Granted, this only has a peripheral relevance to the topic at hand, but the most interesting thing I've found with regard to psychology as it applies to WoW (and MMO's in general) is the notion of personal space. I have no idea where or when I read this particular article, it may very well have been linked from TerraNova, but essentially it breaks down to the notion that people have a certain connection with their avatars that they will actually move when a stranger or someone they're not comfortable with moves into their "comfort zone" or "personal space". While some might think this would go without saying, one must consider that this is almost never the case in games such as Halo or other first- or third-person shooters, regardless of how much time we may spend in those games.

For testing purposes, while you're out questing, strike up a conversation with somebody outside of Dalaran, where people are packed in like sardines and nobody really notices. Strike up a conversation, and then get a little bit too close. Watch them back away, and then move toward them again. Granted, you may be branded some sort of social deviant, but it quickly becomes obvious that the aforementioned psychological reaction occurs with regularity.

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