Communication

Communication (from Latin commūnicāre, meaning "to share") is the purposeful activity of information exchange between two or more participants in order to convey or receive the intended meanings through a shared system of signs and semiotic rules. The basic steps of communication are the forming of communicative intent, message composition, message encoding, transmission of signal, reception of signal, message decoding and finally interpretation of the message by the recipient.

Communication in general takes place inside and between three main subject categories: human beings, living organisms in general and communication-enabled devices (for example sensor networks and control systems). Communication in the category of living organisms (studied in the field of biosemiotics) usually occurs through visual, auditory, or biochemical means. Human communication is unique for its extensive use of language.

Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication describes the process of conveying meaning in the form of non-word messages. Examples of nonverbal communication include haptic communication, chronemic communication, gestures, body language, facial expression, eye contact, and how one dresses. Nonverbal communication also relates to intent of a message. Examples of intent are voluntary, intentional movements like shaking a hand or winking, as well as involuntary, such as sweating. Speech also contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, e.g. rhythm, intonation, tempo, and stress. There may even be a pheromone component. Research has shown that up to 55% of human communication may occur through non-verbal facial expressions, and a further 38% through paralanguage. It affects communication most at the subconscious level and establishes trust. Likewise, written texts include nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words and the use of emoticons to convey emotion.

Storm

A storm is any disturbed state of an environment or astronomical body's atmosphere especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), heavy precipitation (snowstorm, rainstorm), heavy freezing rain (ice storm), strong winds (tropical cyclone, windstorm), or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere as in a dust storm, blizzard, sandstorm, etc.

Storms generally lead to negative impacts on lives and property such as storm surge, heavy rain or snow (causing flooding or road impassibility), lightning, wildfires, and vertical wind shear; however, systems with significant rainfall can alleviate drought in places they move through. Heavy snowfall can allow special recreational activities to take place which would not be possible otherwise, such as skiing and snowmobiling.

The English word comes from Proto-Germanic *sturmaz meaning "noise, tumult".

Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of the Storm (originally titled Blizzard DOTA and later changed to Blizzard All-Stars) is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows and OS X. The game features heroes from Blizzard's franchises including Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, The Lost Vikings, and Overwatch. The game uses both free-to-play and freemium models and is supported by micropayments, which can be used to purchase heroes, visual alterations for the heroes in the game and mounts. Blizzard does not call the game a "multiplayer online battle arena" or an "action real-time strategy" because they feel it is something different with a broader playstyle; they refer to it as an online "hero brawler".

The game was released on June 2, 2015.

Gameplay