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Wowpedia

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Wowpedia
File:Wowpedia.png
Type of site
Fan site (Wiki)
OwnerFandom
Created byMultiple
URLwow.gamepedia.com
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional
Launched20 October 2010; 14 years ago (2010-10-20)
Current statusActive

Wowpedia is a wiki about the Warcraft fictional universe. It covers all of the Warcraft games, including the MMORPG World of Warcraft. It is both a specialized wiki built around the Warcraft universe and a collaborative space for players to develop and publish strategies for Warcraft games. It was officially announced on 25 October 2010.[1]

History and description

Wowpedia began as WoWWiki on 24 November 2004 as a source of information pertaining to the World of Warcraft universe, including the RTS games, novels, the RPG reference books, manga, and other written sources, along with the WoW expansion packs, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Warlords of Draenor, Legion, and Battle for Azeroth.

In 2007, the WoWWiki community joined Wikia, and in the process transferred the rights to the "WoWWiki" domain name to Wikia. In late 2010, Wikia introduced a new fixed-width skin which caused layout issues with many articles and broke JavaScript-based features such as tooltips,[2] as well as generating reports of eye strain and headaches.[3] As a result, the content and article history was forked to Wowpedia.org, hosted by Curse, on 20 October 2010, with most of the administrators of WoWWiki, as well as many of the other active contributors, moving to Wowpedia.[4][5][6]

On December 4, 2010, Blizzard Entertainment began to incorporate links to Wowpedia, as well as the database site Wowhead, into the new version of its World of Warcraft Community Site.[7]

Wowpedia's usefulness and strength as a wiki is in its establishment as a touchstone of "participatory culture", a "discourse community [...] in which more experienced contributors and various types of administrators play more or less strong roles in the editing process, often asking questions about edits made and offering suggestions."[6] The success of Wowpedia has been described as the results of its editors' "blissful productivity, hard work and dedication at play".[8] Wowpedia's format and coverage of the Warcraft games and lore contained therein has been used as an illustration of "the dedication of the community and how fans help each other when Blizzard’s official documents do not provide adequate guidance about gameplay features or the best way to engage with the game".[9]

In July 2013, Wowpedia moved to Curse's Gamepedia game-based wiki hosting service. In December 2014, Wowpedia's URL was changed to a gamepedia domain, but the onscreen Wowpedia identity such as logos was retained.

As of December 2018, control of Wowpedia now falls under Wikia (now known as Fandom) due to its acquisition of Curse.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ex-WoWWiki Admins Join Curse to Create Wowpedia". Curse. 2010-10-25. Archived from the original on 2010-10-28. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
  2. ^ "Forum:Should WoWWiki leave Wikia?". WoWWiki. 2010-09-29. Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2010-10-02.
  3. ^ "The Obscurecast Ep 23: A Room With A Moose". The Obscurecast. October 30, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-11-12. Retrieved 2010-10-30.
  4. ^ Henry, Alan (October 21, 2010). "WoWWiki is moving to Wowpedia". Archived from the original on 2010-10-27. Retrieved 2010-10-25.
  5. ^ "Ex-WoWWiki Admins Join Curse to Create Wowpedia - Curse". Archived from the original on 2012-12-29. Retrieved 2018-03-04.
  6. ^ a b Hunter, Rik (November 2014). "Hypersocial-Interactive Writing: An Audience of Readers-as-Writers". Literacy in Composition Studies. 2 (2): 17–43. doi:10.21623/1.2.2.3. Archived from the original on 2018-03-05. Retrieved 2018-03-04.
  7. ^ "World of Warcraft: The New World of Warcraft Community Site". Blizzard Entertainment. December 6, 2010. Archived from the original on 2016-05-30. Retrieved 2018-03-04.
  8. ^ The Smashing Book #2. Smashing Media GmbH. March 2011. p. 231. ISBN 9783943075229.
  9. ^ Bishop, Sarah (May 2013). A Grandiose Reality: Addiction and Technical Communication in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (PDF) (MA). Texas State University-San Marcos. Retrieved 2018-03-04.
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