In 2004, Blizzard Entertainment released World of Warcraft (WoW), and it became the most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the history of computer gaming. WoW requires players to pay a monthly subscription fee to play, and at its height in 2010, WoW had more than 12 million subscriptions. To put it in perspective, WoW had a larger population than 44 of the 50 U.S. states in 2010. Researchers have reported that the average adult WoW player spends between 21 and 23 hours per week playing the game.

Although the number of subscriptions has dropped off since the peak in 2010, WoW has framed both the culture and educational vision of a 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game. This entry explains WoW in terms ...

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