pretty much this.

No football here (in Scotland) that is accessible to me due to working weekends, but I am at university, captain the basketball club, gym 4+ times a week, and have a reasonable social life.

I actually think "normal" people are the majority in WoW, albeit a silent majority. Perhaps if people like us spoke up WoW, and gaming in general, wouldn't have such a bad rep?

pretty much this.

No football here (in Scotland) that is accessible to me due to working weekends, but I am at university, captain the basketball club, gym 4+ times a week, and have a reasonable social life.

I actually think "normal" people are the majority in WoW, albeit a silent majority. Perhaps if people like us spoke up WoW, and gaming in general, wouldn't have such a bad rep?

@Nick: that's exactly why I'm doing it. At 41 years of age, I'm beyond caring what people think. And when someone registers astonishment that "someone like me" plays an online game, I tell them that most people in my guild are married with kids and lead completely normal lives.

I'm not sure how playing wow would have any bearing on the grades you get, the sports you enjoy participating in, or the effort you make socializing. If you're afraid of how others might perceive you despite all of those admirable accomplishments you just listed, you might have some self esteem issues, or just be totally ashamed of your little secret/addiction.

On the other hand, you yourself might have a misconception or a stereotypical idea of the "average wow player". Not all of us are pimply adolescents who are horrible at sports, get bad grades, and lack social skills. There are over 10 million people that play, that leaves a lot of room for a diverse scope of people.

What I intended to add, but forgot, is that I AM open about playing WoW. Not to everyone, my BBall team don't know, and a few of my work colleagues and classmates know. My girlfriend knows of course, kinda hard to keep secrets under the same roof, and our cat watches me play so I assume he knows.

I tell people that either need to know what I'm doing at my desk for 3 hours a night that can't be interrupted, or people that might be interested.

i just try to wait a little bit before meeting someone. nonplayers assume all wow players are the stereotypical nerd gamer. once they know im not like that, i will tell them.

Same here. I'm a student, I have a very good social life and still manage to find time to play and enjoy WoW. My close friends and my fellow gamers, ofcourse, know I play WoW and don't mind at all. Although they sometimes make jokes about it.
But buying t-shirts or hats or anything like that, don't think I'll ever do that. Not that I'm embarassed about it, but I just don't care much about it.

Trey- you probably are not a bad kid, you just need to mature. There are tons of "non nerdy people" who play from NFL players to rock stars. The sooner you realize you are not a special snowflake for being a jock the better off you will be.

I feel like the people commenting on this saying that trey has self esteem issues, or needs to grow up, must have either had idyllic high school experiences or maybe just can't remember what it was like.

High schoolers can be truly vicious little shits, who will seize on anything that can be perceived as a weakness to make someone else's life a living hell. Being an individual is awesome, and being proud of who you are is something that everyone should be able to feel, but there's nothing wrong with trying to fit in while you're in high school. High school was probably the worst time of my life, precisely because i was different, because i read books and played computer games.

I don't think you've got anything to be ashamed of for playing wow, but that doesn't mean that the other kids you go to school with won't give you grief about it.