The Battle for Azeroth: Adventure, Alliance, And Addiction Insights into the World of Warcraft (Smart Pop series) [Paperback]

Bill Fawcett (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2006 | Series: Smart Pop series

Aimed at dedicated fans of the role playing game World of Warcraft, this dynamic collection of essays explores the undying fascination with a game that is a welcome escape from reality for millions of people around the world. Gaming experts, developers, and bestselling sci-fi authors examine the overwhelming success of the game and the underlying motivations for gamers to spend, on average, as much time as they would at a part-time job battling in the world of Azeroth, and address issues ranging from economics and psychology to addiction and game ethics are addressed, as are the outstanding design of the game and the histories of several main characters.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Read [this book] to find out what these strategy games are all about."  —The Washington Post

About the Author

Bill Fawcett is a co-founder of Mayfair Games, a board and role play–gaming company, as well as an award-winning board and computer game designer. He has also edited more than 50 anthologies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 287 pages
• Publisher: Smart Pop (June 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932100849
• ISBN-13: 978-1932100846
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,295,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nancy Berman is a 4th generation Californian who has been writing since the 2nd grade. Between work-related and freelance projects, she has contributed to more than 30 computer and video games, 20 RPG sourcebooks (including the original "L.A. by Night" for White Wolf), four novellas, and several magazine and anthology articles. Although she feels perfectly comfortable writing to spec, her personal writing interests include magical realism, alternate history, and poetry. Her favorite authors are Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Storm Constantine, and Jacqueline Carey.

She has a B.A. in English, with a minor in Latin, and graduate coursework in several fields including Folklore & Mythology, English Literature, Fashion Design, and Business.

Nancy is an avid MMORPG player with serious altitis, a foodie with an interest in culinary history, and a devoted fan of the Red Sox and Patriots.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Starts out well and finishes strong, August 6, 2007

By 

spacebas "spacebas" (Springfield,VA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Battle for Azeroth: Adventure, Alliance, And Addiction Insights into the World of Warcraft (Smart Pop series) (Paperback)

This is a collection of essays on WoW. I found the first 7 essays very informative and enjoyable. The last 5 essays seemed to be more complaints of people who live with WoW players and not so interesting accounts of addictive behavior.

Part 2 of the book gives background and historical examples for each of the classes available to WoW players. This was very interesting provides insight into the way the classes were designed by Blizzard.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bit of a let down, December 18, 2006

By 

Jason Short "Mad Scientist" (Seattle, Washington, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Battle for Azeroth: Adventure, Alliance, And Addiction Insights into the World of Warcraft (Smart Pop series) (Paperback)

Think of this book as more of a collection of random blog posts related around World of Warcraft. There was no real cohesion among the authors. I did really enjoy some of the early chapters, but the end of the book felt like a publisher looking for filler. This information could have been a single series on a website blog somewhere.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Battle of WoW Addictiton, March 8, 2007

By 

J.J. Sigil "AverageJo" (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Battle for Azeroth: Adventure, Alliance, And Addiction Insights into the World of Warcraft (Smart Pop series) (Paperback)

This book is very humorous & very serious look at "The World of Warcraft", packed with short articles & essays about nearly every facet of the king of all MMORPG's. Entertaining & informative, I'm happy I took a chance on this book.

As most players of WoW know, this game can really be addicting! If you want to give up other vices, say smoking, you can by playing WoW, you won't have time for a cigarette, or you can loose weight! You won't have time to fix a proper meal!

The contributors to this book address all of this, and other such subjects as the unique economy of "Azeroth", hacking, cheating, & even where our history & legends have been adapted into WoW.

This is a fun book for any WoW player. Enjoy!