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A SHORT time ago, Australian Julian Morris worked as a chef. Now, Morris is living in California, working on World of Warcraft -- arguably the hottest videogame on the planet.

How did he move from hotplate and oven to textures and polygons? Almost by accident, it would seem.

"For many years after work, I would come home after a long night in the restaurant and play games to unwind," he says.

"At some point along the way I started having just as much fun using the various game editors as I did playing the games. I really enjoyed using game editors to build the mountains I was familiar with from snowboarding or to create worlds from my favourite books."

This passion for world design saw Morris and his brother brainstorming ideas and trading maps they'd made.

Eventually, "I noticed I was creating level layouts on whiteboards at work, and realised that it might be time to seriously look at the possibility of moving out of the kitchen and into the games industry."

But it's a far cry from designing virtual landscapes in spare moments to doing it full-time. Morris cut his professional teeth at a game development studio in Sydney, where his talent caught the attention of Blizzard Entertainment. They hired him and paid to relocate him to California.

Now he helps create virtual landscapes that millions of gamers around the world traverse. "From Azeroth to Outland, we shape the mountains, forests, seas, lakes, rivers, roads and every land feature in between," Morris says.

"We basically create a base for the layout and placement of every city, town, building, rock, tree, ancient ruin and all the thousands of other objects that make up the cultures and details of the world."

So it is really a dream gig? Morris thinks so.

"To say it's a dream gig is a huge understatement. I get to contribute to the future of my favourite game, World of Warcraft, on a daily basis, and I'm working with a great group of people. They quickly got me up to speed on how everything works at the company and are a constant source of motivation to me. I'm still surprised and in awe of the stuff I see coming out of various departments every day."

To call World of Warcraft a winning game is to underestimate its success. An online role-playing game that is both socially interactive and disturbingly addictive, it recently passed 10 million subscribers worldwide. That's 10 million people paying a monthly fee to access a persistent online game world, in which they can gang up to embark on epic quests and venture through a gorgeously realised fantasy world.

World of Warcraft is also the product of one of gaming's most revered studios, Blizzard Entertainment.

The company has produced numerous hits in its 14-year history, including the classic real-time strategy title Starcraft.

By its nature -- a persistent online world -- World of Warcraft is ever-changing and ever-expanding.

Players thirst for new areas, new equipment and new quests, and Blizzard regularly obliges through content updates and expansion packs.

Morris and his team, then, have an ongoing role in shaping the future of the game; specifically by crafting the land on which the World of Warcraft saga will continue.

One such area, Sunwell Isle, is shaping up to be one of the most visually arresting locations to date. Its cobblestoned streets, autumnal trees, picturesque harbour and ornately patterned circular towers are vibrant and full of life; a testament to the strength of Blizzard's art teams.

Perhaps most importantly, while World of Warcraft "clearly has a strongly defined art and design style," Morris says, "everyone on the exterior level design team is able to bring a personal touch to their work.

"Each of us has certain strengths within art or design; and we often work together to continually evolve the techniques and styles that we utilise as a team. This approach helps us define the unique variety of locations and environments found in World of Warcraft."

Sunwell Isle will be available for players in the next couple of months, and brings with it a slew of new content, including Magister's Terrace -- a five-person dungeon where players will face Prince Kael'thas, and Sunwell Plateau, a 25-player dungeon that will serve as the final chapter of the Burning Crusade storyline and will culminate in a battle against Kil'jaeden -- "one of the most challenging boss encounters we have developed to date," Morris promises.

The Aldor and Scryer storylines will also reach their finale on Sunwell Isle.

It's clear that Morris and the Blizzard team have the scope to create many more worlds for the game's 10 million acolytes around the world.

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