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World of Warcraft is a unique MMORPG game. Blizzard Entertainment’s creation managed to become a tremendous success that no other MMORPG game was able to copy. There are hundreds of studies and researchers who try to explain what makes WoW such a successful role-playing game.

For those who are not familiar with the game, we suggest to read about it in Wikipedia and other sites that will provide the first insights about the game. The main idea of the game is to be a multi-player role-playing game in which players from different places on earth can join a mystical virtual world, fight between each other, form guilds, earn money, buy items and weapons and level up to higher levels.

Since its first editions in the nineties, World of Warcraft became a known financial and technological success. The question that most people ask is what future holds for WoW? What new developments will keep players online and what Blizzard Entertainment must do in order to preserve the popularity of the game?

The main thing that Blizzard wants to do is to maintain their success. We all know that trends, and especially technologic entertainment trends are changing fast, so in order to keep interest in WoW, Blizzard must provide the players with new excitements.

A prove to this claim was given last year when the company released the first World of Warcraft extension, titled as The Burning Crusade.

This extension gave players new ways to have more fun: new quests, new races of creatures, new items and 10 new levels. The extension proved to be a huge success and avid gamers stood in line for days in order to buy it.

Another way that helped Blizzard to keep World of Warcraft in the mainstream is to develop all sorts of side products. It is actually a thing that started by WoW gamers and became some sort of a side-industry. We’re talking about all sorts of gold guides, strategy manuals and other real or e-books that helped players with the game, showed them what and how are the best ways to achieve those things.

What Blizzard Entertainment should do now is to keep this momentum and to change the whole atmosphere of the game. Many tech experts believe that Blizzard must focus on strengthening the sense of community of WoW players. The side-industry we mentioned on the previous paragraph is just part of the actions that must be taken in order to provide players with the needed sense of community.

In order to make World of Warcraft a real alternative to the real world (just like it happens with Second Life for example), Blizzard must motivate more real-world gatherings, more conventions and more real-life meetings on one side and to continue to support the virtual communities in forums, chats and discussion boards.

Experts believe that no matter what will be the course of events, World of Warcraft popularity will continue to grow in the next years, but if Blizzard really wants to leave a mark on the history of computer gaming, WoW must hold strong for many years, and the key to that is in the development of a sense of community of WoW gamers.

Jessie Wilson is an avid MMORPG gamer and a researcher. She wrote several articles about online role playing games and she runs the World of Warcraft Gold Guide website.