Expansion pack doubles adventure fun in World of Warcraft

With the launch of The Burning Crusade pack in mid-January 2007, 8 million adventurers in World of Warcraft will now have twice as much fun and fantasy, as they explore the new realm of Outland, explore many more dungeons and assume characters of two new races.

Dangerous dungeons like Karazhan, Hellfire Citadel and Tempest Keep will keep these players on the edge of their seats as they live out their virtual life among demons, dragons, dwarves, Orcs, elves, knights and other weird and wonderful denizens of Warcraft.

Outland, which is an entirely new continent, is said to be nearly as large as the existing game world. Other attractions is a new battleground, Eye of the Storm and three new cities, The Exodar, Shattrath and Silvermoon.

The best part is the playing level has been raised from 60 to 70, says Clement Dubberke, a typical Warcraft player who spends almost all his free time on World of Warcraft, and is now playing at level 66.

Clement says with the two new races, Draenei and the Blood Elves, he can now play many more different characters. Typically like most hardcore WoW (World of Warcraft) subscribers, he plays about three hours a day during weekdays and 10 hours during weekends. But his hours are nothing compared with many players in America who would spend eight to 10 hours a day on WoW, he says.

Clements, 24, works as an aircraft engineering apprentice at Singapore Airlines. His NS reservist vocation is clerk.

He thinks World of Warcraft is the best ever online game. His second and third favourites are City of Heroes and Guild Wars.

Players like Clement and the thousand-odd people who queued for the expansion set when it was launched here in mid-January, are the ones who make game producer Blizzard happy beyond words. Rob Pardo, the chief designer for World of Warcraft, says the reception for the Burning Crusade “is far beyond our wildest expectations”.

Although World of Warcraft has been around since November 2004, the Burning Crusade is the first expansion pack. Among the most interesting additions are the new dungeons, offering two difficulty levels: Normal and Heroic. (The existing dungeons have only one difficulty mode.)

Once a player reaches level 70, they may choose to play at a lower-level in the Heroic mode. Although more difficult, it also yields better rewards.

The origin of the two new races provide the backstory to the WoW universe:

Blood Elves are remnants of the High Elves who survived the destruction of Quel’Thalas by the Undead Scourge. They renamed themselves in remembrance of their slaughtered brethren.

Blood Elves are highly adept with magic, but through extensive use they became addicted to it. They cannot live long without it and will do anything to wield it. After the Scourge destroyed the Sunwell, their source of magical power, they began to experiment with demonic energies. One group, led by Prince Kael’thas, joined Illidan and the Naga in exchange for magical power. The Blood Elves remaining in Azeroth now seek the Horde’s help in reaching Outland, so they can be reunited with Illidan and achieve the destiny he promised them.

They join the Horde alongside the Orcs, Trolls, Undead and Tauren. Their addiction to magic means they have increased resistance from magic used against them. Blood elves can drain mana from their enemies and prevent others from using magic by using a racial silence ability.

Draenei are tall human-looking creatures with hooves for feet and look like satyrs of Greek mythology. They share a common ancestry with the Eredar, one of the Burning Legion’s major races. Whereas their Eredar brethren were twisted by shadow magic, the Draenei have aligned themselves with the Light.

The Draenei were chased out of their homeland of Argus by Kil’Jaeden. The Draenei and Velen fled Argus, and were helped by the Naaru, enigmatic beings that blessed the Draenei with light-given knowledge and power. With the Naaru’s help, they settled on a peaceful world which they named Draenor.

They shared this world with the native Orc tribes for centuries. However, Kil’jaeden discovered their secret refuge on Draenor. He corrupted the Orcs into a bloodthirsty frenzy, and the Orcs killed most of the Draenei in blind rage.

The surviving Draenei fled to relative safety in their inter-dimensional ship, the Exodar. They crash-landed on the Azuremyst Isles of Azeroth, and pledged their support to the Alliance to fight the Burning Legion and the Orcs. Their capital city is also named Exodar, and is built out of the largest husk of the remains of the ship.

Exodar is almost certainly the largest city in Azeroth. It has all of the usual districts, along with two banks and two auction houses. The whole place is enclosed within one giant structure (the ship’s hull) and has a lot of wide-open spaces.

They join the Alliance along with Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes and Night Elves.