What is this Realm Thing?

So, you bought WoW and want to create your first character? But what is this thing you need to choose, called 'realm'?

Realms are completely different worlds that Blizzard (the guys who make the game) use to keep people in separate groups. They do this because

• its expensive to keep all eleven million players they've got in one place (if it is possible at all technically)
• to keep players with the same language in the same place and not letting them annoy each other (don't want to hear German chat all day if you only know English, right?)
• to keep players with similar play styles in the same place (and not letting them annoy each other)

The last part is very important. Very. Important. If you are new to the game you most probably want to chose a realm that is marked 'normal'. Those marked 'RP' are for players who want to role-play more than it is 'normal'.

Thoss market 'PvP', well... those are for those players who can't wait for you to get into their world as a new player in order to gank your hide. You don't know what 'gank' is, but then again you may not want to find out. It means they will repeatedly kill you while laughing at your feeble attempts of fleeing or defending yourself. You do not want this for the beginning experience in WoW, so choose 'normal'. You will like it that way.

Apart from all that, there's also the issue of 'population', meaning how full of players a realm already is. If you choose one that is 'high', you run the risk of having to wait to enter the world or having your action go in slow motion once you are do get in. So, go ahead and choose a realm that is marked 'recommended' in terms of population and you'll be fine. Whatever you do, do not choose a 'low' realm, or you will be alone (suppose you don't want to pay a subscription to an online game to be alone, right?).

As a last remark: all the above is completely irrelevant to you if you already have some friends who play the game. If you do, ask them what realm they are on and choose that, or else you will not be able to play with them.