How I did it: When my husband deployed, the appeal of the game went way down.  Playing with him was a lot of the fun.  I got increasingly bored with it.  The other players were annoying and offensive.  Anyone who has read "Trade Channel" knows what I mean.

I kept thinking "I just played for an hour.  What else could I have done with that hour that would have been better?"  Answer:  Pretty much anything!

I played less, did other things more like read.  I cooked real food for myself, stuff with ingredients and all that rot, which I usually don't do much when I am alone. 

I got to the point where I played only to get my "daily" things done and it hit me how dumb that was.  I was treading water, and why? 

I cleared out all my characters' banks, mailed off everything to a couple of people, gave my brother 10,000 gold, the guild I was in 10,000 gold, and 50,000 gold to my husband.  Can you BELIEVE I wasted so much time in the game I actually had that much money?   I've seen people brag about having hundreds of thousands and all that means is they really have no life at all!  It is not a brag-worthy "achievement." 

Speaking of "achievements," that system is so brilliant, isn't it?  A way to get players to spend time doing things that otherwise have no value:  name it an "achievement" and give them "titles" for it.  Some of the developers of this game are geniuses at keeping people playing.

I literally said "see ya" to my brother, logged out, cancelled my account, and uninstalled the game off my computer.  I think I actually felt something akin to giddy at that moment.

Lessons & tips: Don't start.  That's the easiest way to avoid this time-suck.

Play a game that ENDS.  This one does not.  Even when you get to the max level, there are all these things to do, and they always add more in patches and expansions . . . playing this game is like running in a hamster wheel.  You keep on going but never really get anywhere.

Resources: Books.  My brain.

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Feb 03, 2010, 01:27AM PST | 2 comments | 10 cheers