It Will Eat your Soul

I haven't really been posting. For many reasons. One: I finished graduate school. Two: All my free time went to actually playing wow. Yes. Yes. It did in fact, eat my soul. Now, I'm sure you're asking how I went from freaking out while trying to kill boars to complete disappearance...

Well, let me tell you...

The game draws you in kind of like a good fisherman. If it pulled too hard too fast, you'd notice you were being reeled, and you'd flail like crazy until you got free. Too slow, and you'd be bored and swim away, trailing the line until it got free or didn't matter anymore. WoW? Oh, it starts slow.. a few hours here and there killing a boar or two, but then the "I wants" start.

The "I want"s come before the "I need"s. They are the stage of the game where you start to realize that there is more to life than your white or maybe if you're lucky green gear. The "I want"s are when you begin to realize that a little more time and practice means that you may actually... and get this... be good at this game sometime. Once you make that realization, you're hooked.

For me it started at about level 30. I was ambling along, and then it dawned on me: if I went a little faster, pushed a little harder, I'd get a mount! A mount is a little animal your toon rides on that makes you faster. And, well, once you're faster the endless running around the stupid map? WAY less tedious.

The mount became a shining star in my horizon. A beacon of a dream. "If only I had a mount" was the sentence I began to utter over and over again. And then it became my first solid painful goal. That's when the I needs started.

The I needs are when you're done. Toast. It's when you begin to plan time for WoW into your day. It's when your goals become part of your to do list. Let me illustrate. My day would look like this...

To Do:
1) Class
2) Homework
3) Eat
4) Get to the next WoW level so I am closer to my mount

And this was how it went. If I didn't make a level that day? I felt horrible. I'd stay up as long as I could, I'd fall asleep while playing, I'd push and run instance after instance. I needed a mount. I had to have a mount. Once I got a mount getting to 70 would be easy. And that's all I wanted, right? I just wanted to get to 70. Then things would calm down. I could play less once I got to 70. Just needed a mount.

But, my friends, let me warn you. The "I need"s never actually go away. They just layer and layer. Once I got the mount, it became an epic mount, and then 70 itself. Once you get to 70? The "I need"s reach their pinicle!

And this is where I am now.

You see, the "I want"s come back, of course. But now you need to want. If I want Mojo, the cute frog pet that hits on you when you kiss him, I *need* epic gear. And if I *need* epic gear, I *have* to run heroics. It goes around and around and around. I want, I need, I must, I have. And it keeps up until the game is no longer just a game.

You have work before you can have fun. The game becomes life.

So that, my dear readers, is where I've been. But don't worry, I have plenty to say now. Oh, plenty to say. And if you pay attention, I may just say it to you.

Also? Coming soon are some guest bloggers. Melissakins from her infamous knitting blog will be blogging here as well. Be excited. Be very very excited.