Unit 1: Moves in Argument: "Confessions of a 30-Year-Old Gamer," by Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates

Like most of my generation, I was raised on video games.

Like most of my generation, I assumed that this obsession would pass at the proper time—say when I turned 30.

Our assumptions were based on the idea that video games would never grow up.

But no genre has worked harder to disprove that maxim than MMOGs—Massively Multiplayer Online Games.

But no genre has worked harder to disprove that maxim than MMOGs—Massively Multiplayer Online Games.

Unlike with normal video games, where you interact with just a computer, MMOGs allow millions of people to play with each other in sprawling online virtual worlds.

Unlike with normal video games, where you interact with just a computer, MMOGs allow millions of people to play with each other in sprawling online virtual worlds.

On Tuesday that number will increase, when the game's creator, Blizzard Entertainment, releases its sequel to WoW, The Burning Crusade, a game that will likely smash all previous records for games made for the PC.

WoW subsists on a monthly subscription fee of $14.95, which means Blizzard rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars monthly.

Their clientele are mostly young men like myself—the same young men who've been giving studio executives headaches as we abandon the box office and TV.

It isn't just the thrill of playing dress-up either; Superman Returns is static, always saddled with the same ending.

It isn't just the thrill of playing dress-up either; Superman Returns is static, always saddled with the same ending.

Fighting with two swords instead of one gives me a better shot at beating down an opposing mage, while spending hours wending through a haunted manse might win me a coveted staff.

Fighting with two swords instead of one gives me a better shot at beating down an opposing mage, while spending hours wending through a haunted manse might win me a coveted staff.

Fighting with two swords instead of one gives me a better shot at beating down an opposing mage, while spending hours wending through a haunted manse might win me a coveted staff.

I can form guilds, essentially virtual clubhouses, band together to quest for rare breastplate, recite the assorted lore of Vin Diesel or Chuck Norris, or simply hang out in front of the local inn doing the electric slide.

I can form guilds, essentially virtual clubhouses, band together to quest for rare breastplate, recite the assorted lore of Vin Diesel or Chuck Norris, or simply hang out in front of the local inn doing the electric slide.

I can form guilds, essentially virtual clubhouses, band together to quest for rare breastplate, recite the assorted lore of Vin Diesel or Chuck Norris, or simply hang out in front of the local inn doing the electric slide.