Socialization, chatting, role-playing. Said by some to be the heart and sole of the MMORPG genre. Now, while World of Warcraft won't go as far as the Sims Online has in this area, Blizzard has a number of different features planned to enhance socialization in the world.

If you've ever played any type of online game, you have no doubt seen and heard of guilds (or clans as they are sometimes called). Referring to the good 'ol dictionary.com, a guild is an association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards. Guilds are very varied in MMORPGs, ranging from huge social organazations, crafting guilds, pvp guilds, or even the small group of friends who just like to go out and enjoy themselves. Blizzard has said they intend to support a full-featured community which includes guilds.

Guild Features:

• Players get to choose an emblem and color combination unique to their guild, that is embroidered on special guild tabards that players can display proudly over their characters' armor.
• The guild will get a guild hall. (not confirmed) This is a meeting place for the guild to hold meetings, a safe position to chat and hang out, and a storage facility for the guild's treasures. Additional features of the guild halls have not yet been released.
• Extensive guild management options to keep your guild in line. These will include tools for managing your guild's membership, and will include a clan "website" like the player profiles in Warcraft 3 on Blizzard's website displaying all types of guild statistics.
• Possibly different types of guilds. Brann's journal mentions that he is part of the Explorer's Guild.
• Private Chat

Dungeons in WoW have been designed with guilds in mind. While outdoor areas are level appropriate for solo-players, the 100+ "micro dungeons" are inhabited by plus-mobs which are 7-10 levels above you. Grouping with other players or guildmates is necessary to avoid instant death. WoW also has 20-plus giant dungeons, the biggest of which might take a guild full of players an entire real-world week to clear out. The gameplay in the dungeons is much slower, more strategic, and more cooperative than that outdoors-but the rewards are much greater. The best part about all these dungeons, large and small, is that they are yours and yours alone, created for your specific use when triggered by a quest. Anyone in your party can join in the "instance" (as Blizzard calls it) of your dungeon, and you can even send messages to friends outside the dungeon, inviting them in. (And should you disconnect accidentally, as we did, you'll land right back in the dungeon-not 800 miles away.) This applies to the game's largest uberdungeons as well, wich Blizzard has tailored specifically for large guild-style raids. No "raid colision" is even possible in World of WarCraft-guilds won't have to camp the game's biggest monsters, because every guild can create its own instance.

What better way to take a break from your demon slaying than to go watch a fight! Although not officially annouced by Blizzard, an arena (located on Stranglethorn Vale) was seen in the March 2003 gameplay movie. This huge colesium like structue is sure to stage fights of all kinds, in a controlled atmosphere. The 2003 gameplay movie showed us mainly players vs. creeps battles, but player vs. player and clan vs. clan will certainly be included in arena fights. More arenas are rumored in Ratchet (the goblin trading city) and Bael Modan of central Kalimdor.

Blizzard hasn't given us any information on Taverns and Inns, and as such, this is all speculation. However, taverns are quite common in MMORPGs and will be in the game. These buildings offer a safe haven in between adventures, and a place to hold social gatherings. Players will most likely be able to buy food and drink (not a necessity to have, but will have benefits) as well as "hang out". Brann's journal mentions spiced venison, and flothy flagon ale as some examples of food and drink available. The March 2003 gameplay movie even showed characters who looked like they were dancing at a tavern in Stormwind. Some mmorpgs has instituded card playing and other games/gambling in the taverns.

World of Warcraft promises to have a wider range of emotes available than any MMORPG to date. Emotes will also be localized (changed depending on your location) because different actions mean different things in different parts of the world. The emotes available as of May 2003 are: wave, bow, cheer, kiss, cry, dance, shy, point, flex, shout, beg, chicken, kneel, rude, stand, sit, laugh, sleep, applaud, roar.

Find it hard to keep track of the people you meet in game? Just as they have done in all other their Battle.net games, Blizzard has added a Friends list to WoW. By simply adding a player to your list, you can easily chat with them, see where they are, and invite them into your party. An ignore list is included as well, in case you run into people who are less than friendly. The game also has built-in e-mail functions, as mentioned in the October issue of CGW, which allows you to invite players instantly into your group, no matter where they are.

World of Warcraft's party system allows for up to 5 players to join together in a party. Party leaders will have the option of what looting system the party will use. Options currently include Free for All, Round Robin, and Leader Only. Parties get their own private chat, and can get their own instanced areas of the world that no one else can enter. 5 members might not seem like many, but parties can be linked to form supergroups to slay larger monsters. Micro-dungeons are dungeons for a single party to fight in, while uberdungeons are designed to take huge supergroups of players to tackle.

Each race speaks (or types if you want to be technically correct) in their own language. If you are an Orc, and come across some Dwarven travelers, you will not be able to understand what they are saying. Dwarvish will appear on your screen instead of your normal language. All Alliance races can speak Common (the language of the Humans) as well as their race's language, while all Horde races can speak Orcish (the language of the Orcs) as well as their race's language. To begin with, opposing factions cannot communicate with each other but with training in the Languages skill, players will be able to master other languages and speak with members of other factions. The exception to this is the undead, who as former humans, can speak both Orcish and Common. The following table is a list of languages in the Warcraft Universe that we know of.