Death is as real a possibility in World of Warcraft as it is in any other MMORPG, so the fine folks at Blizzard created a unique system to deal with it. At present, this is the system implemented within the World of Warcraft Beta Test.

Perhaps you thought it wise to challenge a camp of murloks single-handedly, or misjudged the size of the ogre at the bottom of that hill, but as you notice your health ticking down to nothing, you realize your mistake. With a thud you hit the ground, lying peacefully.

You will be prompted with a small window upon death which contains the button "Release Spirit." Releasing your spirit will instantly transport your spirit to the graveyard in closest proximity to where you perished (you do not have to bind to it).

Welcome to Ghosthood! As a ghost, you exist under a few special conditions:

• You are see-through, and all around freaky-looking.
• Your surroundings will appear differently.
• You are unable to interact with things you normally could.
• You cannot see or be seen by other players, or enemy creatures, except for those surrounding your corpse.
• You can see other ghosts.
• You move faster, facilitating corpse runs.
• Some high-end creatures will be able to spot ghosts, AND attack them. It will be easy to spot these types of creatures as a ghost. If you're killed a ghost, you will be taken to the nearest graveyard to where your ghost died (yes, not even the dead are safe!).
• Lastly, you will not be able to speak publically, but sending tells to other players, or speaking to your party or guild is permitted.

You could make the trek to where you expired and recover your corpse, bringing you to life a few feet away from it. This will incur you no penalty. Finding your corpse is expedited by a small arrow on your minimap that guides you to it. Once you've found it, and come into proximity with it, a dialogue box will appear and ask if you wish to be resurrected. It is recommended to choose a safe spot nearby to resurrect, as you will come back with only 50% of your total health and mana.

If your death occured in an instanced dungeon, crossing into the instanced zone will automatically count as getting close to your corpse, and you will be revived upon loading into the area.

Your next option is to try to have a Priest, Shaman, Warlock or Paladin help resurrect you, bringing you to life once more. This option entails a slight "resurrection sickness," which lasts a few minutes post-resurrection, and temporarily decreases your character's stats.

Lastly, you can talk to a spirit healer, an npc that exists in the spirit world and has nothing better to do than hang out in graveyards all day, to have yourself resurrected right in the graveyard you released to. Using the spirit healer will lose you some experience, but it will never lose you a level. Also, if you choose to visit a spirit healer in a far-off graveyard, you will still be resurrected at the graveyard where your spirit first arrived.

Be careful! Though death in World of Warcraft may not be as excruciatingly arduous, tedious and painful as it is in some other games (whose names shall not be mentioned), it is still a hassle. Your best choice of action is to always stay aware of your surroundings, and enemies therein.