RigaMortus2 said:
Well, what else would you call it? It appears in WoW, it is an 'ism' of WoW, for lack of a better suffix.
I think this is the main point of contention. There are thing slisted in 4e that I will admit are video game based. But not WoW based.
Talent Trees: These easily can be traced back to Diablo 2. There could easily be something earlier than that but I don't know what it would be off the top of my head. Final Fantasy Tactics has something for it's classes where you have to be certain levels in classes to go to new ones. More of a PrC basis than a Talent Tree Basis though.
Quest Cards: Yes, even our group has been writing stuff down on paper for years. But CRPG quest logs are now so pervasive (and for good reason since they are so handy) that I'll be more than willing to give this one a CRPG basis because I would be willing to bet that while the idea stemmed from helping player remember what they are supposed to do the style of examples the books give will be based off of CRPG logs.
Are these WoWisms?
Not to me. WoW may have them but when I think of Talent Trees I think of Diablo 2 and when I think of Quest Logs I think of CRPGs in general.
What is a WoWism to me? I don't know. It would be something that is WoW and when I think of it I think of WoW first. Since I don't play WoW I can't really think of anything. Honor Points? Raiding? That's what I hear about anyway.
...
Now an extreme example for a serious question.
Are hit points a WoWism to you?
Before any snark... I am seriously asking. According to the quote above it would qualify since WoW uses them. I'm fairly certain you weren't intending to include this extreme (and replies to non-serious posts have made that clear) but I'm trying to find the line in the sand - and as such I am starting at a point where I "know" I am past the line.
What about Mana Points?
Flying Mounts?
Ability Refresh?
Once we can nail down what is a "WoWism" then we can get somewhere. Outside of Warcraft IP (I'm not up to date, I played Warcraft 3 for only a couple of hours) I doubt we'll find any.