I'd try Guild Wars, but I'm one of those geeks that's actually into the Warcraft franchise itself.  It's one of the first video games I remember being into, so it's just VERY cool to me to get to run around first person in this RTS world I've been visiting for so long.  I'd actually probably read a Warcraft book or two if I had reccomendations of good ones.

I played WoW for about four months, but cancelled my sub when I decided to move to Japan. I can't imagine installing it on my computers here. It's SUCH a time hog, and once you're out, that feeling of needing to level up kinda goes away.

I play.

I have an 80 Dranei Shaman (Cobrakai) on Alliance side decked out in tier 10.  Im in a raid progression guild and we're at Lich King at the moment on 10 man, and at Professor on 25.  I have a bunch of smaller characters but probably won't level anything until Cataclysm.

Additionally, I occasionally work for Blizzard. THey haven't gone public with it yet, but I'm doing some content for a DVD for them right now.  When they go public with it, I'll do the same.

I don't play.

I have no contempt for people who do, in fact I bet I would really enjoy it and get really into it if I started playing.

Which is why I won't.

The thing about WoW is that as much as there's a stereotype of the hardcore addicted, 8 hour a day number crunching nerd... there's a lot of layers of enjoyment.  I took like, a year and a half to level my main up just enjoying everything from exploring to roleplaying to leveling alts in different races and classes and stuff.  There's something in it for most anyone, and you can delve into what you enjoy in the game as far as you like.  I'd recommend giving it a shot sometime if you think you might be interested.  It doesn't have to be a huge time and money sink.

I played Hornface, a level-80 Tauren hunter on Eitrigg. I'd hit 80 and was just screwing around idly when I got myself into a guild that turned into a second guild that turned into a few of us starting our own guild. I was just about to get started with raiding the good stuff — Ulduar; this was like seconds before the Argent Tournament stuff got real — when came guild drama the likes of which even God has never seen.

That was … hmm. Last summer, sometime. July or so. I haven't played since.

But Kyle's right. The game offers a lot. I don't know whether this is still the case, but at the time you could get an achievement (bragging rights, basically) for assassinating all the leaders of the other faction. One night, real late, the call went out on the server and I ended up in an 80-man army (composed of two 40-man raids) that assembled on this remote, middle-of-nowhere beach — there were campfires, people brought out their vanity pets, feasts were cooked and booze shared — and then rode off en masse for the enemy capital cities.

Now, if you haven't played before, lemme splain something. WoW is set in a very large world, something like tens of miles square to scale. Each of the two factions has a bunch of little settlements, and a handful of major cities, and one capital city. Deep within each of the major cities is something like a throne room where you can find whatever they use for their king. The elves are high up in a tree, the humans have a sprawling masonry city with canals and the dwarves have this maze-like warren that's not entirely unlike Zion from the Matrix sequels.

At rush hour, you might find a few hundred players in each capital city, maybe just a few dozen in the smaller major cities. So to see an army of 80 players riding toward your city is a big, impressive deal. You'd think it would be utter chaos, but we had a couple of really bossy (in a good way) players who were keeping us alert and oriented, blasting out orders over in-game chat and stuff. And we got all the way to Ironforge — the dwarf capital — before the end. As the saying goes, we broke upon their defenses like water on rock.

But man, it was a fun time.

I'd totally put in for a server transfer and start playing again for the right group of people. Hint hint.

Well, it was a one-time thing. I never saw a raid that big assemble at any other time on my server. I think the stars just aligned right or something.

I started out playing Alliance, actually. Like every other noob on the planet, I rolled a human paladin. I think I got him up to level two and a half before bailing. If you've ever played Alliance … you know those mobs just across the river from Northshire Abbey? Yeah, they ate my lunch.

Then a friend (who got me to try the game in the first place) suggested I go Horde-side so I could play with him and his friends. I started Hornface and never looked back.

Man, this thread's making my fingers itch again. I miss the Howling Fjord. Oh, and the Grizzly Hills. There was this great spot I used to like to go fish just east of the Dragonblight. Had an amazing view of Naxxramas.

Oooh, lookie the spacegoat.

I'd show you mine, but "that character has been inactive for an extended period of time."

Hear hear. Come on, Trey. This is a safe place.

Dude, me too! Steam on the Mac, yeah? I went looking for my Diablo II key last weekend, couldn't find it. Torchlight is my methodone.

Are female worgens doable?