It Used to Be One of the Main Ways Men Talked to Each Other. Then Everyone Went Silent.

In 2005 I received a copy of World of Warcraft for my birthday. The game clocked in at 3 gigabytes--a behemoth by the standards of the early 2000s, so big that it had to be distributed across four different CDs. I installed those discs onto our creaking, overworked family PC and, hours later, created my first avatar: a humble dwarf paladin named Pumaras, who set off to explore a realm he would soon call home. World of Warcraft was a singular experience, and completely unlike the lonesome corridors of Halo or Call of Duty. Millions of living, breathing human beings logged on to the game at the same time.