World of Warcraft, I'm ready for the call of the Horde

It was impossible to resist. After a few months living in Second Life, learning everyday and gathering lots of ideas for new projects in world, I had to start exploring Azeroth, the magical place also known as World of Warcraft.

I'm still downloading the 10 day trial but have already registered for US$ 19.99, so I have the next 30 days covered (they add to the first 10 days). After that it's US$ 14.99 monthly. Some argue that is a little expensive but I think many of us spend much more in other kinds of entertainment and I'm pretty sure the fun of World of Warcraft is well worth the fifteen bucks.

Important to notice: you don't need to buy the boxed version of the game, the big 3.16 Gb. download is exactly the same once you activate your account.

I've registered to the US based version of the game, for that you need a credit card with an address in the United States, if you have a Paypal account there your debit card, which is a Mastercard, would work too. I used that option.

World of Warcraft is the closest thing to a virtual version of Tolkien's universe and even if, unlike Second Life, there's no real economy promoted by Blizzard, creators of the game, a secondary market has appeared, just one example: millions of chinese are mining virtual gold and selling it for real dollars.

With more than eight million players, World of Warcraft is a huge virtual reality that many friends told me to "please don't enter, danger, highly addictive!" Cool, exactly what every geek needs.

Obviously I'll join the Horde 'cause there's nothing better than crashing some human bones after all that Drupal coding during the day.