World of Warcraft, or often referred to as WoW, is a massive multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth series of Warcraft game in the fantasy Warcraft universe. On September 2, 2001, Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft after the success of Warcraft III and its game patch The Frozen Throne. The game itself was released on November 23, 2004, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.

Since the release of World of Warcraft on November 2004, it rapidly gain success around the world. The new MMORPG has experienced success beyond what they or anyone else had expected. It is now the world’s most-subscribed MMORPG with more than 11.5 million monthly subscribers. Most subscribers come from Asia, around 5.5 million subscribers, North America, 2.5 million, Europe 2 million and the rest scattered around the world. World of Warcraft is currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG in the world. Around 62% of the markets for MMORPG belongs to World of Warcraft. This MMORPG has become the leader and broadened the audience for MMORPG genre and online games in general.

Before the launch of World of Warcraft , the majority of people who play MMORPG are most likely teenager or male around the age of 20. When World of Warcraft was introduced to the online gaming world, all sorts of age groups and individuals starting to play this MMORPG. This online game was not to be dominated by teenagers anymore. World of Warcraft, in particular, has successfully brought younger people, around 10-15 years of age, to play and enjoy the game.

World of Warcraft has appealed to people who are not normally into gaming. It is very common for someone who at first did not want to play the game but then got influenced by their surroundings, such as roommate, teammate, friends, brother, sister, spouse, etc. You can also find people playing and addicted to WoW was at first has very little experience in video game, especially multi-player online gaming.

Female is most likely not to play an online game. But that is not the case with World of Warcraft. WoW has successfully attract female person to also enjoy the online game. Around 30% of the world MMORPG’s player are female. They usually play the game accompanied by their partner such as boyfriend, brother, or husband. World of Warcraft is often the first game introduced to them.

World of Warcraft has successfully made online game as a social experience. Often people play this online game together in groups. Well, apparently it is more fun to play online games in groups rather than to play it alone as individual. Parents and their children play together. Brother’s and sister’s too. And don’t forget couples. Almost 25% of people playing online games in group are involved romantically. Playing in groups can certainly tighten your relationship with others.

One of the reasons that have made World of Warcraft so popular is the availability of free trials for the game. At the beginning, although the game is still in testing, beta testing is available for trial and most importantly, it is free. Most people who try the beta testing, end up like the game very much and then when World of Warcraft was release, gamers who has experience the beta version, are most likely to buy the game and sign up for the monthly subscription.

The other reason why World of Warcraft gets very popular, although the main concept is similar to other MMORPG in the market, is the new approaches in the game. WoW has successfully reduce pauses between game. In example is the character’s death. If you play other MMORPG, player will suffer huge penalty for character’s death. It would took sometime for recovery. WoW change the approach for character’s death, where player could easily play again after their character’s got killed. World of Warcraft also make the same approach for character’s damage in combat. Character’s could easily recover from damage taken and return to combat. With the new approaches in MMORPG world, World of Warcraft has been chosen by online gamers as their favorite MMORPG.

The vast audience for World of Warcraft has also been of interest to the gaming industry. Many game companies felt that there was no room in the online gaming market for a new title. Thus gamers didn’t have much to choose from, since there isn’t much option for online game. Blizzard Entertainment has made a brave step and its game, WoW, has proven otherwise. WoW has show that the online game market can and still expanding and growing. Blizzard has proven that the market for online game still has much potential and with the right title, it will be profitable. Other game companies have been impressed by its success, and are very interested in why it has taken off to the extent that it has.

Blizzard Entertaiment has sets new ground in MMORPG world. With World of Warcraft, Blizzard has also successfully captured more vast audience to play and enjoy the game. With WoW’s success, Blizzard has been known as a reputable game developer. It has also experience much success in financial. The success of World of Warcraft has made other game developer to start thinking and being innovative and creative. Thus, in the future, online gamers will be expecting many more exciting MMORPG other than WoW. Bravo Blizzard. Bravo World of Warcraft.