Blizzard likes to get things right. Whatever the game, if it has a Blizzard logo on the front end then the Californian developer won't let it out the door until it meets its own expectations - and frequently betters them. Indeed, only recently has the firm started to follow industry trends and farm out development of certain titles to other companies, and in doing so has been extremely cautious about who it works with, and equally mindful of their progress - you need only look at Starcraft: Ghost for evidence of that. So, in a sense, the "surprise success" of the American version of World of Warcraft - Blizzard's first MMORPG - has been nothing of the sort. The only disappointment, from our perspective, was that we were expected to wait several months longer in Europe than anywhere else in the world to get our hands on it.

Fortunately though the waiting period is drawing to an end, with WOW currently being beta-tested by the likes of you and us, and due out on these shores in the next few months. Pricing and packaging details are in place, it's all working, and, although Blizzard has been reluctant to discuss the reasons for its delay in releasing the game worldwide, WOW is undeniably still at the top of European MMORPG fans' wish lists. With that in mind, we spoke to producer Shane Dabiri about the reaction to the game in the USA and Blizzard's plans for keeping up momentum.