World of Warcraft
"World of Warcraft" was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001. Released in 2004, development of the game took roughly 4–5 years, including extensive testing. The 3D graphics in "World of Warcraft" use elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in "Warcraft III". The game was designed to be an open environment where players are allowed to do what they please. Quests are optional and were designed to help guide players, allow character development, and to spread characters across different zones to try to avoid what developers called "player collision". The game interface allows players to customize appearance and controls, and to install add-ons and other modifications.
Warcraft: Orcs &amp; Humans
In April 1998, Blizzard released "StarCraft", an RTS with the concepts and mechanisms of "Warcraft" but an interplanetary setting and three totally different races. "Starcraft" and its expansion "" were well received by critics and became very successful. "World of Warcraft", released in North America in November 2004 and in Europe in February 2005, was Blizzard's first attempt at a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, and used the universe of the "Warcraft" RTS games, including characters that first appeared in "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans". "WoW" was praised highly by critics, was the most popular MMORPG in 2008,