Given my lifelong enjoyment of games, I always thought of myself as a bit of a "gamer." Sure, there are people more into gaming than me, but I have years of experienceSometimes I even wondered if I was wasting too much of my time playing gamesI could be doing other things, after all: reading, studying, working, taking walks in the parkStaring at a computer screen moving a fake character around killing fake creatures with a fake weapon probably isn't the most productive way to spend my time.

A few years ago, I picked up what was, and still is, deemed to be the jewel of the MMORPG catalog: World of WarcraftWith over 8 million subscribers across the world, dozens of servers, and a brand new expansion pack that has revitalized some of its content, WoW, for short, has become a genuine worldwide phenomenonI began playing WoW shortly after it was released: I made a character, did some quests, and killed some giant bugsIt's fun, and I still play it