Most people have heard of a little game called World of Warcraft.

But for those who have not, World of Warcraft, often referred to as WoW,is a MMORPG, or massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The gameallows a large number of players to interact simultaneously in a virtualworld where players create and develop a character.

Gamers choose one of two factions who are at constant war, each with fourseparate races. The Alliance is the typical “good guys” in a fantasyworld, including humans, stocky dwarfs, tiny gnomes and mysterious nightelves. The Horde, the typical “bad guys,” include nasty orcs, rastafariantrolls, rotting undead and the cow-like tauren.

Players then choose a class and appearance for their character. Eachclass, such as rogue or priest, allows for a different set of skills suchas damage dealing or healing.

Once generating and naming a character it’s off to Azeroth to startslaying some nasty monsters and going on epic quests for sweet loot.

While the game itself is hugely successful, an outsiders focus usuallyfalls on WoW’s negative qualities, including it’s incredible addictiveproperties — not the amazing gameplay. Some even claim that WoW haschanged relationships in their life because of the massive time spent ingame.

When talking about her boyfriend at the time, an anonymous senior said, “Ialways felt the game was above me on his list of priorities.”

It seems that some gamers become seriously caught up in the world of WoW.

The game allows for the player to create an avatar, a character that theycan project their own attributes into and then become in the virtualworld. Most people gain an emotional relationship with their character andsometimes find it hard to quit.

“I love my druid. She is so bad ass,” Lara Batten, a junior atUNC-Charlotte, said. “I like the game because I can get into it and getlost for a while.”

Once a player has achieved the highest level attainable by a character -the end is just the beginning. Now that the character cannot become morepowerful by advancing levels, the gamer must seek out new ways to becomemore leet. Joining 40 strangers and spending Saturday night raiding adungeon for better gear is one way of doing this.

Another way is by killing tens of thousands of other players and advancingin militaristic ranks.

“It’s a lot of fun to get new gear. As stupid as it seems you feel likeyou have accomplished something, your guy gets more powerful,” DavidSchafer, a senior in industrial engineering, said about progressing hischaracter. “It makes you want to spend the time to get better gear. Andthere is always better gear.”

While many think these WoW players are wasting their time, most of themtell a different story. Sometimes WoW has saved them from buying countlessconsole games and has in a sense consolidated their gaming time into oneexperience.

“I never played role playing games before WoW but I haven’t touched anyother game since,” Schafer said.

Gamers actually make good friends while playing, but most are just proudof their digital accomplishments. Getting their first character to 60,playing with their friends, winning epic loots, melting other players’faces off in battlegrounds, getting their second character to 60, thenproceeding to “own” even more people; it’s all very satisfying.

To keep the players happy, busy and paying, the first WoW expansion, TheBurning Crusade, is set for release in early October. For those who buythe expansion they will find new content and a higher maximum level from60 to 70. But most of all they will find their time spent again in frontof a computer, dual wielding a keyboard and mouse, ready to take on someaccursed dragons.

While six million players keep grinding away at the game, others havedecided to move on.

“I just cancelled and gave my account away,” Engin Akyol, a senior incomputer engineering, said. “I was raiding with a hardcore guild six daysa week and decided that rushing home early to make a raid is the stupidestthing I’ve ever done in my life. Fun as hell, but really stupid.”

Along with the expansion some other interesting things that are related toWorld of Warcraft are beginning to appear, one being the world’s firstdetox clinic for video-game addicts that just opened in Amsterdam. MMORPGsare among some of the most time consuming games in existence — so thehalls of this detox clinic in Amsterdam are bound to have some WoW addictsbeing treated. The fact that video game addiction is now an accreditedcondition reminds us that WoW isn’t just a game; WoW can be seriousbusiness.