document_title: World of Warcraft

question_text: when does the next world of warcraft expansion come out

question_tokens: when does the next world of warcraft expansion come out

text: World of Warcraft

text: Gameplay

text: Starting a character or play session

text: As with other MMORPGs, players control a character avatar within a game world in third- or first-person view, exploring the landscape, fighting various monsters, completing quests, and interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) or other players. Also similar to other MMORPGs, World of Warcraft requires the player to pay for a subscription by using a credit or debit card, using prepaid Blizzard game cards or using a WoW Token purchased in-game. Players without a subscription may use a trial account that lets the player character reach up to level 20 but has many features locked.[19]

text: To enter the game, the player must select a server, referred to in-game as a realm. Each realm acts as an individual copy of the game world and falls into one of four categories. Available realms types are:

text:
Normal – a player versus environment (PvE) realm where the gameplay is more focused on defeating monsters and completing quests, player-versus-player fights must be consensual, and any roleplay is optional.
PvP (player versus player) – an environment where, in addition to defeating monsters and completing quests, open PvP combat is allowed so a player may be attacked by the opposing faction's players at any time.
RP (roleplay) – a variant of PvE, where players roleplay in-character.
RP-PvP – roleplay-PvP – a variant of PvP, where players are in-character and cross-faction combat is allowed.

text: Realms are also categorized by language, with in-game support in the language available.[20]

text: Players can make new characters on all realms within the region, and it is also possible to move already established characters between realms for a fee.[21]

text: To create a new character, in keeping with the storyline of previous Warcraft games, players must choose between the opposing factions of the Alliance or the Horde; Pandarens, added in Mists of Pandaria, do not commit to a faction until after the starting zone is completed. Characters from the opposing factions can perform rudimentary communication (most often just "emotes"), but only members of the same faction can speak, mail, group and join guilds. The player selects the new character's race, such as orcs or trolls for the Horde, or humans or dwarves for the Alliance.[22] Players must select the class for the character, with choices such as mages, warriors, and priests available.[23] Most classes are limited to particular races.

text: Ongoing gameplay

text: As characters become more developed, they gain various talents and skills, requiring the player to further define the abilities of that character.[24] Characters can choose two primary professions that can focus on producing items, such as tailoring, blacksmithing or jewelcrafting or on gathering from resource nodes, such as skinning or mining. Characters can learn all four secondary skills: archeology, cooking, fishing and first aid.[25][26] Characters may form and join guilds, allowing characters within the guild access to the guild's chat channel, the guild name and optionally allowing other features, including a guild tabard, guild bank, guild repairs, and dues.[27]

text: Much of World of Warcraft play involves the completion of quests. These quests are usually available from NPCs.[28] Quests usually reward the player with some combination of experience points, items, and in-game money. Quests allow characters to gain access to new skills and abilities, as well as the ability to explore new areas.[29] It is through quests that much of the game's story is told, both through the quest's text and through scripted NPC actions.[30] Quests are linked by a common theme, with each consecutive quest triggered by the completion of the previous, forming a quest chain. Quests commonly involve killing a number of creatures, gathering a certain number of resources, finding a difficult to locate object, speaking to various NPCs, visiting specific locations, interacting with objects in the world, or delivering an item from one place to another to acquire experience and treasures.

text: While a character can be played on its own, players can group with others to tackle more challenging content. Most end-game challenges are designed in a way that they can only be overcome while in a group. In this way, character classes are used in specific roles within a group.[28][31] World of Warcraft uses a "rested bonus" system, increasing the rate that a character can gain experience points after the player has spent time away from the game.[24] When a character dies, it becomes a ghost—or wisp for Night Elf characters—at a nearby graveyard.[29] Characters can be resurrected by other characters that have the ability or can self-resurrect by moving from the graveyard to the place where they died. If a character is past level ten and they resurrect at a graveyard, the items equipped by the character degrade, requiring in-game money and a specialist NPC to repair them. Items that have degraded heavily become unusable until they are repaired. If the location of the character's body is unreachable, they can use a special "spirit healer" NPC to resurrect at the graveyard. When the spirit healer revives a character, items equipped by the character at that time are further degraded, and the character is significantly weakened by what is in-game called "resurrection sickness" for up to ten minutes, depending on the character's level. This "resurrection sickness" does not occur and item degradation is less severe if the character revives by locating its body, or is resurrected by another player through spells or special items.[32][33]

text: World of Warcraft contains a variety of mechanisms for player versus player (PvP) play. Players on player versus environment (PvE) servers can opt to "flag" themselves, making themselves attackable to players of the opposite faction.[34] Depending on the mode of the realm, PvP combat between members of opposing factions is possible at almost any time or location in the game world—the only exception being the starting zones, where the PvP "flag" must be enabled by the player wishing to fight against players of the opposite faction. PvE (called normal or RP) servers, by contrast, allow a player to choose whether or not to engage in combat against other players. On both server types, there are special areas of the world where free-for-all combat is permitted. Battlegrounds, for example, are similar to dungeons: only a set number of characters can enter a single battleground, but additional copies of the battleground can be made to accommodate additional players.[35] Each battleground has a set objective, such as capturing a flag or defeating an opposing general, that must be completed to win the battleground. Competing in battlegrounds rewards the character with tokens and honor points that can be used to buy armor, weapons, and other general items that can aid a player in many areas of the game. Winning a battleground awards more honor and tokens than losing. In addition, players also earn honor when they or nearby teammates kill players in a battleground.[34]

text: Setting

text: World of Warcraft is set in the same universe as the Warcraft series of real-time strategy games and has a similar art direction.[19] World of Warcraft contains elements from fantasy, steampunk, and science fiction: such as gryphons, dragons, and elves; steam-powered automata; zombies, werewolves, and other horror monsters; as well as time travel, spaceships, and alien worlds.

text: World of Warcraft takes place in a 3D representation of the Warcraft universe that players can interact with through their characters. The game world initially consisted of the two continents in Azeroth: Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Four separate expansions later added to the game's playable area the realms of Outland and Draenor and the continents of Northrend and Pandaria. As a player explores new locations, different routes and means of transportation become available. Players can access "flight masters" in newly discovered locations to fly to previously discovered locations in other parts of the world.[36] Players can also use boats, zeppelins, or portals to move from one continent to another. Although the game world remains relatively similar from day to day, seasonal events reflecting real world events, such as Halloween,[37] Christmas, Children's Week,[34] Easter, and Midsummer have been represented in the game world. Locations also have variable weather including, among other things, rain, snow, and dust storms.[36]

text: A number of facilities are available for characters while in towns and cities. In each major city, characters can access a bank to deposit items, such as treasure or crafted items. Each character has access to personal bank storage with the option to purchase additional storage space using in-game gold.[38] Additionally, guild banks are available for use by members of a guild with restrictions being set by the guild leader.[39] Auction houses are available for players to buy and sell items to others in a similar way to online auction sites such as eBay.[40] Players can use mailboxes, which can be found in almost every town. Mailboxes are used to collect items won at auction, and to send messages, items, and in-game money to other characters.[24]

text: Some of the challenges in World of Warcraft require players to group together to complete them. These usually take place in dungeons—also known as "instances"—that a group of characters can enter together. The term "instance" comes from each group or party having a separate copy, or instance, of the dungeon, complete with their own enemies to defeat and their own treasure or rewards.[41] This allows a group to explore areas and complete quests without others interfering. Dungeons are spread over the game world and are designed for characters of varying progression. A typical dungeon will allow up to five characters to enter as part of a group. Some dungeons require more players to group together and form a "raid" of up to forty players to face some of the most difficult challenges.[42] As well as dungeon-based raid challenges, several creatures exist in the normal game environment that are designed for raids to attack.[37][43]

text: Subscription

text: World of Warcraft requires a subscription to allow continued play, with options to pay in one-month, three-month, or six-month blocks, and time cards of varying lengths available from retailers, or purchasing a "WoW Token" in-game.[44][45] Expansion packs are available online and from retailers. As the game client is the same regardless of the version of World of Warcraft the user owns, the option to purchase expansions online was added as it allows for a quick upgrade. World of Warcraft is also available as a free Starter Edition, which is free to play for an unlimited amount of time. Starter Edition characters are unable to gain experience after reaching level 20, and there are other restrictions in effect for Starter Edition accounts, including the inability to trade, use mail, use Auction House, use public chat channels, join guilds or amass more than ten gold.[46]

text: In January 2015, accounts that have lapsed subscriptions, which previously would not let a player log in, work like a restricted Starter Edition account with the one difference that sub-level 20 characters will be able to join a guild if any of your other characters are still in that guild.[47]

text: In April 2015, an alternate way to cover the subscription was introduced. A player may spend real money ($20 in North America and differing amounts in other regions) on a WoW Token, which is sold on the auction house for in-game gold that initially could only be used to add 30 days of playtime.[45] At the launch of the feature in NA, a token sold for 30k gold and 24 hours later sold for 20k gold, therefore the gold amount changes depending on what players are willing to spend and the supply. Subsequently, the amount that an NA token sells for remained selling at above 30,000 gold and the other Battle.net regions are well above that value. Once a player buys a token on the auction house, it is account bound and cannot be resold. In February 2017, the WoW Token can also be exchanged for $15 in Battle.net balance that can be used as credit for purchases in most of Blizzard's games as well as in Destiny 2.[48]

text: Parental controls

text: The company offers parental controls[49] that allow various limits to be set on playing time. It is possible to set a daily limit, a weekly limit, or to specify an allowed playing schedule. In order to control these settings, it is necessary to log in with different credentials than are used just to enter the game. It is also possible to receive statistics on the time spent playing. Apart from controlling children, adults sometimes use parental controls on themselves.[50] The company supports this kind of protection as otherwise the potential players or their supervisors may choose to uninstall or block the game permanently.

text: Plot

text: This section describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (May 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Intent on settling in Durotar, Thrall's Horde expanded its ranks by inviting the undead Forsaken to join orcs, tauren, and trolls. Meanwhile, dwarves, gnomes, and the ancient night elves pledged their loyalties to the Alliance, guided by the human kingdom of Stormwind. After Stormwind's king, Varian Wrynn, mysteriously disappeared, Highlord Bolvar Fordragon served as Regent but his service was affected by the mind control of the black dragon Onyxia, who ruled in disguise as a human noblewoman. As heroes investigated Onyxia's manipulations, the ancient elemental lord Ragnaros resurfaced to endanger both the Horde and Alliance.[51] The heroes of the Horde and Alliance defeated Onyxia and sent Ragnaros back to the Elemental Plane.

text: Assault on Blackwing Lair

text: Deep within Blackrock Mountain, the black dragon Nefarian conducted twisted experiments with the blood of other dragonflights. Intent on seizing the entire area for his own, he recruited the remaining Dark Horde, a rogue army that embraced the demonic bloodlust of the old Horde. These corrupt orcs, trolls, and other races battled against Ragnaros and the Dark Iron dwarves for control of the mountain. Nefarian created the twisted chromatic dragons and a legion of other aberrations in his bid to form an army powerful enough to control Azeroth and continue the legacy of his infamous father, Deathwing the Destroyer. Nefarian was vanquished by the heroes from the Horde and the Alliance.

text: Rise of the Blood God

text: Years ago, in the ruined temple of Atal'Hakkar, loyal priests of the Blood God Hakkar the Soulflayer attempted to summon the wrathful deity's avatar into the world. But his followers, the Atal'ai priesthood, discovered that the Soulflayer could only be summoned within the Gurubashi tribe's ancient capital, Zul'Gurub. Newly reborn in this jungle fortress, Hakkar took control of the Gurubashi tribe and mortal champions of the trolls' mighty animal gods. The Soulflayer's dark influence was halted when the Zandalari tribe recruited heroes and invaded Zul'Gurub.

text: The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj

text: The great desert fortress of Ahn'Qiraj, long sealed behind the Scarab Wall, was home to the insectoid qiraji, a savage race that had once mounted an assault to devastate the continent of Kalimdor. But something far more sinister lurked behind Ahn'Qiraj's walls: the Old God C'Thun, an ancient entity whose pervasive evil had suffused Azeroth since time immemorial. As C'Thun incited the qiraji to frenzy, both the Alliance and Horde prepared for a massive war effort. A mixed force of Alliance and Horde soldiers, dubbed the Might of Kalimdor, opened the gates of Ahn'Qiraj under the command of the orc Varok Saurfang. The heroes laid siege to the ruins and temples of Ahn'Qiraj and vanquished C'Thun.

text: Shadow of the Necropolis

text: In the Lich King's haste to spread the plague of undeath over Azeroth, he gifted one of his greatest servants, the lich Kel'Thuzad, with the flying citadel of Naxxramas, as a base of operations for the Scourge. Consistent attacks from the Scarlet Crusade and Argent Dawn factions weakened the defenses of the floating fortress, enabling an incursion from the heroes that led to Kel'Thuzad's defeat. However, a traitor among the ranks of the knightly order of the Argent Dawn ran away with Kel'Thuzad's cursed remains and fled to Northrend, where the fallen lich could be reanimated.

text: Development

text: World of Warcraft was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001.[52] Released in 2004, development of the game took roughly 4–5 years, including extensive testing. The 3D graphics in World of Warcraft use elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in Warcraft III.[52] The game was designed to be an open environment where players are allowed to do what they please.[53] Quests are optional and were designed to help guide players, allow character development, and to spread characters across different zones to try to avoid what developers called player collision.[54] The game interface allows players to customize appearance and controls, and to install add-ons and other modifications.[55]

text: World of Warcraft runs natively on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Boxed copies of the game use a hybrid CD to install the game, eliminating the need for separate Mac and Windows retail products. The game allows all users to play together, regardless of their operating system. Although there is no official version for any other platform, support for World of Warcraft is present in Windows API implementations Wine and CrossOver allowing the game to be played under Linux and FreeBSD.[56] In addition, the Windows client allows for direct OpenGL rendering in Wine, making performance on Unix-like platforms comparable to the native performance seen on Windows.[57] While a native Linux client is neither released nor announced by Blizzard, in January 2011 IT journalist Michael Larabel indicated in a Phoronix article that an internal Linux client might exist but is not released due to the non-standardization of the Linux distro ecosystem.[58]

text: Regional variations

text: In the United States, Canada, and Europe, Blizzard distributes World of Warcraft via retail software packages.[59] The software package includes 30 days of gameplay for no additional cost. To continue playing after the initial 30 days, additional play time must be purchased using a credit card or prepaid game card. The minimum gameplay duration that a player can purchase is 30 days using a credit card, or 60 using a prepaid game card. A player also has the option of purchasing three or six months of gameplay at once for a 6–15% discount.[60] In Australia, the United States, and many European countries, video game stores commonly stock the trial version of World of Warcraft in DVD form, which includes the game and 20 levels[61] of gameplay, after which the player would have to upgrade to a retail account by supplying a valid credit card, or purchasing a game card as well as a retail copy of the game.

text: In Brazil, World of Warcraft was released on December 6, 2011 via BattleNet. The first three expansions are currently available, fully translated, including voice acting, into Brazilian Portuguese.[62]

text: In South Korea, there is no software package or CD key requirement to activate the account. However, to play the game, players must purchase time credits online. There are two kinds of time credits available: one where the player is billed based on the actual number of minutes that will be available, and one where the player can play the game for a number of days. In the former, time can be purchased in multiples of 5 hours or 30 hours, and in the latter, time can be purchased in multiples of 7 days, 1 month, or 3 months.[63] As software packages are not required, expansion pack contents are available to all players on launch day.

text: In China, because a large number of players do not own the computer on which they play games (e.g. if they play in Internet cafés), the CD keys required to create an account can be purchased independently of the software package. To play the game, players must also purchase prepaid game cards that can be played for 66 hours and 40 minutes.[64] A monthly fee model is not available to players of this region. The Chinese government and NetEase, the licensee for World of Warcraft in China, have imposed a modification on Chinese versions of the game which places flesh on bare-boned skeletons and transforms dead character corpses into tidy graves. These changes were imposed by the Chinese government in an attempt to "promote a healthy and harmonious online game environment" in World of Warcraft.[65][66] The Chinese government has delayed the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, due to what it feels is objectionable content.[67] NetEase took over licensing of World of Warcraft from The9 in June 2009 following the expiration of The9's contract,[68] and were able to secure a launch for Wrath of the Lich King on August 31, 2010, nearly two years after its Western release.

text: Post-launch development

text: The World of Warcraft launcher (referred to in press releases and the menu bar as the "Blizzard Launcher") is a program designed to act as a starting point for World of Warcraft players. It provides a way to launch World of Warcraft and starts the Blizzard updater. It was first included with the version 1.8.3 patch. The 2.1.0 patch allowed for an option to bypass the use of the launcher. Features of the launcher include news and updates for World of Warcraft players, access to World of Warcraft's support website, access to the test version of World of Warcraft when it is available to test upcoming patches, updates to Warden,[69] and updates to the updater itself. The 3.0.8 patch redesigned the launcher and added the ability to change the game settings from the launcher itself. The launcher update from patch 4.0.1 also allows people to play the game while non-crucial pieces of the game are downloaded. This requires a high-speed broadband internet connection.

text: Patch 1.9.3 added native support for Intel-powered Macs, making World of Warcraft a universal application. As a result of this, the minimum supported Mac OS X version has been changed to 10.3.9; World of Warcraft version 1.9.3 and later will not launch on older versions of Mac OS X.[70] PowerPC architecture Macs are no longer supported since version 4.0.1.[71]

text: When new content is added to the game, official system requirements may change. In version 1.12.0 the requirements for Windows were increased from requiring 256 MB to 512 MB of RAM. Official Windows 98 technical support was dropped, but the game continued to run there until version 2.2.3.[72] Before Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft will officially drop support for Windows 2000.[73]

text: Starting with 4.3,[74] players could try out an experimental 64-bit version of the client, which required manual downloading and copying files into the installation folder. Since 5.0, the 64-bit client is automatically installed, and used by default.

text: Since the World IPv6 Day, the client and most of the servers are supporting IPv6.[75]

text: Expansions

text:
Title
Release Date
Level Cap

The Burning Crusade
January 2007
70

Wrath of the Lich King
November 2008
80

Cataclysm
December 2010
85

Mists of Pandaria
September 2012
90

Warlords of Draenor
November 2014
100

Legion
August 2016
110

Battle for Azeroth
August 2018
120

text: Six expansions have been released: The Burning Crusade, released in January 2007, Wrath of the Lich King, released in November 2008, Cataclysm, released in December 2010, Mists of Pandaria, released in September 2012, Warlords of Draenor, released in November 2014, and Legion, released in August 2016. Players are not required to purchase expansions in order to continue playing, however, new content and features such as higher level caps and new areas may not be available until they do so.

text: Blizzard routinely applies older expansions to all accounts as new expansions are released. On June 28, 2011, The Burning Crusade expansion was automatically applied to all previous Warcraft accounts at no cost. On September 19, 2012, the same thing was done with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion,[76] and on October 15, 2013 the Cataclysm expansion was also applied.[77] On October 15, 2014, Mists of Pandaria was applied to all accounts following the release of Warlords.[78] On May 17, 2016, Warlords of Draenor was applied to all accounts to coincide with the release of the Warcraft movie that gives a 30-day trial of the game.[79] All The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor content is now effectively part of the original game, with all new Warcraft accounts automatically including these expansions upon creation.[76]

text: The fifth expansion, Warlords of Draenor, was announced at BlizzCon 2013 on November 8, 2013,[80][81] and entered beta on June 27, 2014.[82] Warlords of Draenor was released on November 13, 2014.[9] On August 6, 2015, Blizzard announced the sixth expansion, Legion, at Gamescom 2015.[83] In November 2015, the Legion's alpha testing started and in April 2016 the beta test started; the latest expansion was released on August 30, 2016.

text: Music

text: The soundtrack for World of Warcraft was composed and arranged by Jason Hayes, Tracy W. Bush, Derek Duke, and Glenn Stafford and conducted by Eímear Noone. It was released on November 23, 2004, together with the collector's edition of the game. It is sold separately on one CD in the MP3 format.

text: On January 12, 2011, Alfred Publishing produced an officially licensed sheet music series for vocalists, pianists, strings, and other instruments, World of Warcraft Sheet Music Anthology in solo and accompaniment formats with CD. These works include four pages of collectible artwork and vary by number of songs included.

text: In 2018, the remix of the song from the game, "Hymn of the Firstborn Son", was nominated for "Best Game Music Cover/Remix" at the 16th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards.[84]

text: Professional competition

text: In early 2012 Blizzard Entertainment started its own series of tournaments for World of Warcraft and Starcraft II, culminating in the 2012 Battle.net World Championship Global Finals.

text: Reception

text:
Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator
Score

GameRankings
92%[85]

Metacritic
93/100[86]

Review scores

Publication
Score

1UP.com
A[87]

Edge
9 out of 10[88]

Eurogamer
8 out of 10[89]

Game Informer
9.5 out of 10[90]

GamePro
4.5 out of 5[91]

GamesMaster
93%[88]

GameSpot
9.5 out of 10[19]

GameSpy
[30]

IGN
9.1 out of 10[29]

PC Gamer (UK)
94%[88]

PC Zone
95%[88]

text: World of Warcraft received very positive reviews upon release,[86] following a period of high anticipation before launch.[92] Although the game follows a similar model to—and was noted for using many familiar concepts from—the role-playing genre,[19][87] the new approaches to reducing pauses between game encounters were well liked.[30] A common example was the approach to character death. In some previous MMORPGs, a player would suffer a high penalty for character death; in World of Warcraft, a player is able to recover and start playing quickly.[19] Combat was another area where "downtime", or pauses between play, was reduced. By allowing all character types to recover from damage taken, players can return to combat quickly.[30] Reviewers felt that these changes in pacing would make the genre more accessible to casual players—those who play for short periods of time—[30] while still having "deep" gameplay that would attract players of all levels of interest.[29] The concept of a "rested bonus", or increasing the rate at which a player's character gains experience, was also welcomed as a way for players to quickly catch up with their friends in progression.[19]

text: Questing was described as an integral part of the game, often being used to continue a storyline or lead the player through the game.[30] The high number of quests in each location was popular, as well as the rewards for completing them.[19] It was felt that the range of quests removed the need for a player to "grind", or carry out repetitive tasks, to advance their character.[29] Quests also require players to explore every section of the game world, potentially causing problems for social gamers or roleplayers seeking somewhere quiet.[30] Quests that required the player to collect items from the corpses of creatures they had killed were also unpopular; the low "drop rate", or chance of finding the items, makes them feel repetitive as a high number of creatures need to be killed to complete the quest.[29] A large number of new players in a particular area meant that there were often no creatures to kill,[30] or that players would have to wait and take turns to kill a particular creature to complete a quest.[19] Some critics mentioned that the lack of quests that required players to group up made the game feel as if it were designed for solo play.[89] Others complained that some dungeon or instanced group quests were not friendly to new players, and could take several hours to complete.[29] Upon release, a small number of quests had software bugs that made them impossible to complete.[19]

text: Characters were felt to be implemented well, with each class appearing "viable and interesting", having unique and different mechanisms,[89] and each of the races having a distinct look and feel.[19] Character development was also liked, with the talent mechanism offering choice to players,[87] and profession options being praised.[19] Character customization options were felt to be low,[29] but the detail of character models was praised.[92]

text: The appearance of the game world was praised by critics. Most popular was the fact that a player could run from one end of the continent to the other without having to pause at a "loading screen" while part of the game is retrieved from storage.[92] The environment was described as "breathtaking". Players found it difficult to become lost, and each area in the game world had a distinct look that blended from one to the next.[30] Critics described the environment as "a careful blend of cartoon, fantasy art, and realism".[87] The game was found to run smoothly on a range of computer systems,[19] although some described it as basic,[30] and mentioned that the bloom light rendering effect can blur things.[29] One reviewer described the ability to fly over long stretches of scenery as "very atmospheric".[89] The user interface was liked, being described as "simple", with tooltips helping to get the player started.[19]

text: The game's audio was well received, particularly the background music. By assigning music to different areas of the game world, reviewers felt that the fantasy style added to the player's immersion,[87] and that the replay value was increased.[29] The sounds and voices used by characters and NPCs, as well as the overall sound effects, were felt to add a "personality" to the game.[87]

text: World of Warcraft won several awards from critics upon release, including Editor's Choice awards.[19][29] In addition, it won several annual awards from the media, being described as the best game in the role-playing and MMORPG genres.[93] The graphics and audio were also praised in the annual awards, with the cartoonish style[94] and overall sound makeup being noted.[95] The game was also awarded Best Mac OS X Entertainment Product at the 2005 Apple Design Awards.[96] Computer Games Magazine named World of Warcraft the best computer game of 2004, and the magazine's Steve Bauman described his "feeling that Blizzard has analyzed every element of every existing game, pulled out the best ones, and then lovingly lavished an absurd amount of attention to their implementation." It also won the magazine's "Best Art Direction", "Best Original Music" and "Best Interface" awards.[97]

text: World of Warcraft was recognized at the 2005 Spike TV Video Game Awards where it won Best PC Game, Best Multiplayer Game, Best RPG, and Most Addictive Game.[98] In 2008, World of Warcraft was honoured—along with Neverwinter Nights and EverQuest—at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form of MMORPG games.[99] In 2009, Game Informer ranked World of Warcraft 11th on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time".[100] In 2015, the game placed 3rd on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list.[101]

text: World of Warcraft was the best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006.[102] In the United States, it sold 1.4 million copies ($68.1 million) by August 2006. It was the country's third best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006.[103] On January 22, 2008, World of Warcraft had more than 10 million subscribers worldwide, with more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and about 5.5 million in Asia.[104] At its peak in October 2010 the game had 12 million subscribers.[105] As of November 2014 the game has over 10 million active subscribers.[106] On January 28, 2014 Blizzard announced that 100 million accounts have been created for the game.[107] On May 7, 2015, it was announced that there were 7.1 million active subscriptions.[108][109][110][111] At the end of June 2015, subscriptions dropped down to 5.6 million, lowest since 2005.[112] By the end of September, subscribers were at 5.5 million.[113]

text: Less than two months after beginning operation of World of Warcraft in China on September 19, 2009, NetEase was ordered to immediately stop charging players and to cease accepting registrations.[114][115] A press estimate indicated that if World of Warcraft were shut down in China, the loss of subscribers would have caused Activision Blizzard's earnings to fall from 65 cents per share to 60 cents per share.[114] In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62 percent of the MMORPG subscription market.[116]

text: Security concerns

text: When players create World of Warcraft accounts, they are asked to choose a username and password. Afterward, whenever they play World of Warcraft, they are asked to supply the same username and password in full. This is also the case when using account management facilities online. This type of authentication is vulnerable to keystroke logging. While this is not unique to World of Warcraft and is common to many MMORPGs, the game has been directly targeted with trojans being specifically crafted to capture account login details.[117] Attacks have been reported as early as May 2006 and may extend as far back as July 30, 2005.[118] The game does, however, allow players to save their account name to the program to allow the player to only have to type their password.[119]

text: In September 2006, reports emerged of spoof World of Warcraft game advice websites that contained malware. Vulnerable computers would be infected through their web browsers, downloading a program that would then relay back account information. Blizzard's account support teams experienced high demand during this episode, stating that many users had been affected. Claims were also made that telephone support was closed for isolated periods due to the volume of calls and resulting queues.[120] In April 2007, attacks evolved to take advantage of further exploits involving animated cursors, with multiple websites being used.[121][122] Security researcher group Symantec released a report stating that a compromised World of Warcraft account was worth US$10 on the black market, compared to US$6 to US$12 for a compromised computer (correct as of March 2007).[123] In February 2008, phishing emails were distributed requesting that users validate their account information using a fake version of the World of Warcraft account management pages.[124] In June 2008, Blizzard announced the Blizzard Authenticator, available as a hardware security token or mobile application[125] that provides two-factor security. The token generates a one-time password based code that the player supplies when logging on. The password, used in addition to the user's own password, is only valid for a couple of minutes, thus providing extra security against keylogging malware.[126]

text: Blizzard makes use of a system known as Warden on the Windows version of the game to detect third-party programs, such as botting software, allowing World of Warcraft to be played unattended. There has been some controversy as to the legality of Warden. Warden uses techniques similar to anti-virus software to analyze other running software on the players' PCs, as well as the file system. However, unlike most anti-virus software, it sends a portion of this information back to Blizzard, which caused privacy advocates to accuse it of being spyware.[127] One example of the information Warden collects is the title of every window open on the system while WoW is running.[128] On the other hand, many gamers responded positively to the development, stating that they supported the technology if it resulted in fewer cases of cheating. Blizzard's use of Warden was stated in the Terms of Agreement (TOA).[129]

text: The Warden's existence was acknowledged in March 2008, during the opening legal proceedings against MDY Industries.[130] The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Arizona, and also listed Michael Donnelly as a defendant. Donnelly was included in the suit as the creator of MMO Glider, software that can automatically play many tasks in the game. Blizzard claimed the software is an infringement of its copyright and software license agreement, stating that "Glider use severely harms the WoW gaming experience for other players by altering the balance of play, disrupting the social and immersive aspects of the game, and undermining the in-game economy." Donnelly claims to have sold 100,000 copies of the $25 software.[131]

text: Real ID

text: On July 6, 2010, Blizzard Entertainment announced that on its forums for all games, users' accounts would display the real names tied to their accounts.[132] Blizzard announced the change following an agreement with Facebook to allow Facebook to connect persons who choose to become friends to share their real identity (Real ID, as Blizzard calls the feature). The integration of the feature into the forums on the Blizzard Entertainment site raised concerns amongst fans of the many game series Blizzard has created over the years.[133]

text: In response to the concerns, Blizzard released an updated statement on July 9, 2010, announcing that the Real ID integration with the official forums was being canceled.[134][135]

text: Community and study of player interaction

text: In addition to playing the game itself and conversing on discussion forums provided by Blizzard, World of Warcraft players often participate in the virtual community in creative ways, including fan artwork[136] and comic strip style storytelling.[137]

text: Blizzard garnered criticism for its decision in January 2006 to ban guilds from advertising sexual orientation preferences. The incident occurred after several players were cited for "harassment" after advocating a group that was a gay-straight alliance.[138][139] Blizzard later reversed the decision to issue warnings to players promoting LGBT-friendly guilds.

text: On October 7, 2010 World of Warcraft reached a subscriber base of over 12 million players.[140] Since May 2011, the number of players playing had decreased by 10% from 11.4 million to 10.3 million. Blizzard's CEO Mike Morhaime said that the reason was probably due to a drop-off in the Eastern markets.[141] In 2012, senior producer John Lagrave told Eurogamer that the drop in subscriptions may have also been attributed to the recent release of BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic.[142]

text: Sale of virtual goods in the real world

text: As with other MMORPGs, companies have emerged offering to sell virtual gold and associated services. The practice of amassing gold and in-game items for financial profit is frequently referred to as gold farming.

text: After Blizzard started offering free trial gameplay accounts, players noticed an increase in spam from bots advertising these services.[143] One study shows that this problem is particularly prevalent on the European realms, with gold being over 14 times more expensive to buy on US realms than their European counterparts.[144]

text: In patch 2.1, Blizzard responded to this by adding additional anti-spam mechanics including whisper throttling and the report spam function. Additionally, trial accounts are prevented from speaking in the public chat channels (although they may speak to players within range or whisper to other players that have first whispered to them), participating in in-game trades, and using the Auction House and the mail feature, among other limitations.

text: In May 2007, Blizzard filed a complaint against in Game Dollar LLC (trading as peons4hire) in U.S. federal court. In February 2008, the parties filed a consent decree in which in Game Dollar agreed to refrain from using any World of Warcraft chat or communication to advertise any business or sell any services relating to World of Warcraft.[145] In June 2007, World of Warcraft player Antonio Hernandez filed a class action lawsuit against IGE for interfering with the intended use of the game.[146]

text: As characters progress in World of Warcraft and take on some of the toughest challenges, many of the rewards received are bound to that character and cannot be traded, generating a market for the trading of accounts with well-equipped characters. The highest noted World of Warcraft account trade was for £5000 (€7000, US$9,900) in early September 2007. The high price was due to the character possessing items that at the time were owned by only a handful out of the millions of active players, due to the difficulty in acquiring them. However, Blizzard banned the account five days after the purchase.[147]

text: The practice of buying or selling gold in World of Warcraft has generated significant controversy.[148] On February 21, 2008, Blizzard released a statement concerning the consequences of buying gold. Blizzard reported that an "alarmingly high" proportion of all gold bought originates from "hacked" accounts. The article also stated that customers who had paid for character leveling services had found their accounts compromised months later, with all items stripped and sold for virtual gold. The article noted that leveling service companies often used "disruptive hacks ... which can cause realm performance and stability issues".[149] In April 2015, introduced a means to sell in-game gold for real money. A player may spend $20 on a one-month "game time token" that can be sold for in-game gold on the auction house.[45]

text: In December 2015, Blizzard sold an in-game battle pet named Brightpaw for $10 with all proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.[150] This resulted in a new Blizzard record donation of over $1.7 million to Make-A-Wish.[151] In December 2016, Blizzard again sold a battle pet named Mischief for $10; it helped raise more than 2.5 million for Make-A-Wish.[152] In September 2017, Blizzard sold a battle pet named Shadow the fox for $10, with proceeds going to the Red Cross to help with disater relief.[153]

text: Corrupted Blood plague incident

text: The Corrupted Blood plague incident was one of the first events to affect entire servers. Patch 1.7 saw the opening of Zul'Gurub, the game's first 20-player raid dungeon where players faced off against a tribe of trolls. Upon engaging the final boss, players were stricken by a debuff called "Corrupted Blood" which would periodically sap their life. The disease was passed on to other players simply by being near infected players. Originally this malady was confined within the Zul'Gurub instance, but it made its way into the outside world by way of hunter pets or warlock minions that contracted the disease.

text: Within hours, Corrupted Blood had completely infected major cities because of their high player concentrations. Low-level players were killed in seconds by the high-damage disease. Eventually, Blizzard fixed the issue so that the plague could not exist outside of Zul'Gurub.

text: The Corrupted Blood plague so closely resembled the outbreak of real-world epidemics that scientists are currently looking at the ways MMORPGs or other massively distributed systems can model human behavior during outbreaks. The reaction of players to the plague closely resembled previously hard-to-model aspects of human behavior that may allow researchers to more accurately predict how diseases and outbreaks spread amongst a population.[154]

text: In other media

text: World of Warcraft has inspired artists to satirize it and acknowledge its mark in popular culture. One example is the Emmy Award-winning South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft".[155][156]

text: The game has been used to advertise unrelated products, such as Toyota trucks.[157]

text: In late 2007, a series of television commercials for the game began airing featuring pop culture celebrities such as Mr. T, William Shatner, and Verne Troyer discussing the virtues of the character classes they play in the game.[158] A Spanish commercial featuring Guillermo Toledo, and a French commercial featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, were also televised.[159] Two more were shown in November 2008, featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Steve Van Zandt.[160] Another commercial in the series, which began airing in November 2011, featured Chuck Norris and played on the Internet phenomenon of "Chuck Norris facts".[161]

text: World of Warcraft has inspired two board games: World of Warcraft: The Board Game (including Shadow of War and The Burning Crusade expansions)[162] and World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game,[163][164] produced by Fantasy Flight Games. There is also a trading card game,[165] and a collectible miniatures game[166] on the market, both formerly produced by Upper Deck Entertainment, now produced by Cryptozoic Entertainment. Cryptozoic released an "Archives" set which contains foil reproductions of older cards produced by Upper Deck. In August 2012, Megabloks launched a licensed line of World of Warcraft 'building block' toys based on the game scenes, scenarios and characters.[167] In March 2014, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft was released, which is a free-to-play digital card game based on the Warcraft universe, using classes similar to World of Warcraft.[168]

text: In November 2007, DC Comics published the first issue of the World of Warcraft comic under their Wildstorm imprint.[169]

text: Crossover promotions

text: To mark the release of Hearthstone, Blizzard released the Hearthsteed mount for World of Warcraft players. The mount is obtained through winning three games in Arena or Play mode.[170] Widely advertised on various World of Warcraft websites, this promotion encourages World of Warcraft players to try Hearthstone and marked the first significant crossover implemented between Blizzard games.

text: Players who purchase Warlords of Draenor Collector's or Digital Deluxe Edition receive an Orc themed card back in Hearthstone.[171] Heroes of the Storm players who reach level 20 receive the Grave Golem battle pet in World of Warcraft and after reaching level 100 in World of Warcraft receive an Ironside Dire Wolf mount in Heroes of the Storm.[172] Starting on March 11, 2016, players who level a character to 20 in WoW, which can be completed with the free starter edition, earn the alternate Paladin hero Lady Liadrin in Hearthstone.[173]

text: Purchasing Overwatch Origins or Collectors Edition gives WoW players with the Baby Winston battle pet.

text: Notes

text: Jump up ^ Additional music by Tracy W. Bush, Derek Duke and Glenn Stafford


document_title: Hugh Jackman

question_text: where did hugh jackman learn to sing and dance

root

text: Hugh Jackman

text: Early life

text: Jackman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to Grace McNeil (née Greenwood) and Christopher John Jackman, a Cambridge-trained accountant.[2][3] His parents were English and had come to Australia in 1967 as part of the "Ten Pound Poms" immigration.[3] One of his paternal great-grandfathers, Nicholas Isidor Bellas, was Greek,[4][5] from the Ottoman Empire (now in Greece).[6][7] His parents were devout Christians, having been converted by Evangelist Billy Graham after their marriage.[3] Jackman has four older siblings and was the second of his parents' children to be born in Australia.[8] He also has a younger half-sister, from his mother's remarriage.[9] His parents divorced when he was eight, and Jackman remained in Australia with his father and two brothers, while his mother moved back to England with Jackman's two sisters.[3][10][11] As a child, Jackman liked the outdoors, spending a lot of time at the beach and on camping trips and school holidays all over Australia. He wanted to see the world: "I used to spend nights looking at atlases. I decided I wanted to be a chef on a plane. Because I'd been on a plane and there was food on board, I presumed there was a chef. I thought that would be an ideal job."[12]

tag: p

text: Jackman went to primary school at Pymble Public School and later attended the all-boys Knox Grammar School on Sydney's Upper North Shore, where he starred in its production of My Fair Lady in 1985 and became the school captain in 1986.[13] Following graduation, he spent a gap year working at Uppingham School in England as a Physical Education teacher.[14][15] On his return, he studied at the University of Technology, Sydney, graduating in 1991 with a BA in Communications.[16] In his final year of university, he took a drama course to make up additional credits. The class did Václav Havel's The Memorandum with Jackman as the lead.[8] He later commented, "In that week I felt more at home with those people than I did in the entire three years [at university]".[17]

text: After obtaining his BA, Jackman completed the one-year course "The Journey" at the Actors' Centre in Sydney.[8] About studying acting full-time, he stated, "It wasn't until I was 22 that I ever thought about my hobby being something I could make a living out of. As a boy, I'd always had an interest in theatre. But the idea at my school was that drama and music were to round out the man. It wasn't what one did for a living. I got over that. I found the courage to stand up and say, 'I want to do it'."[18] After completing "The Journey", he was offered a role on the popular soap opera Neighbours but turned it down[19] to attend the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts of Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia, from which he graduated in 1994.[20]

text: Jackman has said he "always loved acting but when I started at drama school I was like the dunce of the class. It just wasn't coming right to me. Everyone was cooler, everyone seemed more likely to succeed, everyone seemed more natural at it and in retrospect I think that is good. I think it is good to come from behind as an actor. I think it is good to go into an audition thinking 'Man I've got to be at my best to get this gig.'"[21]

text: Career

text: On the night of his final Academy graduation performance, Jackman received a phone call offering him a role on Correlli: "I was technically unemployed for thirteen seconds." Correlli, devised by Australian actress Denise Roberts, was a 10-part drama series on ABC, Jackman's first major professional job, and where he met his future wife Deborra-Lee Furness. "Meeting my wife was the greatest thing to come out of it," he said,[18] as the show lasted only one season. After Correlli Jackman went on the stage in Melbourne. In 1996, Jackman played Gaston in the local Walt Disney production of Beauty and the Beast, and Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard.[8] During his stage musical career in Melbourne, he starred in the 1998 Midsumma festival cabaret production Summa Cabaret. He also hosted Melbourne's Carols by Candlelight and Sydney's Carols in the Domain. Jackman's early film works include Erskineville Kings and Paperback Hero (1999), and his television work includes Law of the Land, Halifax f.p., Blue Heelers, and Banjo Paterson's The Man from Snowy River.

text: Jackman became known outside Australia in 1998, when he played the leading role of Curly in the Royal National Theatre's acclaimed stage production of Oklahoma!, in London's West End.[8] The performance earned him an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. Jackman said "I totally felt like it can't get any better than this. On some level that production will be one of the highlights of my career."[22] He also starred in the 1999 film version of the same stage musical, which has been screened in many countries.

text: Breakthrough (2000–2004)

text: Jackman had his breakthrough role playing Wolverine in Bryan Singer's X-Men (2000)—a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics team of the same name.[23] Co-starring Patrick Stewart, James Marsden, Famke Janssen and Ian McKellen, the film tells the story of a group of mutants, whose superhuman powers make them distrusted by normal humans. The role was originally written for Russell Crowe who instead suggested Jackman for the part.[24] Jackman says that his wife advised him against taking on the role, as she found it "ridiculous".[25] He initially studied wolves to develop his character, as he thought that Wolverine alluded to wolves.[26] X-Men was successful at the box-office, earning US$296 million.[27] The role earned him a Saturn Award for Best Actor.[28]

text: Wolverine was tough for Jackman to portray because he had few lines, but a lot of emotion to convey in them. To prepare, he watched Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry movies and Mel Gibson in Road Warrior. "Here were guys who had relatively little dialogue, like Wolverine had, but you knew and felt everything. I'm not normally one to copy, but I wanted to see how these guys achieved it."[29] Jackman was adamant about doing his own stunts for the movie. "We worked a lot on the movement style of Wolverine, and I studied some martial arts. I watched a lot of Mike Tyson fights, especially his early fights. There's something about his style, the animal rage, that seemed right for Wolverine. I kept saying to the writers, 'Don't give me long, choreographed fights for the sake of it. Don't make the fights pretty."[30] Jackman also had to get used to wearing Wolverine's claws. "Every day in my living room, I'd just walk around with those claws, to get used to them. I've got scars on one leg, punctures straight through the cheek, on my forehead. I'm a bit clumsy. I'm lucky I didn't tell them that when I auditioned."[12]

text: Jackman, at 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in)[31][32] stands 30 cm taller than Wolverine, who is said in the original comic book to be 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m).[33] Hence, the filmmakers were frequently forced to shoot Jackman at unusual angles or only from the waist up to make him appear shorter than he actually is, and his co-stars wore platform soles. Jackman was also required to add a great deal of muscle for the role, and in preparing for the fourth film in the series, he bench-pressed over 136 kg (300 lb).[34]

text: Jackman reprised his role in 2003's X2: X-Men United, 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, and the 2009 prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where Troye Sivan played the younger version of James Howlett. He also cameoed as Wolverine in 2011's X-Men: First Class. He returned for the role of Wolverine again in 2013's The Wolverine, a stand-alone sequel taking place after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, and reprised the character in the 2014 sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past and the 2016 follow-up X-Men: Apocalypse.[35] In 2015, Jackman announced that the 2017 sequel to The Wolverine, Logan, was the final time that he would play the role.[36]

text: Jackman starred as Leopold in the 2001 romantic comedy film Kate & Leopold, a role for which he received a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination.[8] Jackman plays a Victorian English duke who accidentally time-travels to 21st-century Manhattan, where he meets Kate (Meg Ryan), a cynical advertising executive. In 2001, Jackman also starred in the action/drama Swordfish with John Travolta and Halle Berry. This was the second time Jackman worked with Berry, and the two have worked together thrice more in the X-Men movies. He hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2001.

text: In 2002, Jackman sang the role of Billy Bigelow in the musical Carousel in a special concert performance at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. In 2004, Jackman won the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for his 2003–2004 Broadway portrayal of Australian songwriter and performer Peter Allen in the hit musical The Boy from Oz, which he also performed in Australia in 2006.[8] In addition, Jackman hosted the Tony Awards in 2003, 2004, and 2005, garnering positive reviews. His hosting of the 2004 Tony Awards earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performer in a Variety, Musical or Comedy program.

text: After 2003's X2: X-Men United, Jackman played the title role of monster killer Gabriel Van Helsing in the 2004 film Van Helsing.[8] Jackman and the film were noted in Bruce A. McClelland's book Slayers and Their Vampires: A Cultural History of Killing the Dead.

text: Jackman was asked to consider taking on the role as James Bond before Daniel Craig was chosen to play the character, but turned it down due to other commitments. Speaking to the British Press Association in 2011, Jackman said: 'I was about to shoot X-Men 2 and Wolverine had become this thing in my life and I didn’t want to be doing two such iconic characters at once.'[37][38][39]

text: Alongside Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Scarlett Johansson, Jackman starred in The Prestige (2006), a mystery thriller from Christopher Nolan. Jackman portrayed Robert Angier, an aristocratic magician who builds up a rivalry with contemporary Alfred Borden (Bale) in attempt to one-up each other in the art of deception. After reading the script, Jackman expressed interest in starring in the film, and Nolan believed that the actor had the qualities of the character.[40] Jackman based his portrayal of Angier on 1950s-era American magician Channing Pollock.[41] The Prestige was acclaimed and a box-office success.[42][43]

text: Jackman portrayed three different characters in Darren Aronofsky's science-fiction film The Fountain: Tommy Creo, a neuroscientist, who is torn between his wife, Izzi (Rachel Weisz), who is dying of a brain tumor, and his work at trying to cure her; Captain Tomas Creo, a Spanish conquistador in 1532 Seville; and a future astronaut, Tom, travelling to a golden nebula in an eco-spacecraft seeking to be reunited with Izzi. Jackman said The Fountain was his most difficult film thus far due to the physical and emotional demands of the part.

text: Jackman also starred in Woody Allen's 2006 film Scoop opposite Scarlett Johansson. That year he also reprised the role of Wolverine in X-Men: The Last Stand. He rounded out 2006 with two animated films: Happy Feet, directed by George Miller, in which he voiced the part of Memphis, an emperor penguin; and Flushed Away, where Jackman supplied the voice of a rat named Roddy who ends up being flushed down a family's toilet into the London sewer system. Flushed Away co-starred Kate Winslet and Ian McKellen (Jackman's fourth time working with him).

text: In 2007, Jackman produced and guest-starred in the television musical-dramedy series Viva Laughlin, which was cancelled by CBS after two episodes.

text: In 2008, director Baz Luhrmann cast Jackman to replace Russell Crowe as the male lead in his much-publicized epic film, Australia, which co-starred Nicole Kidman. The movie was released in late November 2008 in Australia and the U.S. Jackman played a tough, independent cattle drover, who reluctantly helps an English noblewoman in her quest to save both her philandering husband's Australian cattle station and the mixed race Aboriginal child she finds there. Of the movie, Jackman said, "This is pretty much one of those roles that had me pinching myself all the way through the shoot. I got to shoot a big-budget, shamelessly old-fashioned romantic epic set against one of the most turbulent times in my native country's history, while, at the same time, celebrating that country's natural beauty, its people, its cultures.... I'll die a happy man knowing I've got this film on my CV."[44]

text: Jackman co-starred with Daniel Craig on Broadway at the Schoenfeld Theatre in a limited engagement of the play A Steady Rain, which ran from 10 September 2009, to 6 December 2009.[45]

text: Jackman has reprised his role as the Wolverine in X-Men spin-off films. Jackman starred in X-Men Origins: Wolverine which opened in 2009 and later starred in 2013's The Wolverine. Jackman made a cameo appearance as Wolverine in X-Men: First Class in 2011. Jackman had a one-man show at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco from 3–15 May 2011.[46] The production was a mixture of his favourite Broadway and Hollywood musical numbers, backed by a 17-piece orchestra, from shows including Oklahoma and The Boy from Oz. The show had a run-time of approximately 100 minutes, and also included slide shows of Jackman's youth, family, and work, as well as some one-on-one interaction with the audience. Jackman was backed by fellow musical theatre veterans Merle Dandridge and Angel Reda.[47][48] He later returned to Broadway in a new show, Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre, which began performances on 25 October 2011 and concluded on 1 January 2012.[49]

text: In a November 2012 release, Jackman voiced the role of E.Aster Bunnymund (the Easter Bunny) in the animated film Rise of the Guardians.[50] Jackman starred as Jean Valjean in the film Les Misérables, an adaptation of the musical. The film opened on 25 December 2012.[51][52][53] For the role, he lost 15 pounds and later had to regain 30 pounds to mirror his character's newfound success.[54] He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in January 2013 for this performance.[55] Jackman appeared alongside Kate Winslet in Movie 43, an ensemble comedy, in January 2013.[56] Jackman (along with actress Kristen Wiig) was featured on "You've Got the Look", a song by comedy hip hop group The Lonely Island on their third album, The Wack Album, released in June 2013. Jackman returned to Broadway in the new play, The River, which ran at the Circle in the Square Theatre from October 2014 to February 2015.[57]

text: In November and December 2015, Jackman made a national tour of Australia with his show Broadway to Oz. He performed a range of songs from Broadway musicals, from Les Misérables to a Peter Allen tribute (including classics such as "I Still Call Australia Home"), with his 150-piece orchestra, choir, and backup dancers.[58] The show began at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena and proceeded to Qantas Credit Union Arena, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, and the Perth Arena. Jackman portrayed the villain Blackbeard in the film Pan, which revolved around the backstories of J.M. Barrie's characters Peter Pan and Captain Hook.[59] Jackman played fictional ski coach Bronson Peary in Eddie the Eagle,[60] which portrayed how Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards became the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping in 1988.[61] He had an uncredited cameo as Wolverine in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse.[62] In 2017, he reprised the character in the third Wolverine film, Logan,[63] and also starred as P. T. Barnum in the musical The Greatest Showman.[64] He has received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination for the latter film.[65]

text: Production company

text: In 2005, Jackman joined with longtime assistant John Palermo to form a production company, Seed Productions, whose first project was Viva Laughlin in 2007. Jackman's wife Deborra-Lee Furness is also involved in the company, and Palermo had three rings made with a "unity" inscription for himself, Furness, and Jackman.[66] Jackman said, "I'm very lucky in the partners I work with in my life, Deb and John Palermo. It really works. We all have different strengths. I love it. It's very exciting."[67]

text: Personal life

text: Jackman married Deborra-Lee Furness on 11 April 1996, at St. John's in Toorak, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne.[68] They met on the set of Australian TV show Correlli.[69] Jackman personally designed an engagement ring for Furness, and their wedding rings bore the Sanskrit inscription "Om paramar mainamar", translated as "we dedicate our union to a greater source".[70] Furness had two miscarriages,[71] following which she and Jackman adopted two children, Oscar[72] and Ava.[73][74]

text: Jackman has described himself as a Christian and a "religious person".[75] He meditates daily and follows the spiritually eclectic School of Practical Philosophy.[76]

text: In November 2013, Jackman announced he had basal-cell carcinoma removed from his nose.[77] He had a second carcinoma removed from his nose in May 2014, telling Associated Press that he expects to have future recurrences.[78] This resulted in Jackman attending the various worldwide premieres of X-Men: Days of Future Past with a bandage on his nose, and urging his followers on Instagram to "wear sunscreen".[79]

text: On 18 March 2015, Jackman revealed that he had to cancel stage performances in Turkey because he had a left vocal chord haemorrhage.[80][81]

text: Charity work

text: As a philanthropist, Jackman is a longtime proponent of microcredit – the extension of very small loans to prospective entrepreneurs in impoverished countries. He is a vocal supporter of Muhammad Yunus, microcredit pioneer and the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner.[82][83][84] Jackman also uses his Twitter account for charity. On 14 April 2009, Jackman posted on his Twitter page that he would donate $100,000 to one individual's favourite non-profit organisation.[85] On 21 April 2009, he revealed his decision to donate $50,000 to Charity:Water and $50,000 to Operation of Hope.[86][87]

text: Jackman is a global advisor of the Global Poverty Project, for which he narrated a documentary;[88] and he and the project's founder Hugh Evans visited the UN for the cause in 2009.[89] Jackman hosted a preview of the Global Poverty Project Presentation in New York together with Donna Karan, Lisa Fox, and his wife Deborra-Lee Furness.[90] He is also a World Vision ambassador and participated in the climate week NYC ceremony on 21 September 2009.[91][92] Jackman supports The Art of Elysium[93] and the MPTV Fund Foundation,[94] and he and Furness are patrons of the Bone Marrow Institute in Australia.[95] Jackman also narrated the 2008 documentary about global warming, The Burning Season.[96]

text: Jackman and fellow actor Daniel Craig made a unique place for themselves in the history of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraising 8 December 2009, when it was announced that they had raised $1,549,953 in the 21st annual Gypsy of the Year competition, from six weeks of curtain appeals at their hit Broadway drama, A Steady Rain.[97] Jackman continued his support of Broadway Cares in 2011, raising nearly $1 million during his run of Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway [98]

text: Other interests

text: Jackman has shown keen interest in sport. In high school, he played rugby union and cricket, took part in high jumping and was on the swimming team.[8] He enjoys basketball and kayaking.[99] He has expressed an interest in football, committing his support to Norwich City F.C.[100] In the United States, Jackman supports the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer, attending a match at PPL Park in June 2010.[101]

text: Jackman supports the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League and once gave the team a pep talk prior to a Showdown clash.[102] He is also a long-time fan and supporter of the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, a National Rugby League (NRL) club based in Sydney's north.[103] He sang the Australian national anthem at the 1999 NRL Grand Final.[104]

text: Jackman also guest starred on 19 September 2011 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw, assisting Zack Ryder in a win over WWE United States Champion Dolph Ziggler by punching the champion in the jaw whilst the referee was not looking.[105][106]

text: Jackman is a multi-instrumentalist. He plays the guitar, piano and violin.[107][108] He also does yoga[109] and has been a member of the School of Practical Philosophy since 1992.[110]

text: Jackman has been an avid practitioner of Transcendental Meditation since the age of twenty. He said "Nothing has ever opened my eyes like Transcendental Meditation has. It makes me calm and happy, and, well, it gives me some peace and quiet in what's a pretty chaotic life!". He now helps the David Lynch Foundation to "bring meditation to everyone from PTSD sufferers to inner-city kids".[111][112]

text: Jackman has been the face of several high-profile brands. He is a global ambassador for Montblanc.[113] He is also the brand ambassador of Indian mobile phone maker, Micromax.[114]

text: Filmography

text: Discography

text: It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled Hugh Jackman discography. (Discuss) (May 2018)

tag: table

text: Albums

text: Credits adapted from AllMusic:[115]

text: Musical albums

text:
Title
Year

Beauty and the Beast
1995

Oklahoma!
1999

The Boy from Oz
2003

Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols for a Cure, Vol. 5

Broadway: The American Musical
2004

Broadway: America's Music 1935-2005
2005

Broadway Today: Broadway, 1993-2005

The 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Broadway
2006

Broadway Gold [Decca]
2007

text: Soundtrack albums

text:
List of albums, with selected chart positions and certifications

Title
Album details
Peak chart positions
Certifications

AUS
CAN
FRA
GER
IRL
JAP
NZ
KOR
UK
US

Happy Feet: Music from the Motion Picture

Released: October 31, 2006
Label: Warner Sunset Records, Atlantic Records

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

Les Misérables: Highlights from the Motion Picture Soundtrack

Released: December 21, 2012
Label: Republic Records

2
[116]
3
[117]
81
[118]
18
[119]
1
[120]
11
[121]
1
[122]
1
[123]
1
[124]
1
[125]

ARIA: Gold[126]
RIAJ: Gold[127]
RIAA: Gold[128]
RMNZ: Gold[129]

Fly: Songs Inspired by the Film "Eddie the Eagle"

Released: April 1, 2016

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Released: December 8, 2017
Label: Atlantic Records
Format: CD, Digital download

1
[130]
3
[131]
—
5
[132]
1
[133]
1
[134]
1
[135]
17
[136]
1
[137]
1
[138]

ARIA: Platinum[139]
BPI: 2× Platinum[140]
MC: Gold[141]
RIAA: Platinum[142]
RMNZ: Gold[143]

text: Charted and certified songs

text:
List of songs, with selected chart positions, showing year released and album name

Title
Year
Peak chart positions
Certifications
Album

AUS
[144]
IRE
FRA
[145]
NZ
[146]
SPA
[147]
SWE
[148]
UK
[149]
US
[150]

"The Greatest Show"
(with Zac Efron, Zendaya, Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman Ensemble)
2017
42
34
110
—[a]
—
—
20
88

ARIA: Gold[152]
BPI: Gold[153]

The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

"A Million Dreams"
(with Michelle Williams and Ziv Zaifman)
—
—
199
—
—
—
22
—

BPI: Silver[153]

"Come Alive"
(with Zendaya, Keala Settle and Daniel Everidge)
—
70
—
—[b]
—
—
—
—[c]

BPI: Silver[153]

"The Other Side"
(with Zac Efron)
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

BPI: Silver[153]

"From Now On"
(with The Greatest Showman Ensemble)
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

BPI: Silver[153]

"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

text: Notes

text:
Jump up ^ "The Greatest Show" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 3 on the NZ Heatseeker Singles Chart.[151]
Jump up ^ "Come Alive" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 8 on the NZ Heatseeker Singles Chart.[151]
Jump up ^ "Come Alive" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at No. 21 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.[154]

tag: ol

text: Awards and nominations