Crafting video games

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 133. Chapters: EverQuest, Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, MUSH, World of Warcraft, Second Life, Fallout 3, City of Heroes, Final Fantasy XI, Team Fortress 2, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, RuneScape, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Vagrant Story, Star Wars Galaxies, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Hellgate: London, Hello Kitty Online, Dark Age of Camelot, EverQuest II, Darkfall, Earthrise, Final Fantasy XIV, Tabula Rasa, Aion: The Tower of Eternity, Kingdom of Loathing, Mabinogi, Flyff, Rubies of Eventide, Dofus, Dwarf Fortress, Entropia Universe, Knight Online, Ryzom, Active Worlds, Turf Battles, Atlantica Online, Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2, Fallen Earth, Guild Wars 2, DartMUD, Runes of Magic, Dragoneer's Aria, Free Realms, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, There, Asheron's Call 2, Era Online, Harvest Moon, The Sims 2: Open for Business, The Age of Decadence, Cloud Nine, ArchLord, Accursed Lands, Rohan: Blood Feud, Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology, Evochron Legends, Eternal Lands, Fiesta Online, Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul, Arx Fatalis, Lands of Hope, Next island, Phoenix Dynasty Online, Perfect World, Cold War, Survival Kids, Legends of Future Past, Lego Creator, Scions of Fate, Pocket Kingdom: Own the World, Dawntide, Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light. Excerpt: World of Warcraft, often abbreviated as WoW, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. 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. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. The first expansion set of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. The second expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, was released on November 13, 2008. The third expansion set, Cataclysm, was released on December 7, 2010. At BlizzCon in October 2010, lead producer J. Allen Brack announced that there would be a fourth expansion set for the game, even though the developers don't yet know what it will be about. With more than 12 million subscribers as of October 2010, World of Warcraft is currently 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. As with other MMORPGs, players control a character avatar (also referred to as a toon) within a game world in third- or first-person view, exploring the landscape, fighting various monsters, completing quests, and interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) or other players. Also similar to other MMORPGs, World of Warcraft requires the player to pay for a subscription, either by buying prepaid game cards for a selected amount of playing time, or by using a credit or debit card to pay on a regular basis. To enter the game, the player must select a realm-sometimes referred to as