For your consideration

There are times playing World of Warcraft singles you out; at high school gym class, when your blind date asks you your favorite activity, dealing with your mother at her birthday - it's an awkward life to lead. If only there was a way to expand your gaming repertoire to something markedly different, without leaving the comfort zone you're accustomed to... hmmm. Perhaps Team Fortress 2 for your computer. Yes that's right, Team Fortress 2 has many features found in the World of Warcraft that would make you want to play it.

The next time you're playing Alterac Valley, look at it like a land grab, you need to kill and thus occupy the enemies HQ. Sounds like King of the Hill, don't it? Perhaps capture the flag is more your thing! Team Fortress 2 has a variant, humor-laden with the feel of spy vs spy, where you capture the enemies classified documents (in the attaché case to boot.) Especially amusing is how well all the player types match up between the two (my girlfriend finds it amusing creepy that I put a chart on the board) To be frank, it only occurred to me while squabbling over games with Drew, an activity that drains the color from my hair and lessens my life by minutes and hours.

But first, let's have a flashback, shall we? *insert wayback machine here*

My years spent in the World of Warcraft were supportive and caring ones. As an RPing a dwarf priest [same thing -Ed.], I had a very loving group of friends who appreciate my heals to this day in spite of my long term absence. Before I'm accused of tooting my own horn (who else is gonna do it?), let me bring this roundabout to Team Fortress 2.

Unlike such First Person Shooters like Halo where anyone can use any weapon and skill is the deciding factor in what you're going to do, you choose a class with a very limited set of weapons and health. Want to survive many mean people shooting at you, better pick a Heavy, much like the warriors role in warcraft is to be the one beat up on by baddies. Wanna stealth by and "stabby stabby" the bad guys? The rogues in warcraft are infamous for their "doing it from behind"-teenage persona are equally matched with the disguise-wearing spys who are incredibly douch-baggery in their mischief. Personally, I found great enjoyment keeping my cohorts alive as the enemy fired every single rocket, grenade at them. A very underplayed role which means I'm always treated like royalty (assuming I do my job right! Of course the comparisons don't stop there! For you nuking types there's the Pyro

At the cost of 30 dollars, merely one came card for Warcraft, you could add this fun multiplayer to your library and find a whole new reason to bitch about lag. At least the voice chat is funnier than warcrafts, but then, who really wants to suffer Barrens chat everywhere they go?