So you want to play World of Warcraft, but you’re totally lost on the lingo? With the help of researcher Moses Wolfenstein, Curb breaks down the language of World of Warcraft.

Level

“WoW is in many respects a classic role playing game. As players complete quests and earn experience points for other activities, they ‘level-up’ becoming more powerful and acquiring new abilities. The current level-cap in WoW is level 80, however this will be raised to 85 with the release of the next expansion Cataclysm,” Wolfenstein says, adding that the release date for Cataclysm is currently unavailable.

Race

When creating a World of Warcraft character, players choose one of ten races: Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, Night Elves, Draenei, Orcs, Toren, Trolls, Undead and Blood Elves. Each race has its own unique traits and skills.

Class

After choosing a race for his or her character, players must also choose a class. World of Warcraft classes include Death Knights, Druids, Hunters, Mages, Paladins, Priests, Rogues, Shamans, Warlocks and Warriors. Only certain classes are available to each race. Class determines the spells that are available to the characer. For example, some classes are healing classes and others are more destructive in battle.

Faction

“There are two main player factions in WoW, the Horde and the Alliance. Players must choose one when they begin the game, and the two factions can not communicate with each other in-game and often compete for resources. There are also other factions in WoW representing the various coalitions within the fantasy world with which players can accrue a positive or negative reputation,” Wolfenstein says.

In World of Warcraft, races are divided into two factions: Horde and Alliance. Characters can only create guilds with other players in the same faction. Neither faction is necessarily good or bad, but they are often hostile toward each other. Characters in opposing factions cannot understand each other or trade with each other, but they can fight with each other.

Guild

“Guilds are organizations of players in-game. Raiding guilds are guilds focused primarily on completing the most difficult content in the game through collaborative play, but there are also many guilds which exist primarily for social purposes,” Wolfenstein says.

Quest

“Quests consist of specific tasks which players can perform for non-player characters in the game in exchange for a reward consisting of in-game currency or items,” Wolfenstein says.

The complexity of quests ranges from very simple to very difficult, and the resulting rewards for completing quests vary, as well. Some quests require collaboration between players and some can be completed solo.

Raid

“A raid is a group of up to 40 players who have come together for either difficult “end game” content, or to engage in large scale player versus player combat,” Wolfenstein says.

Raids often occur in dungeons, or ‘instances,’ where players must complete a task or defeat a monster.

Dungeon

“A dungeon, also known as an instance, is a location in-game designed for 5, 10, or 25 players to play through together. Dungeons contain some of the most powerful monsters in the game, and oftentimes involve the culminating events that players experience after completing many other quests. Dungeons are called instances because they are ‘instanced’ from the rest of the game world, allowing groups of players to try the challenges without the disruption of other players disrupting their game,” Wolfenstein says.

Battlegrounds

Battlegrounds are locations throughout Azeroth where members of each faction battle it out in player-versus-player combat.

Mount

“Mounts are animals or vehicles which can be obtained in-game to provide faster transportation, or in some instances to provide transportation to parts of the world that are inaccessible ‘on foot.’ Mounts were originally only available at level 40, but Blizzard has since made them available at level 30. With the release of the first expansion, The Burning Crusade, Blizzard made flying mounts available to players at level 70,” Wolfenstein says.

To go back to World of Warcraft: Not so lonely after all, click here.