Give me one more hit

18 months ago I quit World of Warcraft.  It was my addiction, my passion, my motive for doing things for seven years.  Tomorrow at 3:00 am the newest expansion for WOW launches and I am preparing to get up at 2:55 so I can log on immediately and score up some realm firsts.  For the first time I will be doing this alone as Wendy is not planning on joining me in falling back into our old habits.  We used to schedule a week's worth of holidays for her so the two of us could play together but no more; WOW will fail to grab her again in its cold, icy clutches.

Of course it isn't the game so much that is grabbing me but the social opportunities.  WOW is where the action is.  All kinds of friends are planning on playing again and the opportunity to hang out with the boyz while having fun blowing up monsters and taking their stuff is too much too pass up.  Truly it doesn't matter what game it is we are playing so much, as long as I have a good community to play with I will be pretty happy.  Sthenno is even contemplating resubscribing to WOW at fifteen dollars a month just as a chat window to keep up with us; you know that something is lacking technologically when you do that.

I liked Pounda's characterization of my situation. "So Blizzard has stolen your friends and is willing to rent them back to you for $15 a month?"  We need this focus, this place, to create the social environment that we all want.  There is enough inertia to WOW and it is a good enough social platform that a rejoining seems inevitable for many or even most of us.  I wonder how many other old friends I do not speak to regularly will end up drawn back in by the allure of geek chat and watching numbers get bigger.  Those two things together are some kind of magical elixir, one so addictive that it is nearly impossible to break the habit permanently.

I suppose I should feel guilty about breaking my dry spell and hitting up the crack pipe once again.  I don't though.  Time to kill dudes, eat them, and take their stuff.  Also, make spreadsheets to optimize said activities.