The online gaming world grows everyday, with 9 million subscribers to the most popular MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) World of Warcraft (WoW) - to which I myself, have lost two years of my life.

I am now a recovering addict, and only visit Azeroth twice a week (okay, okay maybe four or five times).
Yes, it's like virtual crack and I'm considering opening the first Rehabilitation Center for junkies like me.

More alarming however, is the market of this virtual world - game goods like weapons, armour items and gold (WoW currency) have real world monetary value. I think it's something like 50c for one piece of gold, (I being the junkie that I am have a connection that gets it for 35c!). Other than that, levelled characters can be bought or levelled from the starting level to the max level (level 70 at the mo).

The latest news in the virtual market is a record sale of a fully levelled character for almost £5,000 (7,000 euros). The reason for the ridiculous price was that the character - Zeuzo, possessed the games most sought after weapons and armour, including the legendary Twin Warglaives of Azzinoth, of which only a small and very elite number of the 9 million subscribers have managed to get their hands on.

For more info check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_warcraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game

*** Warning: WoW is Highly Addictive