Cynthia Murdock caught the World of Warcraft bug from her husband -- but at first it was just a matter of survival.

Brad, Cynthia's husband, had played the hugely popular video game for years before he introduced his wife to it in 2007 when an expansion of the game (World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade) was introduced.

"When we first started dating, I didn't play, and he played a lot," recalled Cynthia, who lives with Brad in Santa Clarita. "I started playing because I got sick of just lying around watching TV and trying to crochet."

Besides, noted Brad, "we're sitting side by side while we're playing so we can talk to each other. We're talking about what we're doing and how our day was while we're playing." (Here's how serious they are about the game: They've removed their dining room table and replaced it with an L-shaped desk capable of supporting two computers.)

Frank Pearce, founding member and senior vice president of product development for Blizzard Entertainment -- the game's developer and production company -- believes he knows the reason why couples such as the Murdocks might prefer staying in all weekend playing Warcraft to going out.

"There's a huge social element to the game. We've had this huge massive community grow out of the experience," Pearce said. "The community is really a big factor that draws people into the game and keeps them in the game as well."

For the uninitiated, World of Warcraft is what's known in the trade as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG. People from all over the world participate simultaneously in these games in which participants are integral characters in a virtual world. The game has 10 million subscribers worldwide.

Unlike most video games targeted at younger males, Warcraft has succeeded in bringing women to the game with a diversity of features.

"It's a social experience; it's not just an entertainment experience," Pearce said.

In fact, many women who play the game do so because of the social aspect. "It's real-time interaction with other people, and you're not just sitting there fighting against some boss [enemy] that doesn't have a brain behind it," said Cynthia Murdock. "I really, really like playing with other people."

The latest expansion of the game, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, is rumored to be coming within the next year, though Blizzard would not give a specific release date.

"We typically try to avoid launch windows until we're pretty sure we can achieve them," Pearce said.

Brad and Cynthia feel that World of Warcraft has brought them closer together in their marriage and saved them a ton of money in the process.

Of course, some wives of gamers aren't as easily swayed. For example, Michael Akers, a waiter at a Kennesaw, Ga., restaurant, prefers to wait for his wife to fall asleep before logging into the World of Warcraft. Mike, a self-described recluse, seldom ventures out of the house, other than to go to work, but still wants to be connected to the outside world. Playing the game allows him to do that.

"My friends all know that I don't like talking on the phone or going to parties. I'm a bit of a hermit," Akers said.

Unlike the Murdocks, Akers has yet to persuade his wife, Andrea, to purchase an L-shaped desk for their dining room and pull up a chair alongside him to play the game.

"I want to play all the time, but I have to at least spend some time with the wife," Akers said by phone. "It's funny, because her twin sister plays [Warcraft] with her husband all the time."

To avoid conflicts with his wife, Akers chooses his playing time carefully. "It's the coward's way out, but it works for me," he said.

Akers wishes his wife would play, but she has no interest.

"When Andrea went into labor, I made her wait 10 minutes so I could finish an 'end boss,' " said Akers, who didn't sound like he was kidding.

When World of Warcraft debuted, according to Pearce, nobody on the design team had any idea how popular the title would become.

He knows that for some players, the game can have an addictive quality. Warned Pearce: "I think it's up to each player to decide what the point of the game is for them."