WoW has its own vocabulary that subscribers of the game use while interacting as avatars online. The language used by WoW players is very complex and excludes non-players from their insider community. Below are some of the main terms used by members of the culture that are important to understand what parts of the game influence their addiction.
Avatar: The character that the player creates and uses to play the game.
Azeroth: The virtual world that people play in on WoW. It consists of different sections, the two being, hoard and alliance. Hoard and alliance fight against each other. Each has 6 races, human, night elf, worgen, draenei, gome, and dwarf. In addition, there are 11 different classes each race can be a part of. In general, older players play hoard and younger play alliance.
This is a map of the land of Azeroth. Source: WowWiki
Guilds: Groups on WoW that people can play the levels with. They help each other develop new skills, and communication between players occurs. In order to perform raids, guilds are required. It is essential to join a guild if a player desires to obtain more loot and advance on to the next level.
MMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game in which players create an avatar and are able to play a virtual game in a fantasy world.
PvP: Player v player is an area of Azeroth where players fight against each other. This is for players who want to raise their status and improve their character.
Raids: When people in guilds in PvP gather together and invade certain dungeons, caves, etc. Raids result in look which improves the quality of one’s character.
Realms: Different worlds that look the same but occupy different areas.
This is the view looking out of the Kingdom of Stormwind in Azeroth. Source: Stormwind
RPG: Role playing game. This section of Azeroth contains people who intensely take on the characters of their character in a fantasy mindset. They begin to believe that they are in fact their avatar.
WoW: World of Warcraft, an online video game that is played on the computer. It was created in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment.
WoW addiction: When someone is addicted to playing WoW and it begins to affect their life.
WOWaholics: A person who has WOWaholism, they are mentally or physically dependent and abusive of WoW
WOWaholism: The addiction to WoW; similar to alcoholism in which the person is controlled by WoW to the degree that they abuse it and they create dependence to it.