World of Warcraft

If the promise of more sex more often doesn't get you into online games, maybe this will: gaming could be a great way to meet guys. According to a new study by Online University, the odds of you scoring a date with someone who is committed and honest are higher if you're playing World of Warcraft than if you're trolling through hundreds of "matches" on dating sites. The study shows that online gamers spend more time on gaming sites than online daters spend on sites like Match.com and eHarmony (which means you have better odds of meeting more people more often), and WoW players are more likely to share personal information and feelings about themselves with fellow gamers than their "real-life" friends.

The cold, hard fact is there are 12 million people playing World of Warcraft online vs. dating sites, which boast just one million members. That translates to about three percent of the United States population playing online games. A bigger sea means more fish to catch with your button-mashing prowess. Game on!

Remember when I told you that 12 million people play World of Warcraft? That number is about to change real quick. The official trailer for Cataclysm came out this week, and it looks frakkin' awesome. Some of the most exciting features of the new expansion are the addition of two new races and new quests.

Forget the 12 million players, I want stats on how many WoW widows and widowers there will be once Cataclysm hits shelves on Dec. 7.

A professor at Indiana University has introduced a new grading system to a class called Game Politics. Lee Sheldon, an assistant professor in the telecommunications department, has replaced the traditional letter grading system in his class to a system based on experience points like the ones used to track progress in role-playing games like World of Warcraft. According to Sheldon, who is also a game designer,

"As the gamer generation moves into the mainstream workforce, they are willing and eager to apply the culture and learning-techniques they bring with them from games."

Students start with a Level 1 avatar, which corresponds to a letter grade of "F." Through challenges and quests (a.k.a. assignments), they gain points, advancing to higher levels. And, similar to World of Warcraft, students are grouped into "guilds" and must complete both solo tasks and group assignments.

Source: Flickr User autographedcat

We've loved Felicia Day even before she made us LOL during her first The Guild music video last year. Not to mention the fact that Felicia has starred and guest-starred in several geek-worshipped shows like Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and of course the online sensation The Guild (Season Three is available for download on iTunes now, and DVD on Feb. 15 for those of you who want to relive the magic), which makes her one of the more recognizable figures in geek culture today.

Felicia is not only a fabulous actress, but she's also an inspiration for geek girls everywhere — talented, beautiful, and knows her way around an MMO. Truth be told, we've got a bit of a girl crush.

Why do you think online gaming (and World of Warcraft in particular) is so close to people’s hearts and so widely accepted among such a variety of people?
It's hard to create a community in real life now, most of us don't even know our neighbors, our lives are so spread out between home and friends and work. Online gaming allows you to create a home and community of sorts, as well as provides engaging entertainment. I personally would rather be solving puzzles and finishing quests than passively absorbing a TV show or movie.

Do you think gaming and technology brings people closer together, or creates more of a distraction in relationships?
It depends on the person and how you use it. I certainly have been annoyed by people fiddling with their phones while I'm physically sitting across from them, but at the same time I keep in touch with my brother much better over the Internet than when we ever lived in the same city. I think the thing to be careful of is that technology or gaming doesn't become exclusionary to the people physically in your life.

Find out what Felicia thinks about geeky pick-up lines, her favorite trends, and why she won't be eating any prix fixe dinners with her boyfriend this Valentine's Day when you read more

Just yesterday I was asking you what movies you'd want to see as video games, and now comes news of an epic video game turning into a movie: World of Warcraft!

The movie will be directed by Sam Raimi, who's got plenty of geek movie cred (he did the Spider-Man movies as well as the Evil Dead series).

No news yet on who will star or when the movie will come out, but I hope that Raimi will do WoW fans justice. What are your hopes for the movie?