Cured of my disease
I had a lot of time to think about stuff today. My internet died again (fucking ISP), so in between bouts of frustration in trying to fix it (of course, it's Sunday, so there's no tech support), I pondered many things. It was a "challenge your beliefs" day for me.
Around July of 2006 I started playing World of Warcraft, which I became obsessed with to the point of it seriously affecting my life. I'd refuse to go out with friends, citing I had 'lots of chores to do' and 'tonnes of homework' just so I could stay home and grind. It totally overcame me. I was forced to quit by my parents. Ever since the day I stopped playing, I've felt it tugging at my mind. I needed some sort of closure with the characters I'd related to for several months of hardcore play. I needed some time to say goodbye.
The opportunity to do so arose several weeks ago. My friend started playing again, so I thought I might re-install it and key in the 10-day Burning Crusade trial code Blizzard sent to all previous subscribers. Of course, my parents didn't know this. I got wrapped up in the game again, emerging myself in the world of Azeroth. The first thing I noticed was that my old guild, Vicarious, had broken up. Vicarious was an awesome guild, not only because I helped start it, but because so many good times were had. The GM was a laid back, cool ex-Skinhead who played with his wife, and some of the Officers were RL friends of mine. I was part of the guild community. I took some minutes to reflect on the times I had with Vicarious. It made me realise how I'd taken it for granted. This was where the revelations began.
So after the 10 day trial was up, I purchased a 60 day game card. I've been playing WoW almost every waking hour for the past three weeks. Yeah, pretty fucked up. Fortunately, that kind of rigorous playing has an upside (or downside, depending on your perspective). I've gotten 30 levels in 3 weeks, and now I'm burned out. I can't even bring myself to run around in Battlegrounds, a feature of the game I found the most compelling previously. I'm bored of running the same few instances 20 times a day and getting the same loot over and over again. They say the game begins at 70, but it doesn't seem that way. It seems that when you hit 70, the only thing that "begins" is the end of your life, as you spend twenty hours a week raiding.
I am still going to play it, but not as much. Where I used to wake up and think "Alright, gotta get x amount of exp and get those new shoulders from Mara", I now think "What can I do to amuse myself for a couple hours while my torrents finish downloading?" I can finally get back to my past life of obsessively posting inane, seemingly profound statements on Pownce with no context to make them seem even more zen, reading RSS feeds of people more intriguing than I am and watching old TV series'. I say old TV series' because due to the WGA strike, there's no new episodes, so I'm stuck with incomplete seasons a la Heroes and Moonlight.
Great, now you know why I haven't posted much in the past month or two. I've been busy getting my shit together. Now that exams are over and holidays have begun, I expect to keep you updated on the many exciting things that happen in my day. I'm actually right in the middle of giving you a detailed overview of tomorrow's adventure: Brushing my teeth. Seriously though, I'll try to stop posting so many diaries and get you back to my usual acerbic wit and food for thought.
PS: I'd also like to thank some of the assholes in my new guild, Rabid Ants, for being total assholes, thus contributing to me being less enthusiastic about logging on each morning. Get over yourself, fucking Keyboard Warriors.
