The scenes outside the HMV store in London's Oxford Street were amazing. Around 3,000 fans of MMORPG game World of Warcraft waited in the cold to buy the long awaited expansion pack "The Burning Crusade".

The new expansion pack includes an extra two races of people, a brand spanking new continent and the maximum level attainable has risen to 70. The launch in London was attended by designer Jon LeCraft who signed copies of the pack.

Of course many people managed to get special treatment as they dressed in costumes and waited in the cold London winter. They managed to bag the Collector's Edition of the game.

Itzik Ben Bassat, vice president of business development at Blizzard, the company behind WoW, said at the launch event that it was the first time the company had undertaken a launch event in London and he was a "little concerned". "It's a great, pleasant surprise to see so many people with us to celebrate the launch of the Burning Crusade," he said.

He added that Blizzard's other games, Diablo and Starcraft, would not be overlooked and said it wouldn't be another decade until he came back to London to celebrate the launch of the next Starcraft.

As report on Absolute Gadget earlier, WoW recently signed up its eight millionth subscriber and that's a lot of dwarfs, elves, clerics and impossibly bazoombered young ladies in armour-plating.