my brief journey to the World of Warcraft

Katie was picking out which photos to print at the photo shop. Since the CD I burner her had hundreds of photos it was taking a while to load. I popped over to the video game store. I found Quidditch for GameCube for $8! Fun stuff. Then I saw this 2-week trial of World of Warcraft for $1.99. I knew better. I'd often said that the reason I never tried that game is the same as the reason I've never tried heroin--I knew I'd like it and I'd get hooked. (Clearly an exaggeration and I don't mean to belittle people suffering from chemical addiction by equating it to addictive video games). But I was curious and figured it'd be fun to try it out over vacation. So I played for a few hours today and what I found is that it sucks me in and it's hard to stop but I also don't enjoy it as much as other things I could be doing.

It also hurts my wrists to play for a long time. The bottom line is that my time is limited and how much I can do that taxes my wrists is limited and I'd rather do other things. So I uninstalled it and threw the DVD in the dumpster.

So many things that I have to do require sitting in front of the computer, plus it's how I keep in touch with friends and family. Together that gives me more than enough time in front of this bright screen. Which isn't to say I don't enjoy the occasional computer game, but not one that requires as much time as WOW.

For me games are mostly a social pastime. I really like a recent series of ads (see this example) for Dungeons and Dragons I've seen in comic books--it's just so much more fun to play with people in person.