World of Warcraft
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. "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, "." 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: "", "", "", "", "", "", and "".
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,