Release of Wrath of the Lich King
Overview of the Second Expansion for MMORPG World of Warcraft
Nov 25, 2008
World of Warcraft is an MMORPG, which stands for massively multiplayer online role playing game. It is by far the most popular MMORPG on the market today, with an estimated 11 million monthly subscribers.
Players assume the role of either a Horde or Alliance character, and complete quests, explore the world ofAzeroth , and fight monsters in order to earn experience. Certain amounts of experience allow players to move their character to the next level, and customize him or her with different abilities and attacks.
In certain cases players can attack other game players, called player-versus-player, which makesMMOs different than other games where you can only fight scripted monsters. Players must already own copies of both World of Warcraft and the Burning Crusade in order to play WotLK.
New Hero Class and Character Customization
Wrath of the Lich King brings several exciting new features to the game. Previously, players of WoW could level up to level 60, and players of the Burning Crusade (Blizzard's second expansion pack for WoW) could make it to level 70. WotLK allows players to go to level 80. There is a new hero class in the game, the Death Knight.
The expansion adds several new ways to customize a character. New hair styles and dances are available. A new profession was added: Inscription. Inscription is similar to the existing skill of enchanting, except that enchanting affects items while inscription affects spells.
New Continent
Northrend is the new continent in the world of Azeroth, which already contains Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms, and portals to Outland. Northrend has 10 new areas, and can be accessed by players of any level. There are also tons of new monsters and humanoids to fight. Along with the new continent comes new story lines, and instance dungeons.
Sales Figures
Wrath of the Lich King has become the fastest selling PC game ever, according to a press release from game publisher Blizzard Entertainment. In the 24-hour period following the release of the game, 2.8 million copies were sold. Previously, the fastest selling game had been the firstWoW expansion, the Burning Crusade, which sold over 2.4 million copies.
A game patch is an update to a game that adds new features and fixes issues. A patch was released at the same time as WotLK, allowing players of World of Warcraft who didn't buy the expansion to use some of the features.
The new continent, new class, and levels 71-80 will only be available to purchasers of the game. World ofWarcraft: Wrath of the Lich King retails for $39.99 and is available at any store selling PC games.
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