The World of Warcraft and Social Networking

As a long-time patron of Blizzard I have been part of the game since the launch.Over the course of 4 years you come to see just exactly what you try to get out of the game each night.I'm not talking about what next great item you might win in a raid that night,I'm talking about what is your deeper goal.The kind that involves real people.Many come online each night not just to enjoy content,but also to just hang out with friends.Friends you might have known for many years if you have been a rooted player on one single realm since the release.Some of these friends you play with repetitiously every night may know you better than your own mother.The World of Warcraft has become much more than a video game...it has become a deep social networking tool that brings new connection to playing a simple game.

Online mmorpgs are not new in any sense,and many other games also have vast communities filled with servers upon servers and realms stacked on top of realms.The communities are there,that's a given.From online action platforms such as first-person shooters like Gears of War or Halo to in depth real-time strategy games such as Command and Conquer.The point is that the number of communities and population of all these games is impressive.Countless friendships and bonds,and also terrible incidents and distrust between long time friends and enemies exist across every game.These are real interactions with real players,and after a long time everyone kind of grows on you.Like one big dysfunctional family.

Why is World of Warcraft the best example of social networking in a mmorpg to date? How does this question apply to you and your long time game "/played"...and how would you answer it if asked to you.