by Sean O'Leary

Created on: October 27, 2008

As a lover of MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) and of World of Warcraft in general, I really want to lean toward the harmless side of things, but when view with an eye of honesty, I cannot. I started playing World of Warcraft in March of 2007, and I have to admit, it has been good, entertaining fun. And if one keeps his chat filter on, it's clean fun as well. There is really little content in the game that a dutiful parent need concern themselves with and even the most conservative of parents, the ones who fear playing games like Dungeons and Dragon are Satanic, need not worry about much here, as all the characters that a player can "roll" are considered good, morally.

When a player creates a character, or "toon," he or she starts the game at level 1. This indicates that the toon is an adventurer is just starting out, and has not yet gained experience in his or her travels. The players must have their toons complete quests that often involve finding lost or stolen objects, defeating monsters, or collecting a certain number of items, and in return their toon gains experience, in-game currency, and items for their own use. After enough experience, or XP, is gained, they will "level up" which will allow them to learn new powers, have access to more powerful and useful items, travel to new places in the game world, and become overall more powerful in the game.

The problem with games like World of Warcraft is, in fact, their highly addictive nature. Gaining new powers and items are not something that happens immidiately. The player must set out on a number of quests and adventures to gain these things, and oftentimes they take time and effort. going from level 1 to level 70 in World of Warcraft will take a player weeks, if not months, of dedicated play time. And as I write this, Blizzard the company that owns the game, is preparing to release a new expansion for the game that will increase the players ability to level up. They can now go all the way to level 80. While fun, I expect the Priest that I play in the game. who'se specialty is healing other players, will be spending a lot of time getting there.

Blizzard is aware of how addicting their game is. Indeed, they have even gone so far as to put text on the loading screens of the game that remind the player to take breaks from the game, and spend time with their friends and family in the real world. They also try to help the parents of younger players to police how much time their child

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