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My chair grates against the dirty tile floor in the Gamer's Anonymous meeting room. My cheaks flush red for a moment and I pause to take a look around at the dozen pairs of eyes all fixated on my every move. I imagine them for a moment transfixed by the illuminating glow of computer monitors and take a deep breath. They are just like me.

"Hello, my name is Bob and I am a gamer."

There is a murmur of "Hello Bob" and I do my best to smile. My name isn't really Bob but I doubt the authenticity of several other nametags in the room. Misskitty and Gankymcgank are obviously reflections of online personas. These are the real addicts, those who can't separate their characters from their own individual personalities, at least - that's what I tell myself.

Ganky applies some smelly herbal concoction to his felt-tip marker and winks at me as he positions himself behind an unsuspecting victim. I continue, "I have played World of Warcraft off and on since Open Beta."

I used to be Bob, the gamer who missed out on eating dinner with his wife and kids regularly; opting instead to eat my meals in front of the computer screen. It is so many others on a daily basis. It could end up being you. World of Warcraft touts 11.5 million subscribers, according to some sources. While that doesn't take into consideration the sheer number of customers who pay for multiple accounts, the number is still impressive by industry standards alone. Regardless of who pays for the accounts, each one returns a monthly profit for Blizzard. MMO addiction spells big profits for gaming companies and World of Warcraft has proven that it can hold and maintain market interest, or fuel addiction according to some.

The scenario at the beginning of this article is fictitious and does not represent any personal experience, nor any experience that I have heard of. It may sound extreme to some, while others may wish for such a support group to help them break free from their virtual chains. We can all understand a weakness to entertainment and a desire to be constantly entertained. Most of us go to work or school, both in some cases, and then come home and look to gaming as a form of stress relief or escape from the responsibilities that no one else seems to understand. Soon we find that we're staying up just a little bit later in order to finish an instance run or a quest chain, a few minutes turns into a few hours. In the morning we log in before dashing out the door so we can see if our auctions sold. We

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