What does World of Warcraft mean to me?

I was thinking about this on the way home today. After talking with some friends of mine, I realized that I had ended up spending a majority of time talking to them about WoW. They play too (not as much as I do) so it was a mutual thing, but we could've easily talked about work or school or anything else. Why WoW?

World of Warcraft has become a hobby that I talk about, endulge in, and think about more than most every other eneavor (with notable exceptions) that I partake in. I have chalked this up to be a normal endulgence, which is no different than someone who plays on the X-Box, or Farmville. But is it?

I know plenty of people who play video games avidly, they spend most of their free time playing. But they don't seem to talk about it much, and they certainly don't start a blog to talk about it. Am I so different, or is the nature of the games?

I am going to say that it is a little bit of both. I know that I am one to border on obsession with a lot of my interests. For example, I recently listened to a few Queen songs, and now they are the only band that I care to listen to. I have searched youtube to find as many videos with their songs, and I absolutely love them. Now, I am assuming that most people would listen to some of their songs, like them (how can't you), but they would still have a bunch of other bands that they like. While I like all types of music, I have found that I compare everything I hear, and how that singer isn't as good as Freddie and how that guitarist isn't Brian. So I know that I take my interests close to the extreme. But there has to be more to it than my obsessions. What is it about WoW that makes it so compelling (to me at least)?

I think that it has to do with two main factors. One; I am paying for this game every month. If I am paying to play this game, I am going to get the most out of it that I can. This goes beyond the in game, but into looking up information about my class, quests, raids, and everything I can find to know more about how to play and what goes into playing well. Second; I am playing as a character that I created. Every time I log in I am playing as my characters. I control their actions, I make get them gear to make them better, and I determine how they interact with the world (...of warcraft) that they "live" in.

I never really gave this much thought before, but this has caused me to become attached (in a strange way) to my characters. I care about which ones I play more, which ones get certain achivements, and I care about how cool (or stupid) they look.

My paladin is my achievment guy (excluding ICC). My preist is my main healing guy (love the playstyle). And my other paladin (yes there are two) is the cool lvl 60 grand marshal with the big ass sword guy. I have a bunch of other characters, but those three are the ones that I really put the thought into. I care about playing them well, how they look, and them having cool stuff.

I guess that about covers it. After thinking about this, I am pretty sure I will be the best dad in the world because a baby is something that I create (with help of course), and it is definitely something that I will spend money on.