Starting WoW

As with other MMORPGs, players control a character avatar within a game world in third- or first-person view, exploring the landscape, fighting various monsters, completing quests, and interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) or other players. Also similar to other MMORPGs, World of Warcraft requires the player to pay for a subscription, either by buying prepaid game cards for a selected amount of playing time, or by using a credit or debit card to pay on a regular basis.

To enter the game, the player must select a realm—sometimes referred to as a server. Each realm acts as an individual copy of the game world, and falls into one of four categories. Available realms types are:

• Normal – a Player Versus Enemies (PvE) environment where the gameplay is more focused on defeating monsters and completing quests, and any roleplay is optional, and player-versus-player fights must be consensual.
• PvP – an environment where, in addition to defeating monsters and completing quests, open player-versus-player combat is the norm, and a player can be attacked by an opposing faction's player at any time.
• Normal-RP – a variant of PvE, where players roleplay in-character.
• PvP-RP – roleplay-PvP – a variant of PvP, where players are in-character and cross-faction combat is assumed.

Realms are also categorized by language, with in-game support in the language available.

Players can make new characters on all realms, and it is also possible to move already established characters between realms for a fee.

To create a new character, in keeping with the storyline of previous Warcraft games, players must choose between the opposing factions of the Alliance or the Horde. Characters from the opposing factions can perform rudimentary communication (most often just "emotes"), but only members of the same faction can speak, mail, group, and join guilds. The player selects the new character's race, such as Orcs or Trolls for the Horde, or Humans or Dwarves for the Alliance. Players must select the class for the character, with choices such as mages, warriors, and priests available. Most classes, except for special "Hero classes," are limited to particular races.