World of Warcraft has been around for at least five years, but do you know how it all began? Read on to uncover the Dark History behind Warcraft.

If you were born anytime in the 80’s, you probably know and have played any or all of the 3 original Warcraft computer games in your teenage years.  That’s because they belong to a category called Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games, a variety which was just getting popular during the time.  I remember playing the first one, Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.  It’s an MS-DOS game made by Blizzard Entertainment which ran in color VGA graphics plus 16-bit music and sound.

Beginners World of Warcraft

The game is set in the kingdom of Azeroth where monstrous Orcs passed through a portal to invade and massacre Human settlements and conquer the land. You can imagine a period similar to a Medieval Europe where peasants, knights and kings flourish.  As a player, you can choose either side of this virtual war.  The objective of the game is for you to harvest resources, build structures, raise an army and invade the enemy.  Sometimes, missions are involved where you just direct a few units to accomplish a set of tasks.

This game kept me hooked up on my Dad’s 486SX computer for hours at a time.  My brothers and I took turns playing the campaigns or the skirmishes against those demonic Orcs.  I remember typing “corwin of amber” in the text prompt to enable the cheat mode.  Entering “pot of gold” gives free gold and lumber, “sally shears” shows the entire map, “hurry up guys” speeds up the game and a few other cheats.

I do admit that this game is extremely addictive because it requires you to be alert all the time.  Just when you weren’t expecting, you suddenly need more farms or gold or lumber – you need to efficiently delegate tasks to your peasants.  When you just finished harvesting, an a band of hostiles are attacking your base and you’re out of soldiers to defend your town.  Back then, the trick without cheating was to be alert, decisive, pre-emptive and most of all efficient with your resources.

If you encountered Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, you’ll remember that Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes joined the Humans to form the Alliance and oil became a new resource to manage.  While the Ogres, Trolls and Goblins sided with the Orcs to compose the Horde.  You can also experience seasonal changes and build structures that produce air and water-based units.  These events were followed by a game expansion pack called Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal where some human forces were trapped in the Orcish world of Draenor when the portal was prematurely closed.  With these expansion packs, you can enjoy playing additional campaigns together with the unfolding of new events that go with it.

In Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, you can play any of the 2 new races of Night Elves and the Undead. In this version, each Race offered new and unique set of units, structures, technologies, and base-building methods.  If you look closely enough, you will realize that the storyline of the expansion pack Warcraft III: Frozen Throne eventually set the stage for the World of Warcraft.

In the second and third editions of Warcraft, both minor and major modifications were made but they still followed the same RTS game format.  An important new concept introduced was the inclusion of Heroes – characters with special skills and play pivotal roles in later fights against the enemy.  Another was the fulfillment of Quests or “light-weight” operations with specific objectives without the duties of personally managing a base.  These two elements set the stage to finally bring Warcraft to the on-line gaming community – particularly MMORPG or Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Game.

In this gaming format, you can play the Warcraft storyline simultaneously and continuously with other gamers through the Internet in on-line servers.  The game data are still installed in your computer but you have to be logged-in to play your chosen character.  Because of this, it is now called the World of Warcraft (WoW).  As a role playing game, you will be controlling a single hero character that you will design before playing.

World of Warcraft is set four years after the incidents Warcraft III, an immense turmoil covered the lands of Azeroth.  Old and new threats begin to surface and disrupt the well being of the different Races who were still rebuilding their societies from the ashes of the previous war.

In World of Warcraft, you can choose the background of your Character.  You must decide to join one of the 2 opposing factions: the Alliance or the Horde.  Then you will select from the 10 playable Races each having 10 social Classes.  You also need to identify 2 primary Profession and a few minor ones from the 14 available.

Related posts:

1. The World of Warcraft Experience – A Beginner’s Review (Part 1)
2. The World of Warcraft Experience – A Beginner’s Review (Part 2)
3. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Dated
4. World of Warcraft Summer Movie Contest Finalists Unveiled