Macbook pro 15" overheating when gaming

I recently purchased a refurbished high-end ($2600, but with refurb $2200) Macbook pro for college so I would have the option of gaming on the side whenever I had some free time while also experiencing the wonderful Apple OS. This is the first time I've ever owned and operated the Mac OS (outside of the iphone/ipad) and although a little daunting I took up the challenge of weaning off my addiction to Windows. The Macbook pro has been absolutely wonderful except for one odd thing. I specifically bought the much more expensive, nvidia graphics card equipped macbook for the purpose of gaming with a more than well equipped machine. Every time I run any game that requires the slightest amount of real power (Starcraft 2, Teamfortress 2, WoW) then it will slowly begin to get louder and louder, gradually heating up while I play. The heat worries me, but the fan-noise is really annoying. I can sit at the SC II menu screen and the heat or fan noise will be non-existent, but when I enter a match it starts to build-up, and the same goes for WoW and Teamfortress. If I wasn't listening to music to drown it out I think that I as well as anyone working/living around me would quickly give me a piece of their mind for the excessive noise while they're trying to work or study. I've watched netflix for hours on end, opened multiple windows with various programs running and it runs flawlessly, but for whatever reason when I game with only that game's program running it causes the computer to overheat and run the fan to the bones. Should I take the computer in to the apple store to get it checked out? Is this normal, should I have expected it? I don't know why it was a refurb in the first place or how to find out whatever issue it may have had that caused it to be a refurb (if that has anything to do with it.) I am knew to apple, but I tried changing all the graphics to the most minimal possible and the restul was the same across the board. Any suggestions or help would be great because I do intend to game and I paid enough money that I would like to be able to use it with moderate to minimal fan noise and heat while gaming.