Having read the reviews of Blizzard Entertainment s "World of Warcraft" online game, I wanted to add some information not already touched on. First of all, I completely agree with all that have stated that their customer service is non-existant. You will typically wait a week for any response from them, and usually the response will be computer generated and place the burden to fix the problem or research the problem right back on you the consumer. In addition, if the company has made a mistake, they will NEVER, EVER admit it. They almost seem to laugh at you the consumer, because they know you are addicted to the game (more on that later). Another issue tied to customer service is routine maintenance and frequent patches to the game. Scheduled maintenance frequently creates a much longer downtime than the company expects. I do not have a problem with downtime per se, it is just that the company does not seem to value their consumers time. They will post that the game is expected back up in an hour, but they cannot realistically believe that. I have seen it be down for a full day, where they keep saying on the hour, every hour, that it will be back up in the next hour. The patches they make to the game very frequently cause trouble for the customer. You may not be able to log in after a patch or a myriad of other problems. Then, you the customer are left to figure out what the problem is and can spend an incredible amount of time trying various "fixes." An example of this is where the company tells you to remove and rearrange certain folders in your program files that are a bug in the system. I feel that fixing these bugs should be Blizzard's responsibility, not mine. Another issue is that of hackers. There are quite a bit of gold sellers and power-leveling companies that advertise their services in game. Blizzard claims to be aggressively against these entities. However, I have seen these companies use avitar names (usually something like Blizzerd, or Blyzzard ect. to trick the player to go to a phishing website) over and over again. There is a register complaint button that is supposed to give a heads up to Blizzard concerning these scammers and spammers. But since these entities are still using the same avitar names, day after day, I question how aggresive Blizzard is with them. Although I have not been hacked, I know many people that have. And being hacked in game opens a pandora's box that effects a much greater scope than just your World of Warcraft game. The final issue is that of the addictive nature of the game. This game is designed to take a great deal of time to play. It is a fun game, no mistake about that. But, it is very clear that the company's intent is to keep you playing as long as possible (paying a monthly connection fee). I feel that playing this game has taken a toll on my life in the last several years. Although I no longer play, I watch a co-worker going through the same thing I went through. She is neglecting her children and the relationship with her husband, all just to play a silly game. Do not underestimate the addictive nature of this game, especially for those that are having difficulties in life. There is a great amount of escapism that this game offers, but at a high cost. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had never gotten involved with World of Warcraft or Blizzard Entertainment.