I wrote this as a post on Mactalk but friends I’ve linked the article to don’t have an account there and can’t be bothered to make one. So here it is. It was a reply to someone mentioning the new Star Wars MMO.

I’ll be excited if they release a Mac client for it.

Otherwise, it’ll join the long list of MMOs that I’ll never bother to boot into Windows to play.

^ Oh man. See, that’s what I automatically typed. I now have to edit this post and correct myself because even now, I find the idea of immersing myself in a fantasy world incredibly attractive.

You can never understand any obsession without being obsessed*. Be glad you’ve dodged that bullet, and if you’re smart, you’ll dodge this one too.

MMOs are a complete waste of time. The objective is to waste time and have fun, sure, but what you are actually doing is training your mind to do things that are completely useless outside the context of that game, to the exclusion of anything else.

Unless you can limit your MMO gaming to a similar level to other ‘fun waste of time’ activities, it will eventually eat up all your spare time, energy and mental bandwidth until you are nothing but an empty shell that exists only to earn enough money so you can pay your subscription fee.

Save yourself. Don’t waste your life with any MMO. MMOs are gateway drugs to themselves. It starts small, a few hours here, a few hours there. Before you know it, you’re getting cranky if you don’t get your daily fix.

*Hi. My name is chrome. I’m a WoW addict. I’ve been WoW free for 6 months now. My last session only lasted 12 hours, and before that I hadn’t touched WoW for 3 months. I still maintain my subscription, but I soon hope to gain enough strength to log on, delete my characters, and cancel my account.