Even if you don’t play “World of Warcraft,” also called “WoW,” chances are you know someone who does. Which might account for the coworker who sneaks off at the end of the day mumbling about going on a dungeon raid, or the friend who cancels dinner plans again, claiming his “guild” is waiting for him.

A visually stunning marriage of “Dungeons and Dragons” and a social networking site, “WoW” has been gaining momentum since its debut in 2004. There are more than four million players in the U.S. alone.

“WoW” is an MMORPG or “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game,” set in the fictional land of Azeroth. It’s played with large numbers of real people, in real time, who vie to advance levels and accumulate weapons and gear by completing individual quests and working together to raid dungeons. The game is notoriously time-consuming, with players participating an average of 22 hours a week.

“There’s a fine line between making a game that people want to play, and making a game that people can’t stop playing,” said Dmitri Williams, assistant professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, where he has monitored the game’s growth. “It’s an incremental treadmill with a carrot dangling at the end. Psychologists have studied that pattern and found that it can change the chemistry in the brain — it’s the same system that’s in place with gambling.”

Players, however, see “WoW” as a harmless diversion and a way to network and socialize with friends and family.

“I play with my real-life friends. It’s basically an extension of hanging out with each other, and I’ve also made new friends while playing,” said Dyana Ibern Vengoechea, 33, of South Amboy. “There’s other things I could be doing, but as long as I keep doing my job and make time for friends and family off the game, it’s pretty okay.”

Either way, “WoW” isn’t close to surrendering its hold on the virtual gaming world.

“World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King,” an expansion pack slated for release Thursday, will allow players who have capped out at Level 70 (the result of hundreds of playing hours) to advance 10 more levels. This will give players more virtual lands to explore, beasts to kill and loot to pilfer.

“WoW” diehards will line up at stores around the country, many of which will stay open past midnight on Wednesday, Blizzard spokesperson Shon Damron said. The game’s last expansion pack sold 2.4 million copies in the first 24 hours, and thousands of people queued for its midnight release.

Gamestop in Lawrenceville is expecting about 100 people Wednesday night. “Warcraft players are extremely fanatical,” said store manager Justin McHugh, himself a “WoW” player. “If they can get an hour in over everybody else, they’ll stay up past midnight for that.”

Follow the billions

MMOs — Massively Multiplayer Online Games — represent a slice of the $57 billion, and growing, worldwide gaming market. Vivendi, the parent company of “WoW” developer Blizzard Entertainment, made $1.51 billion last year, attributing those record numbers to the game.

The game’s enormous popularity can be credited, in part, to its ability to cross gender and generational gaps.

But MMOs have life-spans, said Bruce Sterling Woodcock, who runs MMORPGChart.com, a website that collects online gaming data. For example, Sony Online Entertainment’s “Everquest,” once considered the most popular MMO of all time, peaked at 500,000 users.

“My prediction is within the next two years, ‘WoW’ will peak,” said Woodcock. “It’s common for MMOs as they mature: They go up and eventually reach a plateau where they level off.”

But for now, he said, “WoW” is breaking all the rules.

A game of her own

Ibern Vengoechea works from home and keeps her computer logged on to “WoW” all day, every day — using it as a virtual chat room to keep in touch with her closest friends.

“People automatically assume I’m a guy,” she said. “Once they realize I’m a girl, they try to help me sometimes.” She has two level 70 characters — the highest achievable level right now — and plays a few minor characters, as well.

“If I play a low-level character … (it’s because) I want to start a new character, but guys automatically think I don’t know how to play,” she said. “People try to kill things for me or give me gold. I’ll take advantage of it sometimes. Sometimes, it’s like ‘Dude, I know how to play.’”

Nearly half of online gamers are female, according to a study by the Entertainment Software Association. But the ratio of male to female players in “WoW” is about 80 to 20, Williams said.

“Even though women are playing in smaller numbers, they’re actually playing more intensely than men,” he said. “As a rule, the women play more for social reasons. Men tend to play more to accomplish tasks. We’ve also found that women play more hours than men and are less likely to quit.”

Nick Yee, a research scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center who has surveyed thousands of MMO players, found that female players tend to be a little older than their male counterparts: Male players average between ages 12 and 28, females between 23 and 40.

To a newcomer, it may appear that there are many more women in the game than there actually are, but Yee found that one out of every two female characters is played by a man “gender bending” within the game.

Alone together

Online games — and video games generally — receive the same criticisms that once dogged television. Will they isolate individuals, or bring them together? Are players alienated from their friends and neighbors, or have they tapped in to a brave new world of social interactivity?

“People assume that people come into this game alone, when about half come in with someone they knew already,” USC’s Williams said. “There’s not a big separation between friends online and friends offline.”

For Anthony DeStefano, a 20-year-old student at Montclair State University, “WoW” is the way he keeps in touch with his friends from high school. “Now we all go to different schools,” he said. “Some live in different states, some live close by, some go to school with me –but we’ve been playing together the whole time.”

According to Nick Yee’s findings, 60 percent of female gamers and 16 percent of male gamers play with a romantic partner. Some 40 percent of female gamers and 35 percent of male gamers play with a family member.

“The MMO space is distinctively different from e-mail, IM or the phone, because you can’t collaborate and do things together in those mediums,” Yee said. “What the MMO provides is a space to not only spend time together, but to work on something in common.”

Addiction or hobby?

But are “WoW” and other MMORPG games technically addictive? The American Medical Association said in a June 2007 report that it was too soon to tell if video games could technically be found “addictive.” However, the study did say that video game overuse — which it defines as excessive time playing video games, to the point where other aspects of life become dysfunctional — was most commonly seen among MMORPG players. Those most vulnerable, the report said, include “individuals (who) are somewhat marginalized socially, perhaps experiencing high levels of emotional loneliness and/or difficulty with real life social interactions.”

Online gamers, Williams explained, tend to use their allotted “TV time” to play “WoW,” essentially trading one activity for the other. The average American spends about 24 hours a week watching television, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2006 American Time Use Survey.

The online Yahoo support group WoW Widows, a forum where people come to vent their frustrations about partners who have been swallowed by the game, now boasts more than 3,700 members. One poster, Christine, a 37-year-old mother of two from Atlantic Highlands, says her husband plays so much “WoW” — four to five hours a night, and more on weekends — that he’s neglecting his 1- and 2-year-old children. “He’s missing everything,” she said.

DeStefano, the Montclair State student, describes himself as “more casual” about the game now that he is in college.

“It affected my relationships with friends who didn’t play and it definitely affected my relationship with my girlfriend,” he said. “It was probably one of the reasons we broke up. She didn’t play and didn’t understand why I liked the game. Some guys are in a bowling league, some go play cards — I play video games.”

“We know that there are thousands of World of Warcraft fans out there who are waiting for the release of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and this launch will give them the opportunity to join the worldwide community of gamers as soon as the game releases worldwide. Geekay Games’ Mall of the Emirates store will open at midnight on Wednesday 12th November 2008 to launch this expansion pack.” said Nitin Mathew, marketing manager of RED.

World of Warcraft players who want to ensure that they get their game at the midnight launch can register themselves at any Geekay Games outlet in Dubai. Queuing will start at 11pm on Wednesday 12th November 2008 in front of the store. Kishan Palija, managing director of Geekay Games said “We have a lot of customers eagerly waiting for this game; a midnight launch will help them get their hands on the game earlier than they would usually.”

Since debuting in North America on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft has become the most popular MMORPG around the world. It was the bestselling PC game of 2005 and 2006 worldwide, and finished behind only World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the first expansion pack for the game, in 2007. In addition to being the bestselling PC game of 2007 in both North America and Europe, The Burning Crusade holds the record for fastest-selling PC game of all time, with nearly 2.4 million copies sold in its first 24 hours of availability and approximately 3.5 million in its first month.

World of Warcraft was recently launched in Russia and Latin America, and is currently available in eight languages. In addition to North America and Europe, the game is played in mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Chile, Argentina, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. For further information on World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King, you can visit the official website at www.wow-europe.com.

The two heavy fighters were half of the four total classes cut from the game, with the other two being the Dwarven Hammerer and Greenskin Choppa. In an interview with Eurogamer today, Jacobs confirmed that one of the two outstanding classes will also return to the game in the not-too-distant future, and one most likely will not.

“Well, one of them we hope to put back in,” said Jacobs. “I can’t tell you which yet, that’s a surprise. We’re probably going to be replacing one and putting in another class in its place. But we’ll be talking about that in a few months.”

Jacobs went on to further explain the rationale behind removing the four classes in July. “When we cut them out, one of the things we said is that if we can’t make those classes great, we’re not putting them back in. One of the careers, we just couldn’t get great. We’re not going to put it in just so we can go, ‘See guys, we put it back in.’ If it’s not great, it doesn’t belong in the game. There will still be four going back in, it just won’t be necessarily the same four.”

-HAMMER TIME: Four years after its launch, Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft” continues to dominate the field of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (known by the acronym MMORPG). It’s not for lack of competition; dozens of companies have tried to peel off some of the 10 million “WoW” subscribers, only to be stymied by technical problems, lack of polish and player attrition. Funcom’s “Age of Conan,” for example, got off to a fast start earlier this year, only to be derailed by those problems.

The latest challenger is determined to avoid such issues. “Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning,” the sword-and-sorcery fantasy developed by Mythic Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts, has already attracted 750,000 players since its September debut. But Mythic co-founder Mark Jacobs said: “The launch is just the beginning. Even the first year is only a step.”

“No MMORPG is ever ready to go out,” Jacobs said. “These games are so complicated, you can never get it 100 per cent right.” For a new online game to succeed, he said, players have to be “able to do everything it says on the box.”

“Warhammer” executive producer Jeff Hickman said the goal is to “keep the momentum going,” especially with the busy holiday season and a much-anticipated “WoW” expansion coming up. “We stay on top of what’s going on, and we’re going to keep expanding,” Hickman said. “We care about what the players are saying. Our first two patches were about making players happy - within reason.”

Creative director Paul Barnett said “Warhammer” is more than a computer game, it’s a hobby. “And at 50 cents a day,” he added, “it’s the most cost-effective hobby in the digital age.”

-VIRTUAL OBAMA: Most of us have got used to ads in video games, particularly in sports games, where they provide a dose of realism. It makes sense that you’d see a Ford billboard in “Need for Speed,” or a Puma poster in “NBA Live.” But wait: What’s Barack Obama doing in “Burnout Paradise”?

If your Xbox 360 is connected to the Internet, you may see ads for Obama in some 18 games, including “Madden NFL 09.” The Obama campaign is targeting gamers in 10 states that allow early voting; the ads promote a website, VoteforChange.com, that explains the process.

“It reaches an audience that is typically hard to reach - young males, roughly 18 to 34,” said Holly Rockwood, a spokeswoman for Electronic Arts, publisher of all the above. “That’s very appealing to our advertisers.” There’s no indication that Republican John McCain’s campaign will mount a similar strategy.

-FEAR OF MUSIC: The most intriguing PlayStation 3 game of the year is Sony’s “LittleBigPlanet.” Unfortunately, it got a little too intriguing when an early reviewer discovered a few quotes from the Quran embedded in a musical track.

Sony recalled all copies of the game, which was due to go on sale this week. “We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologize for any offence that this may have caused,” said corporate communications director Patrick Seybold. Revised “LittleBigPlanet” discs should go out next week.

-NEW IN STORES: Microsoft’s “Fable II,” the long-awaited epic from “Black & White” mastermind Peter Molyneux, arrives on the Xbox 360. … Ubisoft’s exotic first-person shooter series goes to Africa in “Far Cry 2″ (for the 360, PlayStation 3). Rockstar revs up two new chapters of its “Midnight Club” street racer: “Los Angeles” (360, PS3) and “L.A. Remix” (PlayStation Portable). … Nintendo invites you to create your own orchestra with “Wii Music.” … Marvel’s friendly neighbourhood web-slinger embarks on a new adventure in “Spider-Man: Web of Shadows” (Activision, most systems). … Dracula’s back in Konami’s “Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia” (DS). … Majesco takes a fresh approach to the classic dungeon crawl in “Away: Shuffle Dungeon” (DS). … Disney delivers a batch of new delights for the kids, including “Think Fast” (Wii), “Sing It” (360, PS3, PS2), “High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance!” (360, Wii, PS3, PS2) and - for those of you who are bored with “Madden NFL 09″ - “Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell” (DS).

As you can see in the segment that aired on MTV2 last night, Rob Pardo, executive vice president of game design at Blizzard Entertainment, told our Tracey John at Blizzard headquarters last week that he doesn’t think “World of Warcraft” — which has more than two million paying subscribers in the U.S. — is going to be hurt by the faltering U.S. economy.

(Videos not viewable by users logging in from Canada or the U.K. — But see below for Pardo’s full quote.)

Rob Pardo, Executive Vice President, Blizzard Entertainment: Historically for us, the game industry hasn’t been affected by recessions like a lot of other businesses. I think the reason for that is [that] games really offer some of the best entertainment value on the market. People might not want to go out to the movies and spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertainment if you’re staying at home more — and I think that’s one of the reasons why you don’t see games really go in the same recession as the rest of the economy a lot of times.

We reached out to EA Mythic head and lead “Warhammer Online” designer Mark Jacobs to clarify about his company’s beta policies. He responded after the story was published.

In doing so, Jacobs also wanted to respond to some of the comments about “Warhammer Online” that Kaplan had made. Here’s his defense via a phone call to MTV Multiplayer this morning:

– Referring to Kaplan’s mention of the 30-45 minute wait times for battlegrounds (called “Scenarios” in “Warhammer Online”), Jacobs said that “World of Warcraft” also had long queues just to get into the servers to play the game when it first launched in 2004.

– Responding to the user interface similarities, Jacobs said that “World of Warcraft” wasn’t the first game to feature customizable interfaces. While he credited them for polishing it, he also said that it should be pointed out that “World of Warcraft” learned from Sony Online’s “EverQuest” and Mythic’s “Dark Age of Camelot.”

– Jacobs explained that while as developers, they evolve games by learning from each other, many design decisions made for “Warhammer Online” were done consciously to differ from the industry leader: “If you look at ‘Warhammer,’ there were so many points [where] we consciously made the decision not to be like ‘WoW’ and to try to push the envelope. I think you’ll find that if you’re actually going to compare the two products, I would say ‘WoW’ is certainly a more polished game now than ‘Warhammer is — of course they’ve had four years and billions of dollars — but if you look at the innovations in ‘Warhammer,’ you’d be hard-pressed to find as many in ‘WoW.’”

– In the end, Jacobs said that this is only the beginning for “Warhammer Online”: “This is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. We are in this for the long haul and the real test of how great ‘Warhammer’ and ‘WoW’ are will sort themselves out, and that won’t be in the next three months. It’s going to be a lot longer.”

– For now, the Mythic head said that they’re enjoying their current success and see it continuing down the road even past the launch of the “WoW” expansion “Wrath of the Lich King” next month: “In our first three weeks post-launch, we’ve sold more than anyone else. The game stability has been unbelievable and it blows away any other online games. The amount of downtime we’ve had is negligible. The number of crashes we’ve had is almost non-existent. And we’re going to be continuing to be doing a lot for the game over the next six months, or nine months, or six years.”

***

Obviously both designers have vested interests in their own games. MMO gamers, you’ve now heard from both sides. What do you think of their criticisms?

The World of Warcraft servers are currently down for maintenance — and to give gamers a chance to download the 1.2GB patch — but after 2PM, WoW fans will have a chance to enjoy the game’s newly added barber shop, in-game calendar, achievement system, and Inscription profession.

As per usual with patches that alter the game’s skill tree, every player will be given a free talent respec for each of their characters on logging into the world.

Blizzcon attendees will also be pleased to hear that the polar bear mount Blizzard distributed at the event will now be available within Azeroth.