal English definition (a disorderly crowd). Other terms, while coined in EverQuest, have also migrated to other MMORPGs. Other terms have made their way into EQ from other games, such as the term Zerging from the computer game StarCraftused when a raid's main strategy is to overwhelm an enemy by sheer force of numbers.

Development history

The design and concept of EverQuest is heavily indebted to text-based MUDs, in particular DikuMUD, and as such EverQuest is considered a 3D evolution of the text MUD genre like some of the MMOs that preceded it such as Meridian 59 and The Realm Online. John Smedley, Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover and Bill Trost who jointly are credited with creating the world of EverQuest have repeatedly pointed to their shared experiences playing MUDs such as DIKU and TorilMUD as the inspiration for the game.

Development of EverQuest began in 1996 when Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA) executive John Smedley secured funding for a 3D version of text-based MUDs following the successful launch of Meridian 59 the previous year. To implement the design Smedley hired programmers Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover who had come to Smedley's attention through their work on the single player RPG Warwizard. McQuaid soon rose through the ranks to become Executive Producer for the EverQuest franchise and emerged during development of EverQuest as a popular figure among the fan community through his in-game avatar, Aradune. Other key members of the development team included Bill Trost, who created the history, lore and major characters of Norrath (including Everquest protagonist Firiona Vie), Geoffrey "GZ" Zatkin who implemented the spell system, and artist Milo D. Cooper, who did the original character modeling in the game.

EverQuest launched with modest expectations from Sony on March 16, 1999 under its Verant Interactive brand and quickly became successful. By the end of the year, it had surpassed the leading competitor, Ultima Online, in number of subscriptions. Numbers continued rising at a steady rate until mid-2001 when growth slowed. As of 2004, Sony reports subscription numbers close to 450,000. SOE released a Mac OS X version of EverQuest in 2003, incorporating all expansions through Planes of Power. Development of the OS X version has languished since then, but the server remains up and running, supporting a small but enthusiastic user community.

The success of EverQuest has triggered several corporate iterations of its publishing entity which has engendered a popular misconception among newer fans of the series that ownership and creative leadership of franchise passed somehow in 2000 from an independent entity known as Verant into Sony's hands. In reality, EverQuest from its inception has continually been owned by one or other subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, with John Smedley retaining ultimate control of the product, from his creation of the concept in 1996, to this day. This confusion can be attributed to a shift in Sony's publishing priorities in the U.S. prior to the launch of its Playstation 2 product in 1999. In anticipation of PlayStation's launch Sony Interactive Studios America had made the decision to focus primarily on console titles under the banner 989 Studios while spinning off its sole computer title, EverQuest, which was ready to launch, to a new computer game division named Redeye (renamed Verant Interactive). Executives initially had very low expectations for EverQuest but in 2000, following the surprising continued success and unparalleled profits of EverQuest, Sony reorganized Verant Interactive into Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) with Smedley retaining control of the company. By 2002 however, a majority of the original EverQuest team, including Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover and Geoffrey Zatkin had left SOE and day-to-day development of new titles in the franchise continues largely in the hands of a new generation of Sony designers.

Servers

The game runs multiple servers, each with a unique name for identification; these names were originally the deities of the world of Norrath. In technical terms, each "game server" is actually a cluster of server machines. Each individual machine is fairly powerful. The server machines are regularly upgraded to handle the world as it is expanded.

In addition to the standard servers, some special servers have different rule sets. For example, some servers allow PvP on the server so that player can attack each other with fewer restrictions than there are on the standard servers. Several servers have been introduced with alternate rule-sets, including one which allows player killing, another, Firiona Vie, that has a set of rules more friendly to role-playing (although it also contained other rule changes that made it attractive to non-role-players which some argue defeated the purpose), and a premium flagship server titled Stormhammer Legends server (which, for a higher fee provided a greater level of in-game customer service. Many players saw this as a way to charge players more money for a level of service which should have existed without the fee). After many months of the "Legends" community pleading for communication with Sony about its future, nothing was said until a sudden announcement in December 2005 that Sony was closing the EQ flagship server. EverQuest Online Adventures, released in February 2003 , is an MMORPG for the PlayStation 2 console. EverQuest II, an alternative version (not sequel) of EverQuest, was launched in November 2004. Champions of Norrath, the d20 system EverQuest Role-Playing Game, several books, and player gatherings (Fan Faires) have also been spawned from EverQuest.

SOE opened Progression Servers, named The Sleeper and The Combine, which initially only offered access to the oldest continents of Norrath: Odus, Antonica, and Faydwer. Though the geography resembles that of the game's initial release, newer zones that are located on those continents are also available (for example, Odus includes the Warrens and Antonica has Jaggedpine Forest, though inclusion of both these zones came long after the start of the game). The expansion content is determined by the progress of the players on those servers, and the completion of certain tasks (such as defeating powerful characters or completing momentous quests) triggers the addition of later expansions. The two servers were merged, and are currently opened up through the Depths of Dark Hollow expansion.

Once a character is created on a specific server, it can only be played on that server unless the character is transferred to a new server by the customer service staff. Each server often has a unique community and people often include the server name when identifying their character outside of the game.

EverQuest expansions See also: EverQuest timeline

There have been many expansions to the original game since release. Expansions are purchased separately and provide additional content to the game (for example: raising the maximum character level; adding new races, classes, continents, quests, and equipment; or adding additional game features). Additional