It's not the time-life operator standing by to help at Blizzard.

In the second floor of a building in Irvine's University Research Park, about 75 people--some with purple hair, others with nose rings--are taking calls from customers seeking help.

But don't call them customer service representatives or help-line operators. They're game masters.

If you're scratching you're head, then you're probably not a video game player. The game masters work for Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment Inc. handling calls from players of its "World of Warcraft," in which thousands of people face off with each other online.

In game speak, "World of Warcraft" is a "massively multiplayer" game. In it, players from across the globe go head to head in a virtual world run by Blizzard.

For the uninitiated, "World of Warcraft" is a role-playing game where players take on the part of a unique character who goes on adventures, completes quests, acquires wealth, sleeps, fights and dies.

"World of Warcraft" is a big reason why Blizzard has grown into Orange County's second-largest software company by local employment, after Costa Mesa business software maker FileNet Corp.

Blizzard, part of France's Vivendi Universal SA, employs 650 people in Irvine and 1,250 worldwide. "We've been hiring like crazy," said Mike Morhaime, Blizzard's chief executive.

"World of Warcraft" always is on. Game masters work in three shifts around the clock, seven days a week managing it. They don't actually play in the game; they get what are called "tickets" from customers, essentially requests for service.

Some calls are for questions about the game. Others are complaints about something that's happened. A typical call might be about a character that was accidentally deleted, or from a player being unable to complete a quest because of a glitch.

There's definitely room for a glitch or two. With nearly 100 servers in four spots around the world serving more than 1.5 million game players, the scale of the operation is massive.

Blizzard's technicians manage the virtual world from service centers in South Korea, France, China and Irvine. The game sits on servers in data centers in those countries and on both U.S. coasts.

Just producing "World of Warcraft" was a massive undertaking. Along with writing of the game's software code, Blizzard's 60-person development team had to come up with the extensive storyline. They had to develop the rules in the game, concepts for characters and draw the entire world it takes place in.

Blizzard hired 100,000 testers to get the kinks out before launching. The actual "world" is loaded onto a player's personal computer. The game costs $49.95 off the shelf; to play online is $15 a month.

It's not unusual for players to spend hours on the game. They form fighting teams and interact in other ways that turn minutes into hours.

It also can be dangerous. Last month, a South Korean man died after playing an online version of Blizzard's "StarCraft" game for 50 hours nonstop. His heart gave out from exhaustion, according to Reuters and other published reports.

"World of Warcraft" was designed to encourage breaks, Morhaime said. It's easier for players to win fights and complete quests after they let their characters rest. Even so, Morhaime said Blizzard is considering putting a warning on the game telling users to take it easy.

Blizzard, which is conservatively estimated by the Business Journal to have yearly sales of $300 million, doesn't disclose finances. But the company has benefited by being part of Los Angeles-based Vivendi Universal Games Inc.

During development of the game, "it was very helpful to have access to the cash," Morhaime said. "They've been very supportive."