World of WarCraft ships November 15, now available for pre-order. And yes, like other Blizzard titles, a Mac OS X version is included on the same disc as the PC version! $47.99 from Amazon, and supposedly $29.99 from WalMart, which is a bit nicer for a game with a monthly fee. Even better, a nifty collector's edition includes a month's worth of service, a behind-the-scenes DVD, a soundtrack album, and more, definitely worth the extra $30 and easily makes the wishlist.

I can see it now. 3am, wife and baby will be sleeping on the 2nd floor while I'm in the basement getting repeatedly PK'd by some 13-year-old orc on his dad's Dell. This could be bad.

Trying not to keep expectations too high, though. The MMORPG industry is just beginning to learn lessons from past mistakes, and it's still taking even the largest, most anticipated games a very long time to get off the ground even after launch. Star Wars: Galaxies has its fans, and might be right up my alley, but mixed reviews make me think there may never be a MMORPG so good I'd be willing to spend $20 a month and who knows how many hours on it. Perhaps it's the time factor that's intimidating; I'm likely to be a casual MMORPGer at best, and paying a monthly fee for something I'm only going to do a few hours a week sounds lame.