"I really don't want to write this, but I'll get to that eventually.

For a gamer of the euro persuasion, World of Warcraft exists in a peculiar limbo. No, it's not out over here. No, there's no public euro servers. No, there's no way of downloading the client online and starting to play on a whim - a phenomena which has lead to pretty much all of my peers happily burning out on City of Heroes at least four months before it's available over here. Don't expect to be able to get a European boxed copy of World of Warcraft until next year.

However, despite this, it's a game that's dominating the online discourse to a degree which borders on the oppressive. Even if we're not meant to be playing it, we're surrounded by people who won't shut up about the bloody thing. It's at times like this when becoming the 51st State doesn't actually sound like that bad an idea. Just give it to us already. Still: Copies leak across borders and it's hardly as if an online RPG is the most ping-reliant thing in the world. People are playing it, if they can be bothered waiting for the postage and/or scurvy smugglers to land shipfuls of illicit boxes on a beach somewhere on the Cornwall coast in the early morning."

First impresssions/Diary/Ramble thing at Eurogamer about the all-conquering World of Warcraft, which we'd call a review and stick a score at the bottom if only we didn't think we'd get crucified by the entire internet.

Written extremely early morning. Structure is

Loose.