Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: When did World of Warcraft come out?
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the Warcraft fantasy universe.[3] World of Warcraft takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous Warcraft release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.[4] The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, World of Warcraft has had seven major expansion packs released for it: The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion, and Battle for Azeroth.
As a reference to the episode, certain "South Park" Season 10 DVDs include a 14-day free trial for "World of Warcraft". This did not affect the UK release of this season in 2009.
Blizzard's MMO "World of Warcraft" added PvP features to the game after its release, and was received enthusiastically as an eSport. The game was generally phased out of MLG between 2010 and 2011, but Blizzard continues to hold the World of Warcraft Arena Global Invitational annually. The prize pool for the 2013 World of Warcraft Arena Global Invitational totaled over $180,000 and that of the 2014 World of Warcraft Arena Invitational World Championship totaled $250,000.
The Burning Legion is notorious for its conquering and eventual destruction of entire worlds. Their task is to undo all the works of the titans and to destroy all life in to all corners of the universe. So far the Burning Legion has committed two major attacks on Azeroth: the first in antiquity (as described in "World of Warcraft" as the War of the Ancients) and the second when the Undead Scourge summoned Archimonde in "Warcraft III". In the expansion "Legion", the Legion makes another major attack on Azeroth. The Legion is responsible for starting the invasion of the orcs during "Warcraft" and "Warcraft II", but did not aid the orcs in their attacks.
"The Frozen Throne's" Orc campaign lays the groundwork for "World of Warcraft" with many of the player's actions in the Orc campaign being later explored in the MMORPG. Similarly, other elements that were introduced or fleshed out in the expansion went on to become the focus in "World of Warcraft" expansions, such the Draenei and Blood Elves as well as the world of Outland in "," the fall and death of Arthas as the Lich King in "" and the Pandaren race in "". In 2017, Blizzard released an expansion to their "Hearthstone" digital collectible card game entitled "Knights of the Frozen Throne" that, among other allusions to "The Frozen Throne", contains an undead version of Rexxar the beastmaster.
When players create World of Warcraft accounts, they are asked to choose a username and password. Afterward, whenever they play World of Warcraft, they are asked to supply the same username and password in full. This is also the case when using account management facilities online. This type of authentication is vulnerable to keystroke logging. While this is not unique to World of Warcraft and is common to many MMORPGs, the game has been directly targeted with trojans being specifically crafted to capture account login details.[112] Attacks have been reported as early as May 2006 and may extend as far back as July 30, 2005.[113] The game does, however, allow players to save their account name to the program to allow the player to only have to type their password.[114]
By the timeframe of "World of Warcraft", the Forsaken, a faction of undead who rebelled against the Scourge, have also joined the Horde. The blood elves join the Horde early in the storyline of "World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade". Early in the storyline of "World of Warcraft: Cataclysm", Thrall steps down to deal with the , appointing Garrosh Hellscream, son of the former traitor then redeemed hero Grom Hellscream, as warchief, and the goblins of the Bilgewater Cartel join the Horde. "World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria" saw the Huojin pandaren join the Horde.
There is also a video of Vollee client playing World of Warcraft at this website http://kotaku.com/5228209/warcraft-on-an-iphone-but-is-it-coming-to-yours
By the time of "" the Horde and the Alliance both fight against the Burning Legion and the undead Scourge, who are the primary villains of "Warcraft III" and "World of Warcraft". By the time of "World of Warcraft", the Alliance and the Horde are not engaged in all out war any longer. However, they are still hostile towards each other and skirmishes between the two sides occasionally erupt. With Garrosh Hellscream appointed as the new Warchief of the Horde in "", war has once more erupted between the two factions. This war plays a large role in the storyline of that expansion, and continues to do so in "".
In 2015, Blizzard released "Heroes of the Storm", their own crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game in which players can control a number of heroes from Blizzard titles, the majority of which come from the "Warcraft" universe. The game also features several mounts based on mounts or other creatures from "World of Warcraft" and a battleground based on the PvP zone Alterac Pass.
According to Samwise Didier, Blizzard's art director for "Warcraft III", the company, when developing the first game of the series, attempted to create a more realistic experience, based on the belief that PC gamers preferred these graphics, leading to "Warcraft: Orcs and Humans" looking like Medieval Europe. Blizzard allowed classical fantasy properties like "Dungeons & Dragons" and "The Lord of the Rings" influence "Warcraft II", adding more fantasy races such as elves, ogres and dwarves, while still keeping a more realistic design. With the establishment of a dependable fan base due to the success of the first two games, the creative team behind "Warcraft III" decided no longer to follow their artistic vision. As such, the game's visuals mark a notable departure from the previous games in the series, using bolder and more vibrant colors and pursuing a more comic book style. Didier also integrated characters he designed for "Dungeons & Dragons" into "Warcraft III", such as Uther The Lightbringer and Illidan Stormrage. The shift towards a more cartoonish looking world that started with "Warcraft III" was continued in "World of Warcraft" which deliberately used less realistic depictions to allow the game to be played on less powerful PCs, thus increasing the potential player-base. The artwork of "Warcraft III" was hugely influential on a number of other high fantasy real-time strategy games that followed it.
Gnomes were first introduced in "" as a supporting Alliance race. Prior to "World of Warcraft" the gnomes were driven out of their home city by a primitive race known as troggs. Refugees were taken in by the dwarven capital of Ironforge, which the two playable races share in "World of Warcraft". It was announced that prior to the release of "", the gnomes would reclaim their city of Gnomeregan, because the political turmoil in Ironforge made them feel unwelcome. However, only the surface has been reclaimed.
As characters progress in World of Warcraft and take on some of the toughest challenges, many of the rewards received are bound to that character and cannot be traded, generating a market for the trading of accounts with well-equipped characters. The highest noted World of Warcraft account trade was for £5000 (€7000, US$9,900) in early September 2007. The high price was due to the character possessing items that at the time were owned by only a handful out of the millions of active players, due to the difficulty in acquiring them. However, Blizzard banned the account five days after the purchase.[142]
The World of Warcraft launcher (referred to in press releases and the menu bar as the "Blizzard Launcher") is a program designed to act as a starting point for World of Warcraft players. It provides a way to launch World of Warcraft and starts the Blizzard updater. It was first included with the version 1.8.3 patch. The 2.1.0 patch allowed for an option to bypass the use of the launcher. Features of the launcher include news and updates for World of Warcraft players, access to World of Warcraft's support website, access to the test version of World of Warcraft when it is available to test upcoming patches, updates to Warden,[60] and updates to the updater itself. The 3.0.8 patch redesigned the launcher and added the ability to change the game settings from the launcher itself. The launcher update from patch 4.0.1 also allows people to play the game while non-crucial pieces of the game are downloaded. This requires a high-speed broadband internet connection.
One of the primary features of "Cataclysm" is the redesign of the continents of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor introduced with the launch of "World of Warcraft" in 2004. While the initial game design did not allow for the use of flying mounts in 'old-world' zones, those zones have been completely redesigned with flight in mind for "Cataclysm". Flight is still unavailable for Burning Crusade starting zones for the blood elves and the draenei.
Amend made a television appearance on "The Screen Savers", which aired October 20, 2003 on the former TechTV. Amend is also an avid World of Warcraft player, but refuses to reveal his character's name, although he did mention in an interview with Allakhazam (a World of Warcraft fan site) that he played on the server 'Bronzebeard' (Jason is often shown or referred to playing "World of Warquest" in the strip).
Two teams of builders chosen by Paul Jr., advised by members of Blizzard's development team, designed and built custom motorcycles that reflected the two factions of "World of Warcraft", the Alliance and the Horde. Chris Metzen, Blizzard's Senior Vice President for Creative Development, headed "Team Alliance", and Samwise Didier, Blizzard's senior art director, headed "Team Horde". On May 29, voting opened to choose the winning design, which will be adapted as an in-game mount for "World of Warcraft", and players of the winning faction will receive the bike for free. In an interview at PAX East in Boston on April 12, Paul Jr. revealed that Blizzard gave him total control over the design, pointing out the rarity of a large company like Blizzard allowing such freedom: "When it comes right down to it, for them to let that go and let me take control and trust me, it's unheard of; nobody does that."
On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released "World of Warcraft", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. "World of Warcraft" is the fourth released game set in the fantasy "Warcraft" universe, which was first introduced by "" in 1994. Blizzard announced "World of Warcraft" on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the "Warcraft" franchise.
World of Warcraft has inspired two board games: World of Warcraft: The Board Game (including Shadow of War and The Burning Crusade expansions)[157] and World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game,[158][159] produced by Fantasy Flight Games. There is also a trading card game,[160] and a collectible miniatures game[161] on the market, both formerly produced by Upper Deck Entertainment, now produced by Cryptozoic Entertainment. Cryptozoic released an "Archives" set which contains foil reproductions of older cards produced by Upper Deck. In August 2012, Megabloks launched a licensed line of World of Warcraft 'building block' toys based on the game scenes, scenarios and characters.[162] In March 2014, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft was released, which is a free-to-play digital card game based on the Warcraft universe, using classes similar to World of Warcraft.[163]
Having peaked at 12 million monthly subscriptions in 2010, "World of Warcraft" subscriptions sunk to 6.8 million in 2014, the lowest number since the end of 2006, prior to "" expansion. However, "World of Warcraft" is still the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In April 2008, "World of Warcraft" was estimated to hold 62 percent of the MMORPG subscription market. In 2008, Blizzard was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the creation of "World of Warcraft". Mike Morhaime accepted the award.
Playable versions of "Diablo III", "", and "" were available to test during the convention. As well, there were tournaments and competitions for the "World of Warcraft" Trading Card Game, "World of Warcraft" miniatures game, "StarCraft", "StarCraft II", "Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne", and "World of Warcraft" arena. The Zerg race was now playable in the "StarCraft II" demos.
According to artist Brian Souza and senior producer Pete Stillwell, "Reforged" will change some of the game to synchronize it with what has been established by "World of Warcraft", such as changing the city layout in the iconic "The Culling" mission to fit what players experienced in "World of Warcraft". Blizzard also hired novelist Christie Golden who has written novels set in the Warcraft universe to bring parity between the events in "Warcraft III" and "World of Warcraft" including retconning some of the events of the game to fit the latter's storyline and increasing focus on characters such as Jaina Proudmoore and Sylvanas Windrunner who have become central actors in "World of Warcraft". 
"PC Gamer US" named "Warcraft II" the best game of 1995. The editors called it an "easy" choice, and wrote that ""Warcraft II" stand[s] out — way out — as the most impressive, most entertaining, game of 1995". The magazine also presented "Warcraft II" with the award for 1995's "Best Multi-Player Game". The editors of "Macworld" gave the game their 1996 "Best Strategy Game" award. It also won "Computer Game Review"s 1995 "Military Sim of the Year" award, tied with "Steel Panthers". The same year, "Next Generation" listed it as number 10 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", explaining that "The strategy is complex, the classy SVGA graphics keep the player in touch with everything that's going on, and "WarCraft II" features the best use of sampled speech we've ever experienced." "Warcraft II" was a runner-up for "Computer Gaming World"s 1995 "Strategy Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to "Command & Conquer" and "Heroes of Might and Magic" (tie). The editors wrote that "Warcraft II" "will keep you glued to the computer for hours on end", and noted that it "could have won had the competition not been so strong." "MacUser" declared "Warcraft II" one of 1996's top 50 CD-ROMs. In 1996, "Computer Gaming World" declared "Warcraft II" the 28th-best computer game ever released.
In "Warcraft III" and "World of Warcraft", the various goblin business cartels based out of the city of Undermine now supply both factions. Several trade princes, however, have maintained closer ties with the Horde due to clashes with the Alliance.
In 2004, Blizzard Entertainment moved the series away from the real-time strategy genre and released "World of Warcraft", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Requiring a subscription fee to be paid to play, it also introduced regular additional content to the series in the form of patches. "World of Warcraft" gained popularity worldwide, becoming the world's largest subscription-based MMORPG in 2008. The game reached a peak 12 million subscribers worldwide in October 2010. "World of Warcraft" has had seven expansions as of 2018. During the production of "", Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce stated that "If there's a team that's passionate about doing another "Warcraft" [real-time strategy], then that's definitely something we would consider. It's nothing that we're working on right now, we have development teams working on "", "", "Diablo III", and when those teams are all off the projects they're working on, they'll be intimately involved in the discussions about what's next".