But let's take a step back for a second: World of Warcraft is one of the most successful, popular, and expansive games of all time. Yet for new players, such a gargantuan game can be intimidating to break into. With so many characters, quests, levels, and classes, simply starting out can seem like an intimidating prospect. On the surface, the new Cataclysm expansion seems like more red meat for the hardcore players (more levels, and of course, more dungeons). But the introduction of Cataclysm may prove to be the best time to be a new player in this fantastical world.

Around the globe, more than 12 million people are WoW players--about the same number of viewers who found themselves drawn into the television saga "Lost" last season. WoW's participation just continues to grow, and with good reason. New players will find storylines that are more mature than the originals, along with gameplay mechanics that make playing much more accessible to the uninitiated. This extra bit of handholding comes in the form of additional hints to help finish quests, more straightforward player expectations, better storytelling, and, frankly, more fun.

The cost of entry has also gone down; there's a generous free trial, and no need for players to buy the original game and all the expansions at once (unless they're compelled to play as one of the races that was introduced in a later expansion pack). Players are still able to have as many as ten characters per realm (Blizzard's term for a game server) to try out as many races and classes as they choose, and in recent years, Blizzard has allowed players to move characters from one realm to another, for a fee.

The game software itself has also seen some spectacular improvements, especially for players with beefier video hardware. Rendering of complex textures such as water and lava is far more realistic in the latest upgrades, and additional visual effects such as dynamic sun shafts, as well as greatly increased detail in spell and damage effects, serve to further improve the visual experience of the game.

One of the longest-running complaints of WoW players has also been addressed: patch day. Previously, when Blizzard would add new content via a patch, players would have to wait for files to be downloaded before they could play. Some of the larger patches could take hours to download. The revised launcher released this fall changes the experience entirely, allowing players to dive in to the world while additional content downloads in the background. So while Tuesdays still see realms shutting down for a few hours of regular maintenance, the download-and-patch dance has been all but eliminated.