World of Warcraft (WoW), is set in a fictional universe, with its primary setting being the planet of Azeroth. The first expansion, The Burning Crusade, introduced a second planet, Outland. Wrath of the Lich King expanded upon Azeroth and added Northrend, the frigid northern continent of Azeroth, while the next expansion, and Cataclysm , drastically changed various other continents by destroying some and unveiling new ones. The next expansion, Mists of Pandaria, added Pandaria, the southern continent previously hidden behind a perennial mist cover. Warlords of Draenor introduced the planet of Draenor, a version of Outland in a different timeline before its partial destruction. The Legion expansion took adventurers to the Broken Isles, an island chain near the Maelstrom in the middle of the Great Sea, and the damaged planet Argus, the headquarters of the Burning Legion. The seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, added two new island continents to the center of Azeroth: Kul Tiras and Zandalar. The latest expansion, Shadowlands, introduced the eponymous Shadowlands, a realm composed of five major zones: Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, Revendreth, and the Maw.
In the game, players design a playable character based on a number of starting options, such as the race of a character and its class. Gameplay primarily consists of completing quests, dungeons and raids, and other in-game activities to obtain rewards which allows one to improve one's character and equipment in order to be able to complete the more difficult quests, dungeons, and raids. Players can also participate in player versus player combat, either in large groups, small team matches, or individual skirmishes.
Over time, a number of additional features and improvements have been added to the game world, such as additional locations to explore, and seasonal and periodic events such as Hallow's End, the Midsummer Fire Festival, and weekly fishing competitions in the Cape of Stranglethorn zone. Among the newer features added is a pet battle system akin to Pokémon, where players can collect pets all over the game world and battle with them and garrisons, which is a player-controlled area where players recruit non-player characters (NPC) to carry out quests to earn players or the NPCs items. Players can also modify their in-game experience through the use of third-party modifications such as macros and add-ons. Any software that can modify game mechanics (such as Glider) is against the terms of use.