So you can't wait to get your hands on World of Warcraft, huh? Well, wait one second my friend. Azeroth, you see, is a pretty complicated place. Everything that goes on in the world is colored and affected by the war between the Alliance and the Horde. What's that you say? You don't know who the Alliance and the Horde are, either? Wow, you really are new to this!

For all the excitement about the release of Blizzard's first MMO, the company is certainly no newbie when it comes to building compelling worlds. Indeed, World of Warcraft is the culmination of an intellectual property that's been building up since the release of 1994's Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. The storyline continued building through the release of Blizzard's classic RTS games including Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and the latest edition of the game, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.