On World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft -- It's a game so wonderfully made that it's not really a game anymore. It's a world. Seriously. Incorporating the best of the best in role-playing game systems, the developers have created a game that's very hard to resist.

I think the success of the game is founded on virtually limitless opportunities for improvement. For by the time you reach any goal, more opportunities present themselves. And since the game content is under constant development, you never really "finish" the game. There is no ending -- the adventure never stops.

Add to this the fact that in World of Warcraft, you are playing and competing with other people all over the world, and you've got one very engaging game indeed.

I quit the game. You see, like in any game, I want to excel. I want to win. But in order to be a "winner" in this kind of game, I'd have to put in too much time and effort. Actually I think I've already put in too much time and effort into it -- time and effort for things that aren't real anyway.

The game isn't bad. It's just too good. It's so good that it becomes your world, where you live a virtual life, questing for things to improve your virtual self, which gives you virtual satisfaction. But at the end of the day -- the real day, how does it affect your real life?

One day I realized that I did not have time for the things that I loved to do, things that somehow made me who I am, like playing and singing with my guitar, reading, and writing.

And so I bought a new classical guitar, picked up several books, and as you can see, I've started writing again. :)

Goodbye, World of Warcraft.