I've spent my long Memorial Day weekend absorbed in, or maybe it's absorbed by, a 10 day free trial of World of Warcraft -- a massively multiplayer online role-playing game or "MMORPG". Having had some experience with a few offline RPGs the experience was not completely novel to me. Having other live players in my choosen swords and sorcery fantasy realm, however, was new. Typing or reading messages to partners or other players who happen to be nearby doesn't work well while trying to fight off monsters. In offline RPGs I have played it is normal to freeze the action, think out tactics for the next round or so of the current battle and issue orders to your game simulated teammates. One then resumes the action to see how the plans work out. No pausing to plan or give instructions in World of Warcraft, or "WoW" as it is commonly tagged. One must think and act quickly. I have so far mostly played solo and only dabbled in interaction with other online players. Perhaps with practice working in combination with others will get easier. What I want is a real voice link. That should be technologically feasible but I'll bet there are legal objections from the telcoms who feel entitled to a voice communication monopoly.

If you happen to be a WoW player watch for my character and say "hi". I'm "Mandira" a female night elf druid, currently at level 12, in the Argent Dawn realm. Although I'm male, I like to have my RPG characters be female. They look more graceful in battle and, frankly, they are sexier.

I find WoW to be addictive despite my clumsiness in trying to coordinate with other players. That is both praise and warning. I will try to work my way back to real world matters starting, perhaps, tommorow.