Everything’s changed with WoW. WoW has shown us how flawed and bad EQ was. They’re very different and the days of 8 hour commitments are over.

So I took my character and stripped her naked, aggroed a bunch of big guys, and ran into the jungle to get slaughtered. Then logged off.

I met this girl online and I had saved up to go see her in the US. I’d come out of a bad relationship so I was wary at first of even admitting I liked her, but as it got closer to flying out, I had a crazy idea.

I bought a ring. I went to see her and for the first week, it was bliss. At the end of that week I proposed, and then two weeks later I flew back home to prepare my visa so I could go live with her.

Preparing a Visa is fucking bulllllshit. It took me ten months, and I was working the shittiest job for the money (I don’t drink, so I had great savings), and I was just getting so bored and lonely all the time.

So I reactivated WoW. It was, like any high quality game, great fun. I got a character up to level 38; her hastily picked name was Apollonia. So I was sitting on my ass playing that until she’d wake up and call me, then I’d talk to her, then she’d go eat and I’d go eat, and then I’d play till she’d call again. It kept us going through a tough time, the constant calling, but I really needed some other world to escape to while she was so far away.

Then I got pissed off with WoW and switched to Guild Wars. This is where it gets embarrassing. In Guild Wars, you pick two names, a first and last, like Joe Smith. I hastily picked a first name for Apollonia and came up with Vera. This game also served me well, but it had a weird effect. I’ve always loved writing, but seeing this character through two lenses inspired me to write a little story about her.

When I moved, and the USA’s harsh climate wrote off video games for me completely (we later got a Wii from my parents for xmas, bless em), I kept writing about this character. It taught me a lot about writing, and although I later ditched the idea for a novel, it made me call myself a writer for the first time.

Now we’re living back in the UK, and for the first year it was rough. No drive through banks, no free refills…. the UK is a harsh, stunted place at times. Thanks to the great UK minimum wage (and, at that point, great economy), I could afford to upgrade my old dusty computer and get some CS:S running on it. Then I got TF2. She noticed me playing it, and then asked to play, and then she got better, and better, and better…

Now she and some friends rent a server and she can’t wait to play every night after work. It helps her unwind, which is justification enough, and she’s learning server code and how to make maps because now it’s an interesting, relevant skill. They have it pretty full every night, and I’d be proud of her if she didn’t keep owning me (ME!), but I think it’s made our relationship better. As for me, I’ve just started reviewing games for print magazines, so the above doesn’t really apply.

Nice article.

Thanks for this post. I can relate to your story because I’ve been there too—but instead of choosing between my wife (I was single at the time) and EverQuest, I chose between WoW and my degree.

I do think that it is very selfish to spend 8 hours a day when someone else—your wife, kids—is affected by this kind of behaviour.

Here’s my short story:
http://pensador.org/2007/07/17/how-games-negatively-affected-my-life/