Best Mac OS X Entertainment Product - Apple
"World of Warcraft is a best-selling Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) set in Blizzard's Warcraft universe. Players assume the roles of heroes as they adventure, explore, and quest together across a vast world. World of Warcraft ships simultaneously for Mac and Windows on hybrid CD, is highly optimized for Velocity Engine and Mac OS X (using Shark and the OpenGL Profiler tools), takes full advantage of Mac OS X OpenGL, including the use of OpenGL shaders, and uses Core Audio to deliver Surround Sound 5.1 audio."

Best Game of the Year Award - GameSpot
"The thing about World of Warcraft is it offers so much of what we fundamentally love about games, all in a single experience. Just exploring the world of Azeroth can be fun and exciting. The game is conducive to cooperative gameplay, competitive player vs. player action, or solo play. It lets you have a great time regardless of whether you play for one hour or 10 hours at once..."

Best PC Game of the Year - GameSpot
"World of Warcraft brings together virtually all our favorite aspects of PC gaming: For those of us who love the spirit of competition, there's the player vs. player combat to look forward to. For those of us who enjoy strategy, there are complex group dynamics, deep character-advancement systems, and fast-paced combat. For those of us yearning for another great computer role-playing game, there are tons and tons of quests, and plenty of interesting backstory. It's not often that a game comes around that deserves an unqualified recommendation, but we feel this is one of them..."

Best Massively Multiplayer Online Game - GameSpot
"From the moment you first set foot in the diverse lands of Azeroth, World of Warcraft captivates with its vast, seamless, and visually cohesive world. Players are placed in charge of their own destinies virtually immediately--there's no tutorial introduction to the game, whose elegantly designed interface is easy to decipher and simple to use. And, while other games in the genre punish players for testing their limits and running risks, World of Warcraft encourages this kind of activity by not forcing players to lose experience when they fail. That sort of can-do design ethic pervades all aspects of the game, allowing characters to make significant progress by playing solo or in groups, giving characters an experience bonus for time they haven't spent online with the game, and so on. It's that welcoming approach that makes this game truly special."

Editor's Choice Award - GameSpot
"Though massively multiplayer online role-playing games have been around for years, it has taken this long for the genre's breakthrough hit to finally emerge. Here is the online role-playing game you should play, no matter who you are. This is because World of Warcraft brings out all the best aspects of this style of gaming, if not many of the best aspects of gaming in general. It also features many of the specific characteristics that have made Blizzard Entertainment's previous games so entertaining, memorable, long-lasting, and successful. Of course, the company's past track record did not guarantee that World of Warcraft could have turned out this well. Such high quality simply cannot be expected, nor should it be missed."

PC Game of the Year - (Second Place) - GameSpy
"...it usually takes MMOs years to be as well-balanced and as fun as World of Warcraft was on day one. World of Warcraft is the MMO done right, and with this game, the genre finally has its first true breakout hit -- the MMO for the rest of us."

Best Role-Playing (RPG or MMORPG) - GameSpy
"In that Blizzard-esque fashion, World of Warcraft takes everything we love about these sorts of role-playing games, distills it down to the elements that makes them fun, and removes anything that gets in the way. What emerges is a fast, fun, and streamlined massively multiplayer online RPG that actually feels like a game. The worlds are beautiful and resplendent (while not being overly taxing of your hardware), and the whole deal is rendered with a level of character very rare in these sorts of games..."

Top 10 Games of the Year - (Fifth Place) - GameSpy
"What makes World of Warcraft so special is the insane level of polish every feature of the game has. Everything that's fun about an MMO -- questing, grouping, killing monsters, crafting, exploring, searching for new equipment -- has all been streamlined to the point where there's always something fun to do with very little downtime. In other words, there's virtually no "grinding." The game doesn't punish you for having a real life. I can log in for a half-hour and actually get something accomplished."

PC RPG / MMORPG Gamers' Choice Awards - GameSpy
"World of Warcraft. Flat out. It brings a fun, action-driven MMO onto the scene. Gorgeous lands and characters are perfect. Quest system is superb, and the balance between classes is great. My pick for this year."

Special Achievement in Art Direction - GameSpy
"World of Warcraft's brilliance is in eschewing realism and building a whole world in a storybook/cartoonish style, so playing World of Warcraft is like strolling through a fairy-tale picture book with eye candy around every corner. The animations are smooth and weighty. Subtle lighting effects set the tone and mood for each area. And the little details -- like seeing your breath in the snow-covered peaks -- make this unreal place feel real."

Editor's Choice Award - GameSpy
"If you're a fan of MMOs, you'll want to play this game. If you're not a fan of MMOs, but are a fan of great games, you will want to play this game. Hell, if you're a gamer who's ever wanted to pull another person into the hobby, you'll want to play this game and share it with a non-gamer friend. Blizzard has once again lived up to and surpassed its reputation as one of the finest game developers on the planet. World of Warcraft is a stunning achievement destined to be become a classic. "

Best Persistent World Game - IGN
"Blizzard is one of those developers whose talent and success snowballed to the point where they could test and re-test a game to blinding polish, and WoW took this course for over a year before it [hit] retail shelves. The effort shows in every aspect of the game, and their fun-oriented MMO debut puts to shame many other experienced designers in the genre..."

Editor's Choice Award - IGN
"If you're new to massively multiplayer online games, or PC gaming, and want to see what the fuss is about, WoW is an excellent place to start. If you're a hardcore grognard who takes masochistic pleasure in grinding away on the same monsters in the same camp for hours at a time, you'll be better served elsewhere. If you're in between, I think World of Warcraft is the MMO we've all been waiting for..."

Game of the Year - IGN
"As part of the price for its previous successes, when Blizzard announced World of Warcraft in September of 2001, both the game and the company immediately faced exceptionally elevated expectations. In November, the studio delivered a title that lives up to and further enhances its record of excellence. Among many notable elements, some that stand out in particular are the quest-driven gameplay, low down time, high accessibility, gentle learning curve, outstanding art direction and fairly modest hardware requirements. Despite some launch and server uptime issues, World of Warcraft's overall worthiness to join the previous winners of our supreme accolade is unquestionable. "

Online World of the Year - IGN
"In light of its selection as our Game of the Year, the choice for this category is clear."

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction - IGN
"Proving once again that crafting a unique look and feel depends on much more than polygon counts and technology.... The overall visual experience is exceptionally cohesive, while the game also remains true to its heritage by being instantly recognizable as a Warcraft title."