| It's a closely guarded secret, but widely available if | | | | server is that you cannot use your character on the |
| you know where to look. Blizzard Entertainment's | | | | official Warcraft servers. There are hundreds of |
| hugely popular multiplayer game World of Warcraft | | | | these servers and thousands of players, so there is |
| requires a monthly subscription of $14.95 USD. | | | | no real reason to need the actual Blizzard servers. |
| However, many of the eight million players cannot | | | | What's more, the community on any given server is |
| justify the monthly subscript costs so this sparks a | | | | a lot closer knit, and friendlier. Unlike Blizzard |
| revolt of sorts - to find a solution to playing warcraft | | | | Entertainment's Warcraft servers. |
| for free. | | | | Gearing up to Play Warcraft |
| Sound familiar, possibly like hacking Windows XP, or | | | | To find a server, use your favorite search engine and |
| Windows Vista? It is the same basic principle. | | | | look for "warcraft emulation", or "world of warcraft |
| "Everyone wants if free", and "Everyone does not | | | | private server" |
| want to pay for it" The harder you try to force the | | | | To use a private server; |
| public to pay, the harder the public resists and finds | | | | 1) Download the World of Warcraft client, which is |
| an alternative. Only, in this case, the alternative is | | | | available pretty well anywhere, or download it directly |
| legal. | | | | from Blizzard Entertainment. |
| In this quest, the ever growing popularity of the | | | | 2) Install the client, all the appropriate updates |
| game has spawned what are called Warcraft | | | | 3) Find a private server and copy it's address down |
| emulation servers. Essentially, these are private | | | | 4) Edit the 'realms list' file, Located in C:Program |
| servers offered for free to anyone wishing to play. | | | | FilesWorld of Warcraft realmlist.wtf. Enter the |
| The code behind these emulation servers is | | | | address of the private server you saved earlier |
| completely written using open source software that | | | | This will have you playing on a private server in no |
| is publicly available. This then avoids any legal | | | | time. It is also a good suggestion to keep a couple of |
| ramifications from reverse engineering software, | | | | private servers address, in the event a particular |
| which is protected by US law. | | | | server is busy. |
| The caveat to a free public Warcraft emulation | | | | |