


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 Halloween, Midsummer and weekly fishing competitions.

Players can also participate in player versus player combat, either in large groups, small team matches, or individual skirmishes.

Gameplay primarily consists of completing quests, dungeon runs and raids, and other in-game activities, in order to obtain rewards which will allow one to improve one's character and equipment in order to be able to complete the more difficult quests, dungeon runs and raids. In the game, players design a character to play based on a number of starting options, such as the race of a character and its type or class. The latest expansion, Shadowlands, introduced the eponymous Shadowlands, a realm composed of five major zones: Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, Ravendreth, and the Maw. The seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, added two new continents to the center of Azeroth. The expansion Legion adds 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. Warlords of Draenor introduced the planet of Draenor, a version of Outland was before its partial destruction. The next expansion, Mists of Pandaria, added Pandaria, the southern continent previously hidden behind a perennial mist cover. Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm expanded upon Azeroth and respectively added Northrend, the frigid northern continent of Azeroth, and drastically changed various other continents by destroying some and unveiling new ones. The first, The Burning Crusade, introduced a second planet, Outland. Post-release expansions have extended the game's universe. The game of World of Warcraft, or WoW, is set in a fictional planet known as Azeroth.
