The widely popular World Of Warcraft is a favourite among many couples, who use it as a way to spend quality time together.
Cynthia Murdock caught the World Of Warcraft bug from her husband – and at first it was just a matter of survival.
Brad, Cynthia's husband, had played the hugely popular video game for years before he introduced his wife to it in 2007 when an expansion of the game (World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade) was introduced.
"When we first started dating, I didn't play, and he played a lot," recalled Cynthia. "I started playing because I got sick of just lying around watching TV and trying to crochet."
Besides, noted Brad, "We're sitting side by side while we're playing so we can talk to each other. We're talking about what we're doing and how our day was while we're playing." (Here's how serious they are about the game: They've removed their dining room table and replaced it with an L-shaped desk capable of supporting two computers.)
Frank Pearce, founding member and senior vice president of product development for Blizzard Entertainment – the game's developer and production company – believes he knows why couples such as the Murdocks might prefer staying in all weekend playing Warcraft to going out.
"There's a huge social element to the game. We've had this huge massive community grow out of the experience," Pearce said. "The community is really a big factor that draws people into the game and keeps them in the game as well."
For the uninitiated, World Of Warcraft is what's known in the trade as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG. People from all over the world participate simultaneously in these games in which participants are integral characters in a virtual world. The game has 10 million subscribers worldwide.
Unlike most video games targeted at younger men, Warcraft has succeeded in bringing women to the game with a diversity of features.
"It's a social experience; it's not just an entertainment experience," Pearce said.
In fact, many women play because of the social aspect. "It's real-time interaction with other people, and you're not just sitting there fighting against some boss (enemy) that doesn't have a brain behind it," said Cynthia. "I really, really like playing with other people."
The latest expansion of the game, World Of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King, is rumoured to be coming within the next year, although Blizzard would not give a specific release date.
"We typically try to avoid launch windows until we're pretty sure we can achieve them," Pearce said.
The Murdocks say that World Of Warcraft has brought them closer together and saved them a ton of money in the process.
Of course, some wives of gamers aren't buying. Michael Akers, a waiter at a Kennesaw, Georgia, restaurant, prefers to wait for his wife to fall asleep before logging into the World Of Warcraft. A self-described recluse, Akers seldom ventures out of the house, other than to go to work, but still wants to be connected to the outside world. Playing the game allows him to do that.
"My friends all know that I don't like talking on the phone or going to parties. I'm a bit of a hermit," Akers said.
"I want to play all the time, but I have to at least spend some time with the wife," Akers added by phone. "It's funny, because her twin sister plays (Warcraft) with her husband all the time."
When World Of Warcraft debuted, according to Pearce, nobody on the design team had any idea how popular the title would become.
He knows that for some players, the game can be addictive. Warned Pearce: "I think it's up to each player to decide what the point of the game is for them."
