In celebration of the new battleground we'll be fighting in and all the other additional grandiose things we'll be getting from the Burning Crusade expansion pack, it's time to take another good, long look at the things that really chafe the skin of many an armor-wearing newbie in the game. Namely, that would be the subject of twinks.

The WoW Wiki defines a twink as "a player character that is disproportionately powerful for its level, having received better items or enchants than it would normally be able to obtain on its own." It seems rather innocuous for a game to have a twink (or seven), but as gaming communities go, twinking still manages to be a heated subject for debate.

Current opinion is divided into annoyance with twinks or defense of the twinking process. On the one hand, there's annoyance with twinks because of how twinks unfairly influence PVP scenarios. If you're a newcomer to the game trying the battlegrounds for the first time, your enthusiasm would probably get tempered by other players carrying glowing red knives and other implements. On the other hand, twinking isn't a cheat, and in the "New Game+" era of gaming, the idea of advanced progression readily accepts tilting the scales towards speed rather than tedium. 

Answers and responses vary greatly. The bottom line is that everyone wants to have fun, but not at their own expense, whether it be from being cannon fodder for twinks or the repetition of the same early levels. So far, Blizzard has been thinking of implementing a matching system for BGs, but that won't be a perfect solution to balancing the skill levels of players, and people will probably be annoyed at taking longer to get into PVP games.

Newcomers and veterans alike, this is something you'll have to face regardless of level. The one thing you have to remember though is that World of Warcraft is still just a game, and you know better than to let it rule you. Relax, forget Blizzard's gankfest, and watch "Happy Feet" for a while.