These guides serve as commonly known information on the game, as well as a sort of FAQ on the information known about it as well. Please post on the boards or email me at Ghaldros@yahoo.com if you have anything you would like added, or see something that is incorrect or inacurate. -Most of this information was gathered from wow.catacombs.com, so all thanks go to them for it.

       The game is set four years after the end of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, in a ravaged Azeroth, wracked with tension. It is up to players to develop the skills and forge the alliances that allow them to survive in this time of strife.

       Players in WoW will see themselves affiliated with a group of races, the Horde or the Alliance . Each alliance will provide their racial members with cities, and items. On the other hand, the opposite faction towns and items will be hostile to them, thus much harder to visit and cooperate with.

       Blizzard has been rather quiet on this matter, but we do know that they do not wish to make death stop you from doing heroic actions

       If you have played any other MMORPGs you know that Traveling can be tedious, time consuming, and boring. Blizzard has announced that WoW will have one of the largest play areas known in MMORPGs thus far. Blizzard has only announced two methods of travel thus far: Scripted transports, and player controlled mounts. Below is a list of ways that are used in other games, and may come into play in WoW.

             -Transportation portal, or 'ringways (Asherons Call)
             -Scripted horses, i.e. you don't control it, it goes from point A to B (DAoC)
             -Player controlled mounts : You actually buy an animal you can ride (EQ, UO)
             -Teleportation NPC rituals (DAoC)

       Each race has a unique mount (apart from Tauren which are mounts themselves), which they can control freely through the world. Through a Riding skill, players will be able to gain greater benefit from their mount, as well as gain the ability to use other race's animals or even wild ones. From what we know from Blizzard, only high level players will have access to the good mounts, while low-level player will have to rely on their own race's mounts or travel by other means. The reputation with the race you wish to use a pet also plays a role, since you won't be able to buy one from an Orc if you don't have a good reputation with them. Once bought, mounts are summonable through a scroll in your inventory. They cannot die or be lost, and instantly appear / disappear when you use the scroll. They should also provide some bonus armor while riding, but such bonuses are still secretly discussed at Blizzard.

             Below is a list of Racial mounts:
                   Humans - Horses
                   Orcs - Wolves
                   Tauren - Taurens don't have mounts, but use a sprint skill called Plains Walking instead
                   Dwarf - Ram
                   Night Elf - Nightsabre
                   Undead - Nightmares
                   Gnome - Unknown
                   Troll - Unknown

       Unlike mounts, the other transportation means like Ships, Gryphons and Zeppelins cannot be freely controlled and must be set on course to a valid destination point that you previously 'flagged', or visited. As an example, a human player will go to a Gryphon nest in Dun Morogh, and ask to be traveled to Stormwind, which he was born in. The player will then start flying and will be able to look around the world while he travels. Boats and Zeppelins work the same, but they also bring some mini-games to make the time pass faster. Ships will get mini-quests (fighting invaders etc) while Zeppelins will get some gamblin games.

             The known transports are:
                -Gryphon (Human, Dwarf, Gnome)
                -Hippogryph (Night Elf)
                -Wyvern (Orcs, Tauren, Troll)
                -Bat Creature (Undead)
                -Zepplin (Long Distance Air Traport)
                -Boat (Long Distance Sea Traport)

       In addition to the more traditional traveling ways (Mounts and Scripted Transport), various magic scrolls and potions will be available to the player to enhance their speed, or grant them temporary immunity to travel in dangerous locations. Spells may also exist that will instantly transport the player(s) across the world. Some of these spells will be player cast, but will most likely only go to fixed areas, like a magical nexus of power that the Mage can anchor too (i.e. Portal Spire) that usually reside near major cities and places of commerce. Spell Transport to more remote locations will most likely be done by NPCs, and come at a cost.

Inventory control will consist of two main parts: Worn and Stored. Worn inventory will be things like weapons your wielding, armor your wearing, and other things such as rings, amulets, bracers and such. Stored inventory will be the things in your bags, such as loot gathered from fallen monsters, which can be stored and sold later. Stored inventory won't be limitless however. Space will be limited to size of items, and weight. Your bags can only hold so much (lots of tiny items vs. few large items), and you yourself can only carry so much (lots of light weight things vs. only a few heavy items). Your inventory space is usually set for all races/classes, bags may exist that will allow you to carry more once placed in your inventory. Weight however will be determined by your strength.

                    Known Inventory Slots:

             Weapons/Shield:
                -Main Hand: Primary Weapon or Tool
                -Off Hand: Secondary Weapon or Shield (Disabled if using a two handed item)
                -Ranged: Ranged Weapon
                -Ammunition: Ammunition stored for the Ranged Weapon

             Armor:
                -Head: Helmet or Hood
                -Body: Body armor and clothes
                -Arms: Sleeves and such
                -Leggs: Leggins and Pants
                -Belt: Waist item, can add magical properties and/or add extra inventory space for potions/scrolls

             Accessories:
                -Neck: Necklace or Amulet
                -Wrists (2): Wristbands or Bracelets
                -Fingers (2): Rings
                -Trinkets (4): All sorts of miscellaneous things that you can use. Torches, matches, glasses etc.

       It seems like Blizzard chose a level / skill system much like Diablo 2, but they didn't go very deep yet in the details of how it'll work. There will be core skills, like magic for a mage, where even if you don't spend points you can't be terrible at using it, and your character will learn it faster. Each class will also have a variety of secondary skills, from which each person will be able to customize his character differently, to some extent of course.