My Short term experience with WOW =
9 months of pure addicted bliss.
Arthritis of the wrist and pointer finger, and possibly right elbow.
Sleeping approximately 4 hours a night.
Gaining many virtual friends, losing real ones.
Eating took on a new and habitual routine of sandwich in one hand, mouse in the other. Oh, and a glass of milk.
I had to replace my computer chair because the cushioning flattened out to the point my ass became numb with 2 hours of gaming.
TV became non-existent.
Showering involved 7 minutes of thinking about what I was going to do once I got back to the game world, where my Warrior showered only when chasing Murlocks into the lake!!
Work became nothing more than a space and time that I had to pass through, to get home , and log in to my real Virtual life.
Breaks were taken for 3 things> Sex, Sleep, Work. After each of these I would return back to WOW.
I was so addicted that I even convinced my girlfriend to play, and upon our break up she still plays to this day. That was 2 years ago.
If the internet went down for any reason, at all, my entire next three hours would be spent trying to reset the cable modem, calling the cable company, and checking to make sure, I paid my bill. When they told me there was an outtage in my area, I would speak curses upon them that Satan himself would deem inappropriate.
Family time durning any holiday event was commenced with an awkward feeling of missing something that you want so badly and the desire to get back to it by any means necessary, even if that meant lying to your girlfriends parents and telling them you don't feel well just to get back to your gaming on Christmas Day.
In Closing just let me say, that no one I have known who has played this game, has ever been affected by it only short term, and I can now say that the game has not been installed on my system for more than 1 yr and 9 months.
But the mint condition box, with all its CD's, still sits on my Gaming Shelf, taunting me, beckoning me to install it, just to see, just to ride the Gryphons again, just to sneak through the dark forests, and have the life of an adventurer. Just that little temptation is what I leave in my presence everyday. Staring at me from the Gaming Shelf, the only thing keeping me from opening it is that now I have my life back.
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