World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated to WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. The Warcraft games are set in the Warcraft Universe, a fantasy setting introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. World of Warcraft itself takes place within the world of Azeroth, four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. World of Warcraft's release celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.
Although its initial release was hampered by server stability and performance issues, problems which still intermittently recur,[1] the game is widely regarded as a success. World of Warcraft has almost seven million active subscriptions worldwide as of September 2006


As an MMORPG, World of Warcraft is a radical departure from the standard real-time strategy wargame style of the other Warcraft games. As with other MMORPGs such as Everquest, players control a character avatar within a persistent gameworld, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters and performing quests on behalf of computer controlled characters. The game rewards success through money, items and experience which allow players' characters to improve in skill and power. In addition, players may opt to take part in battles against other players, including both duels and fights against player characters allied with an enemy faction.

Many quests and monsters through the early and middle stages of gameplay can be conquered alone without the help of other players, particularly if the player's character is higher level than his opponents. Other portions of the game, such as its instanced dungeon areas, are designed to require players to work together for success. Dungeons are designed for parties ranging from two to five players, up to significantly more difficult "raids" (a term originating from EverQuest gameplay) requiring up to a maximum of 40 players. The highest level, most complex dungeons and encounters are designed to take raiding guilds months of playtime and many attempts before they succeed. In particular, the game areas designed specifically for level 60 characters are generally much more raid-dependent (and time-consuming) than the relatively more casual experience of advancing one's character from levels 1 to 60.[3] The majority of World of Warcraft's endgame content (i.e., content specifically designed for level 60 characters) requires raiding, with raids making up the bulk of the game's development since release.

Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a computer and video game created by DMA Design (now Rockstar North) and published by ASC Games in 1998. It is the first in the extremely popular Grand Theft Auto series that has thus far spanned seven standalone games, and two expansion packs for the original. See Grand Theft Auto (series) for more on the series and other games in it.

The game allows the player to take on the role of a criminal who can roam around the city freely. Various missions are set for completion, such as bank robberies, assassinations, and other crimes.

The original Grand Theft Auto is made up of a series of levels each set in one of the three cities in the game. In each level, the player has a target number of points to achieve, and five lives to attain the score.

The score counter doubles as a money meter; the player can spend this money on paint jobs and various other things. However, any money spent is of course taken away from the score, making the goal that little bit further away.

On obtaining the target number of points, the player must then drive to a certain location to complete the level, which allows progress to the next one.

Apart from that, the player is free to do whatever he wants. The player can just explore the city, cause death and destruction amid the traffic in the city, or steal and sell cars for profit, although completing a level will almost certainly require the completion of missions. Even in missions there is still some freedom, as usually the player is free to choose the route to take, although the destination is usually fixed. This level of freedom is not found in most action-based computer games.